January 8, 2024
Editorial GuidelinesKari is a writer for SideHustles.com. She previously managed a website in the privacy and digital compliance industry and...
Editor's Choice
Lawn LoveEasiest
HoneygainHighest Earning
UpworkThere are a thousand and one ways to make money on the side in today’s gig economy. With so many options, it’s hard to know where to start.
Luckily, the answer is probably in your hand right now—your phone. Download any of these money-making apps to kick off a side hustle or passive income scheme and start raking in cash.
Use these apps to find local gigs or complete tasks to earn extra money.
If you love dogs and wouldn’t mind grabbing some exercise while earning extra cash, download the Rover app and become a part-time dog walker.
This is one of the most popular dog-walking apps, so there are plenty of job opportunities. Everything—including pickup times, insurance, and payment—is taken care of right in the platform.
One of Rover’s main selling points is that it only takes a 20% commission off of what you earn on each walk, which is half of the cut that’s taken by another popular dog-walking app, Wag!
Find out more: Rover app review.
Download the TaskRabbit app and sign up as a tasker to run around town completing projects and jobs that fit your personal and professional interests. TaskRabbit lets you choose tasks from different categories, like painting, building, cleaning, yard work, and over 50 others.
You set your own availability and rates. TaskRabbit won’t take a commission off what you earn. You’ll pay a $25 registration fee when you sign up, but then you get to keep 100% of the money you make on the app.
Find out more: TaskRabbit review.
If you’re experienced or interested in the service industry, quickly pick up shifts and make money through the Qwick app. It offers a variety of front-of-house, back-of-house, and catering gigs that need temporary employees.
If you have time to spare and need to make a few extra bucks, this app is a great way to find short-term openings in the service industry.
Unlike the service-industry-specific Qwick app, Wonolo lets you take on shifts in a wide range of task categories, like delivery, cleaning, production, warehousing, general labor, and more. Set your time and category preferences in the app so you’re only matched with gigs that work for you.
The app charges the gig requestor—not you, the freelancer—meaning you keep 100% of the money you make with this app.
You almost certainly already know you can make money on ridesharing apps like Uber and Lyft, but have you considered the money you can make on their sister apps, such as Uber Eats?
Becoming an Uber Eats driver is even easier than driving for Uber’s rideshare service, and you get to avoid having strangers ride in your car (which not everyone is okay with).
In fact, you don’t even need a car to make money with the Uber Eats app—even a bicycle or scooter can qualify you as a delivery driver.
Find out more: Uber Eats driver review.
Like Uber Eats, Grubhub is a popular delivery gig app that lets you sign up to be a driver and make money running around town delivering food.
You set your own hours and accept or decline orders on the app, then grab orders from restaurants and take them to the customer’s location.
Like UberEats, DoorDash is another delivery app you can use to make money on the side. You just download the app and create an account, set your hours, then accept and complete delivery tasks in your area (which may include food, alcohol, or grocery deliveries).
You get paid a base rate, plus tips. Just like that, you’ve killed a few hours and made a solid dollar.
Find out more: DoorDash review.
This is another delivery app, but one with a twist. Instacart is an app that lets you pick up gig work by going grocery shopping for others and delivering the goods. If you’re one of those people who enjoy wandering the aisles of a store, this is definitely the money-making app for you.
You can expect to make roughly $7–$10 for each delivery, but your actual wages will vary based on factors like distance traveled, order size, and time of day.
Find out more: Instacart review.
Amazon Flex is another profitable app for picking up and dropping off goods. Download the app and sign up as an Amazon delivery driver to pick up orders from the Amazon warehouse and get them to their final destinations.
As far as money-making potential goes, especially if you have no previous experience or qualifications, Amazon Flex is one of the best apps around, boasting average rates of $18–$25 per hour, plus tips.
Another big hitter when it comes to making money, the Dolly app lets you flex your muscles and bring home extra cash by helping people move. You can be a “Helper,” which is someone who has a vehicle to contribute to moving services, or you can be a “Hand,” someone who helps with the moving process (no vehicle required).
The app says that its average hourly earnings are between $35–$50, making this a worthwhile addition to your home screen if you have the muscles to lend to this side gig.
If you have a green thumb or just want to make extra money while spending time outdoors, download the Lawn Love app to find local lawn care and yard work gigs. Whether you’re mowing, cleaning gutters, raking leaves, gardening, or doing other yard care activities, you can pick up quick jobs and bring home decent money with this app.
Lawn Love will charge the work requestor a fee for using the app, so you’ll keep 100% of your earnings on each job.
A fun and easy money-making app, iVueit lets you pick up tasks taking pictures around town with your smartphone. Download the app, set up your account, then accept “vues.” These will send you to different locations to take pictures, then complete surveys about your target destination.
What each vue pays varies widely, with estimates ranging between $7–$50 per vue. Still, it’s a great way to get out and about while putting money in your pocket.
Another super simple and fun option for making money through an app, Oppizi gives you the chance to get outdoors and make some cash by distributing marketing materials in your area.
Just download the app and sign up for distribution opportunities, then collect the advertising materials (like flyers) and hand them out in the designated area.
If you’d rather complete tasks from the comfort of your home, here are the five best money-making apps for landing online gigs.
A staple of the gig economy, Fiverr is a popular freelancing marketplace that connects independent contractors with those in need of all kinds of projects. Popular postings on the site include social media work, web development, translation, data entry, design, and consulting.
You’ll set your own project parameters and rates, but Fiverr will take a 20% commission on what you earn.
If you work online, you probably already know about Upwork. This freelancing platform is hugely popular, meaning there are tons of job opportunities posted to it daily. In-demand jobs include marketing, development, coding, sales, and data management.
Upwork takes a 10% fee from what you earn on each job, meaning you take home more than you do on Fiverr, though both apps have a ton to offer.
Like Upwork and Fiverr, Appen is an app for independent contractors looking to earn a flexible income online. Through the app, you can find projects and tasks that match your skills.
The company advertises projects based in translation, transcription, data collection, search evaluation, social media, and linguistics (e.g., rating AI-created speech-to-text transcriptions).
The downside of Appen is that your earnings aren’t automatically tracked in the app. Instead, you’ll need to manually track them and invoice Appen each month.
Moving away from freelance work and into the microtasking industry, Premise is an app that lets you complete small tasks directly from your phone to earn a little extra cash.
You can keep your tasks online by providing information about yourself and your community, or you can take the app on the go and complete local tasks like taking pictures of storefronts.
Keep in mind that this is a microtask app, so the work won’t earn you a ton of money. For example, completing a survey on the app usually pays $0.05–$0.10.
If microtasking is appealing but the pay is too low for your liking, a similar alternative is website and app testing.
One app that gives you this opportunity is UserTesting. Simply fill out your profile on the platform, then get matched with sites and services to test and provide feedback to.
These apps require little effort and absolutely no special skills or experience. Just download them, sign up, and complete microtasks: play games, answer surveys, or go shopping to earn a little extra cash.
Through the Ibotta app, you can earn cash back on money you’re already spending at popular retailers like Walmart and Amazon.
Download the app, check out retailer deals, add them to your list, then go shopping. You can submit receipts or shop directly through the app, then cash out your Ibotta earnings when you’re ready.
Similar to Ibotta, the Rakuten app gives you cash back on your everyday shopping. You download the app, select deals and offers, then shop as normal. Every three months, you can cash out your earnings as PayPal cash or a check.
One of the major perks of Rakuten is that it lets you earn cash back at popular restaurants, as well as retailers.
Download the Survey Junkie app to become an “influencer” and share your opinions on brands through paid surveys. The app offers two types of research you can participate in:
Payment varies based on your profile and what surveys you participate in, but most pay around $0.50–$3 each. Rewards can be redeemed as direct bank deposits, PayPal cash, or gift cards.
Another mega-popular survey-taking and savings app, Swagbucks claims to have paid out over $870 million to users and gives away 7,000 gift cards every day. Through this app you can score deals and coupons to save money, or you can complete surveys to make pocket change.
According to the site, most surveys pay between $0.25 and $5.00 and can be cashed out as PayPal deposits, Visa cards, or gift cards.
Find out more: Swagbucks review.
A survey app that offers a little something extra, InboxDollars gives you a $5 sign-up bonus when you confirm your email to activate your account. Once your account is confirmed, you can complete multiple tasks for money, like taking surveys, playing games, and watching ads.
Surveys on InboxDollars pay between $0.25–$5, depending on the survey and your profile. Points can be redeemed as cash, PayPal funds, gift cards, or charity donations.
Find out more: InboxDollars review.
You can also take surveys for money on the Valued Opinions app, but it offers more than that. Make money by providing feedback to brands or testing products and services, then reviewing your experience.
The best part of this app is its relatively high earning potential. Valued Opinions pays up to $7 for each survey you take. The catch is that online reports suggest the rewards can only be redeemed as gift cards for retailers like Target and Amazon—not as actual cash.
If you just want to download an app, then sit back and watch your account balance grow, these are the money-making apps for you.
Staying true to its passive income claim, Honeygain is a set-it-and-forget-it money-making app that lets you share your internet connection in exchange for credits. You just download the app and allow it to access your unused bandwidth. It adds your device to its network, acting as a signal tower.
You get a $5 bonus when you sign up. After that, your earnings will vary. You can withdraw every $20 you earn in credits, which the app estimates takes 48 days on average.
A truly unique way to make money through an app, Acorns rounds up your purchases to the nearest dollar, then invests that spare change into a diversified portfolio for you.
According to the company, you can invest “as little as $5 any time or on a recurring basis into a portfolio of ETFs [funds on the stock market]. Your investments are then diversified across more than 7,000 stocks and bonds, and Acorns automatically rebalances your portfolio to stay in its target allocation.”
If you’ve been wanting to dabble in investing but aren’t ready to throw your savings accounts at it, the Acorns app is a great way to funnel small amounts into the market. Every little bit counts.
If you aren’t reliant on your car 24/7, you can make a quick and easy buck by renting it out through the Turo app. If you have a car that’s 12 years old or newer and meets certain requirements, you can list it on the app for drivers in need to rent while you’re not behind the wheel.
Turo takes a commission on each ride you rent out, so you’ll earn 65%–75% of each trip’s price.
The Getaround app is another tool that lets you rent out your car for money. Getaround is even more passive than Turo, as you won’t even need to exchange keys with the rental driver. Instead, the company will install technology in your car that allows for a remote handoff, then tracks where the driver takes your car (all on the app).
While the remote handoff is a huge bonus, the downside is that you only take home 60% of each trip’s price.
Use the Sniffspot app to turn your green space into someone’s private dog park for an hour or two. Through the app, you can list your yard for certain blocks of time so that a pet owner can give their furry friend a private place to play. You’ll only host one request at a time, so there’s no risk of inadvertently turning your backyard into a zoo.
Accepting visits means you grant them permission to enter your private property at a specific time, but doesn’t require you to interact with the pet owners, so this is a no-effort app that pays out what you’ve earned on a monthly basis.
Another app for renting out extra space, Neighbor lets you list your unused shed, garage, basement, spare room, or even closet as private storage for someone in need.
You can make arrangements and communicate with renters through the app. The platform even provides up to $1 million in insurance coverage.
If renting out unused space and goods sounds like a decent way to make money to you, you can also download the Rentah app and list almost any item, space, or service you can think of. You can rent out parts of your home and yard, items like snowboarding gear or car seats, or even an hour of your time to provide a service.
You’ll set the listing price for what you’re renting out, and Rentah will take 5% as a transaction fee.
Note: Rentah is no longer available on the Google Play store.
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