11 Practical Ways to Bring Side Income as a Developer 💰

It’s always smart not to rely on just one source of income.

Bringing in side income might seem tough at first, but for developers, it’s surprisingly easier than you think.

This post briefly outlines 21 practical ways to build some side revenue as a developer.

This guide will help you build a sustainable income.

1. Solve open source bounties.

This is one of the most underrated ways and is often neglected.

If you're a decent coder, you can earn from $200 to $10k with a single pull request.

That's the power of open source bounties.

You can find those bounties on Opire. They are moving towards the vision that anyone can make a living from open source.

As a developer, you can also build credibility and showcase it in your portfolio because you're solving real-world problems people are willing to pay for.

Many reputed organizations like Cal.com use these bounties to speed up their projects.

Even the subscriptions that Opire launched recently are very profitable. Developers receive 100% of the rewards regardless. No tricks in that!

If you're confused about where to get started, I recommend reading the official docs.

By the way, Opire is completely open source so it builds more trust. You can star the repository and join the discord community to show support!

Star Opire ⭐️

2. Technical writing for guest posts.

A lot of companies accept guest writers to publish content on their blogs.

All you need is the ability to create content around their product and possibly with different tech stacks.

The work is remote with a high pay rate and you reach more people (grow your network and secure future work).

The main thing is to communicate technical concepts in a way that is understandable to different audiences.

If you're struggling to get accepted into any of these programs, start by writing your own posts and publishing them to popular platforms like here on DEV, Devdojo, Medium or Hackernoon. This will build up your writing skills and help you show your knowledge to potential companies.

One decent website is whopaystechnicalwriters where you will find content agencies, publications and community writer programs. You can filter based on your tech stack.

Some other companies that pay high for quality posts:

Airbyte - $900 per article.
CircleCI - $350 - $600 per article.
DigitalOcean - $400 per article.
Linode - $400 per article.
AppSignal - $300 per article.
Auth0 - $450 per article.
Correlium - $500 - $1500 per article.
LambdaTest - $200 per article.
Tutorialspoint - $500 per article.

A great list of 84 such websites was put together by Julia here on Devto.

3. Participate in Hackathons.

Yes, I know. There is no guaranteed payout in this case.

But in the worst case, you will have a decent project in your portfolio which can help you land better opportunities.

Coding competitions are happening remotely all the time. These are usually sponsored by companies that pay out cash prizes to the winners.

Some of the decent websites where you can find the best hackathons to participate in:

MLH Global Hackathons - The best place to find remote and in-person events.
Devpost - The prizes can get upto $170k.
Devto challenges - Mini hackathons on this platform that allow you to build in public.
Kaggle - For Data Science and Machine Learning competitions.
Devfolio - another great place to find hackathons. They also offer a program to connect talented developers with startups.
Unstop - all kinds of competitions including no-code events.

Hackathons are a great way of meeting new people and learning new stuff, plus they're just a lot of fun!

When I was in college, I participated in around 100+ competitions combined on Unstop and Devfolio.

4. Make digital products.

Creating and marketing digital products like guides, website templates, plugins or courses can help you build decent passive income.

The best part? It needs very little maintenance and these products can be sold at any point in the future.

The only thing that is required is to create value that meets market demands. Plus, you should be able to market these otherwise it makes no sense to create it.

Popular platforms for selling digital products:

GumRoad - the best platform which includes subscriptions to email (10% flat fee)
Creative Market - For design assets and themes
AppSumo - Code, apps, extensions, templates, courses and more.
ThemeForest - For selling WordPress themes and website templates. You will become an Envato Market Author in the process.

This one might be tricky because it's tough to find a proper market fit but the more value you create, the better is the chance that people would be interested in your product.

5. Build a SAAS - Indie Hacking.

This is my favorite among the list and for obvious reasons.

Building a Software as a Service (SaaS) startup can be very useful, both financially and professionally as a developer.

🎯 What is Indie Hacking?

It is the process of building and selling a product independently, without the support of a large organization or team.

Indie hacking can be challenging and you will have to do everything. But as some say good will goes a long way.

There are many popular Indie Hackers like Tibo and Marc who have made more than $1M. In the process, they have built a huge audience.

Trust me, it's the best way to grow but you need to play the long game.

Two popular reads that I recommend checking out:

I’ve been indie hacking for a few months. Here’s what I learned by Tamerlan.
A guide to Indie Hacking by Rameerez.

$29 paid guide by levelsio that you can check out: The Indie Hacker Handbook.

If you're able to pull this off, it's one of the best revenue models you can get.

6. User Testing.

Companies developing production-level apps rely on user feedback to improve their products and that’s where user testing services step in.

You can spend 10–30 minutes testing a website or app, sharing your feedback or completing a survey and getting paid for your effort.

While this isn’t exclusive to developers, your tech knowledge gives you an edge over others. You can complete tasks faster, provide decent feedback and earn much faster than the average user.

In the process, you will learn the workflow and it might be useful for you if you are building your own app.

Some of the websites you can check out:

Trymata - Earn up to $10 per website or app test
User Testing - Pays via PayPal, requires screen share and/or webcam access during the test session. Earn about $10 per test, with longer or live sessions paying up to $50 for some tests.
Userlytics - Earn between $5 and $50 depending on the difficulty and length of the testing session.
IntelliZoom - Earn between $2 and $10 per 10-minute study. Paid via PayPal with a 3-5 day delay.
TestingTime - Option for in-person or video call tests. Less regular, but longer testing sessions. Lower paying than alternatives, when you take into account the delay between sessions.
uTest - $10 to $100+ per test depending upon session's requirements.
Respondent - You can also check this if you are interested in research work.

To be honest, it's repeated work so it is more useful for devs who love testing new apps.

7. Freelancing.

This is one of the most popular ways of sustainable income for developers.

But it's very saturated in my experience and income can be very unstable because finding clients is tough. You will need to build a reputation and manage your finances accordingly.

It can heavily vary based on your niche, platform and your experience.

Some of the popular platforms for developer gigs you can check out:

Fiverr - Kind of a huge marketplace, great for developers who are just starting out in freelancing. Ideal for very specific services.
Contra - You will be an Independent expert that helps companies because a lot of them like Framer hire from here. Plus, it's 100% commission free so you won't pay any charges. Please note that I've included my referral but it won't give me any revenue, so feel free to join using this.
Upwork - Upwork has a concept of connects and is generally for experienced developers. You can get long-term contracts and higher-paying jobs here. Suitable for those who prefer to work on more significant projects.
People per Hour - This platform is good for developers in the European market. It emphasizes local business connections and offers a good balance between short-term and long-term projects.
PeoplePerHour - Offers hourly and fixed-price projects.
Toptal - This is another platform for experienced developers with higher-paying offers.

I don't prefer platforms that require investment. For instance, we need to buy connects on Upwork (once the limited ones are used) and it offers no such guarantee of any return.

My suggestion would be to directly reach out to potential customers and work for them. It will make you feel better and stand out from the noise on the platforms.

8. Newsletters.

Email newsletters and subscription-based RSS feeds have grown huge these recent years.

All you need is a little bit of experience in your niche and the ability to write properly.

Developers need to be updated so they always love reading about new stuff especially if it includes your experience.

In the process, you will build up a large (and very valuable) subscriber base and will be able to offer advertisements during your newsletters. A lot of creators do the same especially since it creates more value.

Or you can charge a smaller number of users to receive your updates.

Console is a sample newsletter that has around 30k+ subscribers.

Popular platforms that you should check out:

It's important to take things one at a time, so research and choose one platform that might fit your needs. Substack and Beehiiv might be great choices.

9. Grants and open source internships.

There are grants and corporate sponsorships available across different fields like open source, innovation, DeFi and even AI. These funds are basically to support your living expenses for a short duration while you work on a particular project.

It's similar to open source internships.

Some of the ones you should definitely check out:

Google Summer of Code (GSoC) - Global program for developers (other than students can also apply now) to contribute to open source projects, with stipends typically ranging from $1500 to $3300. Became very popular in recent years.
Google Season of Docs - Technical writers contribute to open source projects. Participating projects receive between $5,000 and $15,000 grants which are then distributed to contributors, usually via Open Collective.
GitCoin - A crowdfunding platform that funds open source projects, particularly in Ethereum and Web3. Funding varies based on community support.
Outreachy - Provides three-month internships for underrepresented groups in technology, with stipends typically around $5,500.
Mozilla Open Source Support (MOSS) - Grants for open source software development, particularly for projects that align with Mozilla's mission.
The Linux Foundation Grants - Offers various grants and fellowships for developers working on Linux Foundation projects.
Knight Foundation - Offers grants for tech projects that promote quality journalism. Grant amounts vary widely based on project scope.
NumFOCUS Small Development Grants - Supports small projects in data science and scientific computing. Grant amounts vary ($285k split between all applicants).

This builds a huge credibility and in the meantime, you're paid a decent amount for the effort.

A great list of similar open source programs you can find on GitHub.

10. API as a Service.

Most of the developers are not aware of this method. You can earn a passive income from your API.

Another common term to refer to this is API Monetization.

You can try some popular API monetization platforms to publish, manage and monetize your APIs:

RapidAPI Hub - One of the largest platforms for discovering and monetizing APIs, using subscription-based pricing models.
Tyk - open source API gateway that supports API management and monetization, with flexible deployment options.
Apigee - Google Cloud platform with API monetization and analytics.
Postman API Network - Allows devs to publish APIs and use Postman’s ecosystem for collaboration.

You can read the detailed guide on how to Earn a Passive Income by Monetizing APIs as a Developer by RapidAPI. It covers how to first build an API from scratch before selling it on RapidAPI Hub.

11. Building a paid community.

This is another underrated way to build decent money using your experience as a developer.

Newsletters are another kind of community but it's generally one way of communication.

A community where members can talk and learn from each other is more useful. You can enable monthly or yearly subscriptions to avoid adding people who are not serious.

coding paid community — This is just 1/3rd of the active channels

Trust me, a paid community of 500 members is very strong. I've been part of several paid communities and the difference is very clear.

My community is public because I don't like sharing my experience only with people who can pay, but at the same time, nobody can deny the value of a paid community.

I know it's easier said than done.

These are just basic important ideas and it can be very hard to find the right clients at first.

But one single opportunity can change your life in a way you cannot even imagine. Take a leap and explore these methods to build a proper side income.

I hope at least one of these can help you.

Have a great day! Until next time :)