Ten platforms in our rated list pay something to new investors - cash, cashback or a rate boost. Here is what each one is actually worth in euros, what you have to do to keep it, and when a generous bonus is a reason to walk away.
Move the slider to the amount you would invest in the first 30 days. Every offer is converted into euros on the same scale - cash, cashback and rate boosts together.
Estimates use the terms in the offer cards below. Maclear: EUR 15 plus EUR 30 per full EUR 500. Indemo: 3/4/5% tiers on the full amount (seasonal campaign). Mintos: the EUR 25 affiliate tier from EUR 1,500; named campaigns up to EUR 500 are not modelled. Rate boosts show a range - the low end if the boost covers only the 90-day window, the high end if it follows a 12-month loan. Referral and loyalty rewards are excluded. Bonuses are taxable income in most EU countries.
All four rewards stack - the only programme in this comparison built that way.
Seasonal campaign: the spring edition ran to 31 May 2026 and is re-issued under a new name each season - check the live offer.
Highest welcome rate, 2.3-star platform. Read the review before the bonus.
The welcome bonus does not combine with refer-a-friend - pick one before you register.
Spring 2026 campaigns (EUR 75 per referred friend in May; up to 2% cashback on deposits from EUR 3,000 in April) have ended.
Maclear is our affiliate partner; the other offers pay us nothing. Terms verified against platform documentation in August 2026 - campaign bonuses change without notice.
The table covers the welcome offer, the referral scheme and the loyalty programme for each platform we rate, as verified in August 2026. Amounts marked as campaign-based rotate every quarter - treat them as the shape of the offer, not a quote. Follow the last column for the full terms, the qualifying steps and our estimate of what each one is worth.
| Platform | Stars | Welcome offer | Referral | Loyalty | Full terms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maclear Top pick | 4.8 | EUR 15 for a first investment within 7 days, plus EUR 30 per EUR 500 invested, cumulative | 3% to you and 3% to your friend - referrers must be Swiss residents | +1.5% to +3% on the rate, by active volume | Maclear bonus → |
| Indemo | 3.8 | 3-5% instant cashback: 3% from EUR 300, 4% from EUR 1,000, 5% from EUR 3,000 - seasonal campaign, re-issued each quarter | EUR 25 each, friend invests EUR 50+ in one transaction, no cap | n/a | Indemo bonus → |
| Hive5 | 2.3 | +2% cashback for new investors - the highest flat welcome rate in this table | Affiliate programme via TargetCircle (CPA/CPL) | 3 tiers from EUR 5,000: +0.5% / +0.75% / up to +1% | Hive5 bonus → |
| Mintos | 4.4 | Up to EUR 500 under named campaigns (WEALTH25, THINK2027), tiered by deposit; EUR 25 at EUR 1,500 invested in 30 days | EUR 50 when a friend invests EUR 1,000+ within 60 days and holds to day 90 | n/a - the welcome bonus does not combine with refer-a-friend | Mintos bonus → |
| Nectaro | 4.1 | 1% cashback on your average daily invested balance over the first 30 days, no cap; periodic EUR 50 or 3% campaigns on top | 1% of the friend's average balance to each side, plus EUR 10 per friend investing EUR 300+; cap EUR 1,000 | Boost cashback of 1-3% on flagged instruments | Nectaro bonus → |
| Robocash | 3.6 | +1% of the amount you invested, credited on day 31 after registration | 0.5% to each side, capped at EUR 10, friend must invest EUR 500+ | 3 volume tiers, rate uplift not published | Robocash bonus → |
| Lendermarket | 3.0 | EUR 10 credited and auto-invested for new investors | Tiered EUR 50 / 100 / 300 / 500 by the friend's investment (EUR 500 / 2,500 / 7,500 / 10,000), plus 1% cashback over 90 days | n/a | Lendermarket bonus → |
| Crowdpear | 3.5 | +1% on the interest rate for 90 days from registration - a standing offer since July 2024 | EUR 20 each when the friend invests EUR 300+ within 30 days, no cap | Silver EUR 10k +0.5% / Gold EUR 25k +0.75% / Platinum EUR 40k +1% | Crowdpear bonus → |
| PeerBerry | 3.9 | +0.5% on the interest rate for 90 days, qualifying investment from EUR 10 within 30 days | EUR 10 / 20 / 30 by the friend's investment (EUR 500 / 1,000 / 2,500 bands); 1% with a EUR 1,000 cap above EUR 10k | Up to +1% by invested volume | PeerBerry bonus → |
| InRento | 4.5 | No public welcome bonus - occasional project-level cashback, such as 0.35% on one Italian deal | EUR 20 each, requires a Paysera or MangoPay account; terms behind the login | None found | InRento bonus → |
| Capitalia | 4.2 | None for retail investors | B2B introducers and ambassadors only | None | - |
| 8lends Sponsored | not rated | Collateral-backed promo tied to first loans funded; terms and amounts change quarterly | Not published | n/a | 8lends review → |
Terms verified against platform documentation in August 2026. Campaign bonuses expire and are re-issued under new names; always read the live offer page before you deposit. Rated platforms with no entry above - EstateGuru, Profitus, InSoil, Twino, Debitum, Reinvest24, Loanch, Scramble - had no public retail bonus running when we checked.
Read the first two columns together and the pattern is uncomfortable: the platforms paying the most sit in the middle of our rating table, not at the top. Hive5 pays the highest flat welcome rate in Europe and scores 2.3 stars. Lendermarket runs the most generous referral ladder and scores 3.0. Indemo pays up to 5 per cent and scores 3.8. That is not a coincidence - an unrated or thinly regulated platform has to buy the trust that a licence and a track record give away for free. The bonus is priced accordingly, and so is your risk.
Headline percentages are not comparable. A flat cashback pays a percentage of your money once; a rate boost pays a percentage per year, and only for the window it covers. The table below converts each offer into euros on a EUR 1,000 first-year portfolio so they can be read on one scale.
| Platform | Offer type | Estimated value on EUR 1,000 | How the number is built |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maclear | Flat cash, tiered | ~EUR 75 | EUR 15 welcome plus two EUR 30 investment rewards, at EUR 500 and EUR 1,000 cumulative |
| Indemo | Instant cashback | ~EUR 40 | The 4% tier applies to the full cumulative amount once EUR 1,000 is crossed |
| Hive5 | Welcome cashback | ~EUR 20 | 2% of the invested amount, paid once |
| Mintos | Campaign tier | EUR 0-25 | The EUR 25 tier needs EUR 1,500 invested within 30 days; EUR 1,000 usually falls below the first campaign threshold |
| Nectaro | Cashback on balance | ~EUR 10 | 1% of the average daily invested balance across the first 30 days, uncapped |
| Robocash | Flat cashback | ~EUR 10 | 1% of the amount invested in the first 30 days, credited on day 31 |
| Lendermarket | Flat cash | EUR 10 | Fixed amount, auto-invested rather than paid out |
| Crowdpear | Rate boost | EUR 2.50-10 | +1% per year on loans funded in the first 90 days; the low end assumes the boost covers only that window, the high end a full 12-month loan |
| PeerBerry | Rate boost | EUR 1.25-5 | The same arithmetic at +0.5% |
| InRento / Capitalia | None | EUR 0 | No public retail offer |
Two things fall out of that table. First, the gap between the best and the worst bonus on EUR 1,000 is about EUR 75 - roughly what one percentage point of extra yield pays over a year on the same money. The bonus is real but happens once; the yield gap repeats every year you stay. Second, rate boosts consistently rank at the bottom despite sounding like the most generous structure, because a percentage per year applied for 90 days is a quarter of that percentage in cash.
P2P lending puts your money at risk. Borrowers default, platforms fail, and no EU deposit guarantee scheme covers a loan portfolio. No bonus on this page compensates for a loss of principal - a 5 per cent cashback disappears the moment a single 10 per cent position is written off. Invest only what you can afford to lose, and read the risk guide before you use any of these offers.
We are explicit about where the money comes from, because it is the only way a bonus page can be read honestly. Two entries in the table above are commercial relationships. The rest are not.
Maclear holds a Swiss SRO licence for anti-money-laundering supervision, has delivered 14.5 to 14.9 per cent annualised since 2022, and covered its single default in full from its own funds. It is our only Top pick at 4.8 stars, and it is also the platform that pays us a commission when a reader registers through our link. Both facts are true at once; the rating came out of the same five checks we apply to every platform, and the bonus stack - detailed on the Maclear bonus page - is the largest in this comparison on a small portfolio.
Around EUR 75 in bonuses on a EUR 1,000 portfolio - the largest payout in this comparison.
Open a Maclear accountCapital at risk. Affiliate link - see how we earn. Bonus terms apply; read the full conditions first.
Sponsored: 8lends is a collateral-backed SME lending platform that sits outside our rated list and appears on the site under a paid sponsorship agreement. It runs occasional welcome offers tied to first loans funded; terms and amounts vary by quarter. We earn a flat fee for traffic rather than a performance commission, which is exactly why the platform carries no star rating - we will not rate something we are paid to display.
Visit 8lends - up to 25% APR (Sponsored)Every other platform in the tables above pays us nothing. Where a bonus needs a referral link to activate, we say so on that platform's page and explain how to get one - we do not gate the information behind a link of our own.
Platforms buy customers. A euro spent on a welcome bonus competes directly with a euro spent on search advertising, and the bonus wins on measurability: it only pays out when someone actually funds an account. That is the entire economic logic behind every offer on this page, and it explains their shape - the money is always tied to money invested, never to a registration.
Four mechanics cover almost everything you will meet in Europe:
Invest a minimum amount and a fixed sum lands in your account. Simple to compare, easy to game, so platforms wrap it in holding periods. Maclear's EUR 15 and Lendermarket's EUR 10 work this way; Maclear's EUR 30-per-EUR-500 reward is the same idea repeated at every threshold.
Maclear, LendermarketYou get a percentage of what you put to work - Hive5's 2 per cent, Robocash's 1 per cent, Indemo's tiered 3 to 5 per cent. It scales with your money, which makes it the most valuable structure on a larger portfolio and the one platforms cap or time-limit most aggressively.
Hive5, Robocash, IndemoNectaro's variant, and the cleverest of the four: the payment is based on your average daily invested balance over the first 30 days, so leaving cash idle costs you bonus. It rewards keeping money working rather than making one large transfer - which is what a careful investor should be doing anyway.
NectaroPeerBerry's plus 0.5 per cent and Crowdpear's plus 1 per cent add to the coupon on qualifying loans for a fixed window, normally 90 days from registration. Cheap for the platform, good-looking in an advert, and the least valuable structure for you in cash terms unless the boost follows the loan to maturity.
PeerBerry, CrowdpearLoyalty programmes sit on top of all four. Crowdpear publishes the clearest ladder - Silver at EUR 10,000, Gold at EUR 25,000, Platinum at EUR 40,000, paying plus 0.5 to plus 1 per cent - while Hive5 starts its tiers at EUR 5,000, the lowest threshold we found. Those are worth far more than any welcome bonus if you intend to build a five-figure portfolio, and almost nothing if you are testing a platform with EUR 500.
Every offer in the tables carries the same four conditions in some combination. Read them in this order before you deposit:
Almost never "deposit". Usually "invest" - money sitting as cash in your account earns nothing and qualifies for nothing. Robocash and Nectaro both measure invested amounts, not transfers.
30 days is the common qualifying period (Robocash, Nectaro, Crowdpear's referral), 90 days is how long a rate boost lasts (PeerBerry, Crowdpear), and a referral can take up to 90 days to vest - Mintos requires the friend to hold to day 90.
From EUR 10 at PeerBerry to EUR 500 at Robocash. A low threshold means a wide funnel and a small average investor; a high one means the platform is buying serious money only. Neither is better - it tells you who they are recruiting.
The one people miss. Mintos states plainly that its welcome bonus does not combine with refer-a-friend, so arriving through a friend's link can cost you the larger campaign bonus. Work out which is worth more before you register, because you cannot usually redo it.
Bonuses are normal, and a generous one is not automatically suspicious. Indemo has run some form of instant cashback for so many consecutive quarters that it is effectively a permanent feature of the platform, and Hive5's 2 per cent is simply a young platform paying to build a loan book. What matters is the timing relative to the platform's news.
The pattern to watch: a large cashback campaign appearing shortly after a liquidity problem, a related-party investigation or a wave of delayed payments. That is not customer acquisition, it is a platform paying above market for funding it can no longer raise on reputation - and the investors who take the bait are buying exactly the risk the campaign is trying to paper over. It has happened more than once in this market, in both cases with cashback launched while recovery figures were under scrutiny.
The test is simple: ask why the offer exists now. If the answer is "the platform is growing and wants new investors", fine. If the answer is "the platform needs money and its usual investors have stopped sending it", that bonus is the most expensive money you will ever earn. Our star ratings and the loan originator ratings track the news flow that gives you the answer.
Most EU tax authorities treat a P2P bonus as taxable income in the year it is credited. Cash bonuses and cashback are usually miscellaneous or investment income; rate boosts are simply interest and are taxed exactly like the rest of your coupon. The holding period does not defer the tax event - a bonus credited in March is March income even if the platform's terms stop you withdrawing it until June.
Two practical consequences. First, platforms based in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia or Switzerland generally do not withhold tax on bonuses paid to non-residents, so nothing is deducted at source and the declaration is entirely yours to make. Second, keep the account statement showing the credit date and amount - reconstructing a EUR 40 cashback from a year-old dashboard is far harder than saving the statement now. Our P2P tax guide covers how 12 EU countries treat P2P income; for anything beyond the general rule, ask a local adviser.
Rank platforms first, then look at bonuses. Our five checks - investor protection, delivery track record, honest yields, transparency and exit options - produce a star rating for each of the 20 platforms we cover, and that rating is what should decide where your money goes. Pull up the comparison table, take the two or three platforms that fit your risk appetite, and only then compare their welcome offers.
Used that way, a bonus does three useful things: it pays for the learning curve on your first small deposit, it settles a genuine tie between two comparable platforms, and it slightly offsets the cost of diversifying across more platforms than a pure yield calculation would justify. What it should never do is move you from a 4.5-star platform to a 2.3-star one. The gift is paid once; the licence, the recovery process and the reporting quality apply to every euro for every month you stay invested.
On a EUR 1,000 first-year portfolio, Maclear pays the most in cash terms: EUR 15 for a first investment made within seven days plus EUR 30 for every EUR 500 invested, so roughly EUR 75 on EUR 1,000. Indemo's tiered instant cashback reaches 4 per cent at EUR 1,000 and 5 per cent at EUR 3,000. Mintos advertises the largest headline number - up to EUR 500 - but that ceiling applies only to five-figure deposits under a named campaign. Rate-boost offers such as PeerBerry's plus 0.5 per cent or Crowdpear's plus 1 per cent are worth far less in euros than they look.
In most EU jurisdictions, yes. Cash bonuses and cashback are normally treated as miscellaneous or investment income in the year they are credited, and rate boosts are simply taxed as extra interest. A EUR 30 bonus credited in January 2026 is EUR 30 of taxable income for 2026 even if you never withdraw it. Most platforms do not withhold tax for non-residents, so the declaration is yours to make. See the P2P tax guide or ask a local adviser.
A welcome bonus is a one-off payment for being a new investor who meets a deposit or investment threshold. Cashback is a percentage of the amount you invest or of your average balance, paid back to you as cash - it scales with your money. A referral bonus is paid when an existing investor invites you; both sides usually get paid, and the amounts are often larger than the welcome bonus, which is why it pays to arrive through a referral link rather than a plain sign-up. Watch the combination rules: at Mintos the two do not stack.
No. Every offer in this comparison ties the payment to a qualifying period - typically the money must be invested, not just deposited, and must stay invested for 30 to 90 days. Robocash credits its bonus on day 31. PeerBerry and Crowdpear apply their rate boost only to loans funded within 90 days of registration. Withdraw earlier and the bonus is forfeited or clawed back. Bonus hunting across platforms rarely survives the maths once you count idle cash and transfer fees.
It can be. A bonus attached to onboarding - time-limited, capped and aimed at new investors - is ordinary customer acquisition. A large cashback campaign launched shortly after bad news, a liquidity freeze or a related-party investigation is something else: it is a platform paying for funding it can no longer raise on reputation. Look at when the campaign started relative to the platform's news flow before you treat a high headline rate as good value.
Because they do not need one. InRento keeps its refer-a-friend scheme behind the login and runs no public welcome offer, and Capitalia has no retail bonus programme at all - it raises money through institutional channels and B2B introducers instead. Regulation plays a part too: MiFID II and the ECSP regime discourage inducements that could distort an investment decision, so several licensed platforms deliberately keep promotions small or frame them as referral rewards.
It depends on the platform. Mintos runs named campaigns (WEALTH25, THINK2027) where a code is required and determines which tier you land in. Crowdpear, PeerBerry and Robocash apply their standing welcome offers automatically to any new account that meets the conditions - no code needed. Referral bonuses always need the link or the referrer's code entered at registration; almost no platform lets you attach one afterwards.
COMPARISONStars, yields, licences and minimums in one table - the page to read before any bonus page.
GUIDEA concrete first portfolio: three platforms, auto-invest settings, what to watch in month one.
GUIDEHow 12 EU countries treat P2P interest, bonuses and cross-border platform income in 2026.
Offers last verified 27 August 2026 against the platforms' own documentation; page redesigned 28 September 2026. Bonus terms, amounts and campaign names change without notice - always confirm the live offer on the platform's own site before you deposit. This page is information, not financial advice.