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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- 14 publications and shows
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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 data107 ideas, page 1 of 3
- Teaching and coachingTeaching 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.In personThe Koerner Office, 2026
- Rentals and assetsRenting out utility trailers with an almost fully automated booking process, alongside a full-time job. Customers come from Google and Facebook Marketplace.Over $10kOnline and in personThe Koerner Office, 2026
- Services and freelancingWriting jingles for plumbers, roofers and pest control companies, then running them as skippable YouTube ads in the client's area. AI music and voice tools now replace the studio.OnlineThe 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
- Services and freelancingThe operator organizes a client's promises, decisions, projects and preferences into a set of linked markdown notes that AI tools can read, then keeps it current with ingest and review routines. It is sold as the first engagement because later automations depend on it.Under $100OnlineBuild With AI, 2026
- Teaching and coachingTeaches private music lessons and plays jazz gigs.In personHacker News, 2026
- Rentals and assetsRents out tables to vendors at local comic conventions.In personHacker News, 2026
- Physical productsSold unprocessed goat milk to a zoo's exotic animal nursery, used to feed young animals.In personHacker News, 2026
- Physical productsAn anti-inflammatory coffee brand made with turmeric, produced by a local manufacturing partner. Sales come from subscriptions, bundles and influencer-driven social proof, run alongside a full-time job.$1k to $10kOnlineSide Hustle Nation, 2026
- Services and freelancingHandling building permits for property owners and developers as a niche service, using skills learned while flipping houses. Clients come by referral, with no ads or cold calling.Side Hustle Nation, 2026
- Services and freelancingSelling 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.Online and in personSide Hustle Nation, 2026
- Rentals and assetsThe operator imports vending machines that dispense perfume and places them in venues. Sales come from customers buying from the machines. The owner dropped it as too much hassle.Over $10kIn personThe Koerner Office, 2025
- Content and mediaA paid membership that delivers private podcast episodes mixing public domain radio shows with cleaning routines and prompts. Members pay a monthly or quarterly fee.OnlineSide Hustle Nation, 2025
- Content and mediaPosting engaging content, much of it screenshots of other people's posts, to a Facebook page enrolled in Facebook's content monetization program. Facebook shares ad revenue with the creator.Under $100A few hours a weekOnlineSide Hustle Nation, 2025
- Software and appsSells middleware that lets developers access Airtable and Google Sheets data through GraphQL.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsBuilt a tool for brainstorming and converting ideas into diagrams, now earning revenue and working on search traffic.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Digital productsWrites a newsletter of real-world projects for learning programming, and sells paid courses.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Content and mediaRuns a white-label flight and hotel search engine and shares deals by social media and email subscription.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Directories and marketplacesRuns a directory of website templates for static site generators and frameworks, earning affiliate sales and now sponsorships.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsBuilt a web app to practice speaking languages with an AI, with a free tier and a paid tier.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsA content management system that publishes static sites to Cloudflare, earning recurring hosting fees.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Services and freelancingGets income to support open source maintenance from Patreon, private consulting and a company sponsorship.Under $100OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsRuns a subscription tool that converts PDF bank statements into CSV, used mostly by individuals, bookkeepers and small business owners.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsBuilt software for tracking all records about horses, and partners with racing associations to offer it to new owners of retired racehorses.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsA tool that converts shared Drive folders into hosted searchable wikis, sold by subscription.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsBuilt a booking system after seeing colleagues reserve rooms in a paper book, and sells it as a product.OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Software and appsA product that exports timetable data kept in spreadsheets into Google Calendar.OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Content and mediaRuns a flight deals blog and newsletter with an embedded flight and hotel search tool, earning from bookings.OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Content and mediaA blog that earns from ads and Patreon support, covering hosting costs and a bit more.OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Content and mediaPosts videos on tech and photography and earns from the channel.$1k to $10kOnlineHacker News, 2022
- Content and mediaRuns a small blog about cash flow that earns a modest monthly income.OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Content and mediaA product review blog that earns from affiliate commissions.OnlineHacker News, 2021
- Software and appsA service where users forward unwanted emails and it finds unsubscribe links and fills web forms for them.OnlineHacker News, 2021
- Physical productsMakes and sells notebooks with music staff paper for musicians.OnlineHacker News, 2021
- Physical productsMakes and ships a gadget for a small niche market from home, with no software in the product, and also plays music part-time.Hacker News, 2021
- Software and appsA charting product for data maps, earning from subscriptions and from licensing its chart library.OnlineHacker News, 2019
- 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
- Software and appsA browser extension that tests sites for SEO, speed and security best practices, with free and paid tiers.OnlineHacker News, 2019
- Rentals and assetsRents out a couple of cheap units and built an app to manage rental administration, contracts and invoices, with the aim to offer it to others.Over $10kOnline and in personHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsSells products as a third-party seller on Amazon, treated as a semi-passive side business.OnlineHacker News, 2019
- Software and appsBuilt a portfolio management tool for cryptocurrency investors and reached subscription revenue quickly with a basic version, while keeping a day job.OnlineHacker News, 2019
- Content and mediaRuns a site that reviews web hosts and earns affiliate commissions. Competition is heavy.OnlineHacker News, 2019
- Content and mediaA regular newsletter about web tools that earns income and leads to paid writing work.A few hours a weekOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Services and freelancingDJs at nightclubs on Friday and Saturday nights, built up from a university hobby into a steady side income.$1k to $10kIn personHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsDry ages meat in specialized fridges and bags in a place where it is hard to find, then resells it online and over messaging apps at a large markup.Online and in personHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsMakes wooden items with a laser cutter based on video games and shows, and sells them on Etsy. Covers materials and machine time.$1k to $10kA few hours a weekHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsDesigned hardware and an iPhone app that remotely control arrays of cameras. Sold mainly to photo booth operators.Hacker News, 2019
- Services and freelancingDoes adult webcam work with an established base of private clients, using it as flexible fallback income between jobs.A few hours a weekOnlineHacker News, 2019