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December 20, 2024
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Usually 18+Not everyone has time to take on a second job or side gig. But that doesn’t mean you can’t start up a passive side hustle.
It may seem too good to be true, but the reality is that there are several passive income apps that can help you put some extra cash into your wallet with little to no effort at all. We’ve rounded up a list of the very best apps for passive income to get you started.
If passive income is money you earn by doing minimal ongoing work after an initial setup, a passive income app is a tool that helps you do that setup (and maintenance) work. For example, you can generate passive income through investments, rental properties, or cash back, to name a few—and passive income apps can help you get started right on your mobile phone.
It is possible to earn good money through passive income apps. However, it’s also possible to lose money—buying a rental property to put up on Airbnb could put you into serious debt if the market doesn’t work in your favor. Beyond luck, like any other side hustle, there’s no fast way to easy money. Think of it this way: Passive income will only come after a flurry of active hard work.
The suggestions we make that are less time consuming just don’t pay out well—but it’s hard to argue with extra cash you can make without much effort on your part.
Some of the most lucrative passive income side hustles involve renting out your property or belongings. Even if you feel like you don’t have much to offer, you’d be surprised at the broad range of things you can rent out for profit. Here’s a look at several apps you can use to passively make money through renting.
Turo is a peer-to-peer car-sharing platform that lets you rent out your car for money. As the owner, you can choose to rent out your vehicle for as little as a day or as much as a year.
Renting your unused items is one of the easiest ways to earn money without actively working for it. The catch, of course, is that you have to be willing to let people use your things, which is a big ask when it comes to something as valuable as your car.
Simply create an account with Turo and list your vehicle on the platform to begin collecting rent. Your vehicle must meet the platform’s eligibility requirements, which include being less than 12 years old and having fewer than 130,000 miles on it.
RVshare is another peer-to-peer rental marketplace. As its name suggests, the platform specializes in connecting RV owners with people looking for rentals.
If you have an RV, the chances are good that you only use it a few times per year. If that’s the case, renting it out when you don’t need it is an easy way to earn extra passive cash.
Your commission rate may be reduced yearly if the ratings of your completed bookings improve. RVshare will assess your performance at the end of December each year and apply a new (possibly reduced) commission rate to your account in January of the following year.
Create an account on RVshare to list your mobile home. You’ll need to provide clear pictures of your vehicle and add an accurate description.
Like RVshare, Outdoorsy is a platform where you can list your RV for rent. In addition to renting your RV, you can also host outdoor “stays.”
In other words, you can invite people to spend a night in a cabin, treehouse, or even a tent if you have an outdoor property. In a sense, Outdoorsy is a bit like Airbnb for campers.
Earning money from this app is simple: just create an account and list your RV or rental property. If you’re renting an RV, you’ll need to meet the renter to give them the key and a rundown of the vehicle.
Neighbor is a social media app that you can use to interact with people in your neighborhood. It also functions as a peer-to-peer storage-sharing platform that lets you rent out unused space, such as a spare bedroom, garage, or shed, for people to stash their belongings or vehicles.
Here again, you’ll earn money by letting people make use of your things—but in this case, all they’re using is your space, so they’re not putting wear and tear on your possessions.
Neighbor will charge the renter’s credit card on the date the reservation begins to avoid the renter failing to pay rent. At the end of the rental period (in a month), you’ll receive your payment via Stripe. It typically takes 2–3 days for Stripe to deposit the money to your connected bank account.
Start by checking if you’re allowed to rent out space on your property (if you’re a renter yourself, you may have to confirm this with your landlord).
Once you’ve cleared that up, create an account with Neighbor and list your space for rent. You should take clear, high-quality pictures of the space to accurately show its condition to potential renters.
You probably know what Airbnb is. It’s an online rental marketplace that connects homeowners with renters who are looking for relatively short-term accommodations (often a few days to a few weeks, although you can list your property on Airbnb for stays that will last months).
You can rent anything from a single room to a whole house on Airbnb. As the host, you can stay in the same property or in a different living space entirely, as long as you make the situation clear in your listing.
Collecting rent on a spare property is a classic way of generating passive income. Granted, it’s a bit of a stretch to call Airbnb “passive”; you’ll need to put in some work to start a profitable Airbnb business, especially in the beginning.
However, once your short-term rental side hustle is up and running, you can keep the process going relatively easy (or just hire a cohost to help you, although that will eat into your profits).
Some apps give you free money in exchange for your data. They may be looking for information about your consumer preferences or your online search behavior. By installing one of these apps, you can earn money from your phone with little to no effort.
There are several apps that will let you earn rewards simply by sharing your internet connection (i.e., your bandwidth). Honeygain is arguably the most famous of these passive apps to earn extra money.
When you install and run Honeygain on your device, the app will securely share your unused bandwidth (up to a limit that you set) with verified companies to help them complete “data-intensive tasks,” such as running price comparisons, verifying ads, and so on.
You must be of legal age in your country and have a valid email address to register on your own. If you’re underage, you can register with your parent or guardian’s approval.
Sharing your internet with Honeygain will net you credits, which you can then convert to cash. 10 credits is equivalent to $0.01. To start sharing your unused internet connection and earning passive income, create an account with Honeygain and install the app on your phone.
EarnApp is another app that will reward you for securely sharing your unused bandwidth with their clients, who’ll use it to collect publicly available data from the web. EarnApp’s clients don’t collect private information, and will mainly use the collected data for market research purposes.
You have theoretically unlimited earning potential on EarnApp—there’s no cap on how much data you can share. In practice, you’re obviously limited by the speed of your connection. You must be a legal adult in your country to register with the app.
Register an account with EarnApp and run it in the background to start earning passive income.
You can increase your earnings by creating a referral account and having other people sign up using your referral link. The rates vary depending on where the user who signs up with your link is located. Per install, you’ll make $3 from users in the US and $0.5–$2.5 from users elsewhere.
Keep in mind that there are transaction fees for certain payment methods. Specifically, you’ll be charged 2% for PayPal transfers and $1.13 for Wise transfers. Withdrawing gift cards is free.
Note: When you download EarnApp via the App Store, the link will take you to the page for the Bright Rewards app (which offers EarnApp’s features for iOS users in partnership with EarnApp’s company).
Pawns.app is yet another app that lets you earn money by sharing your unused bandwidth with individuals and businesses. In addition to sharing your unused bandwidth, you can also get additional rewards on Pawns.app by taking surveys and completing other small in-app tasks, although that isn’t exactly “passive.”
You must be of age in your country to register on your own. If you’re underage, you can still register with your parent or guardian’s approval.
If you want to get paid for doing something on Pawns.app that requires minimal effort, sharing your internet is the way to go. You can cash out up to $140 per month.
SavvyConnect is a data-sharing app that rewards users for participating in “behavior market research” and taking online surveys. Participating in SavvyConnect’s behavior market research requires installing software and is completely passive.
If you agree to participate in SavvyConnect’s market research program, the app’s clients will collect data on your online behavior when you browse the internet. They won’t collect your data when you activate “Private Browsing” or “Incognito Mode.” You must be 13+ years old to use this app.
If you’re willing to have your online activities scrutinized by companies, you can earn money from SavvyConnect’s market research program without changing your behavior.
The $3 monthly earnings for sharing your data are for each device you install the app on. This means you can bump up your earnings by installing the app on multiple devices.
Nielsen is a market research company that rewards users for securely sharing their internet usage data for research purposes. (You can also take surveys, if you’re interested in that.)
You can join the panel by installing software on your computer or using Nielsen’s app. They won’t view the content of the websites you visit or collect any of your personal information—they’ll track your behavior, but it theoretically can’t be traced back to you.
You must be 18+ years old to register with the platform.
Share your internet usage data with Nielsen to generate income by browsing the internet as you normally would. To earn up to $60 per year in rewards, you have to install their software on both your mobile phone and computer ($30 for mobile, $30 for computer).
Keep in mind that any unused points will expire a year after they’ve been credited to your account, or if you remain inactive on your eligible device for 6 consecutive months. Points can’t be reinstated once they expire.
Survey Junkie is another platform that allows its users to earn rewards by taking online surveys. However, it also offers certain passive income opportunities.
With Survey Junkie, you earn points, which you can then redeem for your choice of reward (100 points are equivalent to $1). To sign up with Survey Junkie, you must be 18+ years old, reside in the United States, Canada, or Australia, and have a valid email address.
Although the primary way to earn rewards on Survey Junkie is to take paid surveys—which requires active effort, although not very much of it—you can earn passive income on it by participating in Survey Junkie’s Surf to Earn program.
The Surf to Earn extension will track your digital activities and compensate you with rewards. This means that, as with some of the other apps we’ve listed above, you can earn money simply by browsing the internet as you normally would.
Survey Junkie says that your sensitive information, such as your credit card numbers, will be kept secure.
Exactly how much you can earn from using Surf to Earn is up for debate. Some online users, such as in this r/surveyjunkie thread on Reddit, report that they typically earn less than a dollar from the program each month. It’s also worth noting that many users also claim that adding the extension slowed down their computer and caused other technical problems.
To join the Surf to Earn program, install Survey Junkie’s browser extension or opt in via the Survey Junkie app.
Money SMS is an app developed by TelQ Telecom GmnH, a German telecom service provider. The app lets users earn money by receiving texts from the Money SMS network and their customers.
Telecom providers often send test messages to foreign countries to check if their service is working properly. That’s what you’ll be helping Money SMS with—and they’ll pay you for it, although you’ll make relatively modest amounts.
Although Money SMS pays in Euros, it’s available to users in the US. If you can’t find your country on their list when registering, it likely means it’s full at the moment; if so, check back in a few days to see if they’re accepting new applicants. Note that you must be of legal age in your country to sign up with the app.
Download and register with the app to start receiving paid SMSes from them. The company doesn’t state how many SMSes you’ll get or when you’ll receive them. Be sure to keep the app running and your connection active so that you don’t miss any.
Cashback apps are a unique type of passive income app that pay you for making purchases. They won’t be ideal for everyone since you need to spend money to earn money. But if you’re someone who does a lot of shopping, then could help you gain hundreds of dollars in savings with no effort.
Swagbucks is a rewards program that offers the chance to complete various tasks, such as taking surveys and watching videos, in exchange for Swagbucks points (SB).
Most tasks on Swagbucks take active participation, but a few of them are completely passive. As mentioned, you earn Swagbucks points (SB) on the platform, then redeem them for your choice of reward; every 100 points is equivalent to $1.
We tested the app and found that you need at least $15 in your account to cash out for the first time. After that, the withdrawal threshold may be as low as $1.
You must be 13+ years old and have a valid email address to sign up with Swagbucks.
Here are three ways to earn money passively with Swagbucks:
InboxDollars is an app that lets you earn cash by participating in various online activities, such as playing mobile games, taking paid online surveys, and downloading apps.
You may have noticed that InboxDollars is quite similar to Swagbucks; in fact, it’s produced by the same company. With InboxDollars, you can cash out for the first time when you earn $15, and with just $10 for subsequent payments.
You must be 18+ years old, reside in the United States, and have a valid email address to sign up with InboxDollars.
To earn money passively, focus on the activities you don’t need to go out of your way to complete, such as using InboxDollars’ search engine when surfing the internet or shopping as you normally would at partnering stores.
Ibotta is a mobile app that offers consumers cash back when they make qualifying purchases at partnering stores (either on the app or in person). Ibotta functions a lot like Swagbucks and InboxDollars, but their cashback features are more like add-ons, whereas on Ibotta, it’s the app’s main focus.
In addition to shopping at partnering stores, you can earn cash by buying gift cards directly from Ibotta. They offer gift cards for various large retailers, including Walmart, Starbucks, and Lowe’s.
You must be 18+ years old and have a valid email address to sign up with Ibotta.
You can shop and earn cash back through your smartphone or computer. Here’s how:
On a related note, if you don’t mind spending time scanning receipts to earn money, check out this list of other receipt-scanning apps that let you earn money by shopping. Ibotta is one of the biggest names in this space, but not the only one.
Formerly known as Ebates, Rakuten is one of the largest cashback apps out there. Rakuten partners with a variety of shops, including Nike, Adidas, Macy’s, and Target.
You’ll likely find several brands you regularly shop with. Therefore, you can make purchases as you normally would while earning cash back. You must be 18+ years old and have a valid email address to sign up with Rakuten.
Earning rewards on Rakuten is very straightforward. Simply create an account with the platform and make qualifying purchases through their app, through Rakuten’s website, or via the platform’s Chrome extension.
Dosh is another app that offers cashback rewards to members who make qualifying purchases with partnering merchants, both in-store and online. The company claims to pride itself on letting consumers earn cash back automatically, without having to take extra steps, such as scanning receipts.
You must be 18+ years old, reside in the United States, and have a US-based, non-VoIP mobile number to sign up with Dosh.
Download the Dosh app and link your credit or debit card to it to start earning rewards. Your earnings will be deposited directly into your Dosh wallet; you can cash them out once you meet the minimum payout threshold.
Fluz is another cashback app you can use to save money on your everyday purchases. When you buy something through Fluz, you’ll technically buy a gift card from them to pay for it. Fluz will then give you rewards for the purchase of the card.
You must be 18+ years old, have a smartphone, and have a credit card or debit card in your name to sign up with Fluz.
Sign up with Fluz and link your bank account to the app to begin earning money passively when you make everyday purchases.
To maximize your earnings, you can also invite your friends and family to join Fluz by sending them an invite link or a referral code (click “Share Fluz” on your Home Tab to find the invite link or referral code). People who join Fluz using your invite link or referral code will be part of your network. Each time one of them buys something, you’ll earn 0.03%–0.3% of what they spent (depending on what they bought).
To qualify for this referral feature, you must have spent at least $10 on Fluz yourself, and must continue spending at least $15 every month. There’s no limit on how many people you can invite.
As you probably guessed from its name, Capital One Shopping is run by Capital One, one of the largest credit card issuing companies. This is one of the best passive income websites for people who love to shop.
Like other cash-back apps and sites, Capital One Shopping offers a wide selection of deals from different brands with varying cashback rates; however, you earn gift cards instead of cash. If you’re looking to earn cash exclusively, you may want to consider other cash-back apps in the market.
You must be 18+ years old and reside in the United States to sign up with Capital One Shopping.
You don’t need a Capital One credit card to activate this tool. Simply download the Capital One Shopping app or install its browser extension to find favorable cashback deals. You can also use it to search for coupons and better prices with different retailers.
Investing is arguably the best and easiest way of generating passive income in the long term. If you have a bit of capital already and you’re not afraid of a bit of risk, then consider downloading one of these apps for earning passive income from investments.
Robinhood is a commission-free investing and trading platform (i.e., a brokerage) that also offers its own cashback debit card, the Robinhood Gold Card. Before using Robinhood or any other investment app, make sure you fully understand what you’re getting into.
When you’re ready to start investing, create a Robinhood account and wait for the platform to approve your application. You can also earn cash back if you have the Robinhood Gold Card.
This card offers 3% on all purchases and up to 5% on eligible travel purchases. Once your 30-day free trial ends, you’ll need to pay a $5 monthly fee to access the Robinhood Gold premium services.
Acorns is another popular investing app and brokerage. Their selling point is that they make it easy to use your spare change to begin investing.
The way this works is, you’ll link a credit or debit card to your Acorns account. Each time you make a purchase, the app will automatically round up the charge to the nearest dollar and invest the money for you.
Unfortunately, the app doesn’t allow you to trade individual stocks (or funds) with a basic account. Instead, you’ll have to choose from a selection of prepared portfolios. If you want to manage your own portfolio, you’ll need to spring for a premium account.
You can open a checking account and a debit card with Acorns, so if you prefer, you can manage your money all in one place.
Create an account and link at least one credit or debit card to begin putting your spare change to work. Opening an account is technically free, but to actually use any of Acorns’s features, you’ll need to opt into one of three subscription tiers.
This is fairly expensive, especially given how many free brokerages there are out there. However, if you need Acorns’ automatic deposits to motivate yourself to invest, it could still be worth it—at least when you’re just starting out on your investing journey.
If you’re interested in cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.), you can look into Binance, which is an online crypto trading platform. This is one of the best apps for generating passive income from investing in crypto.
Cryptocurrency is a volatile asset that comes with added risk when it comes to investing, so it may not be the safest app to use to earn a passive income. But if you’ve already decided that you want to step into the world of cryptocurrency, Binance is one of the more reputable apps to use.
Keep in mind that in addition to the transaction and withdrawal fees, Binance also charges a service fee of up to 35% on your staking rewards, which you earn by holding certain cryptocurrencies. Staking rewards are paid to you in crypto, and they’re similar to interest or dividends you earn on savings accounts or stocks, but with even higher risks.
Click “Register” on the Binance website and follow the instructions to sign up with them. Just be sure not to deposit any cash on Binance that you aren’t emotionally and financially prepared to lose.
Arrived is an online investing platform that focuses on rental homes. The platform offers two types of rental properties: single-family residences and vacation rentals. You can also invest in private credit funds.
Investing with Arrived is meant to be long-term, and their minimum investment hold policies reflect that. At a minimum, you must hold on to individual properties for 5–7 years, vacation rentals for 5–15 years, and private credit funds for 6 months. Make sure you can commit to Arrived’s terms before investing anything with them.
If you’re an investor, you’ll receive returns in the form of monthly dividends or capital gains (increases in the property’s value over time).
The fees associated with Arrived will come out of your returns. This means that the money you’ll earn on your Arrived Homes investment might be lower than what you’d get if you simply deposited your cash into a high-yield savings account (or somewhere else relatively safe, such as a money market account).
Thoroughly research Arrived Homes before you try to earn passive income with them. As you’re probably gathering, this is something of a theme with all investment apps—it’s very important to do your due diligence before you commit.
With Fundrise, you can invest in real estate funds, startup companies, and other assets you can’t find on public stock exchanges.
The available real estate assets on Fundrise are diverse, ranging from residential and commercial to mixed-used properties. Fundrise will acquire and manage the real estate assets for their investors, taking much of the workload off your shoulders.
Do research on the type of investment you want to pursue, and consider your investment goals and risk tolerance beforehand.
When you’re ready to start investing, create an account with Fundrise and select a portfolio strategy to start investing. Fundrise will add new assets to your portfolio periodically to diversify and strengthen it.
Prosper is a peer-to-peer lending platform that connects lenders and borrowers. As an investor, you can invest (e.g., chip in with your own money) in small portions of different types of loans. Depending on how hands-on you want to be, you can select the loans you’d like to invest in yourself or use a preset investment portfolio.
You don’t have to worry about collecting past-due loans. Prosper will handle it with a third-party collector. The catch is that you’ll have to pay a fee of up to 40% of the recovered amount.
To get started, open a Prosper account, link your bank account to it, and pick your investments to start earning interest each month. If you choose to auto-invest, Prosper will also automatically reinvest the interest you earn in new loans.
One of the first things to consider when picking a passive income app is what type of activity you want to participate in.
For instance, if you have extra time on your hands, you may find it worth it to devote some time to establishing an Airbnb business; once you have it up and running, you can start collecting rent with relatively minimal work. You can even potentially turn it into a highly profitable business.
However, if, like many people, you simply aren’t able to manage rental properties and handle other time-consuming projects, using cash-back apps, sharing unused data, and the like may be more suitable for you. Although the earnings are generally lower with these tasks, you genuinely won’t need to put any effort into making money.
Once you’ve decided on the activity you’re interested in doing, you can look for relevant apps to sign up with. Whichever app you choose, just make sure you’ve carefully read its terms and conditions and are aware of any associated fees so that there won’t be any surprises when you start using it.
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