Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 109 posts

Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell

#1

Post by kaladan »

There was another one of these a couple of months ago and it did not get any traction. Lets hope this one does better. I myself am at $0/mo from my side projects and am really hoping side projects still have a future.

So, those of you making $500/month or more on side projects in 2026, what are you doing these days?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39110194 (2024)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34482433 (2023)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29995152 (2022)

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

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

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell

#2

Post by unified101 »

The world is changed - given the low cost of reverse engineering and implementation, it would be product suicide to openly call out a money making product.

I don't expect too many actual >500$ moneymaking projects to be listed. Would love to be proven wrong.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell

#3

Post by AndrewSChapman »

unified101 wrote: post #2

The world is changed - given the low cost of reverse engineering and implementation, it would be product suicide to openly call out a money making product. I don't expect too many actual >500$ moneymaking projects to be listed. Would love to be proven wrong.

Thanks a bingo.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell

#5

Post by MindfulChipmunk »

unified101 wrote: post #2

The world is changed - given the low cost of reverse engineering and implementation, it would be product suicide to openly call out a money making product. I don't expect too many actual >500$ moneymaking projects to be listed. Would love to be proven wrong.

[dead]

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell

#8

Post by wccrawford »

unified101 wrote: post #2

The world is changed - given the low cost of reverse engineering and implementation, it would be product suicide to openly call out a money making product. I don't expect too many actual >500$ moneymaking projects to be listed. Would love to be proven wrong.

Yeah, the only time I see people talking about money-making side projects is when it's practically impossible to copy them. I can't see the advantage of bragging about a side project if the threat of losing marketshare for it is on the table.

My side project isn't software and doesn't make $500/mo, but I still just don't talk about it.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell

#9

Post by keraf »

jacob_rezi wrote: post #4

https://socialmediascheduler.ai/ Just crossed $1.45K/mo!

Doubt so, none of the links is working on the site. It doesn't inspire trust, wouldn't spend money, yet even create an account, on a site that has no privacy policy or terms of use.

Re: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell

#10

Post by mickael-kerjean »

I am working on making the Dropbox launch first comment a reality: https://github.com/mickael-kerjean/filestash It gives you the Dropbox experience on any storage you want inclusive of FTP but also let you access your Dropbox storage via FTP, SFTP, S3, ...
Post reply on HN