“Citizen science” covers two different things. On most platforms you contribute labour to a professional study: classifying galaxies, logging birds, folding proteins. On a few you run the experiment yourself. The first kind has millions of volunteers and decades of published results. The second kind is young and small, and it is the one we build. Both are on this list, and we say which is which.
Every platform here is free. Facts about the others come from their own sites, verified 13 September 2026 and linked. One pick is ours, and it says so — along with what it is worse at.
Contribute, or experiment?
If you want to help science today, with no equipment and no commitment, pick Zooniverse or iNaturalist and stop reading. They are excellent, the work is real, and the barrier is a browser.
If you have a question of your own — does this coil behave the way the patent says, does grounding change anything about my sleep, does my classroom get the same result as the last one — none of those platforms can host it. That is the gap we are in: research-grade templates you clone, build or run, measure, and report back into an open record, refutations included.
Best for contributing to real research, right nowZooniverse
The Adler Planetarium, University of Minnesota and University of Oxford · Web · Free
The largest people-powered research platform: classify galaxies, transcribe archives and tag wildlife footage for real academic studies, no training needed.
What you do. Pattern-recognition tasks on authentic research data — galaxy shapes, exoplanet transits, historical handwriting, camera-trap animals — across science and the humanities.
Why it is here
- Describes itself as the world's largest platform for people-powered research, with millions of volunteers
- Projects are run by working researchers; classifications feed published papers
- Zero setup: open a project in the browser and contribute in minutes
- Breadth — astronomy, ecology, climate, history, medicine, all on one platform
Pick it if. You want to help real research today with no equipment and no commitment You enjoy classification and transcription as an activity in itself
Zooniverse — About →Best outdoors appiNaturalist
iNaturalist, a nonprofit (with the iNaturalist Network of partner institutions) · iOS · Android · web · Seek app for under-13s · Free
Photograph any wild organism, get an instant AI suggestion, let a global community confirm it, and your observation becomes open biodiversity data.
What you do. Observe, identify, contribute: photos of wild plants, animals and fungi that reach "research grade" when the community agrees on the identification.
Why it is here
- Scale: 300M+ observations, 550,000+ species, 7,000+ papers citing its data (their figures)
- The best mobile experience in the category, with an instant identification model
- Observations become open data used by scientists and conservationists worldwide
- A separate kid-safe app (Seek) for under-13s
Pick it if. You are outdoors anyway and want every walk to count for biodiversity science You want a community that will identify what you photographed
iNaturalist — home →Best for birderseBird
Cornell Lab of Ornithology · iOS · Android (offline capable) · web · Free
The Cornell Lab's global bird database: submit checklists of what you saw and heard, and join one of the largest biodiversity datasets on Earth.
What you do. Keep birding checklists; explore and analyse global sightings; contribute to research and conservation.
Why it is here
- More than 100 million bird sightings contributed annually, growing roughly 20% a year (their figures)
- Hundreds of partner organizations and thousands of regional experts reviewing data
- A mature, free app that works offline anywhere
- Your own life list and stats are a first-class feature
Pick it if. You are a birder, or want to become one, and want your lists to matter
eBird — About →Best directory of projectsSciStarter
The SciStarter Foundation, a 501(c)(3), with university partners including ASU and NC State · Web · Free
The directory: a searchable finder for thousands of citizen-science projects and events, with an account that tracks your contributions across them.
What you do. Find a project by keyword, topic or location; get trained; track what you have contributed across projects and platforms.
Why it is here
- The widest map of what exists — thousands of projects and events in one place
- Cross-platform contribution tracking, so your work on other sites counts in one profile
- Training resources and volunteer matching, backed by NSF and foundation support
Pick it if. You do not know which project to join yet You want one profile that credits everything you do across platforms
SciStarter — home →Best gameFoldit
University of Washington (Center for Game Science, Institute for Protein Design) with labs at Northeastern, UMass Dartmouth, UC Davis, Vanderbilt and Denver · Downloadable client (desktop) · Free
The protein-folding game: solve puzzles in a downloadable client and your best folds become candidate designs for real labs.
What you do. Play protein-folding puzzles, write and share "recipes", compete on leaderboards, join group challenges.
Why it is here
- Running since 2008; the original proof that a game can do structural biology
- Genuinely creative: your solution can be novel, not just a classification
- Leaderboards and groups make it a hobby with a community
Pick it if. You like puzzles and want your play to feed molecular biology
Foldit — home →Best for running the experiment yourselfOurs
DreamPro Citizen Science (HiveJournal)
HiveJournal · Web (mobile-friendly); no native app · Free
Replication science for individuals, families and classrooms: clone a research-grade experiment, build or run it, record measurements, and your confirmation or refutation joins an open record — including experiments on your own physiology.
Why it is here
- You are the experimenter: templates with materials, a procedure and structured measurements, cloned into your own workspace
- Predict-then-verify calculators for the device experiments, so a prediction exists before the build
- Human-subject self-experiments (N-of-1 randomized crossovers with the manipulation proven by measurement) — the grounding experiment is the first
- Classroom-safe templates with no student data ever, family teams, a privacy-fuzzed world map, and an annual replication competition
- Refutations are recorded and count; the record is the product
Where it is worse
- Tiny community. The platforms above have millions of volunteers; we have a handful of early participants, and the open record is thin
- No native mobile app; the web works on a phone but iNaturalist and eBird are far better in the field
- Our experiments come from one curated set (the Open Energy patent patterns plus the new human-subject line), not thousands of projects
- Nothing here is peer-reviewed research. It is an open replication record, and we say so on every template
How this list was made
We have not been paid by anyone on it and there are no affiliate links on this page. Scale figures are each platform’s own, as published on the linked page on the date above; they will drift, and we re-verify rather than guess. Nothing on our own platform is peer-reviewed research — it is an open replication record, and every template says so.
Product names and trademarks belong to their owners. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or partnered with any other platform named on this page.