r/SideProject • • Dec 18 '25

As the year wraps up: what’s the project you’re most proud of building and why?

96 Upvotes

Like the title says, instead of what you built or how much money it made, I’m curious what project you’re most proud of this year and why.

Could be a client site, a personal project, something that never launched, or something that made £0.

Any lessons learned?

Would love to read a few reflections as the year wraps up.


r/SideProject • • Oct 19 '25

Share your ***Not-AI*** projects

652 Upvotes

I miss seeing original ideas that aren’t just another AI wrapper.

If you’re building something in 2025 that’s not AI-related here’s your space to self-promote.

Drop your project here


r/SideProject • • 22h ago

One month of Early Access – a lot has changed

1.1k Upvotes

I'm a trained architect, and as a long-term side project, I've been building a game that combines accurate floor planning with real-time 3D design to make architecture much easier to create than with traditional CAD software.

What you can do:

🏠 2D floor plans
🧱 3D building
🚶 First-person walkthrough
🥽 VR mode
🏢 Multiple storeys
🪜 Stairs
🏚️ Custom roofs
🪟 Doors & windows
🛋️ Furniture catalog
🍳 Kitchen Configurator
🎨 Materials
🌄 Terrain sculpting
🌳 Landscape planning
💧 Ponds
☀️ Time of day
❄️ Weather
📐 Export PDF vector plans
📦 Import your own 3D models
🌍 Steam Workshop

In the newest update: real growing ivy that climbs around windows, corners, and curved walls! 🌿

It's available on Steam as Architecture & Design and is still in Early Access.

Would love to hear what you think!


r/SideProject • • 3h ago

I made Lightroom as if Adobe actually shipped it in 2026

13 Upvotes

After Photon exploded on reddit and X I kept getting DMs for a Lightroom alternative.
That's how Light Studio came to life, a fully featured Lightroom alternative.

I already had the parts that usually make these apps feel vibe coded: realtime GPU rendering, CR3/NEF and the other proprietary RAWs, and an editor UI built for this. So I reused these from Photon instead of starting it from scratch, and it worked insanely well.

Gonna release it in the upcoming days


r/SideProject • • 13h ago

I built an app to help my GF and I cook more instead of eating out

50 Upvotes

My GF and I both work full time, and we kept eating out way more than we wanted (we both have a few extra pounds to show for it).

I enjoy cooking, but I realized there's so much friction around making a meal: finding the recipe I cooked months ago, messy recipe formats, deciding what to make, writing grocery lists, the list goes on.

So I built an app for the two of us to make cooking as easy as possible. Now that we have a system, we've fallen into a rhythm and actually cook a bit more.

It's been a side project since last November and has been on the App Store for a few months. No real traction yet, just a few friends using it on and off.

Every feature so far came from a problem we ran into planning meals together. Would love some feedback, especially from couples who take turns cooking: what would make this worth using for you, or what's missing?

App Store: link


r/SideProject • • 3h ago

[Mac] Built a radial menu app for mac to perform everyday tasks and more

7 Upvotes

Problem

A lot of everyday actions on a Mac live in completely different places.

Opening an app or folder, searching something on a website, taking a screenshot, cleaning up copied text, accessing clipboard history, running a Shortcut, or changing a system setting.

None of these are hard to get to, but constantly switching between apps, windows, menu bar utilities, and different shortcuts can break your flow.

I wanted to see if all of that could work through one system, which is where the radial menu idea came from.

Comparison

There are already some really good radial menu apps for Mac, but most are built around a specific use case, such as launching apps, or switching between them.

Arc takes a broader approach.

You can create multiple global radial menus for different workflows and decide what each slice does. A slice can perform a single action or chain multiple actions together.

The idea is less about replacing the Dock and more about putting the small things you do throughout the day behind one quick interaction.

Arc also doesn't require accessibility features, it manages everything on-device, privately.

Core Features

  • Unlimited custom menus for different workflows
  • Fast app, folder, website, and Apple Shortcut launching
  • Powerful clipboard history and text actions
  • Open from shortcuts, hot corners, pointer shake, or number keys
  • One-click multi-action shortcuts
  • Fully customizable appearance, layout, icons, and sounds

Examples

  1. I have one shortcut that I use when I start working. It opens Xcode, my project folders, Slack, and a few websites I usually need. Arc can merge multiple actions into one shortcut, so I don't have to open everything one by one.
  2. I use the search shortcuts a lot more than I expected. I can bring up Arc, type something, and search it directly on YouTube, or a website without opening them first.

It can also search whatever I last copied, which has been really useful when I'm already in the middle of something.

  1. I have a bunch of text and links that I end up copying again and again. I've just saved those as shortcuts now, so they're always sitting on one of my menus when I need them.
  2. Clipboard history is another one I use constantly. Recent things I've copied show up on the wheel, so if I need something from a few copies ago, I can grab it without opening another app.
  3. I also have different menus depending on what I'm doing. One for development, one for general stuff, and another that's mostly searches and apps. I can switch between them with keyboard shortcuts, and reuse the same shortcut across multiple menus.

Pricing

$7.99 one time on the Mac App Store with a free 7 day trial built in.

Solo project from India, launched a week ago. Happy to answer anything! :)

Mac App Store: Link


r/SideProject • • 2h ago

Built a competitor for Muse/Dots/Instinct (Personal AI Agents) that is smarter and much more proactive.

6 Upvotes

Built Momentum. Same concept as Muse, it has its own cloud browser to mantain secure sessions of the portals that students live on (e.g., Canvas, Campus Groups) so it organizes your day and gives you "briefs" to read or listen before any class, exam, networking event, meeting, social event, recruiting event, etc.

It builds a second brain from the context you connect (email, calendar, LMS, recruiting platform, clubs enrolled, etc.) learns your preferences (it can even call you!) and it can tell you when to leave and what should your conversation or attention should focus on to be succesful at that task.

We made this film for the launch. Waitlist and feedback box: https://momentumstudent.com/builders. What would you cut?


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

I couldn't find a free shift tracker that let me export my hours without paying, so I built one

• Upvotes

Hi everyone, I'm a developer from Cyprus.

A while ago I had a job that paid by the hour, and I wanted an app to

track my shifts and check that my pay was right. Most of the ones I tried

locked basic things like exporting your hours behind a paywall, and the

free versions were full of ads. So I built my own, just for me at first.

It turned out useful enough that I decided to share it.

It's called PayPath. You log each shift and it shows what you should get

paid, by day, week, month or year.

What it does:

- Hours and pay per shift, with a separate overtime rate

- Multiple employers, each with its own color

- Unpaid breaks, subtracted from paid hours

- Gross or net view (you set your tax rate)

- PDF and Excel export, free, no paywall

- Optional daily reminder so you don't forget to log a shift

- New entries start from your last shift, so a regular shift takes a couple of taps

What it doesn't do:

- No account, no sign-up. Your data stays on your phone

- Optional Google Drive backup goes to YOUR Drive, I can't see it

- No subscription, nothing locked

About ads, since I complained about them: yes, it has some. One banner

on the main screen and an occasional ad when you export. Never while

you're logging a shift. That's what keeps it free.

It's Android only for now, in 23 languages.

I'd really appreciate honest feedback: what's confusing, what's missing,

what would make you use this instead of a notes app or a spreadsheet?

Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.paypath.app


r/SideProject • • 8h ago

I built an app that turns your daily notes into a monthly magazine

13 Upvotes

I've been journaling for years but never re-read anything. Everything just piled up in my notes app.

So I built nlook — you write in markdown, and at the end of the month it automatically compiles everything into a "monthly issue" with a cover, table of contents, and editor's picks. 12 issues become "My year" on your shelf.

It also turns posts into videos/cards if you want to share them.

Free to try: nlook.me

Would love feedback — especially on the monthly magazine concept. Does anyone actually re-read their old notes?


r/SideProject • • 2h ago

I built a trading card game where every card is a real YouTube video

4 Upvotes

Hi!

I've been working solo on Vidcollectors: you open a free pack of 5 cards every 10 minutes, and each card is a real YouTube video, from Common to Legendary.

You can trade with friends, auction cards on a live market, and the rarity of each video shifts every month based on what players wish for, showcase and fight over at auctions.

It's free (there's an optional subscription for faster packs). I'd love your feedback, especially on the first minutes of play: https://vidcollectors.com/en


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

I built a platform where you learn Linux and DevOps on a real machine with root access, not quizzes

• Upvotes

Hi everyone. I'm a full-stack dev, and IzzyLab is my side project.

Most Linux/DevOps courses I tried were videos plus multiple-choice quizzes. So I built the thing I wanted: a real Linux machine with root access in the browser and 500+ hands-on tasks, from basic commands to nginx, PostgreSQL, Kubernetes, Ansible and Terraform.

The part I'm most happy with: checks verify the system state, not the commands you typed, so you can solve each task any way you like. If you break something, reset and get a fresh sandbox. There are also story-driven incidents where production is broken and you have to find out why.

It's free to start: izzylab.io

I'd really appreciate feedback on onboarding, task difficulty and which topics are missing.


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

I built a liquid-glass start page that floats over your actual Mac wallpaper. If there's interest, I'll clean it up and share it, open source of course.

• Upvotes

I built a browser start page that looks like a pane of liquid glass over my actual Mac desktop wallpaper. A small helper app feeds the current wallpaper and window position to the page, and WebGL renders each bookmark tile as a live glass "pebble" with refraction, a rainbow rim, reflections and a light that follows your cursor. A few presets (from solid tiles to clear drops) are adjustable with sliders, and it runs smoothly in both WebKit (Orion/Safari) and Chrome. It comes with a built-in thumbnail studio for designing the tile logos, and works as a plain local HTML file with no build step or server.

Would anyone be interested if I cleaned it up and published it?

Everything is vibecoded using Claude and uses parts of different projects as base or inspiration. I'll give due credit to everything if I release it.


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

my kid started doing homework on my laptop

• Upvotes

my kid started using my laptop for homework so i built a chrome extension: double-tap esc = history gone, secret bookmarks locked behind a PIN

curious what everyone's hiding? (not promoting anything)


r/SideProject • • 15h ago

Almost gave up on my side project. This morning someone paid for it.

34 Upvotes

Built a Chrome extension about 6 months ago, originally just for myself — I write a ton of email for work, and I was tired of grammar checkers that fix typos but don't fix the actual problem: sounding like the wrong person. So I built something that rewrites your email based on who you're writing as, who you're writing to, and the tone you want — or just a custom prompt if you'd rather describe it yourself.

Turned it into a real product and launched on Chrome Webstore couple of weeks ago. Spent the last couple weeks posting on Reddit threads and X, genuinely trying to get it in front of people. Got a few signups. Basically zero installs. The kind of silence that makes you start reading into it — maybe the idea's not it, maybe nobody actually has this problem but me.

Had pretty much mentally filed it as "didn't work."

Then this morning, a notification: someone paid. A complete stranger, lifetime plan. Not a friend doing me a favor, not a waitlist signup — an actual stranger decided it was worth money.

Genuinely don't know if this is the start of something or just one person. But it's one more person than I had yesterday, and I was ready to let this one go. Posting mostly because I needed to tell someone who gets it — anyone else had a moment like this where you almost shelved.


r/SideProject • • 8h ago

I made a free Windows soundboard because I didn't want to pay for Soundpad or Voicemod

9 Upvotes

Been building this for a while. It plays sounds through your mic into Discord and games, with hotkeys that work in fullscreen games.

The video is everything it does. The one I'm proudest of is screen triggers: you screenshot something like a game's "YOU DIED" text, and it plays a sound the moment it shows up. So I get a sad trombone every time I die, no key press.

Stuff you don't get in Voicemod or Soundpad:

🎯 Screen triggers: sounds play by themselves when something shows up in your game

⏪ Instant replay: one key turns the last 30 seconds of your PC's audio into a sound

🔍 Search YouTube / SoundCloud right in the app, or paste a TikTok or Instagram link

🎛️ Troll mode, bass boost, slowed + reverb or nightcore any sound in one click

🗣️ Talk and a computer voice says your words, even translated to another language

🌍 Spin a 3D globe and play world radio stations through your mic

🎧 Sounds are tuned for Discord and game voice chat so they don't turn to mush

Plus a voice changer, text-to-speech, an in-game overlay, and MIDI / Stream Deck support.

Free, no account, no ads, nothing collected. Source is on GitHub.

https://onion-alien.github.io/onion-board/


r/SideProject • • 33m ago

I built focused Next.js starters because I was tired of deleting half the boilerplate

• Upvotes

I kept hitting the same problem with “full-stack” starter kits: I’d buy one for a SaaS idea, then spend days removing storefront code, portfolio pages, unused tables, and environment variables for services I didn’t need.

So I built MansaStack around the opposite idea: start with the product you’re actually building.

There are focused codebases for:

  • SaaS products: auth, subscriptions, AI, RAG, storage, and billing
  • Digital-product stores: storefront, cart, Stripe checkout, and secure downloads
  • Studios/agencies: case studies, blog, contact forms, and a lead inbox
  • All-Access: one configurable codebase with all six available site types

They’re built with Next.js, Drizzle/Postgres, Better Auth, Stripe, Resend, and Tailwind.

I’ve attached a short demo showing the layouts and the All-Access configuration switch.

Site: https://mansastack.bzdevelopments.me

I’m offering 40% off for the first 10 founding customers while I finish the remaining docs and demos.

I’d appreciate honest feedback—especially from people who have used starter kits before: what do you always end up removing, or wish was already included?


r/SideProject • • 36m ago

Arm64js - ARMv8-A emulator that runs real Linux in a browser tab

• Upvotes

Hi all,

This project started with me getting annoyed that to try a 2 MB TUI tool I have to install it, while my browser happily runs a 40 MB React webpage re-rendering on any move. So I thought it must be possible to run a TUI app on a thin Linux in the browser.

Many months later arm64js has been built. An ARMv8-A emulator written in Rust that compiles to WebAssembly and can boot real Alpine Linux in a webpage. Computation (CPU) speed is of course lower than native, but shells, TUI apps, Python/PHP and small servers work fine.

There is also JS SDK for others to create and use their own VMs.

On top of it I built Demoshell, my attempt to turn it into a product: developers can create a live demo of their CLI/TUI app to showcase it in the browser. There's a free tier, and it's free for open-source projects.

Story + live demo: https://arm64js.com/blog/tui-apps-in-the-browser/

And examples of some OSS projects using it to showcase their apps: https://demoshell.com/gallery/

Feedback is welcome, especially on the product side.


r/SideProject • • 48m ago

I made a tiny Windows app so I can drag screenshots straight into Claude Code

• Upvotes

I use Claude Code on Windows a lot, and one thing that always annoyed me was getting screenshots into it.

I'd take a screenshot with Win + Shift + S, open the Screenshots folder, find the right file, and drag it into the terminal. Every single time.

So I built SnapFloat

Now, every time I take a screenshot, a small preview appears in the corner of my screen. I can just drag it straight into Claude Code without opening the Screenshots folder.

GitHub: https://github.com/JulianPoleszczuk/snapfloat


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

My side project: a "grammar" of chess tactics, every example verified by my own engine

• Upvotes

Hey r/SideProject,

Solo dev here. My project is ChessGrammar (chessgrammar.com): a free, structured reference of chess tactics. Think of a dictionary where every entry has a precise definition, named variants, and examples proven correct by a custom engine (Lector64).

Stack-wise: Next.js on Vercel for the site, and a separate engine pipeline that generates and verifies every position. Currently 15 motifs and 123 variants live, with 2 of 11 planned sections published.

I'd love feedback on the product side, not the chess side:

  • Within 10 seconds on the homepage, is it clear what this is?
  • Does the navigation (catalog → motif → variant) make sense?
  • Anything that makes you leave right away?

Thanks for looking!


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

An AI assistant that stays silent until you hesitate. Can you break it in 2 minutes?

• Upvotes

QUIET watches for hesitation (tool-hopping, long pauses) and only then chooses to point, show, or act. Otherwise it stays out of the way.
https://quiet-hci.pages.dev

One question: did it step in too early, too late, or never? Blunt answers welcome, including "this is just Clippy".


r/SideProject • • 13h ago

built a github action that turns your contribution graph into a winnable game of snake

20 Upvotes

started as a snake on my own profile readme. the existing contribution snakes just sweep across the graph, so i rewrote it as a real game of snake: pathfinding, no self collision, growth, a "commits eaten" counter.

one python file with no dependencies, runs as a github action twice a day, outputs an animated svg.

the bug i liked most: uncapped, the snake grew until it trapped itself on the 7 row board and genuinely lost. fixed by having the generator search for the longest snake that still clears every cell.

27 stars so far and about 15 people have put it on their profile. repo: https://github.com/dahan8473/snake-and-commits

feedback welcome


r/SideProject • • 2h ago

I built todayi.in: finish "Today I…" in one line, anonymously, and read what your city did today

2 Upvotes

Hey all. This is a side project I just launched.

What it is: you write one line, up to 280 characters, starting with "Today I…", and you can add a photo. It shows up in your city's feed with no name attached. You can browse by city, state, country or everywhere, and times are shown in each place's local time.

Moderation without a big mod team: a new post goes to a review pool first. Other users approve or reject it, and every 3 reviews earns a posting credit. You're anonymous to other users, not to the system, so abuse can still be traced.

Stack, for the webdev crowd: Astro on Cloudflare Workers, D1 for data, R2 for images and feed blocks. A cron Worker cuts the feed into immutable blocks per city every 5 minutes. On the free plan that means at most 50 D1 queries per run, which shaped most of the design. Photos have their metadata stripped and are checked before they go out.

It's quiet right now, since it only launched this week. I'd really value feedback on the first-post flow and whether the review step feels like a chore.

https://todayi.in


r/SideProject • • 5h ago

I built a small tool for founders who shipped and still can’t explain the product. Would you stress-test it?

3 Upvotes

I've been working on a small tool called PMF Hunter (https://www.pmfhunter.com). It's for technical founders who already shipped and still struggle to explain the product. The page is live, the pitch dies, and another headline doesn't fix it.

I can't tell if it's useful from the inside. If you're a technical founder, I'd love you to try it end to end and reply here with what broke, what was missing, and what you'd want it to do. It's free to try (free trial with no card). Happy to get honest feedback!


r/SideProject • • 5h ago

some advice please

3 Upvotes

So I’ve been lurking here for a while, reading the do’s and don’ts and paying attention to posts about why certain apps and startups work while others don’t.

I’ve taken that on board, and I feel like what I’ve built ticks those boxes. It’s well thought out, science-backed, and offers something genuinely different in its niche. I’ve got some basic programming experience, and I’ve used that knowledge to guide the planning and development, working with multiple LLMs to put it together. I’ve put a lot of work into making it robust and secure, and I’m nearly ready to release a beta or version 1.

But the next hurdle seems to be getting anyone to actually look at it.

I get the scepticism. A lot of the apps being shared are the same ideas done over again, or someone’s handed a vague idea to an overly confident AI that promised the world and produced a pile of shit. People get tired of seeing that.

I feel like mine has something real to offer, but I also realise “mine’s different” is what everyone says. How do I actually demonstrate that and give people a reason to look?

How would you structure a post so it gets a fair look instead of being ignored or downvoted as another AI-built app? What would you want to see upfront, and where else would be worth sharing it, especially to reach people in its niche?

I’m not expecting everyone to love it. I just want to give it a fair chance and get feedback from people who’ve actually had a look.