Developer Side Projects That Actually Make Money

Every developer I know has built something on the side. A little tool to scratch their own itch. An app they thought would be cool. A weekend hack that never saw the light of day. Most of these projects sit on GitHub collecting digital dust, starred once by a curious friend and then forgotten.

But here's what separates developers who build side income from developers who just build side projects: they pick the right kind of project from the start.

I'm not talking about building the next Facebook or getting venture capital. I'm talking about projects that can realistically generate $500 to $5,000 a month in relatively passive income. That's rent money. That's freedom money. That's "I can take risks in my career because I have a safety net" money.

The good news is that 2026 is genuinely the best time to be a developer looking for side income. The tools are better, the distribution channels are more accessible, and there are more people willing to pay for solutions than ever before. The bad news is that most developers still approach this wrong. They build what they find interesting instead of what people will pay for.

Let's fix that.

The Micro-SaaS Opportunity

Micro-SaaS has become the gold standard for developer side income, and for good reason. You build something once, charge a monthly subscription, and the revenue compounds over time. Unlike freelancing, where you're trading hours for dollars, SaaS products can generate income while you sleep.

The key word here is "micro." You're not trying to build Salesforce. You're trying to solve one specific problem for a well-defined group of people. The more narrow and focused, the better.

Think about it this way: a tool that does one thing really well for Shopify store owners selling vintage clothing is going to make more money than a generic "business dashboard" for everyone. Why? Because those vintage clothing sellers will find you when they search for their specific problem. And they'll pay premium prices because you understand their world.

Some Micro-SaaS niches that are working right now include tools for content creators (thumbnail generators, analytics dashboards, scheduling assistants), small business automation (invoice processing, appointment booking), and developer tools themselves. Yes, developers will pay other developers for tools that save them time. We're not above that, and we shouldn't be.

The pricing sweet spot for Micro-SaaS tends to be $19-49 per month for individuals and $99-299 per month for businesses. At those price points, your customers don't need to get approval from anyone. They can just swipe their card and solve their problem.

Getting to $3,000 per month in recurring revenue means landing 100 customers at $29/month. That's not millions of users. That's a very achievable number for a focused product that solves a real pain point.

Look at Pieter Levels. He's probably the most famous solo developer in the world right now, and he built Nomad List and RemoteOK by himself. Nomad List pulls in over $200K per year. RemoteOK generates millions. He didn't raise money. He didn't hire a team of 50 engineers. He identified problems that digital nomads and remote workers faced, built focused tools to solve them, and iterated based on real user feedback. That's the Micro-SaaS playbook in action.

Validate Before You Build

Here's the single biggest mistake developer side projects make: building something nobody asked for. It feels productive to write code. It feels like progress. But if you spend three months building an app that zero people want to pay for, that's not progress. That's an expensive hobby.

Validation doesn't need to be complicated. Before you write any code, do three things. First, search for competitors. If nobody else is solving this problem, that's usually a bad sign, not a good one. It often means there's no market. Second, talk to potential customers. Not your friends. Not other developers. Actual people who have the problem you want to solve. Ask them what they currently do about it and how much that costs them in time or money. Third, pre-sell it. Put up a landing page describing what you plan to build and see if anyone signs up for a waitlist or, even better, pays a deposit.

The Indie Hackers community is full of cautionary tales from developers who skipped validation. They built for six months, launched to crickets, and gave up. Meanwhile, the developers who spent two weeks validating before building often found that their original idea was wrong, but the conversations led them to a better idea that people actually wanted to pay for.

Browser Extensions: The Overlooked Money Maker

Chrome extensions are criminally underrated as a side income vehicle. They're relatively easy to build, have built-in distribution through the Chrome Web Store, and users are increasingly comfortable paying for them.

One developer I follow built a simple extension that modifies how LinkedIn displays search results. Nothing fancy, just a quality-of-life improvement for recruiters and salespeople who live in LinkedIn all day. That extension generates over $8,000 per month in subscription revenue. The core functionality took a weekend to build.

The extension market has matured significantly. Users now expect to pay for quality tools, and the freemium model works well here. Offer basic functionality for free to get users hooked, then charge for premium features that power users can't live without.

Good extension niches include productivity boosters for specific platforms (Notion, Airtable, Linear), privacy and security tools, content enhancement (better YouTube controls, Twitter improvements), and professional tools for specific job functions. If you spend time in any web app and find yourself thinking "I wish this did X," there's probably an extension opportunity there.

Distribution is the hidden advantage of extensions. When someone searches the Chrome Web Store for "better Gmail labels" and your extension shows up, that's a warm lead. They already have the problem and they're actively looking for a solution. Compare that to launching a standalone SaaS where you have to drive all your own traffic.

Templates and Starter Kits

Developers love to build from scratch. We take pride in our custom solutions. And that's exactly why selling templates is such a good business, because deep down, we also hate reinventing the wheel when we're on a deadline.

The template market has exploded. Tailwind CSS templates, Next.js starter kits, Astro themes, Framer components, Notion templates, Figma UI kits. If there's a popular tool, there's a market for pre-built solutions in that ecosystem.

What makes a template sell? First, it needs to look professional. Screenshots and demos matter more than you think. Second, it needs to solve a specific use case. "Admin Dashboard Template" is okay. "SaaS Admin Dashboard with Stripe Integration and User Management" is better. Third, it needs good documentation. Developers will pay premium prices for templates that don't require reverse-engineering.

Marketplaces like Gumroad, Lemonsqueezy, and Envato make distribution relatively simple. You can also sell directly through your own site if you've built an audience. The nice thing about templates is that you can sell the same product unlimited times. There's no marginal cost per sale.

I've seen developers earn $500 to $5,000 per month from a single well-designed template. The key is picking a niche where people are actively building and willing to pay for shortcuts. Landing pages, portfolio sites, and dashboards tend to do well because those are projects with tight deadlines where appearance matters.

AI-Powered Tools and Wrappers

Look, I know "just add AI" sounds like parody advice at this point. But the reality is that wrapping AI capabilities in purpose-built interfaces is a genuine opportunity right now.

The raw APIs from OpenAI, Anthropic, and others are powerful but not user-friendly for non-developers. There's a real market for tools that take these capabilities and make them accessible for specific use cases. A lawyer doesn't want to learn prompt engineering. They want a tool that helps them draft contracts. A real estate agent doesn't care about temperature settings and context windows. They want something that writes property descriptions.

The technical moat here isn't the AI itself. It's the user experience, the prompts you've refined, the integrations with other tools your users need, and your understanding of their workflow. Anyone can call the ChatGPT API. Not everyone can build a tool that real estate agents actually want to use.

Some AI wrapper categories that are working include writing assistants for specific industries, code review and documentation tools, image generation with specialized styles, and automation tools that combine AI with existing workflows. The margin on these tools can be excellent because the AI costs are relatively low compared to what users will pay for a polished solution.

One word of caution: the AI tool space moves fast. What seems innovative today might be a commodity feature tomorrow. Build around specific user needs rather than specific AI capabilities, and you'll be more resilient as the underlying technology evolves.

Digital Products Beyond Code

Your coding skills translate into non-code products too. Educational content, in particular, is a massive opportunity for developers.

Technical courses sell well because developers are perpetually learning, and good instruction is genuinely valuable. You don't need to teach advanced computer science. Some of the best-selling developer courses cover practical, boring topics: Git workflows, debugging techniques, how to read documentation effectively, setting up development environments.

The course creation playbook has evolved. You can start with a low-cost cohort-based course to validate demand and refine your content, then convert it to a self-paced product that sells 24/7. Platforms like Teachable, Podia, and even Gumroad make the logistics straightforward.

Ebooks and written guides are another option. They're faster to produce than video courses and some learners genuinely prefer them. A well-written guide on a specific technical topic like "Production-Ready Docker Deployments" or "The Complete Guide to API Rate Limiting" can generate steady income for years.

The advantage of digital education is that your reputation compounds. One successful course establishes you as an authority, which makes your next course easier to sell. It also opens doors for consulting, speaking, and other opportunities that wouldn't exist otherwise.

Building in Public: Your Secret Distribution Channel

"Building in public" means sharing your process as you create your product. Tweeting your progress. Posting revenue screenshots. Writing about what's working and what isn't. It sounds uncomfortable, and it is at first. But it's one of the most effective marketing strategies for solo developers, especially developers who hate the idea of marketing.

Why does it work? Because people love following a story. When you share that you just got your first paying customer, or that you hit $1,000 MRR, or that your launch flopped and here's what you learned, people root for you. They remember you. And when they need a tool like yours, or when someone asks for a recommendation, your name comes up.

Pieter Levels is a master at this. So is Jon Yongfook, who built Bannerbear (an image generation API) to $20K+ MRR while sharing every milestone on Twitter. Marc Lou has documented building and launching over a dozen products, sharing his revenue numbers openly. These developers aren't just building products. They're building audiences. And an audience is a distribution channel that you own, one that no algorithm change can take away from you.

You don't need a massive following to start. Even 500 engaged followers on Twitter who care about your niche are worth more than 50,000 passive followers. Post consistently, be honest about your numbers, and help people along the way. The audience builds itself over time. Combine that with a well-timed Product Hunt launch, some SEO-optimized blog posts explaining the problem your tool solves, and a presence in the communities where your target users hang out, and you've got a marketing engine that costs nothing but your time.

Pricing Psychology for Developer Products

Most developers underprice their products. Badly. They think, "Well, I could build this myself in a weekend, so it's not worth much." But your customers aren't you. They don't want to build it. They want to buy it and move on with their lives.

Price based on the value your product provides, not the time it took you to build it. If your SaaS tool saves a freelancer 5 hours per month and they bill at $100/hour, you're saving them $500 in time. Charging $29/month for that is a steal. They'll happily pay it.

A few pricing principles that work well for developer products: always offer annual billing at a discount because it improves your cash flow and reduces churn. Use three pricing tiers where the middle one is the option you want most people to pick. Don't be afraid of round numbers. The difference between $19 and $29 per month feels small to buyers but adds up to $120 per year per customer in your pocket.

One more thing about pricing. You can always lower your price later. You can almost never raise it without losing customers. Start higher than feels comfortable. You'll be surprised how many people pay without blinking.

Real Revenue Numbers from Real Developers

Skeptical about whether this actually works? Fair. Let me give you some concrete numbers from public revenue data and the Indie Hackers community. Danny Postma built Headlime, an AI copywriting tool, as a solo developer and sold it for $1.4 million. Damon Chen bootstrapped Testimonial.to, a video testimonial collection tool, to over $20K MRR by himself. AJ, the creator of Carrd, a simple landing page builder, makes over $1 million per year from a product that took weeks to build its initial version. These aren't fairy tales. These are real people with public revenue numbers.

At the smaller scale, hundreds of developers on Indie Hackers report earning $1,000 to $5,000 per month from side projects. That's not "quit your job" money for everyone, but it's "pay your mortgage" money. It's "negotiate from a position of strength at your next salary review" money. It's "take six months off between jobs without panic" money. The point isn't to become a millionaire overnight. The point is to build financial options that most developers never create for themselves.

How to Actually Get Started

Reading about side projects is easy. Starting one is where most developers stall. Let me give you a practical roadmap.

First, pick a category from above based on your skills and interests. If you love building polished UIs, templates might be your path. If you're more backend-focused, Micro-SaaS or AI tools might be better fits. Don't overthink this. You can always pivot later.

Second, validate before you build. This is the step that separates projects that make money from projects that don't. Before writing a single line of code, find 5-10 people who match your target customer and ask them about the problem you want to solve. Are they actually experiencing it? Have they tried to solve it? Would they pay for a solution? If you can't find people who are excited about your idea, that's a signal to pick a different problem.

Third, start embarrassingly small. Your first version should make you slightly uncomfortable with how basic it is. A Micro-SaaS doesn't need user accounts and a payment system to validate demand. A template doesn't need every possible variation. An extension can start with one core feature. Ship something, get feedback, iterate.

Fourth, treat marketing as a feature. Many developers build great products and then wonder why nobody finds them. Marketing isn't sleazy. It's how people discover things that can help them. Write about what you're building. Share progress on Twitter or LinkedIn. Answer questions in communities where your target users hang out. The time you spend on marketing should roughly match the time you spend building.

Finally, set realistic timelines. Most successful side projects take 6-12 months to gain meaningful traction. If you're expecting $5,000 per month after your first month, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. Consistency beats intensity. An hour a day for a year beats a weekend sprint followed by abandonment.

The Time Management Reality

Let's be honest about the hardest part: finding time. You work a full-time job. Maybe you have a family. You're tired after work. The last thing you want to do is sit down at a computer and code more.

I won't sugarcoat this. Building a side project while employed full-time is hard. But it's not impossible if you're strategic about it. The key is consistency over intensity. You don't need four-hour coding sessions every night. You need 45 minutes to an hour, four or five days a week. That's roughly 200 hours over a year. You can build a real product in 200 hours.

Protect your mornings or your evenings, whichever time your brain works best. Block it on your calendar like a meeting. Tell your partner what you're doing and why. Treat it like a second job, because that's exactly what it is during the building phase. And give yourself permission to skip days when life gets crazy. Missing Monday doesn't mean quitting. It means you pick it back up on Tuesday.

Legal Stuff You Can't Ignore

Before you get too excited, check your employment contract. Seriously. Many tech companies include intellectual property clauses that claim ownership of anything you build, even outside of work hours, if it's related to the company's business. Some contracts are broader than that.

Read your contract carefully. If the IP clause is aggressive, talk to your manager or HR about getting a written exception for your side project. Most companies will grant this if your project doesn't compete with their product. If they won't, consult an employment lawyer before you build anything. Getting sued by your employer is not the kind of excitement you want.

Once you're earning real money, form an LLC. It costs between $50 and $500 depending on your state, and it separates your personal assets from your business liability. Open a separate bank account for the business. Use Stripe or Lemon Squeezy for payments so you have clean records. Keep track of expenses because they're tax-deductible. You can host on Vercel or AWS for pennies during the early days. This isn't glamorous stuff, but it protects you and keeps the IRS off your back.

Why Most Side Projects Die

About 95% of developer side projects never make a dollar. That's not a made-up statistic to scare you. That's the reality based on years of watching developers try and fail. Understanding why most projects die can help you avoid the same fate.

The number one killer is quitting too early. Developers launch, get minimal traction in the first two weeks, and conclude that the idea doesn't work. But two weeks tells you almost nothing. Most successful products had slow, ugly starts. The second killer is building in isolation. If you're not talking to users regularly, you're guessing. Guessing is expensive. The third killer is scope creep. You add feature after feature instead of perfecting the core experience. Your product becomes a bloated mess that does ten things poorly instead of one thing well.

Then there's the tool trap. Developers love setting up the perfect tech stack, the CI/CD pipeline, the monitoring dashboard, the design system. None of that matters if you don't have customers. Ship ugly. Ship fast. Make it pretty after people are paying you. The developers who earn money from side projects are rarely the ones with the cleanest code. They're the ones who solved a problem and got their product in front of people who needed it.

The Mindset Shift That Makes This Work

Here's the uncomfortable truth: building side income requires thinking like a business owner, not just a developer.

As developers, we're trained to write elegant code, optimize performance, and handle edge cases. These skills matter, but they're not what makes a side project profitable. What matters is solving a problem that people will pay money to solve, and reaching those people consistently. That's where building a personal brand pays off.

This means caring about things that might feel "beneath" you. Pricing strategy. Customer support. Marketing copy. Competitive positioning. None of this requires you to become a full-time marketer or abandon your technical identity. It just requires accepting that building something people pay for is a different skill than building something technically impressive.

The developers I know who've built sustainable side income all made this mindset shift at some point. They stopped asking "What would be cool to build?" and started asking "What would people pay me to build?" The technical execution still matters. You're still a developer, after all. But it's in service of the business goal, not the other way around.

Your day job likely pays you for your coding skills. Your side projects can pay you for your problem-solving skills. Same brain, different application.

One more thing: you don't need permission to start. You don't need a co-founder. You don't need to quit your job. You don't need external validation. You just need to pick something, start building, and keep going when the initial enthusiasm fades. The developers making real money from side projects aren't necessarily smarter than you. They're the ones who started and didn't stop.

Your future self will thank you for beginning today.