Side hustle ideas from people who actually run them
Real side businesses, described by their owners. Filter by cost, time and how they earn.
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- 651 ideas
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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 data78 ideas, page 1 of 2
- Physical productsA 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.$100 to $1kThe Koerner Office, 2026
- Services and freelancingSelling 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.$100 to $1kOnline and in personThe Koerner Office, 2026
- Physical productsBuying 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.Online and in personThe Koerner Office, 2026
- Physical productsGrowing 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.$100 to $1kSide Hustle Nation, 2026
- Physical productsBuying goods from government and retail liquidation auctions and reselling them. The method relies on researching before bidding and having a solid selling system.Part-timeSide Hustle Nation, 2026
- Physical productsBuying underpriced lawnmowers, fixing common problems and reselling them. The operator ran it while in college.Online and in personSide Hustle Nation, 2025
- Physical productsA 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.OnlineSide Hustle Nation, 2025
- Digital productsWrites a newsletter of real-world projects for learning programming, and sells paid courses.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsA GIF meme site that earns from one-off sales of watermark removal.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2024
- Digital productsWrote and sells a technical book on deployment that shows the steps without higher-level tools.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2022
- Physical productsMakes zines and artwork about fandom and adult themes, printing them at home and selling them.$100 to $1kHacker News, 2021
- Physical productsMakes and sells notebooks with music staff paper for musicians.OnlineHacker News, 2021
- Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2021
- Rentals and assetsTakes preorders for expiring domains and tries to catch them when they drop, and also holds a portfolio of domains for later development.OnlineHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsSold used but valuable computer chips in a local market, delivering in person to bakeries or by post, until import tax changes ended the margins.Online and in personHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsA bot that posts a space-weather graph and built a following, which led to selling related t-shirts.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsRuns a cookie bakery with mostly local delivery and some nationwide shipping, run alongside a career.Part-timeOnline and in personHacker News, 2019
- Services and freelancingDelivered freshly baked cookies to dorms and homes near a university on rollerblades, paid per order, and built a delivery management site.Part-timeHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsRuns a hobby business selling maps made in a historic style.OnlineHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsWith a friend, bought off-warranty corporate laptops, upgraded memory and storage or fixed keyboards, and resold them on eBay.Online and in personHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsBuys broken old computers, restores them and sells them on eBay.Online and in personHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsSells folk music CDs and handmade items at science fiction and fantasy conventions.$100 to $1kIn personHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsDesigned a 3D printed upgrade for a worn part in certain coffee grinders and sells it through a print-on-demand storefront. Traffic comes from repair guides.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsKeeps chickens and sells the eggs, which covers little more than feed costs.A few hours a weekHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsOrdered men's bracelets with a custom logo from an overseas wholesaler and resold them on Etsy and a personal site, until dropshippers hurt the market.OnlineHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsBuys and restores vintage furniture, then sells it online or to local stores as a picker.Online and in personHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsSells phosphorescent cosmetic modifications for synthesizers, a niche hardware accessory product.$100 to $1kOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsDyes small batches of yarn with traditional methods for a small group of weavers who want specific colors.$100 to $1kOnline and in personHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsMakes jelly by hand from berries grown in the garden and sells it through word of mouth.Hacker News, 2019
- Physical productsDesigns outlines for cases cut on a maker space laser machine and sells them on eBay. Local materials make it possible to undercut imports on price.$100 to $1kOnline and in personHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsSelf-taught circuit board design, then sold a few products to a niche market with no marketing. Sales faded as cheap copies appeared.OnlineHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsSells eggs from backyard hens when they lay more than the household uses.Hands-offHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsDesigns and sells music notebooks with generated staff lines, using scripts to produce the print-ready PDF. Sold online and the owner is working on getting stores to carry them.Hacker News, 2019
- Digital productsA site selling themes for static site generators that has started making sales.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsDesigns and sells sketchpads for mobile and browser wireframes through a Shopify store, reordering inventory in larger batches as it sells out.$100 to $1kOnlineHacker News, 2018
- Software and appsPublishes a few small utility apps on the App Store and keeps improving them. Income comes from app sales.$100 to $1kOnlineHacker News, 2018
- Digital productsLists virtual machines on major cloud marketplaces that come set up for Ethereum development, with video tutorials. Revenue comes from VM sales.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2018
- Digital productsWrote and self-published a book about a game framework. Earns a small monthly income from sales.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2018
- Digital productsWriting and self-publishing a tutorial book on the Angular framework.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2018
- Physical productsTurned public patent drawings into wall art images, cleaned up by a hired assistant and batch processed. An online store sends orders to a print and fulfillment service automatically.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016
- Physical productsDesigns and builds adapters that turn surplus server power supplies into general purpose 12 volt supplies. Sold as a physical hardware product.Hacker News, 2016
- Teaching and coachingTurned expertise in CSS layout into an online course and in-person workshops. Development teams buy licenses for the course, and the income funds standards work.Online and in personHacker 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
- Physical productsRuns a site that resells SSL certificates. Margins are thin because support requests eat into profit, so the owner would rather sell an own product.OnlineHacker News, 2016
- Physical productsWrote and sells a printed guide to using a music recording program along with music technology basics. It has to be updated for each new software version.OnlineHacker 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 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
- Physical productsA physical sticker product that covers laptop cameras, sold through Amazon and its own website without any advertising.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2016