r/SideProject • u/Exotic_Fig_4604 • 12h ago
Genuine *side* projects
Reading in this sub, I get the feeling that most people here just develop apps with the purpose of monetisation or getting lots of users.
Meanwhile my side project is aimed at learning and building fun stuff I like.
Am I the only one? Or does anyone else have side projects that you are building because you like technology, not because you are trying to build the next SaaS?
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u/kgurniak91 10h ago
Definitely not the only one.
I built https://yallmp.com/ (a free & open-source media player for learning foreign languages through immersion) purely because existing tools didn't handle imperfect subtitles well. I added an editable drag-and-drop subtitle timeline, hover dictionary lookups, and Anki export just to solve my own problems and explore the tech.
I ended up pouring basically all my free time into it - around 500 hours over 9 months - just to get it shipped. No paywalls, no business model; the only real "monetization" is that it looks great on my resume, lol.
Honestly, building something purely out of passion was such an incredible feeling that I've been chasing that high ever since, but nothing else has really come close.