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
- Categories
- 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 data204 ideas, page 1 of 5
- Software and appsA consumer app that teaches languages through music and singing. The founder tested the idea with viral content before building a simple first version and runs it solo.OnlineStarter Story, 2026
- Software and appsAn indie health and fitness app. The founder credits a repeatable marketing playbook built on paid ads, rather than the specific app, for its growth.$1k to $10kOnlineStarter Story, 2026
- Software and appsAn iOS fitness app built to solve the founder's own problem at the gym. The founder had never shipped code before and grew it with content and a personal brand.$100 to $1kOnlineStarter Story, 2026
- Software and appsA mobile game built by a former big tech employee after leaving a full-time job. It grew with no paid marketing.OnlineStarter Story, 2026
- Software and appsA gym app whose founder treats product development like a science experiment, using A/B tests and feature validation to decide what to build.OnlineStarter Story, 2026
- Software and appsAn AI tool that lets architects and designers generate realistic home renders in seconds. Revenue stayed flat for years until a single product pivot changed the business.OnlineStarter Story, 2026
- Software and appsA marketing SaaS for indie developers. The founder shaped the product through a very large number of customer calls with the ideal customer.OnlineStarter Story, 2026
- Software and appsThe operator runs a few near-identical sites that each sell access to a niche database, such as investors, angels or journalists. The revenue model is not stated in the source and is likely paid access.OnlineStarter Story, 2026
- Software and appsA golf app the founder built as a side project while working full time at a big tech company, before deciding whether to go all in on it.Part-timeOnlineStarter Story, 2026
- Software and appsAn AI app for track and field, built by college students who did not know how to code.OnlineStarter Story, 2026
- Software and appsA micro-SaaS that replaces messy spreadsheets for agencies and e-commerce brands trying to make sense of their data. The founder spotted the problem while consulting for these businesses and built the app with Claude.OnlineStarter Story, 2026
- Software and appsAn analytics SaaS built specifically for agencies as the customer, a niche most builders overlook.OnlineStarter Story, 2026
- Software and appsAfter leaving an agency, the operator built a directory-related software tool that earns recurring revenue and is adding a lead-gen angle.OnlineNiche Pursuits Podcast, 2026
- Software and appsA members-only group charges a recurring or lifetime fee for access to a niche audience and its resources. The host promotes it from an existing audience.OnlineThe Koerner Office, 2025
- Software and appsA website for visualizing road trips, earning sales through organic traffic with peaks around holidays.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsSells middleware that lets developers access Airtable and Google Sheets data through GraphQL.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsBuilt a tool for brainstorming and converting ideas into diagrams, now earning revenue and working on search traffic.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsBuilds browser extensions that fix common site annoyances. Revenue comes from them, helped by search-friendly names and store reviews.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsA minimalist Android launcher distributed free, with a paid pro version.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsBuilt an app for creating orders and invoices on the road, syncing with local accounting software. A partner handles sales.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsA free web tool for converting text case, built up over years.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsMaintains a UI library for a programming language and gets income through GitHub sponsorships.Under $100OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsBuilt a web app to practice speaking languages with an AI, with a free tier and a paid tier.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsA checklist app built for the owner's own routines that now earns recurring income.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsA browser extension that automatically claims daily login bonuses at online casinos for a monthly subscription.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsA random number service sold through a website and a cloud marketplace listing, left running with little attention.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsA content management system that publishes static sites to Cloudflare, earning recurring hosting fees.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsOffers automated recurring security scans of web apps with reports sent to team tools like Slack.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsA GIF meme site that earns from one-off sales of watermark removal.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsAn app for learning Japanese by reading web articles, tracking known vocabulary and kanji, and syncing with flashcards.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsA desktop app for managing several Kubernetes clusters at once, built for the owner's own use and then sold as a subscription.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsA privacy-friendly open source analytics tool for apps.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsRuns a subscription tool that converts PDF bank statements into CSV, used mostly by individuals, bookkeepers and small business owners.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsBuilt software for tracking all records about horses, and partners with racing associations to offer it to new owners of retired racehorses.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsBuilt an algorithm using maritime trade data to trade options on shipping firms, also selling subscriptions to friends.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsA tool that converts shared Drive folders into hosted searchable wikis, sold by subscription.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsRuns an API service that handles web scraping for developers.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsBuilt a booking system after seeing colleagues reserve rooms in a paper book, and sells it as a product.OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Software and appsA product that exports timetable data kept in spreadsheets into Google Calendar.OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Software and appsBuilt an online multiplayer version of a domino-based game, funded by donations after ads did poorly.OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Software and appsBuilt a Mac app for drawing and highlighting on screen during calls and presentations, after needing it personally.OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Software and appsRuns a simulation service that lets traders backtest advanced options strategies, built from a background in processor simulation.Over $10kOnlineHacker News, 2022
- Software and appsBuilt a single-player chess variant app without ads or in-app purchases, supported mostly by donations.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2022
- Software and appsGrew from blogging and a self-published book into building an email marketing tool for bloggers and creators.OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Software and appsA newsletter platform built as a better alternative to a tool the owner used, with Markdown support and an API aimed at developers. Started as a side project.OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Software and appsBegan hosting game servers for friends, grew into renting servers including scientific computing to universities.Over $10kHands-offOnlineHacker News, 2022
- Software and appsBuilt a compression tool that was slow to compress but fast to decompress and licensed it to big software vendors who shipped floppy disks.Hands-offHacker News, 2022
- Software and appsCreated a web tool for making GIF memes with text that follows motion, after finding it hard to do elsewhere.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2022