Ask HN: What is your most profitable side project?
An open Ask HN community consultation from 2015 where @laksmanv 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.
CATEGORY Ask HN Roundtables →
HISTORICAL ERA Cloud & Mobile Era (2014–2019)
COMMUNITY SCORE ★ 59 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 25 comments
Does this question only cover products? I was doing side work for two companies, and I quit my job of 8 1/2 years to go full-time independent, doing automation and sysadmin stuff for them, have a couple more customers coming on too. Gave myself a HUGE increase _after_ taxes and insurance.
To clarify, I have signed contracts that are committing to certain lengths of time. It's not something that I would have quit my day job for, without a significant part of the risks mitigated.
Mine is http://www.watermark-image.com a windows downloadable watermarker - oldschool but still making more than $1000 a month :)
I am using the income to help fund my new project http://timeblock.com a resource/time management and project overview system that is made with a makers schedule in mind!
Mine is http://www.boxo.coffee - monthly coffee exploration.
Started this while living in Hong Kong as a way to bring in coffee from the popular roasters in the USA, and expanded to the states within 8 months. Good times so far, and it's still a side project. Used the profits from the HK side of the business to launch USA side.
For me this is https://www.LinksSpy.com - a CRM for getting white-hat inbound links.
I started it in April 2014 and it's making about $1,000/month. Haven't invested time into it (busy day job) in the past 2-3 months. I've got a bunch of ideas how to grow it, but time is a serious constraint
My most enjoyable is williseeashark.com and the point hasn't been profit as it's really a passion project. It looks at shark behavior along the California coast by compiling data from scientists, social media and fishing/whale watching boats. I have quite a bit planned for it in the future.