Ask HN: Those making $1,000+/month on side projects, what did you make?
As it's a new year 2016, let's re-open this topic to see how things are going on this front :) It can be a SaaS app, a mobile app, or any side project that is netting you recurring revenue
An open Ask HN community consultation from 2016 where @parisian 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 25 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 3 comments
I made a service called Amazing Airfare (http://www.amazingairfare.net ↗). I'd email and text people curated, ridiculous deals on airfare (50% off or more intentional flights from USA/Canada).
I wrote a good medium post (https://medium.com/@zacharycohn/on-mvps-glueing-things-together-and-270-flights-to-south-africa-721d7208fb16#.icv7eu50a ↗) about the process of building it.
I grew it to a couple hundred paying subscribers ($8/m) (which was about 93% profit), then sold it to an acquaintance when some life situations changed. I get paid out an amount per month according to our agreement.
From 21 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12145137 ↗
https://browshot.com ↗ A screenshot service