Side hustle ideas from people who actually run them

210 ideas, page 1 of 5

• Personal finance YouTube channel earning affiliate commissions

  A YouTube channel of personal finance reviews and tutorials built on search traffic. Income comes from affiliate commissions on products like budgeting apps and savings accounts.

  Content and media

  Side Hustle Nation, 2026
• AI chat and voice assistants for local businesses

  The operator sets up chatbots and voice receptionists for local businesses on a marketing platform, with a setup fee and a monthly plan. A free trial and a personalized demo are used to win clients.

  Services and freelancing

  The Koerner Office, 2026
• Practice website for learning Excel

  A simple website that helps people learn Excel through exercises. The founder built it with very little effort and grew it as a dead-simple, boring niche site.

  Content and mediaHands-off

  Starter Story, 2026
• AI-built funnels for home-trades businesses

  The operator audits the landing pages of established trades companies, offers AI-built funnels and booked-job systems, and wins clients through a free case-study build, mail and local meetups.

  Services and freelancingPart-time

  The Startup Ideas Podcast, 2026
• Ad-supported specials boards for restaurants

  Free chalkboards and whiteboards placed in restaurants and busy venues, which use them for daily specials. Income comes from selling small ad spots along the bottom to local businesses.

  Side Hustle Nation, 2026
• Front porch home bakery

  A home micro bakery selling sourdough, cinnamon rolls, cookies and bagels from a front porch on Saturday mornings. Customers preorder and items sell out to lines of local buyers.

  Physical products$100 to $1k

  The Koerner Office, 2026
• Gym fitness app built by a first-time coder

  An 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.

  Software and apps$100 to $1k

  Starter Story, 2026
• Shop classes for kids

  Teaching hands-on shop class projects to kids, with customers found through homeschool groups and word of mouth. It can stay a weekend side hustle or grow larger.

  Teaching and coaching

  The Koerner Office, 2026
• Solo-built mobile game

  A mobile game built by a former big tech employee after leaving a full-time job. It grew with no paid marketing.

  Software and apps

  Starter Story, 2026
• Whole-home water filtration sales

  Selling whole-home water filtration systems to homeowners through Facebook ads that show the price upfront, with licensed plumbers doing the installs. The channel notes that this model can require a plumbing license, for example in North Carolina.

  Services and freelancing$100 to $1k

  The Koerner Office, 2026
• Job board website that wins on marketing

  A simple job board website in a saturated category. The founder credits distribution and marketing, not the product, for its success.

  Directories and marketplaces

  Starter Story, 2026
• Goat-raising education media business

  A media business teaching people to raise goats, with a podcast, YouTube channel, online courses and a paid membership. It also runs paid goat farm tours.

  Side Hustle Nation, 2026
• Flipping used couches

  Buying poorly listed couches, negotiating the price down and reselling them with better photos, including AI-generated backgrounds. The operator is a teenager working in spare time.

  Physical products

  The Koerner Office, 2026
• Searchable database product sites

  The 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.

  Starter Story, 2026
• Managed AI agent with owner coaching

  The operator sets up one AI agent as an administrative helper for a small business, hosts and monitors it, and coaches the owner on working with it. The coaching proved necessary after infrastructure-only setups did not stick with clients.

  Services and freelancing

  Build With AI, 2026
• Small-space gourmet mushroom farm

  Growing gourmet and medicinal mushrooms such as oyster, lion's mane and reishi, starting in a very small space. It grew into a farm operation alongside a growing club.

  Physical products$100 to $1k

  Side Hustle Nation, 2026
• Data analysis software for agencies and online stores

  A 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.

  Software and apps

  Starter Story, 2026
• Bedtime story podcast for adults

  An intentionally boring bedtime story podcast that helps grown-ups fall asleep. Income comes from a premium membership, books and other streams around the free show.

  Content and media

  Side Hustle Nation, 2026
• Rent out tables at local comic conventions

  Rents out tables to vendors at local comic conventions.

  Rentals and assets

  Hacker News, 2026
• Directory tool with a lead generation focus

  After leaving an agency, the operator built a directory-related software tool that earns recurring revenue and is adding a lead-gen angle.

  Niche Pursuits Podcast, 2026
• Online estate auctions for families

  Running online estate auctions that clear out homes for families without buying any inventory. The operator photographs, catalogs and lists the items and keeps a cut of the sale.

  Services and freelancing

  Side Hustle Nation, 2026
• Flat-fee managed AI agent retainer for small businesses

  A one-person operator deploys AI agents for executives at small firms and handles their requests through a shared ticket board. The client pays one monthly price that covers every automation, model cost and upkeep.

  Services and freelancing

  Nick Vasilescu (YouTube), 2026
• Flipping liquidation pallets for resale

  Buying goods from government and retail liquidation auctions and reselling them. The method relies on researching before bidding and having a solid selling system.

  Physical productsPart-time

  Side Hustle Nation, 2026
• Shared direct mail postcards for local businesses

  Selling ad space on oversized postcards mailed to every home on a route through USPS Every Door Direct Mail. Several local advertisers share each card, and the operators keep the difference.

  Services and freelancing

  Side Hustle Nation, 2026
• Local lead generation agency

  An agency generates customer leads for local businesses and charges a monthly fee. It was dropped later for opportunity cost.

  Services and freelancing

  The Koerner Office, 2025
• Niche newsletter funded by sponsors

  A free newsletter grows an audience and sells sponsor placements to advertisers. Subscriber growth is helped by paid ads and referral tools.

  Content and media

  The Koerner Office, 2025
• Paid online community for a niche audience

  A 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.

  The Koerner Office, 2025
• Flipping used lawnmowers

  Buying underpriced lawnmowers, fixing common problems and reselling them. The operator ran it while in college.

  Physical products

  Side Hustle Nation, 2025
• Cleaning motivation podcast membership

  A paid membership that delivers private podcast episodes mixing public domain radio shows with cleaning routines and prompts. Members pay a monthly or quarterly fee.

  Content and media

  Side Hustle Nation, 2025
• Themed running skirt brand

  A handmade e-commerce brand selling Disney-inspired running skirts to a niche community of runners. It grew through ambassadors and social media and was later sold through Flippa.

  Physical products

  Side Hustle Nation, 2025
• GraphQL middleware for Airtable and Sheets

  Sells middleware that lets developers access Airtable and Google Sheets data through GraphQL.

  Software and apps

  Hacker News, 2024
• Coding challenges newsletter and courses

  Writes a newsletter of real-world projects for learning programming, and sells paid courses.

  Hacker News, 2024
• Custom AI image model training commissions

  Trains custom image generation models for customers on request using an automated pipeline, charging per commission.

  Services and freelancing

  Hacker News, 2024
• Excel and Google Sheets video course

  Made a course on spreadsheet functions and formulas hosted on a small course platform, earning a commission share.

  Digital productsHands-off

  Hacker News, 2024
• Online text case converter tool

  A free web tool for converting text case, built up over years.

  Software and apps

  Hacker News, 2024
• Template marketplace for modern web frameworks

  Runs a directory of website templates for static site generators and frameworks, earning affiliate sales and now sponsorships.

  Directories and marketplaces

  Hacker News, 2024
• Checklist web app for repeated routines

  A checklist app built for the owner's own routines that now earns recurring income.

  Software and appsHands-off

  Hacker News, 2024
• Cloud true random number generator

  A random number service sold through a website and a cloud marketplace listing, left running with little attention.

  Software and appsHands-off

  Hacker News, 2024
• Free sudoku sites supported by ads

  A group of free sudoku websites that earn steady income from minimal ads.

  Content and mediaHands-off

  Hacker News, 2024
• GIF meme maker with watermark removal sales

  A GIF meme site that earns from one-off sales of watermark removal.

  Software and appsHands-off

  Hacker News, 2024
• PDF bank statement to CSV converter

  Runs a subscription tool that converts PDF bank statements into CSV, used mostly by individuals, bookkeepers and small business owners.

  Software and apps

  Hacker News, 2024
• Meme maker with animated text tracking

  Created a web tool for making GIF memes with text that follows motion, after finding it hard to do elsewhere.

  Software and appsHands-off

  Hacker News, 2022
• Online solitaire game platform

  A solitaire site that began as a Mac app, found by looking for popular apps with poor reviews, and now supports the owner.

  Software and apps

  Hacker News, 2022
• PDF bank statement data extraction web app

  A web app that pulls transaction data out of PDF bank statements, built after the owner needed it for personal spending analysis.

  Software and apps

  Hacker News, 2022
• Privacy-friendly website analytics tool

  Built an embeddable analytics product that avoids cookies, sold as hosted subscriptions and to customers on invoice.

  Software and apps

  Hacker News, 2022
• SaaS wrapper around open-source email checker

  Created an open-source email verification tool, then built a paid hosted service on top of it.

  Software and apps

  Hacker News, 2022
• Self-published book on deploying applications

  Wrote and sells a technical book on deployment that shows the steps without higher-level tools.

  Digital productsHands-off

  Hacker News, 2022
• Tech blog with ads and Patreon

  A blog that earns from ads and Patreon support, covering hosting costs and a bit more.

  Content and media

  Hacker News, 2022