Side hustle ideas from people who actually run them
Real side businesses, described by their owners. Filter by cost, time and how they earn.
- Ideas
- 651 ideas
- Publications
- 14 publications and shows
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- 8 categories
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- Files sold online: templates, printables, ebooks, stock photos, fonts, presets, plugins, recorded courses
- A web app, SaaS, mobile app, browser extension, bot or API that people pay for or that earns from ads
- A blog, niche website, newsletter, YouTube channel, podcast or social account that earns from ads, affiliate links or sponsors
- Making, printing or reselling physical goods, online or in person
- Doing work for clients for a fee: freelance, consulting, done-for-you services, repairs, local services
- Earning from something you own: renting property, rooms, equipment, vehicles, parking, vending machines, domains
- A job board, listings site, directory or marketplace that connects buyers and sellers
- Live tutoring, lessons, workshops, coaching or cohort classes
Matching ideas
About the data128 ideas, page 2 of 3
- Software and appsBuilt a tool that takes a keyword, translates it into many languages and shows available .com domains. It has earned some revenue from users.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsSoftware for protecting source code with encryption, built to meet the owner's own need when existing products were very expensive. It has produced steady income for years with a small remote team.OnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsLets a couple of people use a personal instance of an open source program they run, so they do not have to host it themselves, in exchange for a small monthly fee.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsA desktop tool that shrinks images without visible quality loss. Offered as a free version with paid upgrades, plus plugins for design software.OnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsA lossless screen recording app for macOS sold through the Mac App Store and its own site. Adds features like animated GIF export to keep sales coming in.OnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsBuilt an online exam preparation platform for aspiring medical students together with a sibling. Once launched it needed very little upkeep and sold access to students.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsRuns a multiplayer Boggle-style game online. It earns from advertising and paid memberships.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsDevelops watch faces for Android Wear and sells them as paid apps on the Play Store.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsPublishes native apps and games along with HTML5 games, earning from app store sales. Income has declined as the stores have changed.OnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsRuns a set of small web apps for learning music notes, non-Latin alphabets and languages with flash cards. Income comes from ads and paid premium plans.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsBuilt online prep resources for UK medical school entrance exams. Students pay for access, mostly in the months before the exams.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsA service where customers text a photo and a physical postcard is mailed. Built with a web framework and an SMS API, and paid per postcard.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsBuilt a service that delivers updates for private WordPress plugins and themes, which developers otherwise find painful to manage. Customers pay for the service.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsSells a watermarking tool, and also runs a multi-week video productivity course that is paid for each time a new class fills.OnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsBuilds small single-purpose mobile apps such as calculators and a flashlight. Some are sold for a fee and others earn from in-app ads.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsA service that generates website thumbnails automatically. The owner bought it from another person, kept developing it, and earns from its customers.OnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsRuns a website that helps people practice music notation. It has earned steadily for years.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsRuns a free tool that lets people make colored maps of countries and regions. Income comes from display ads and occasional donations.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsSells a game for iPad through the App Store, which sold with almost no ongoing effort until app updates were needed for new platform requirements.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsBuilt a mobile app that tracks commuter rail trains in real time. Downloads spike whenever the transit system has service problems.OnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsEarns ongoing royalties from programming books written years ago, with little active work now.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsBuilds small web tools that solve narrow business problems, often around obscure shipping forms or data formatting chores. Income comes from display ads on the tools that get found.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsA paid RSS reader that is open source and runs on a managed cloud platform. Users pay a subscription handled through a payment processor, and it needs almost no ongoing effort.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Software and appsBuilds and sells many iPhone apps, with updates and freelance on the side.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsBuilt a minimalist wine catalog app for iPhone, sold as a paid app.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsBuilt an Android app that added features to a popular messaging app, earning from an in-app purchase and ads until it was removed from the store.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsBuilt a simple Android shopping app that earned from Amazon affiliate links and ads.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsA web app for sending and reading anonymous messages, with paid accounts adding extra features.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsBuilt a business software product that still brings in monthly revenue with little attention.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsBuilt an iPhone photo reminder app that Apple featured, earning without marketing spend.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsSells a Mac utility for cleaning disk space on the Mac App Store, with little marketing.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsA service letting users email files into cloud storage accounts, with premium paid accounts popular with realtors and lawyers.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsAn iPhone app that converts tracker activity to diet program points and offers calorie tracking, sold through the App Store.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsPorted an older game to iPad, free to download with one in-app purchase unlocking the full version.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsBuilt a glockenspiel app for a friend's daughter, released a free version and a paid version with extra features.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsA free web tool that compresses and combines JavaScript files, earning from AdSense.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsBuilt a website where people pay in Bitcoin per character to post a message.$100 to $1kHands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsSells personalized kids books through an iPad app and is splitting it into individual book apps.OnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsBuilt an iPad piano app that stays in music charts and sells without marketing.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsSells software for creating bingo cards, needing little support.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsMade an online role-playing game for young children that earns a modest monthly amount.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsHas a simple app in the Mac App Store that sells with no ongoing support.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsBuilt a small ERP system sold to businesses on monthly fees.OnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsRuns a social game with a developer partner that earns steadily with little ongoing time.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsBuilt an add-on that lets customers get SSL installed quickly. Reselling certificates required upfront cash.Over $10kHands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsA calculator tool for a tabletop game that was picked up by a gaming site and earns from an ad on it.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsRuns subscription services for tracking website traffic and ad conversions, solo and mostly hands-off.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014
- Software and appsAn Android app showing bus times for the owner's area, earning from optimized in-app ads.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2014