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

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41–50 of 109 posts

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

#41
post #29

Two weeks ago, I released the tactical map-based WW2 submarine sim Silent Shark (which I got feedback on from HN for beta test a few months ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48180924 ) and it's gone extremely well for a side project - I've had over 100 Steam reviews, 99% of them are positive, and I have sold a few thousand copies so far. I began working on this game just 6 months ago and have only worked on it…

Do sharks normally make sounds?

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

#42
Pretty basic ones, I got into AI images cause of that viral AI avatars thing that levelsio made 2-3 years back and have just been iterating on that idea(even though I think if I went into the AI text side of things, I'd have been much bigger at this point):

https://admakeai.com - Recently got this to 800 MRR , kinda trying to make it the main thing since the LTV on it is the highest. So if I could just figure out ads, this has the highest potential

https://aieasypic.com - First project that I made that made money from subs vs making money from ads, whole reason I continued to indiehack. Its kinda dying but core users still bring in 3-4k/mo , altho actual MRR is 1k/mo

https://bestphoto.ai - Made this after I got frustrated from the bad decisions I made on above, basically a tech rewrite + clone + simplification of aieasypic. Currently makes the most but at a lower margin than aieasypic. Not gonna say exact numbers, but lets say 5k+/mo

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

#43
post #16

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.

Precisely what has effectively killed off the "building in public" trend that was all the rage just a two years ago.

It's been like this a long time. Kickstarter was just a platform to test product viability and public response for the big guys.

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

#45
I run Akariq [0] which sells travel eSIMs in 190+ countries and regions in the world. It does not require an app or account. Customers like it for ease of use. Many HN users have bought eSIMs including countries like China, Japan, Australia and USA. I have overall received positive feedback.

Recently, I have a few Digital Nomads in Europe switching over from Nomad to me due to very good pricing [1]. A lot of customers have also come over from Airalo due to customer service. For example, recently major eSIM providers had a huge incident and left customers stranded for Internet. Akariq had backup resources and replacement eSIMs during those upstream telecom providers issues. I even wrote an Incident Report here [2].

Customer satisfaction remains my highest priority these days.

[0] https://akariq.com/en/

[1] https://akariq.com/en/esim/region/europe-31-areas/

[2] https://akariq.com/en/blog/akariq-backup-esim-service-interr...

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

#46
post #32

I've grossed 17,531.33 so far this calendar year. You know those cold emails you get sometimes where they want you to get contract jobs and them do the work? I've been doing that for 18 months now and I average roughly 2 hours/week throughout the year. There are some weeks where I'm doing almost no work at all, but then there are some weeks where I'm interviewing daily and maybe have a video call with a client. I've…

Do your contracts allow sub-contracting the work? Most of mine do, so there is nothing unethical about that kind of setup. Unless you are lying about it. But openly sub-contracting work, as long as you maintain accountability for it, is completely fair game.

Fraudulently doing so probably opens you up to a decent amount of legal risk.

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

#47
post #22

I had an idea in 2008 to make a website that emailed your friends when you die. I built https://www.deadmansswitch.net/ in a weekend, and it's been making money since. Around $1k/mo now.

I've wondered about this before, not just telling people, but what about my code projects etc... Something like "make all my github repo's public when I die" (assuming anyone would care about them).

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

#48

Pretty basic ones, I got into AI images cause of that viral AI avatars thing that levelsio made 2-3 years back and have just been iterating on that idea(even though I think if I went into the AI text side of things, I'd have been much bigger at this point): https://admakeai.com - Recently got this to 800 MRR , kinda trying to make it the main thing since the LTV on it is the highest. So if I could just figure out ads…

Also honestly if you have a thing that works, I'd say don't even share it. Its too easy to build a clone and start copying, which ofc was also possible a few years back but then it took actual effort and someone had to maintain it.

The only reason I'm sharing these is cause AI image generators are already like thousands in the market, so I mean if someone wants to go through the hell, I don't think its really that easy a market to succeed in anyways.

And here's my list of things that didn't work out: https://mesmer.tools/

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

#49
https://uruky.com has over 250 monthly active accounts (that's over €1k / month revenue). No subscription, no AI products/features. Just ad-free private search that you can tweak to your liking. There's a FAQ for most questions you'll have.

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

#50

https://volt.fm It started as a side project in 2001, but now it’s my main business. Here's my own profile if anyone's interested: https://volt.fm/soheilpro

Who are your clients?

Music nerds :)
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