Ask HN: Any non-saas profitable side projects?
It seems most webapps these days are SAAS projects.
I'm curious, if you can share any small side-project you've worked on that has turned profitable (eg. makes at least 50$/month or so) and is not a SAAS app.
An open Ask HN community consultation from 2011 where @idleworx convened hundreds of developers and bootstrappers to share real experiences, hard numbers, and tactics.
Core Principles for Independent Builders:
Participants share raw revenue figures, churn rates, and stack decisions that corporate PR never publishes.
Recurring answers reveal that distribution, not coding skill, is almost universally the rate-limiting step in developer businesses.
Practical recommendations on bookkeeping, payment gateways (Stripe vs Paddle), and freelance-to-product transitions.
Community Debate Themes:
Hundreds of active indie hackers contributed case studies, pricing heuristics, and pitfalls to avoid when moonlighting on side projects.
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HISTORICAL ERA Web 2.0 Genesis (2007–2013)
COMMUNITY SCORE ★ 13 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 1 comments
I sell revision notes from college students at http://www.oxbridgenotes.co.uk. One module, £25.
I started the project by selling my old law notes from Oxford law school online, and, after a lot of work, the project makes enough money to meet my basic needs.
I've just added a commission-based system so if anyone, particularly smart Hacker News types, has typed up notes from college (their own material, not lecture handouts), I'll share the profits with them.