All Side Hustle Ideas
Every idea links to its source

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

Browse by category

  • Digital products67
    Files sold online: templates, printables, ebooks, stock photos, fonts, presets, plugins, recorded courses
  • Software and apps205
    A web app, SaaS, mobile app, browser extension, bot or API that people pay for or that earns from ads
  • Content and media105
    A blog, niche website, newsletter, YouTube channel, podcast or social account that earns from ads, affiliate links or sponsors
  • Physical products105
    Making, printing or reselling physical goods, online or in person
  • Services and freelancing103
    Doing work for clients for a fee: freelance, consulting, done-for-you services, repairs, local services
  • Rentals and assets36
    Earning from something you own: renting property, rooms, equipment, vehicles, parking, vending machines, domains
  • Directories and marketplaces11
    A job board, listings site, directory or marketplace that connects buyers and sellers
  • Teaching and coaching19
    Live tutoring, lessons, workshops, coaching or cohort classes

Matching ideas

About the data

Startup cost
Under $100$100 to $1k$1k to $10kOver $10k
Time
Hands-offA few hours a weekPart-timeNear full-time
Where
OnlineIn personOnline and in person
Earns from
AdsAffiliateSubscriptionsOne-time salesService feesRentMarketplace cutSponsors and donations
Coding
No coding neededNeeds coding

9 ideas

  • Software and apps
    Open source UI library funded by sponsors
    Maintains a UI library for a programming language and gets income through GitHub sponsorships.
    Under $100Online
    Hacker News, 2024
  • Software and apps
    Open source app analytics tool
    A privacy-friendly open source analytics tool for apps.
    Online
    Hacker News, 2024
  • Services and freelancing
    Open source file manager with paid plugins
    A file manager supporting many storage protocols. Earns by building custom plugins such as authentication layers.
    Online
    Hacker News, 2024
  • Digital products
    Improved JavaScript image cropper for CodeCanyon
    Found a popular product category on a code marketplace and built a better JavaScript image cropper and uploader to sell there.
    Under $100Online
    Hacker News, 2022
  • Software and apps
    Open source website change detection service
    An open source tool for detecting website changes, with a paid hosted subscription and custom work for companies.
    Online
    Hacker News, 2022
  • Digital products
    Blog articles turned into a sold book
    Wrote helpful articles, collected them into a book sold on Gumroad, and also builds a monitoring SaaS on the side.
    Online
    Hacker News, 2021
  • Services and freelancing
    Software consulting for a former employer
    Does software consulting for a previous workplace after leaving it, adjusting the rate each year for inflation.
    Under $100Part-timeOnline
    Hacker News, 2019
  • Services and freelancing
    Spreadsheet data cleaning for businesses
    Cleans messy Excel data for companies and sometimes builds simple web apps to replace the spreadsheets. Bills per row, flat fee or hourly depending on the project.
    Under $100Part-timeOnline
    Hacker News, 2019
  • Software and apps
    Open source Ruby gem with paid pro version
    Maintains a free open source gem for running test suites in parallel and sells a paid pro version of it. Revenue comes from pro subscriptions.
    Online
    Hacker News, 2016