Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2025

Posted by cvbox 12/18/2025

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

It's the time of the year again, so I'd be interested hear what new (and old) ideas have come up. Previously asked on:

2024 → https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42373343

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

485 points | 560 commentspage 12

garnett 12/21/2025|

Appreciate that we go meta here and it has been done many times before - for my own research and record-keeping I've made a catalog out of these https://dlebedev.com/500-bucks-a-month-idea/

nsim 12/19/2025||

For projects of this size, what legal/financial structure do you use? Particularly of interest for what Australians do, but any stories would be good.

When I've looked, a sole trader with liability and cyber insurance seemed reasonable (maybe $2k/yr), but a Pty ltd with the same would probably be safer ($5k/yr).

It all comes down to what the risk of being sued is though. I'm sure selling games wouldn't require this.

flet 12/18/2025||

Hey! Late to the party, but a friend and I have been plugging away at CineQuote https://cinequote.net a daily movie quote guessing game that uses audio quotes.

We've been running the web site for a few years now (just past 1000 daily games!) and we just launched iOS and Android apps in the last couple months! Its been quite a learning experience for sure!

akudha 12/18/2025|

This is fun! Where do you get the audio from?

flet 12/18/2025||

Thanks!

We handcraft each game my pulling audio quotes from different media available on the internet and also from the original sources. We also have a workflow to pull clips from clip.cafe via their API (with a workflow process to extract the audio only and generate subtitles and other cool stuff) but we usually still trim and normalize those by hand too.

habosa 12/18/2025||

https://codeapprove.com

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

podlp 12/18/2025||

I run a podcast app for flip phones called PodLP. Revenue hasn’t always been $500/month, but averaged over the past 5 years it’s been over $500. It’s been primarily from sponsorships (podcasts get featured on the homepage to get more listeners), although next year looks more uncertain so I’m looking at other avenues.

https://podlp.com

Theoleff 12/18/2025||

I wrote a book about modern HTML & CSS to create website with as little javascript as possible. I made almost 5k$ the first month, now I do 300-500$/month with it. Here’s the link: https://theosoti.com/you-dont-need-js/

breakingstuff 12/18/2025||

Started Find Boxes in 2024, it's a project and inventory management tool for audio visual companies. Took longer than expected to get the first customers, but I'm a bit above $300 a month now. I hope to cross the $500 a month mark sometime next year.

https://www.findboxes.co

nefrix 12/18/2025|

This app looks really cool. Did you developed also an ios app for it? It would be much easier to do all the task in an app.

decide1000 12/18/2025||

I am the co-creator of ShoppingScraper. Convert an EAN / GTIN to pricing information, product specs, content or image. API-based and rapid with pricing and barcode data.

The website needs some love, but the webapp is going well.

https://shoppingscraper.com/features

AwkwardPanda 12/18/2025|

Just over $500 in subscriptions right now since posting on HackerNews and Reddit.

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

nefrix 12/18/2025|

Cool app but i feel 35$/year is a cost that is not justified for me, specially that i can extract the ingredients and the steps of any recipe from a video recipe in chatgpt, and then save it in notes.

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