Side Project Ideas

The Problem (Pain Level: 8/10) “I joined a new company and it took months to understand the million-line legacy codebase.” Large codebases are hard to grasp. Documentation is outdated, architecture is complex, and even finding “where this function is called from” takes time. Target Market - TAM $6.41B → $13.70B (2030) Developers working with legacy code Developers joining new teams Code reviewers and architects Open source contributors Software Development Tools Market is expected to grow from $6.41B (2025) to $13.70B (2030) at CAGR 16.4%. ...

The Problem (Pain Level: 7/10) “Building apps with Docker is easy, but deploying and managing them is still complicated.” After Heroku’s free plan disappeared, many developers returned to self-hosting. But Nginx configuration, SSL certificates, and Docker Compose management remain cumbersome. Target Market - TAM $164.3B (PaaS Market by 2026) Developers who prefer self-hosting Cost-conscious indie hackers Small startups Privacy-focused users Platform as a Service (PaaS) Market is expected to reach $164.3B by 2026 at CAGR 19.6%. ...

The Problem (Pain Level: 7/10) “I wasted too much time creating invoices in Excel.” Freelancers and small business owners need to create invoices every month. They either use Excel templates, search for free tools, or sign up for expensive accounting software. Target Market - TAM $3.17B → $9.18B (2032) Freelancers (developers, designers, writers) Small business owners Consultants Solo entrepreneurs Invoice Processing Software Market is expected to grow from $3.17B (2024) to $9.18B (2032) at CAGR 14.2%. The SME segment holds 44.9% market share. ...

The Problem (Pain Level: 8/10) “I’m tired of repeating Stripe integration, auth system, and Prisma setup every time I start a new project.” Indie hackers spend an average of 2-3 weeks on basic setup when starting a new MVP. What if you could use that time for actual product development? Target Market - TAM $10B+ (MVP Development Services by 2035) Indie hackers and solo founders Side project developers Early-stage startup teams Freelance developers MVP Development Service Market is expected to exceed $10B by 2035. ...

The Problem (Pain Level: 9/10) Traditional uptime monitoring tools only check if a site is “alive.” But they miss critical elements from Google’s SEO perspective. Real case: A developer lost $400 in ad revenue while uptime monitors showed everything was fine. The reason? They weren’t monitoring Core Web Vitals, indexing status, or crawlability—things Google cares about. Target Market - TAM $1.2B → $2.5B (2033) Website operators who prioritize SEO Bloggers and content creators Startup marketing managers E-commerce site operators Website Monitoring Market is expected to grow from $1.2B (2024) to $2.5B (2033) at CAGR 8.9%. ...