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16 Best Side Hustle Apps to Make More Money ($1k to $5k a month)

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Last Updated on May 16, 2024 by Daniella

With the rise of online and mobile banking comes the rise of personal finance apps, including side hustle apps. The world no longer needs us to go into a physical location to make money. 

There are more side hustle apps on the market now more than ever. Seriously, there are tons of them. From delivery and grocery shopping apps to pet sitting and remote side hustle apps, there’s no shortage of ways for people to earn extra cash using their smartphone.

And there are new ones available every day.

Earning extra cash in your free time while getting to set your own schedule? And even set your own rates in some cases? Yes, please! 

These are especially great if you need ways to make extra money quickly for an upcoming event or large bill. Whether you are good with your hands or just need to make some extra money driving other people around, these mobile gig apps will have more than you need to get started.

16 Side Hustle Apps to Make Bank in 2024

1. Rover

Rover is an app where you can find local pet sitters or walkers in your area and schedule pet day sitting, overnight boarding, dog walking or someone to just come and check up on your pets while you are out of town.

You can also sign up to be one of these pet sitters or dog walkers through the app.

When looking at the app myself, I can see some walkers charge $20 per half hour dog walk. That would be $40 an hour that you could make in great side money for just walking dogs.

Side hustle apps. Image of rover app.
Snippet of the Rover app dog walker listings.

How to get started:

I actually tried out Rover myself for extra money during the holidays, you can read the full rover sitter review here.

Income potential: $1,000 a month or more

2. Meowtel

Meowtel is similar to Rover, except it’s exclusively for cat sitting. It’s a great flexible side hustle option where you set your own rates and work from home. It even has tools to leverage market insights and data tools to help you earn more with each cat sitting appointment.

Services you can expect performing as a cat sitter on Meowtel include:
  •  Care includes feeding, litter scooping, and playtime
  •  Receive cute photos & message updates each visit
  •  Insurance coverage & 100% satisfaction guarantee

Sitters make an average of $20 per visit or more. Overnight stays are additional

Screenshot of the Meowtel side hustle app showing cat sitters in seattle

How to get started:

  • Sign up for Meowtel 
  • Complete your listing for cat sitting services
  • Pass a background check
  • Complete a sitter activation call

Income potential: $500 – $1,000 a month or more

3. Turo

Turo is like the Airbnb of car rentals. I bet you didn’t even think that was a thing! But it is.

You can list your car for rent using this side hustle app and not have to do any actual work. If you have a car of somewhat-high market value, you can make over $1,000 a month from the app. If you have a car with a somewhat-low to average market value, you are looking at $300-$600 a month.

I got to this calculation using their calculation tool that you can also use to see how much you could get per month with your car.

Side hustle apps Turo Image.
Snapshot from the Turo potential income calculator for a Toyota Rav4.

How to get started:

Income potential: $300 – $1,000 a month or more depending on the make and model of your car.

Related posts: 35+ Best Side Hustle Ideas

4. Postmates

This side hustle app makes it possible for you to continue your grind no matter where you are. You can travel and can take this job with you as long as you have a car.

With no time commitments or fees, you can come online whenever you want to make money delivering with Postmates.

When you earn with Postmates, you take home 100% of your pay and tips along with the ability to cash out instantly whenever you want or free weekly deposits.postmates website snapshot

How to get started:

Income potential: $25 an hour + tips

Related posts: 3 Gig Economy Jobs That May Not Be Worth It


Side note: Download hurdlr to automatically track your mileage, expenses, income streams and tax deductions in real-time from your side hustles. People have found an average of $5,600 of tax deductions while using hurdlr. Try it for free using my link!


5. Lyft

Side hustle apps - Lyft screenshot
Screenshot from the Lyft website with a Lyft quote.

The ride share craze isn’t going away anytime soon. Especially now as they are slowly releasing self driving cars!

Don’t worry, the self driving cars aren’t sucking up all of these ride sharing jobs yet. You can still make this a lucrative way to make money on the side for the time being.

How to get started:

  • Sign up to be a driver with Lyft
  • Be at least 21 years old.
  • Pass their free, online DMV and background checks.
  • Have a U.S. diver’s license and provide proof of insurance

Income potential: $25 an hour

Related posts: Steady App Review: 10 Side Hustles That You Can Do Through The Steady App

6. Instacart

side hustle. Image of instacart app
Instacart shopper snapshot from the website.

If you love shopping, you can get paid to shop for other people’s groceries and become an Instacart shopper. And no, you don’t need a vehicle in order to shop for Instacart. You can sign up to be either an in-store shopper (no vehicle required) or a full-service shopper (vehicle required).

You receive and manage all requests and shopping trips in the app, do your shopping and delivery and the Instacart app takes care of the rest.

Get paid weekly and work peak days (like days before holidays or dangerous weather) to maximize earnings.

How to get started:

  • Be at least 18 years or older
  • Be eligible to work in the United States
  • Have a smartphone
  • Be able to lift between 30-40 lbs with or without an accommodation
  • Sign up to be an Instacart shopper!

Income potential: $20 an hour or more

Related posts: How Much Can You Make With Instacart?

7. DoorDash

side hustle apps. Image of doordash driver
Snapshot of a doordash driver completing a delivery.

DoorDash is another wonderful app that pays you weekly! When you become a dasher, you deliver food from a variety of restaurants and merchants to those who request the delivery on the app.

You can work from anywhere and set your own hours.

As all side hustle apps mentioned in this list, everything is managed in the app itself.

How to get started:

Income potential: Up to $25 an hour.

Related posts:28 Ways To Make An Extra $100 Every Day

8. TaskRabbit

If you need something done and you don’t have the time to do it (or just don’t want to), you can use TaskRabbit to hire a “tasker” to complete it for you. You can also work as a “tasker” using the TaskRabbit app and earn money by completing tasks for others.

If you are someone who loves work with their hands, experienced in home improvement, can tolerate heavy lifting and love to assemble things, you need to download and sign up for TaskRabbit.

While some only make a couple of extra hundred a month with TaskRabbit, 10 to 15% of TaskRabbit contractors earn up to $7,000 per month!

Side hustle apps. Image of taskrabbit app.
TaskRabbit snippet showing how the app works.

How to get started:

  • Be at least 21 years old
  • Pass a background check
  • Have a bank account and a valid credit card
  • Posses the skills and abilities in at least 1 of the 25+ categories of tasks
  • Have a smart phone
  • Start accepting tasks!

Income potential: Up to $2,000 a week

9. Fat Llama

Ever thought you can get paid for renting out your stuff? The sharing economy has blossomed into something truly incredible to be able to get paid for our stuff without actually selling them!

When people are looking to use something like a video camera or a gaming system, they don’t have to necessarily buy that item. They can rent the item from someone in their area instead with Fat Llama.

The London based app has recently expanded to the U.S. with some London earners making as much as $5,000 a month renting out their stuff.

You can rent anything out from lawn mowers to video cameras to even tools.

Side hustle apps. Image of fat llama app.
Snippet showing how to list an item on Fat Llama.

How to get started:

Income potential: As much as $1,000 – $5,000 a month if the app is available in your area. They are adding new areas every day.

Related posts:How To Boost Your Income With The Sharing Economy

10. Neighbor

Neighbor claims that they’re the “no hustle side hustle”. Maybe they’re right. 

If you have extra space in your house such as a basement, garage, shed, whatever it is, you may be able to rent out that space on Neighbor for extra money. 

Screenshot from the neighbor app showing what type of space can be rented out

The best thing about this app is that they have your back with a $1,000,000 liability guarantee. You also have control over when and how renters use your space and Neighbor will cover the cost is your renters ever fail to pay.

How to get started:

Income potential: Hosts earn income based on how much space they rent out. Top hosts can ear up to $10,000 a year.

Related posts: How We Made $2,000 Per Month by Renting Rooms in Our House

11. eBay

eBay is one of the best and easiest ideas to make money. Especially online without ever having to meet face to face with anyone.

You can sell anything you already have or easily flip items online like we do with guitars. We make up to $3,000 in side hustle money during some months flipping guitars on eBay.

Side hustle apps ebay. Image of Ebay app.
Snippet of one of our own eBay listings.

How to get started:

Income potential: As much as you can sell. We make as much as $1,000 – $3,000 a month flipping guitars.

Related posts: 12 Sites Like Craigslist to Sell Anything Online

12. Drive for Deliv

side hustle apps deliv. Image of deliv app.
Snippet from the Deliv website about working as a Deliv driver.

You can drive for Deliv and deliver packages on your own schedule.

Deliv is a same-day delivery service helping local businesses deliver retail items to their customers.  Since looking into signing up for Flex in my area, I saw that signups were close and probably closed in many other areas as well.

So if you are looking for a delivery opportunity like Flex but didn;t sign up in time, try Deliv. You can earn up to $22 an hour delivering for Deliv.

How to get started:

  • Sign up for Deliv
  • Fill out your details
  • Pass a background check
  • Be at least 18 and lift 50 lbs

Income potential: $22 an hour

13. Fiverr

Side hustle apps fiverr. Image of fiverr app.
Fiverr snippet from the website how the app works.

If you have a special skill, you could bank off of it using Fiverr. Fiverr is where you can basically make money off of your products and services as a freelancer.

With so many people having blogs and websites these days but don’t have the basic knowledge of maintaining those online domains, they turn to Fiverr for help. People on Fiverr do everything from writing to coding to design, and basically anything you can think of contracting out for a specific skill, service or product.

You can work when you want and set your own rates. You can even decline when a project seems sketchy or outside the scope or your skill set.

How to get started:

Income potential: You set your own rates but you can easily earn up to $1,000 a month depending on your pricing.

14. Poshmark

I love using Poshmark to sell used designer clothing and accessories. I have sold old boots that I never wore, jewelry and even unused hair dye and makeup (don’t worry, they weren’t past the expiry date).

If you have a lot of designer products that you never use, you can sell them on Poshmark and make hundreds of extra dollars a month. You can even buy designer products on sale in bulk and then sell them on Poshmark for a profit.

Side hustle apps poshmark. Image of poshmark app.
Snippet of some of our own Poshmark listings that have sold and that are for sale.

How to get started:

Income potential: Depends on how much you can sell. I have made an extra $200 in one month selling on Poshmark.

Related posts: 22 Creative Ways to Turn Your Clutter Into Cash

15. Etsy

I just got started with Etsy and created a shop linked to this blog. On the shop we sell hoodies, t-shirts, stickers and more.

Even though at the time of writing this post we have only made 3 sales on the app, it has only been a couple of weeks since creating the shop. We hope to add new products soon and expand the shop’s reach.

For seasoned Etsy sellers, some make probably more than your yearly salary. The more niche a product is on Etsy, the better it seems to do.

Side hustle apps etsy. Image of etsy app.
Snapshot of how you list an item on Etsy.

How to get started:

  • Sign up for Etsy
  • Create an Etsy store
  • Start adding products to your store

Income potential: Depends on how much you can sell. This one mom makes $70,000 a month on Etsy!

Related posts:10 DIY Crafts To Sell For Extra Money

16. UrbanSitter

UrbanSitter is the online “Babysitter’s Club” that you didn’t know you had.

With this app you can book babysitters and nannies in your area, with no hassle. If you love this kind of work and looking for a side gig, look no further. You can also sign up to be a babysitter or nanny through the app.

Side hustle apps urbansitter. Image of urbansitter app.
Snippet of the sign up page for UrbanSitter.

How to get started:

  • Sign up to be a sitter
  • Must be at least 16 years old
  • Pass a background check
  • Browse the sitter job board or receive a booking request
  • Start sitting with UrbanSitter!

Income potential: You can set your own rates. Average rates range from $11 – $16 an hour for one child.

Related posts: Teach English Online: 10 Companies That Will Pay You to Teach and Work From Anywhere

More ways to make extra cash with your phone:

  • Nielsen is a company that will pay you for your internet usage (both on your phone and your PC). All you have to do is download their app and register your devices. Check it out here.
  • Complete a paid study on Toluna or Pinecone Research.
  • Download Mistplay and earn cash, gift cards and other rewards for playing games on your phone (read our full review of Mistplay).
  • Scan your old electronics like game consoles, phones, tablets and more to see how much money you can get for them on Decluttr.
  • Earn free gift cards with Drop.
  • HealthyWage is where you can participate in individual weight loss challenges and get paid for hitting weight loss goals. Sign up as a group and compete against each other!
  • Swagbucks and Inbox Dollars will pay you to play on your phone. To earn money, you will need to read emails, take surveys, play games, complete offers and much more. Did I mention they pay you an additional $5 just for signing up for each?
  • Download Rakuten (formerly Ebates) and Ibotta to earn cash back and more bonuses on the purchases you already make online and in-store.
  • Read how to become a brand ambassador and promote brands and products from your phone.
  • Deliver for Amazon Flex and make up to $25 an hour (or more with tips).

Concluding Thoughts

It seems like you can make money from your phone doing almost anything with apps. But the thing is, not all side hustle apps are created equally.

They are great for earning quick cash when you are in a bind and need to make money on the side. However, they may not be a long term solution. You could think of merging your side hustles into a side business idea and get more bang for your buck down the line.

Think about it. Otherwise, keep on hustling. 

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