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 data199 ideas, page 2 of 5
- 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
- Services and freelancingA local service handles cremation for pets and takes referrals from veterinary clinics. Clinics are the recurring business customers.Over $10kIn personThe Koerner Office, 2025
- Services and freelancingA local crew business that trims and removes trees for homeowners. Income comes from per-job fees.Part-timeIn personThe Koerner Office, 2025
- Physical productsBuying underpriced lawnmowers, fixing common problems and reselling them. The operator ran it while in college.Online and in personSide Hustle Nation, 2025
- Rentals and assetsThe operator holds stakes in RV and mobile home parks and collects rent from the lot and site tenants. Parks can also be bought and resold.Over $10kIn personDiary of a CEO, 2025
- Services and freelancingTaking aura portraits at events and partner businesses, charging per short session. The operator runs it while keeping a full-time job.In personSide Hustle Nation, 2025
- Physical productsA dropshipping store selling high-ticket outdoor products for ponds and water features. Sales come from Google ads aimed at ready-to-buy shoppers, with supplier relationships in place of inventory.OnlineSide 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
- Physical productsA shop buys a famous roadside chain's snacks and resells them to customers elsewhere. Revenue comes from retail sales of the resold goods.The Hustle, 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 appsMaintains a UI library for a programming language and gets income through GitHub sponsorships.Under $100OnlineHacker 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 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
- Services and freelancingA file manager supporting many storage protocols. Earns by building custom plugins such as authentication layers.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsRuns an API service that handles web scraping for developers.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Services and freelancingBuilt an escape room game with colleagues in a rented warehouse after trying local ones.Over $10kIn personHacker 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
- Digital productsWrites and self-publishes science fiction romance books on the side.Under $100OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Physical productsOperates a small 3D print farm that sells custom clips and connectors for workshop equipment.$1k to $10kHacker 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
- Digital productsFound a popular product category on a code marketplace and built a better JavaScript image cropper and uploader to sell there.Under $100OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Content and mediaRuns a newsletter that profiles the home workspaces of makers and creators, earning recurring revenue.OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Physical productsBuilt an online resource for learning CAD with a supporting community, aimed at people who want to design and sell products.OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Software and appsAn open source tool for detecting website changes, with a paid hosted subscription and custom work for companies.OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Software and appsBuilt an embeddable analytics product that avoids cookies, sold as hosted subscriptions and to customers on invoice.OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Software and appsCreated an open-source email verification tool, then built a paid hosted service on top of it.OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Software and appsA Mac app that creates polished product demo videos from screen recordings using cursor movements and clicks.OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Software and appsBuilt a monitoring tool that began with GraphQL services and expanded to all APIs and web apps, running it with a couple of hours of work each workday.Part-timeOnlineHacker News, 2022
- Software and appsStarted by scraping real estate listings for personal use, then built a scraping API that handles blocking and sold access to paying customers.OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Rentals and assetsOwns a number of rental properties across the US that produce monthly income after mortgages and expenses.Over $10kHacker News, 2022
- Digital productsSelf-publishes fiction and is growing a backlist and an email newsletter to increase sales.OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Digital productsWrote helpful articles, collected them into a book sold on Gumroad, and also builds a monitoring SaaS on the side.OnlineHacker News, 2021
- Services and freelancingWrites custom automation runbooks for networks and provides a web platform where customers run them.Part-timeOnlineHacker News, 2021
- Services and freelancingHandles IT, administration, purchasing and research for a partner's art business, which sells commissions and freelance work and direct to customers.Hacker News, 2021
- Physical productsBuilds dinghies, canoes, catamarans and other small boats in spare time, selling some and taking commissions from friends.$1k to $10kPart-timeHacker News, 2021
- Physical productsBuys and resells collectibles, cars and sometimes collectible cars.Online and in personHacker News, 2021
- Physical productsMakes zines and artwork about fandom and adult themes, printing them at home and selling them.$100 to $1kHacker News, 2021
- Software and appsA web app for sharing audio clips with timestamped comments, such as a music teacher giving feedback to a student.OnlineHacker News, 2021
- Teaching and coachingTutors middle and high school students in math and CS for an hourly rate.Under $100Hacker News, 2021
- Software and appsA tool for recording video explanations on pull requests, to reduce misunderstandings during code review.OnlineHacker News, 2021
- Content and mediaMakes coding tutorials on YouTube to support themselves while building a product, earning a small amount from the channel.OnlineHacker News, 2021
- Software and appsBuilt a document editor on a decentralized protocol alongside a day job. Revenue came from grant money from the protocol.OnlineHacker News, 2021
- Software and appsStarted a web hosting company on nights and weekends during grad school, which later became a full-time business.OnlineHacker News, 2021
- Physical productsLaunched hardware security keys with partners, working on it part time at first.Over $10kOnlineHacker News, 2021
- Services and freelancingDoes web work for clients and keeps income steady with annual payments for hosting, maintenance and small fixes.OnlineHacker News, 2020
- Software and appsRuns a web tool that migrates data from files like CSV, JSON and XML into MySQL databases, sold to users who need conversions.OnlineHacker News, 2019