Services and freelancing side hustle ideas

Doing work for clients for a fee: freelance, consulting, done-for-you services, repairs, local services.

15 ideas

Services and freelancing
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.
Online
Nick Vasilescu (YouTube), 2026
Services and freelancing
Custom AI image model training commissions
Trains custom image generation models for customers on request using an automated pipeline, charging per commission.
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
Services and freelancing
Network automation runbooks and platform
Writes custom automation runbooks for networks and provides a web platform where customers run them.
Part-timeOnline
Hacker News, 2021
Services and freelancing
Web agency with hosting and maintenance retainers
Does web work for clients and keeps income steady with annual payments for hosting, maintenance and small fixes.
Online
Hacker News, 2020
Services and freelancing
Business automation services for small firms
Builds and schedules automations for small businesses, using knowledge gained in a day job about common business pain points.
Online
Hacker News, 2019
Services and freelancing
Payment processing reseller and gateway
Sells payment processing services, runs a white-label payment gateway, and builds custom apps for payment terminals, alongside a do-it-yourself website builder.
Online
Hacker News, 2019
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
Services and freelancing
Small shared web hosting company
Started a shared hosting company so existing clients could move away from big, confusing hosts. Customers pay hosting fees.
Online
Hacker News, 2016
Services and freelancing
Web design with ongoing hosting fees
Designs websites for clients and hosts them on cloud infrastructure, collecting monthly web and email hosting fees.
Hands-offOnline
Hacker News, 2016
Services and freelancing
Webshop deployment system with per-shop fee
Built an automated system for deploying webshops for a web agency owner, in exchange for a fee on each shop deployed. The income ended when the client retired.
Hands-offOnline
Hacker News, 2016
Services and freelancing
E-commerce site built for profit share
Built an online store for an acquaintance in exchange for a share of profits each pay period.
Hands-offOnline
Hacker News, 2014
Services and freelancing
Convert websites into WordPress themes
Did site-to-WordPress theme conversions for clients, finding them through targeted AdWords ads.
$100 to $1kPart-timeOnline
Hacker News, 2011
Services and freelancing
Messaging service helping startups explain what they do
Offers a service that helps startups write short, clear descriptions of their product for sites and their own pages.
Online
Hacker News, 2011

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