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
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- 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 data180 ideas, page 1 of 4
- Physical productsA diaper bag brand designed to look less bulky than traditional bags, manufactured through Alibaba. Preorders and organic TikTok content helped fund inventory.Over $10kOnlineSide Hustle Nation, 2026
- Physical productsAn online store dropshipping high-ticket camper van and motorhome accessories in the UK, with the niche chosen from search and competitor data. Sales come through Google Shopping ads as an authorized reseller.OnlineSide Hustle Nation, 2026
- Physical productsSelling golf equipment through live shows on the Whatnot app, built on top of a brick-and-mortar golf shop and its brand relationships.Over $10kSide 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 productsA pet products company that reworked the hamster ball, an item unchanged for decades, started by a college student. It sells on Amazon and through a big-box retail deal.Over $10kOnlineSide Hustle Nation, 2026
- 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
- Software and appsA website for visualizing road trips, earning sales through organic traffic with peaks around holidays.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2024
- Digital productsCo-wrote a Spring Boot and AWS e-book with a companion online course, sharing the income among authors.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2024
- Digital productsWrites a newsletter of real-world projects for learning programming, and sells paid courses.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsA minimalist Android launcher distributed free, with a paid pro version.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Digital productsA template for a note-taking app with a user guide and video course based on the owner's personal system, sold to customers.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2024
- Digital productsCreated an online course teaching DevOps to small companies and self-hosters, which keeps selling even against bigger instructors.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2024
- Software and appsA GIF meme site that earns from one-off sales of watermark removal.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2024
- Physical productsWorked with a factory to make grounded power adapters that stop case buzzing, sold on Amazon.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2024
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Digital productsWrote and sells a technical book on deployment that shows the steps without higher-level tools.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2022
- Physical productsPut cartoon T-shirt designs about software error messages on craft sites.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker 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
- Digital productsSells a curated list of places to promote side projects, for makers wanting traffic, directly through Gumroad.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2021
- Physical productsMakes and sells notebooks with music staff paper for musicians.OnlineHacker News, 2021
- Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2021
- Physical productsStarted a niche menswear business alongside a full-time job. It now runs mostly on its own at small scale.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2021
- Software and appsA paid Mac App Store app that grew out of a personal need for a Safari extension that refreshes tabs automatically.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2021
- Physical productsLaunched hardware security keys with partners, working on it part time at first.Over $10kOnlineHacker News, 2021
- Software and appsWrote a Mac app years ago that still makes steady daily sales through the app store without marketing.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2020
- 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 productsSells products as a third-party seller on Amazon, treated as a semi-passive side business.OnlineHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsEarns twice-yearly royalties from a published book and small licensing deals for translations in other countries.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Digital productsCompiles articles and tips from a newsletter into ebooks sold on Leanpub and Amazon.OnlineHacker News, 2019
- Digital productsBuilt a level design package and sells it on the Unity Asset Store, relying on organic discovery.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Software and appsAn independent wedding registry site for a local market. Couples pay a one-time activation fee, and Google ads bring in traffic.$1k to $10kHands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Software and appsBuilt a desktop app for managing video libraries and sells licenses. Donates the proceeds to charity.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsLaunched a men's skincare line as a first physical product business, handling ads, customer service and fulfillment.Over $10kOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Digital productsSells a boutique Jekyll theme aimed at software people and academics, with a free base version and a paid version.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker 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 productsSells baby milk powder from Germany to mothers in China.Hacker News, 2019
- Physical productsRuns a hobby business selling maps made in a historic style.OnlineHacker 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
- Digital productsSells a Ruby book on a self-publishing platform, first in the owner's native language and now being translated to English.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Digital productsWrites and sells books about programming, currently covering Angular and related tools, with little promotion.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Digital productsWrote introductory programming tutorials and sells them as ebooks on Leanpub.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019