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

12 ideas

  • 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
    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
    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
    Websites for wineries paid in barter
    Built web pages for local wineries and was paid in goods such as wine rather than cash.
    Under $100
    Hacker News, 2019
  • 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
  • Software and apps
    Captcha recognition service paid per solve
    Built a machine learning system that solves captchas, paid per captcha, so income continues after the build.
    Hands-offOnline
    Hacker News, 2011
  • Software and apps
    Cheap bulk SMS sending service
    Runs a text messaging service with low per-message pricing. Earns from message volume.
    Hands-offOnline
    Hacker News, 2011
  • 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