Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2025 – Show and tell

This also brings tears to my eyes, as I remember[1] browsing these threads and being amazed (still am) by all the people who make side projects and make money from them, and at the same time thinking that I will never reach this milestone, and yet, here I am.

[0]: https://justfaxonline.com [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39110194#39141819

- https://dave-bot.com -> a full-stack AI platform where you can generate videos, images, music, code, 3d objects with frontier Gen AI models.

- https://headsnap.io -> a platform that you can generate images of yourself based on 4 selfies.

- https://quantiq.live -> a service providing financial and historical data for stocks, as well as government trades.

- https://aivestor.tech -> an AI agent that picks small/midcap stocks and trades them using Alpaca API. It uses Reddit, news, polymarket, Google Trends and many other data sources to take investment decisions.

- @Polyglot_lingua_bot -> a voice-enabled Telegram-based bot that can help you learn new languages.

- https://select.supply -> a directory of carefully-curated and well-crafted products.

All of those allowed me to quit my day job and live a comfortable and flexible life. I still invest time in maintenance and adding new features, but I love coding, marketing and everything that comes with promoting and selling a SaaS (and I also have a serious addiction for Stripe notifications).

On top of that, I developed my own software agency where I help clients build and scale software (https://bitheap.ch).

KeywordsPal.com

It's actually super interesting the technical aspects to scan 50k posts a day for as cheap as possible. I write about it here: https://keywordspal.com/blog/building-multi-platform-content...

I also built it as a result of being unsatisfied with f5bot

We have IronCalc[1]. We don't make money from customers as we don't have a finalized product yet. But we have an ongoing grant from the NLnet[2]. You can have a look at the kind of projects they are granting money. It's always a source of inspiration.

That being said IronCalc takes a lot of time from me. Way more than a side project should.

[1]: https://www.ironcalc.com

[2]: https://nlnet.nl/project/IronCalc/

Since 2023 we’ve been to 44 restaurants. In 2025 we served 1,099 guests and generated $126k in revenue.

https://www.deadchefssociety.com/

[1] https://notebooklm-web-importer.com

https://hackylabs.com

I'm a math guy who codes and I do it for fun. I'm shocked people are interested in this stuff.

LeetArxiv Substack: https://leetarxiv.substack.com/

I’m building DB Pro, a modern desktop database client for developers who want a fast, local-first workflow.

I started in October 2025, launched v1 at the end of November, and just crossed $1k MRR.

I also post devlogs of life building and marketing DB Pro and am about to post devlog #4. The latest one is here if anyone’s curious: https://youtu.be/-T4GcJuV1rM

Still very early, but it’s been fun seeing something fairly “boring” resonate once the UX is treated seriously.

$5 per copy (Windows, Max, Linux; keep forever) https://videohubapp.com/

MIT open source (build your own copy) https://github.com/whyboris/Video-Hub-App

Then I started to get feedback on the initial project which was quite helpful(universities, EEVBlog and colleagues) and based on that made a "Logic Trainer" which is like very advanced version of the initial idea. It has so many features and it kind of has taken off in a sense that 2 universities want to buy it for themselves. Also I didn't expect it but most people who buy it do it for their kids. IMHO its way too complicated for kids, but practice and feedback that I have gotten shows that it really isn't. I haven't made any profits from the project yet (due to high development cost) but hopefully in the future it help to pay my rent :).

Check out the website at https://logicgat.es

I built DedupX, a macOS app for finding duplicate and visually similar files fast - especially useful for photographers and anyone with big local storage collections.

What it does

- Exact duplicate detection using incremental hashing so it doesn’t have to fully load huge files.

- Perceptual image matching finds similar images even if they’re resized or lightly edited (not just byte-for-byte duplicates).

- Native macOS integration with a Finder right-click scan.

Why I built it: My brother kept running out of space because of tons of photos, and every existing tool I tried either missed similar images or was slow and clunky - so I spent a couple of weekends building something that felt fast, accurate, and native.

Business side

- Free trial (no CC required).

- Paid tiers: ~$5.99/yr or ~$16.99 lifetime.

Got positive feedback and 100+ paying users shortly after launch. Been growing steadily ever since.

Link: https://maheepk.net/projects/dedupx/

(We'll get back into 3d printing once life slows down a _little_ bit again)

I started it primarily wanting to take a shot at productizing an image diffusion model (Stable Diffusion 1.5 when I started) in a novel (at the time) way and it ended up growing legs of it's own.

She's steadily chugging along, growing about 10-20% per month with minimal marketing, exceeding all expectations I had for the project when I set out

The base product is open-source and I make money from custom builds, additional plugins, paid support, and the occasional extra feature for companies with specific needs. It's a bit more than noodle profitable but quite under a normal salary.

[1] https://github.com/mickael-kerjean/filestash

I started making a daily logic puzzle called Clues by Sam in May and it's been stadily growing since. The number one thing people were asking for was more puzzles, so I started selling puzzle packs instead of monetizing with ads. The reception has been great, and the revenue has been enough for me to decline some consulting gigs and instead focus on improving the game.

Mainly used in organizations with developers who want to deploy to a corporate Kubernetes environment, but don’t want to deal with the complexities.

It’s fully open source so we’re covered by sponsors, the largest being Portainer $5k+ / m from sponsorships.

Makes it possible to keep the cloud offering totally free.

https://stationdisplay.com/

It started as just an uptime checker for websites, eventually I added support for APIs and cron jobs, and automated status pages (you may have seen this one yesterday: https://hackernews.onlineornot.com/)

I started it in 2021, I give it two hours a day before work every workday, and I cut scope on most features to ensure they're shippable in two hours. Then I iterate. It works because it's default-alive. I keep a full time job to be able to build it exactly how I want.

Like my React blog, I started it knowing thousands of others were doing the same thing. I made a bet that my unique perspective would be useful to others, and it paid off.

Has been above $500/mo since 2022, growing steadily since (still a few years away from being able to replace my salary).

Recently crossed the $500/month mark after a painful pivot from HR tech earlier this year. The whole thing started because I did ISO 27001 back in 2019 and was completely lost - overpaid for consultants, got lost with policies and controls, figured it out the hard way.

Passed SOC 2 Type I earlier this year using only Humadroid (yes, dogfooding a compliance tool through an actual audit was... an experience).

Currently finishing automated evidence collection (AWS and GitHub integrations first). Pretty proud of that one - compliance shouldn't mean "panic-screenshot everything before audit."

https://www.escape-team.com

It‘s making about $700 on iOS and $300 on Android, solely from $2.99 IAPs for the later missions in the game (the first 2 missions are free).

I think a main reason for this is that escape rooms (and games) don’t „saturate“: you play them only once, because then you know the solutions. So another escape room (place, game, app) doesn’t cannibalize the market - it may rather strengthen the others by fostering it as a group activity.

I also put 0$ into ads- it solely spreads itself by being a group activity (3-5 people are best) and through its mission editor (people can make their own missions, used in school and for birthdays etc).

Curious to see where it goes next!

Free for athletes, but I license the underlying "coach" logic to actual, human coaches.

I’m a physician with some 1099 income, built the platform myself because my kids help with my side projects, and have since onboarded CPAs who now offer it to their clients. I saved 5k this year on my own taxes by employing my kids and it has funded their Roth.

Soon after launching, I crossed the $500/month mark.

Link:https://trypixie.com

2023 → https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38467691

2022 → https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34190421

2021 → https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29667095

2020 → https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24947167

2019 → https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20899863

2018 → https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17790306

2017 → https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15148804

Since then, I continue to maintain the website and I have around 50k lists, 8k users, and around 400€ MRR (ads and subscriptions).

I'd love to see more users, but I'm glad of what I did with multy !

If you want to check: https://multy.me

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/standly-standing-desk-timer/id...

I'm actively working on a successor that allows you to create your own custom workout programs using formulas: https://vis.fitness

https://troviamo.app

I help businesses automate their admin work if they already use Google Workspace products using App Script and Typescript.

https://mereth.dev/

It's been a good journey. Thank you so much to whoever keeps running this thread!

Still in MVP mode - but it already made some sales.

What's different about it from similar solutions is the way you can get data from an Excel file (most other companies have the JSON and CSV figured out).

It supports Excel style addressing so it's pretty flexible on how you reach for the data inside a PowerPoint template (access every sheet, every cell, named range or table to use it in merging process).

People use it for various kinds of use-cases - creating certificates, automating pricing offers, delivering employee feedback forms, preparing market research presentations and even subtitles for a theatrical play.

    year,id
    2025,46307973
    2024,42373343
    2023,38467691
    2022,34190421
    2021,29667095
    2020,24947167
    2019,20899863
    2018,17790306
    2017,15148804

    year,delta
    2025,3.9M
    2024,3.9M
    2023,4.2M
    2022,4.5M
    2021,4.7M
    2020,4.0M
    2019,3.1M
    2018,2.6M

There’s also a bot option, for self-conducted interviews, mostly used for open applications for some pre-filtering.

We are still unsure on how to enter such market, so we are doing direct networking atm, if you guys have an idea on how you’d do it or want a free trial of the product we’d love having a chat with you about it.

https://lgug2z.com/software/komorebi

https://www.percento.app

I was an accountant for 3 years before I switched my career to be a programmer, then I kept coding for 10+ years in big tech companies and had always wanted to build a product on my own. Eventually, I found the niche to combine my finance knowledge and my iOS skills into this App and happily building for a few years.

This version will hopefully provide a bot free / pump free replacement for iHub, StockTwits, Twitter, etc. to people who manage money professionally or otherwise.

Assuming I get more free time to finish it that is.

Version 2 is live here.

www.gravityanalytica.com

The two products Chat and Horizon both make more than $500/month individually.

This is a just side project. I run a family office.

For those of you who are in your 20s keep it up. In your 40s getting free time can be a real challenge.

Oh, making or losing $500/month?

Never mind.

It supports SF Symbols, Material Symbols, and a bunch of open source styles, but I’m adding the ability to make a private custom style target.

Sportsbook API (https://sportsbookapi.com/) - A single API to get odds data from a number of US Sportsbooks

Odds Assist Pro (http://pro.oddsassist.com/) - An odds scanner tool that shows both current odds and things like arbitrage, plus ev, middles. This actually started as just a UI for me to quickly do sanity checks on the API data and eventually grew into a full site. The site is on a subdomain of a site my business partner had built long before we met, so it's kind of positioned as the plus version of that site.

API revenue is really stable and has been pretty consistent slow growth. Pro's revenue is all over the place since it's almost all referrals and promos with big spikes around major sporting events. Probably averages at least $500/mo if you look at the entire year.

I love to be able to focus on the design and not the practicalities of selling a hardware product!

https://minichord.com/

TheMapsGuy.com

Everything I do is free for everyone but for the past few years I’ve been running an entirely optional membership program that starts at $1/month.

I’m (probably naively) a big believer in kindness and I keep refusing to monetize what I do in any other way.

CoPlay is a platform for managing fleets of gaming consoles, users and subscriptions for pediatric hospitals. Think of it as an mdm for Xbox devices/users that does managed subscriptions

https://coplay.io/

All I wanted was to build a good product which our users feel like using. Help them with exceptional customer service and build a team and a company worth waking up to.

https://aieasypic.com - 3k per month (declining cause not working on it a lot, just maintenance) https://bestphoto.ai - 2k per month (increasing cause of better SEO)

Now trying my hand at an actual non-consumer product, not that b2b but something to make making ads easy because that’s where I find myself getting stuck on when doing fb ads or TikTok organic stuff : https://admakeai.com

https://zine.baby

The goal is to make physical books. It's still early days, but fun to see what people are creating.

Revenue from courses, apps, community, books...

Still not able to pay myself anything though

This is mostly because of the posts gaining high engagement and people signing up and subscribing. Many also migrating from other apps.

Expecting the revenue to go down next month

https://onlyrecipeapp.com

Basically it’s a code review UI on GitHub for ex-Googlers who miss Critique.

TL;DR? It's a grind, an absolute grind.

https://www.findboxes.co

See norma.grouplabs.ca

Initially it was running on donations, but with model costs rising we had to add a paywall. I have a full time job but it's still fun to run this on the side by spending few hours on it over the weekends!

If you sold $500p/m and had costs of zero, then you made $500.

If you sold $500p/m and had costs of $450 p/m then you made $50p/m

I know the saas people have high margins, but some of the commenters clearly have a much lower margin

AI assistant in your iMessage group chats https://olly.bot

My first successful SaaS, The Wheel Screener, a screener optimized for selling options: https://wheelscreener.com

A sister spin-off LEAPS Screener, for buying LEAPS options: https://leapsscreener.com

And, just launched in November, but already profitable, VannaCharm, a dashboard to view and watch in real time dealer hedging metrics: https://vannacharm.com

Looking to launch 1-2 more SaaS in 2026, trying to get to the point where I can do this full-time, let's get it folks!

More than $500/month. It currently sustains my full-time focus

https://reader.manabi.io

I quit my job a couple years back to work on this app full-time, as well as its companion flashcard app, Manabi Flashcards. The goal is to help you learn through immersion and eventually replace some of your flashcard reviews time with reading (once I finish auto-reviews for flashcards)

What's special about it? Manabi Reader became popular as an Japanese-focused alternative to services like LingQ in that it locally tracks and analyzes all the words and kanji you read and study. It shows you which words are new and which you're currently learning via flashcards, so you can easily find content that suits your level and see what flashcards to prioritize adding.

It also passively accumulates an on-device (and in your personal iCloud) corpus of example sentences from your reading. It’s also one of few ways to mine sentences including pitch accent directly into Anki on iPhone.

I had built this part-time while working over many years (starting with flashcards and then the reader app) but going full-time gave me the time to do a full rewrite: SwiftUI, native iOS + macOS, and an offline-first architecture that syncs with iCloud and my server in the background.

Although it has a companion SRS algorithm (FSRS) flashcard app, it's also excellent for mining Anki cards. This works with AnkiMobile on iOS and AnkiConnect on desktop.

You can use it like a web browser for the web, or subscribe to RSS feeds. It comes with a bunch of curated content by level. Recently I added EPUB support, pitch accents, and note-taking with todos.

I'm now almost done adding a manga mode via Mokuro, and Netflix/streaming video support via realtime captioning of audio streams.

To scale this with UGC/influencer market I need to make it more beginner friendly. Currently it assumes you can read kana at least.