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

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

#31

Post by devornotdev » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 4:55 AM UTC

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

#32

Post by dSebastien » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 4:56 AM UTC

Around 3K/m with my side projects: https://tools.dsebastien.net

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

Still not able to pay myself anything though

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

#33

Post by anotherhue » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 4:56 AM UTC

crobertsbmw wrote: post #19

I’m still selling Computer Engineering for Babies. And I just launched a new book called Simple Machines Made Simple on Kickstarter a month or two ago. Both books are basically just simple interactive demos for kids and adults. https://hackylabs.com

Literally the first book I bought for my hellspawn. We had fun working out the mechanisms.

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

#34

Post by 1-more » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 4:57 AM UTC

crobertsbmw wrote: post #19

I’m still selling Computer Engineering for Babies. And I just launched a new book called Simple Machines Made Simple on Kickstarter a month or two ago. Both books are basically just simple interactive demos for kids and adults. https://hackylabs.com

Bought probably 6 copies between the first and second. Love this book! First gets stuck in NOT mode sometimes but it’s chill.

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

#35

Post by upmostly » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 4:58 AM UTC

https://dbpro.app

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.

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

#36

Post by tyrust » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 4:58 AM UTC

crobertsbmw wrote: post #19

I’m still selling Computer Engineering for Babies. And I just launched a new book called Simple Machines Made Simple on Kickstarter a month or two ago. Both books are basically just simple interactive demos for kids and adults. https://hackylabs.com

My kid got a copy of your first book as a gift a couple years ago. It's really fun to have on the shelf. The buttons are so satisfyingly clicky. Thanks!

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

#37

Post by and-not-drew » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 5:00 AM UTC

I've got 2 that are kind of intermingled. Each averages a little over $500/mo on their own though.

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.

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

#38

Post by crobertsbmw » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 5:00 AM UTC

tyrust wrote: post #36

crobertsbmw wrote: post #19

I’m still selling Computer Engineering for Babies. And I just launched a new book called Simple Machines Made Simple on Kickstarter a month or two ago. Both books are basically just simple interactive demos for kids and adults. https://hackylabs.com

My kid got a copy of your first book as a gift a couple years ago. It's really fun to have on the shelf. The buttons are so satisfyingly clicky. Thanks!

Thanks for buying it!!

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

#39

Post by chirau » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 5:00 AM UTC

parttimelarry wrote: post #17

Been doing a YouTube channel on Python for Finance for quite a while and make some affiliate revenue: https://youtube.com/@parttimelarry

Oh, it's you! One of my favorite channels on YouTube. Learnt Alpaca and TA-Liband backtesting from you and also built my screener with your vids. Awesome content always. I am looking to go through the IB ones soon.

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

#40

Post by crobertsbmw » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 5:02 AM UTC

1-more wrote: post #34

crobertsbmw wrote: post #19

I’m still selling Computer Engineering for Babies. And I just launched a new book called Simple Machines Made Simple on Kickstarter a month or two ago. Both books are basically just simple interactive demos for kids and adults. https://hackylabs.com

Bought probably 6 copies between the first and second. Love this book! First gets stuck in NOT mode sometimes but it’s chill.

Yeah, I’ve improved it a lot, but a lot of the books from the run I did 18 months ago get confused on the cover page thinking it’s open to the NOT page.