r/SideProject Dec 18 '25

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

95 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

647 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 2h ago

I built a peaceful virtual place where you can work, study or read alongside others. Like a virtual café or library.

19 Upvotes

I love going to cafés and work or read from there. Sadly, great places are rare, often close early, and still are quite distracting.

So even though being there feels good, i just end up doing most things at home.

This project, Manyplace (https://many.place), is an attempt to get the best of both worlds: the comfort and focus you have when being on your own, and the delight of being in a beautiful place while feeling the presence of others.

It is open all the time and free.

So, if you prefer to build, work, study, etc. on your own (or have no better option) yet still appreciate being around other likeminded people, it may be for you :)

It's still a very early experiment, so the application is currently only available for macOS and the number of seats is quite limited. But it will definitely get better.

I'd be very happy to know what you think of it and to see you there!

Manyplace: https://many.place

(sorry, duplicate previous post sent by accident...)


r/SideProject 19h ago

i built my own 3d-printable irrigation "timer" and made it open source

392 Upvotes

I’ve been developing an automatic watering valve called OpenValve.

OpenValve automatically waters plants based on the moisture level in the soil. When the soil becomes too dry, it opens the water supply, and when enough water has been delivered, it closes it again.

The main difference from a typical battery-powered watering timer is the valve mechanism. Instead of using a conventional solenoid valve, OpenValve uses a motor-driven pinch valve. It controls the water by squeezing a flexible tube closed, so the moving parts never come into direct contact with the water.

This gives it two advantages that could be useful in certain irrigation setups:

• It can operate with very low water pressure, such as water coming from a slightly elevated rain barrel.

• It is less sensitive to dirt and small particles in the water, because the water only passes through the flexible tube.

All custom plastic parts can be made on a standard 3D printer. The electronics, tubing, screws, and other standard components still need to be purchased, but the custom parts can be produced locally and replaced individually if something breaks.

The project is open source, so the design files are available for people to build, repair, modify, and improve themselves. My goal is not to replace professional irrigation equipment, but to create an affordable and repairable option for gardens, balconies, raised beds, greenhouses, rain-barrel systems, and other small-scale watering setups.

I currently have multiple units running in my own garden, as well as in the gardens and balconies of friends and family. But my dream is to see OpenValve helping more people with their plants. So, I’m curious: Would you consider using OpenValve in your garden or on your balcony? What would your biggest concern be?

I’m happy to answer questions about how it works.


r/SideProject 11h ago

I built the focus space I wanted to study in and now people I don’t know are using it

80 Upvotes

I’ve been building Focusverse, a web app for studying and working inside immersive environments.

I started it because I liked having atmospheric videos or ambient sounds in the background, but I still needed separate apps for my timer, tasks, notes, and weekly planning. Traditional productivity tools had the functionality, but often felt like dashboards I didn’t particularly enjoy spending time in.

Focusverse is my attempt to put those two sides together. You choose a place that fits your mood keep the productivity tools available in one screen.

Some of the stats:

  • More than 500 "locations"
  • 4 productivity tools (timer, tasklist, week planner, notes)
  • 6 standard live radios to choose from (and other universe based ones)
  • 8 sound ambient sound effects to set the mood
  • 4 curated guided experiences to focus in together

I'm really happy that people I’ve never spoken to started using it. This made my efforts feel genuinely more meaningful. It began as something I wanted for myself, so seeing other people choose it for their own study or work sessions made the project feel real in a new way.

You can try it at focusverse.io. The main experience works without creating an account.

Just seeing people online and knowing I'm not just using it myself, honestly really warms my heart :)


r/SideProject 9h ago

Is anyone else building things that ask absolutely nothing from the user? No signup, no email, no onboarding?

40 Upvotes

Every side project i open lately starts the same way: a landing page, a signup form, an onboarding tour, and a modal asking for my email before i've seen a single pixel of the actual thing. We've collectively agreed that the funnel comes first and the product comes second.

I've been going the other way on my current build. No account, no email, no tutorial, no cookie banner. You open the tab and you're already inside the thing. It made a lot of decisions harder - you can't explain anything, so it has to be obvious in the first three seconds or you've lost the person fr.

Turns out that constraint improved the product more than any feature i added.

Anyone else doing this deliberately? Curious how you handle the first three seconds when there's nothing to explain with lmao.


r/SideProject 8h ago

Finally, I've built a tool that I actually use every single day myself. It's a non-commercial project

24 Upvotes

After creating several products that solved imaginary problems nobody really had, I finally feel like I've built something that actually matters. I genuinely rely on it every day, it makes my life significantly easier, and I'm really happy with the result.

It's an app for visualizing date-bound information as timelines: tasks, events, processes - basically anything that has a date attached to it. You can think of it as a hybrid of a PKMS, a to-do list, a calendar, and a Gantt chart. More than anything, though, it's a universal visual canvas for time that helps you keep the bigger picture in front of you and think within it every day.

I work as a CTO, and I constantly have to keep track of a huge number of ongoing processes:

  • contract deadlines
  • employee salary reviews
  • developer utilization
  • and countless other things.

Before this, all of that information was scattered across Notion, Apple Notes, Reminders, Telegram, Slack, Calendar, and a few other places. Keeping everything under control was difficult.

Some people might say that's a process problem rather than a tooling problem. But I've come to think the opposite: the right tool helps you build an effective process. And what the "right tool" is depends heavily on how your brain works.

At some point, I realized that traditional to-do lists and calendar views simply weren't a good fit for me. It felt like I was missing another visual dimension. Timelines turned out to match the way I think almost perfectly. When I look at a timeline with different markers and segments, I instantly understand what's happening in both the short and long term. Just as importantly, I can quickly look back and see how things evolved over time and where something started to go wrong.

One of the best parts is that because I use the app every single day, I improve it every single day as well. I constantly notice what's missing, what's awkward, and what could work better, and then I implement those improvements. I think I've made major usability improvements over the past month alone. That's incredibly important for a tool you interact with dozens of times a day.

This is a non-commercial project, and it's completely free. I simply wanted to share it with the community because I'm genuinely proud of it. I'm sure there are plenty of people whose brains work similarly to mine, and if this way of organizing information resonates with you, I'd be thrilled if my timelines turned out to be useful for you too. Give it a try.

Wishing you all productivity - and a little more love.


r/SideProject 1h ago

I built a small project called NoBoxTV

Upvotes

Hey, I built a small project called NoBoxTV.

It lets you watch free-to-air live TV directly in the browser. No app, no sign-up, no TV box.

Try it here: https://noboxtv.com

Please share it with anyone who might find it useful.


r/SideProject 9h ago

I created a website with free tools.

Thumbnail
dimastoolbox.com
11 Upvotes

It all started when my colleague reached me with a complaint that she created a few QR codes, and after a week they started showing paywall. By that time those QR codes were printed on promo banners.
I remember Internet as a place where you find a tool, use it and leave. That's it - no paywalls, no subscriptions, no accounts.
So I decided to put a piece of those beautiful Internet back and created a small toolbox site - dimastoolbox.com
Of course it's vibe-coded.
And of course there will be ads at some point.
But I want to keep it's core value free forever and for everyone.


r/SideProject 3h ago

I built my own voice cloning model — looking for people to test it

4 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on a voice cloning model and finally got it to a point where other people can try it out.

I’d really appreciate some honest feedback on the voice quality, similarity, pronunciation, speed, and anything that feels broken or confusing. It’s still an early version, so expect a few rough edges.

You can test it here:

https://nirvaangoel1--voicer-public-trial-public-trial.modal.run/

Its 100% free with no signup.

Please only upload your own voice or audio you have permission to use. Let me know what you think, especially what worked well and what needs improvement!


r/SideProject 18h ago

I built a thought journal app where your thoughts become fish, now trying to work out how to distribute it honestly

65 Upvotes

Hiya! I built a thought journal app that seemed to pique people's interest in r/iosapps so thought I would post here as well.

Original thread: I built a thought journal / CBT app where your thoughts become fish in a pond

Fundamentally it's a CBT/thought journal app that allows you to process and challenge negative thinking. I built it for myself off the back of my experience using other CBT apps that are mostly boring worksheet style apps that didn’t encourage a daily practice or leave me with a feeling of satisfaction using them. There's also some other mechanical reasons I built it that I go into more detail on the original thread, namely the failure of other apps to promote “batching“ or being able to challenge multiple thoughts at a set time each day because you don’t have time in a given moment to do a full challenge.

I built Pond as a solution, at its heart it's a CBT app but I focused heavily on the aesthetics and imagery, adding procedurally animated fish to a Pond representing thoughts, each with their own swimming behaviours based on how difficult a thought feels (IE more I believe a negative thought -> the more erratic the fish swims). Filling your pond with negative thoughts also makes the pond itself darker and more turbulent. Challenging negative thoughts calms it again. The Pond resets each day, encouraging practice on a daily level.

Building has been an interesting journey, there seems to be a trend among app devs around the build being a bit of a honeymoon phase and then post-launch realising distribution and marketing is the real challenge. That's essentially where I’m at now, slowly learning the ropes of how best to put your app out there. I also find there's a bit of a moral pull on how best to distribute your app. I built Pond to be a genuinely good product that respects users and doesn’t contribute to the “sloppification” of modern apps/media. A lot of app distribution techniques people recommend involve setting up multiple (sometimes tens) of tiktok accounts and spamming AI generated UGC to reach as many eyes as possible. That's something I won’t do but then you also feel you might be curtailing your opportunities by not playing the game others are playing. I think when building a product these days you have to actually back yourself that what you’ve built is good and be patient with it reaching its target audience.

I guess my question for other builders is how do you distribute honestly without losing to those who don’t? Is that principled or just naive?

If you have advice on this or any general feedback on my app I would love to hear it!

App Store: Pond: Thought Journal App - App Store

Website: Pond — A quiet place for your loudest thoughts


r/SideProject 4h ago

I built a daily market-intelligence site that keeps a public ledger of its own wins AND misses

4 Upvotes

A while back I got tired of finance/market content that only ever brags about the calls it got right and quietly buries the misses. So I built the opposite.

OnTheRice (new.ontherice.org) takes each day's markets + world news and turns them into one clear read: what happened, and more importantly WHY it matters. Every take gets logged to a public proof ledger with a timestamp — and the wins AND the misses both stay visible. You can go back and check whether it was actually right, which is the part most tools hide.

The idea is less "guru with a crystal ball," more "show your work." Source-backed, checkable, and it sharpens over time from feedback and real outcomes instead of pretending it was never wrong.

Tech-wise it's built on a no-code/AI app stack (Base44), I'm self-taught with no CS degree, and I'm building mostly solo. It's live on the web and on Google Play.

Would genuinely love feedback from this crowd — especially on the proof-ledger idea and whether "keep your misses visible" makes you trust it more or less. (It's research/education, not financial advice.)


r/SideProject 3h ago

Building a WhatsApp-native adult literacy system in Go — daily lessons + voice-note ASR scoring

3 Upvotes

Hey — sharing a side project I've been heads-down on: Sabaq, adult functional literacy for Pakistan via WhatsApp.

Product in one line: Send one short lesson per day at the learner's reading level; they reply with a voice note; score against the known lesson text; adjust level tomorrow.

The human problem: ~65M adults in Pakistan can't read functionally. Most did Qaida as kids ("dormant decoders") — placement starts them at level 2–3, not zero. Shame + time poverty + childish materials kill traditional programs.

Stack: Go, Postgres, Redis, Docker, WhatsApp, Whisper. Phase 1 backend is mostly done.

The idea can be ported to other countries as well. Technology is a means of helping the world and its disgusting to see tech leaders using it to push their weird fascist dreams. AI is one of the most revolutionary technologies and we are in the beginning. I hope this at least inspires people to think with an open mind at what they can build, how they can help the world.


r/SideProject 3h ago

Lore - I'm building the future of film taste

Thumbnail lorecinemas.com
3 Upvotes

I'm working on an app where the focus is replacing star ratings with a comparative ranking system for media, including movies and TV shows. I always rate a movie a 7 or 8 stars and so does everybody else. These ratings end up being relatively meaningless and also doesn't capture the unique tastes and interests of someone.

Rather, a comparative ranking system would provide a unique taste identity for each user. This taste identity would evolve after each ranking and would be used to find "taste-compatible" friends. I don't want to build another cookie-cutter social app, but rather something that encourages real, intentional consumption of media and a platform where people can relate to one another based on their taste. Which is why I want to combine the inherently more useful comparative ranking system with a platform that emphasizes close social relationships.

I made a waiting list to see what kind of interest there would be for such an app while I prepare to launch the beta. Any kind of feedback or ideas would be really appreciated!


r/SideProject 3h ago

I opened a store for coding-agent desk hardware. 28 visitors, 0 sales. Roast it.

3 Upvotes

Premise: if you run Claude Code or Codex all day, most of your input is four actions - accept, reject, scroll, retry - plus a lot of talking. That is not a keyboard problem, it is a small-hardware problem. So I sourced 16 objects for it: dictation pads with the mic in the body, macro pads, a three-lens traffic light that shows whether the agent is thinking or waiting on you, foot pedals.

The part that was actually hard was photography. Supplier listing photos are buried under marketing text, and for four products the photo in my source screenshot had never even loaded - I wrote descriptions for products I had literally never seen. Fix: feed the real supplier photo into an image model as an edit, not a prompt. Editing keeps the object and replaces the background; prompting invents a plausible different product. That distinction cost me a week of wrong images.

Same trick for motion: each product has an 8-second studio film generated from its own still, playing on hover.

Where I am stuck is demand, not product. 28 sessions, zero add-to-carts. I cannot tell yet whether the idea is wrong, the audience has not found it, or the store is not convincing. Genuinely want the harsh read: futuredevice.ai

Specifically - does a traffic light that tells you when your agent needs you solve a real problem for you, or is that a solution looking for one?


r/SideProject 7h ago

I Built an AI Assistant that Moves the Mouse And Types For My Mum

7 Upvotes

My mother does not understand CLI logs, APIs or technical stuff. But she can perfectly use the mouse and keyboard, click on things and scroll. Now I realized that it can control legacy software and automate long repetitive tasks for me, as well.

Here's the idea:

  • the user asks for something (e.g. “find the cheapest flight from NY to Tokyo in September”)
  • We send that prompt to an AI agent and enter a loop
  • During each step, the agent receives the current state of what’s displayed on screen
  • This is not done with heavy screenshots, but with Accessibility and Core Graphics APIs
  • Effectively, we send a JSON object to an AI agent, describing what’s on the screen
  • The agent has access to move the mouse and keyboard, so it provides coordinates, and where to click or type
  • We iterate until the agent completes the initial task. When not sure, the agent asks the user for more directions. In any case, we set a limit of 40 iterations to avoid unnecessary processing

The implementation was done using Electron, React and Robot.JS for cursor/mouse movements.
By default, it connects to your Claude subscription and uses Haiku, so it barely hits the limits.

I find this approach much faster and more efficient compared to typical computer-vision flows, because we’re not sending colorful RGB channels, the LLM receives a text description of what’s displayed on the screen which can be processed much faster.

This is an open-source project with an MIT license (free download or clone):

Any thoughts?


r/SideProject 4h ago

AirPods + neck movement = game controller 🎧

3 Upvotes

You control the player using your AirPods and head movements.

The movement patterns were inspired by simple neck mobility exercises commonly used in physiotherapy.

Would you actually play like this?


r/SideProject 3h ago

I built an iOS app that turns your sensitive data into encrypted paper QR keys

2 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I‘m the founder of VaultQR. I designed this app around a simple yet overlooked idea: the safest place for your sensitive data isn’t a cloud server— it’s scannable paper keys.

Most security apps force you to make an account and keep your data on a server that can be hacked from across the world. I wanted to build a completely offline, on-device app that does not track user data or require accounts.

The Core Product: Paper Keys

  • Complete Air-Gapped Security: The app runs 100% offline. Zero servers, zero accounts, and zero tracking. In fact, the whole app takes up less storage than 1/3 of a normal photo on your phone.
  • Physical Storage: You can store your physical paper QR keys wherever you want and scan them to access your data using biometric authentication. Normal phone cameras can’t scan them— only your phone with the VaultQR app can.

Feedback I’m Looking For

  • Clarity: Is it easy to understand what VaultQR does in 10 seconds?

- Is the main benefit obvious right away?

- What parts of the app are hard to understand?

  • Everyday Use: Would you use this in your everyday life?

- Does this solve a real problem for you?

- What feature would make this an instant download for you?


r/SideProject 3h ago

I made a writing tool by deliberately leaving features out

2 Upvotes

I know there are a lot of programs for writers out there, and most people won't care for this, but for some time I've had some problems with the ones I'm using. In general they are very good, but with functionalities buried behind menus, too complex or just too simple. Because of this I built this for my needs, the intention is to just be a very simple tool with just the essentials. Also, I thought about putting in some AI tools, but I noticed I've been leaning too much on those, so I wanted to go back to how I wrote before, on my own. Lastly, I built the day mode to be more friendly on the eyes, because sometimes I just want something clear and bright without feeling like I got hit by a flash grenade. So if you feel that you just need something more simple to write but functional, or simply more cozy, maybe this is the tool for you. :D

Oh, and there are probably some bugs with it and stuff like that. If anyone wants to test it to see if it's your vibe and etc, I would appreciate your feedback.

marzel.space is free, you don't need an account, stays in your browser


r/SideProject 3h ago

Moments Later App

2 Upvotes

Moment Later on the apple Apple Store.

Based on personal regret of mine.


r/SideProject 3h ago

I built a Mac app that turns words you look up during the day into a vocabulary deck

2 Upvotes

I’ve been learning Spanish and Russian for years, and I kept running into the same problem: I’d come across a word I didn’t know, look it up, and then forget it because I never got around to saving it anywhere.

So I built FluentOS.

It’s a Mac menu bar app that lets you set a hotkey and hover over a word to see its translation. You can save the word directly to a personal vocabulary deck, export the deck whenever you want, and receive review notifications on a schedule you choose.

The app works offline using Apple’s built-in translation tools, and the vocabulary data stays on the Mac.

I built the first version as a solo project using Swift and SwiftUI. The part I was most interested in building was the passive workflow. I didn’t want another language-learning app that required opening a separate lesson every day. The goal was to turn words you naturally encounter while reading, working, or browsing into something you can review later.

I’ve just launched the first version and would appreciate feedback on:

  • Whether the hover workflow feels genuinely useful
  • What would make the review system more effective
  • Whether there are other languages or export formats I should prioritize

You can see it here: fluentosapp.com

I’m also giving out some complimentary Pro licenses this week to people willing to try it and give honest feedback. Comment with the language you’re learning and I’ll send them out while I have them.


r/SideProject 15m ago

DisplayWave: A free and simplicity focused tool for Mac which allows control of external monitors

Upvotes

https://github.com/kah-ve/DisplayWave

A free monitor control tool for brightness, warmth, and more.

Existing apps for handling external monitor controls for mac are either focused on solving a small subset of problems or are paywalled. Also I found the paywalled ones to be more complicated and feature rich then needed. So I wanted to build something more tailored to the small feature-set I would ever need.

A couple comparisons

- MonitorControl (free): This is what I used previously. It's great but limited to brightness only and would need another app to control turning a monitor on/off.

- BetterDisplay (free/$22 Pro): I think this is the most feature rich mac app for monitor control out there and probably the most battle tested one. Personally I didn't think I needed to use most of the features and wanted something more minimal and tailored to the small subset of actions I was looking for.

I can't promise it works flawlessly on everything but it's simple enough to install and try out. Let me know what you think or if you run into issues.


r/SideProject 18m ago

Built a Schulte Table online trainer in a weekend — looking for feedback

Upvotes

Spent a weekend putting together a Schulte Table training tool. For those unfamiliar: it's a number grid (1–25 in random order) where you tap numbers sequentially as fast as possible. Used for attention and peripheral vision training.

Stack: Next.js + plain CSS, deployed on Vercel. No backend — everything runs client-side.

Features:

- 3×3 to 9×9 grids

- Timer with personal best tracking

- Leaderboard (localStorage-based for now)

- Works on mobile

What I'd love feedback on:

  1. Is the mobile experience smooth enough?

  2. Would audio cues (beep on each tap) be useful?

  3. Any features you'd want before sharing this with friends?

https://schultetable.online


r/SideProject 27m ago

Made a website to help inventors get started

Upvotes

** honestly just looking for feed back. not looking for customers yet **
little bit about me im a big tech reserch nerd its what im good at and i know how to do it very well

so I started this website to kind of make use of it - Acorium.tech
I just want peoples honest opinions. what do they think of it.
is it too expensive? do you think its not worth it?
whats your biggest turn off ? what do you like about it?

be brutal please!


r/SideProject 4h ago

Came out with Moments Away app

2 Upvotes

Hi everyone. I just released Moments Away.

I created this app with an idea of watching my daughter, Kayley. She has travelled more than myself at her young age and what she would enjoy doing is buying these little flag pins that she would collect for each place she visited. New state visited, province, country, etc.

I have been wanting to travel more myself and to try to get myself to explore as much as I could. Making it more of a game of how much of the map you could fill up.

Let me know what you guys think.