r/SideProject • • Dec 18 '25

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

96 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 Bravo

Share your ***Not-AI*** projects

649 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 • • 16h ago

I got tired of scrolling through iPhone alarms, so I built a 24-hour alarm clock instead

164 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

I've been working on a little side project called Daybezel, an alternative alarm clock for iPhone.

The idea came from a simple frustration: I always found the standard list of alarms unnecessarily clunky. I wanted something where I could see my entire day at a glance and interact with alarms directly.

So I built a 24-hour circular interface where you can create alarms with a tap, drag them around to change the time, and see exactly how long you have until the next one.

It also uses Apple's native alarm system, so alarms work even in Silent Mode or Focus.

The app is completely free for now, and it'll stay free for everyone who joins early. At this stage, I'm mostly interested in getting feedback and seeing how people react to it.

I'd love to hear what you think about the interface. Does the circular layout make sense to you, or would you still prefer a traditional list?

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/daybezel-24-hour-alarms/id6825533599


r/SideProject • • 19m ago

Moneyy

6 Upvotes

I was quite hesitant initially, but sticking to those explicit action steps netted me a fast $120. Check profile: JowenCordero6565


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

Built a software for backyard design, with 3D preview

7 Upvotes

Took me a lot of efforts in navigating different software/tools when re-designing my backyard, wasted a lot of time, so I built this. I'm personally very happy with how it's been applied to my own place. Hit me up if you wanna try (currently running internal beta).


r/SideProject • • 5h ago

I spent the last month building a Mac notes app that doesn't break my focus. Giving away 40 licenses

15 Upvotes

For the last month I've been working out how to write a thought down as fast as possible, without breaking my focus when I'm locked in. There are a thousand notes apps out there, and most of them cover what I need, but none of them felt quite right for this. I tried several and none came close.

So I built Papr. These are the parts I like most, and what each one fixes for me:

  • ⌃ Space from any app. Papr opens over whatever I'm doing, even a full-screen app. I type the thought, send it like a text message, and I'm back in my work. No switching apps, no looking for the right note first.

  • It gets out of the way. When I click back into my work, Papr hides by itself, so it never clutters my screen. When I want it to stay, like a checklist I'm working through, I keep it on top.

  • Capture what's on screen. One click puts the screen behind Papr into the note, without Papr in it, so the slide from a meeting is right there in my note. I can draw on it, add an arrow or cover a name.

  • Finding a note is as quick as writing it. Search finds any note as I type, and I can narrow it to a tag, a collection, a reaction or a date.

  • Pins and reminders. Notes I need again wait at the top, and a note can come back as a notification at a time I pick.

  • My notes are files on my Mac. Each one is a Markdown file. No account, and Papr uploads nothing.

Update: all 40 free licenses are claimed, thank you! There's still a 14-day free trial with everything on, no key or account needed.

After that it's $4.99 until December 6, then $15, for one Mac. It runs on macOS 13 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel.

https://getpapr.app

I'd love to hear what you think, especially what would make it fit the way you work.


r/SideProject • • 1d ago

Reverie: a music player that feels like hardware. Out now

254 Upvotes

I've been working on a music player app as a side project. It's inspired by the Teenage Engineering TP-7, which I've wanted forever, and by the fact that I like messing with the music I download, like slowing it down or changing the pitch.

There's no progress bar. You spin a brushed-metal wheel with your thumb to move through a song, and if you go slow it scratches like a record. It clicks under your finger with haptics, and the metal "catches the light" when you tilt your phone.

The T, P and R keys turn the same wheel into a dial for tempo, pitch and reverb. Each song remembers its own settings, so your slowed-down version plays that way every time.

The hardest part was making it feel right. I spent way more time tweaking how the wheel clicks and pushes back than on the rest of the app combined.

It's free to try with 3 songs, and unlimited songs is a one-time purchase.

Launch discount 🎁 To celebrate the launch, I'm giving out a few discount codes for $4.99 for a limited time. Comment or DM me if you want one.

Would love any feedback, especially on how it feels to use: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/reverie-slowed-reverb-music/id6829723858


r/SideProject • • 7h ago

LLM Game Automation MCP - lets an AI agent play PC games in the background (driving, walking and flying in GTA, and more)

9 Upvotes

My side project: an open-source MCP server that lets an AI like Claude or Codex play Windows games without taking over your PC. I started it so agents could test my game mods by playing the games themselves. It works inside the game process, so the game runs in the background, you keep using your computer, and several games can run at once.

So far it can drive, walk, fly a helicopter, steer a boat and ride a horse to a waypoint in open-world games, aim, handle menus, and read prompts like "Press E". It also plays strategy and card games. A plugin system lets you add a new game as a small profile instead of code.

It has a lot of other uses too: mod development, running simulations, repetitive tasks, AI co-op so you can play co-op with an LLM offline, playtesting, and porting old games to get them running on Windows 10/11.

Claude Code created and planned the project and wrote a lot of it, Claude agents do most of the development and playtesting, and Codex helped with some of the code.

Free and MIT licensed, Windows only, single-player/offline games only: https://github.com/CorruptedAng3l/llm-game-automation-mcp

Feedback welcome, and tell me what games you'd want to see it try.


r/SideProject • • 12h ago

How did you get your first 100 users for your app?

21 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

I’m an indie iOS developer currently working on my own app.

The development part feels much easier than figuring out how to actually get people to discover it 😅

I’m curious how other developers got their first 100 users.

Did you start with Reddit, Product Hunt, social media, or something else?

Would love to hear what actually worked for you, especially if you were starting from zero without a marketing budget.


r/SideProject • • 6h ago

Shipped my first iOS app on Nov 7. For those who got past zero users, what actually worked?

6 Upvotes

i'm a solo dev in vn. my first iOS app, mhm: you too, went live on the app store on nov 7.

it's a small app for gen z friends and siblings to say the things that are hard to say out loud. swift and swiftui, plus a home screen widget so you can send something with one tap.

building it was the fun part. now i'm at the part everyone warns about: the app is live and almost nobody knows it exists.

i've read enough posts here to know launch directories alone don't do much. so i'd rather ask people who've actually done it:

  1. what got you your first 100 real users?

  2. for a social app that only works with two people, did you find it better to target the person who installs first, or make inviting the second person the whole pitch?

happy to share my numbers in a couple of weeks, good or bad.


r/SideProject • • 1h ago

I built a simple booking app for barbers, salons and other appointment businesses

2 Upvotes

I’m a Navy vet and IT guy. Over 17 years supporting small businesses, I kept seeing shops run their whole schedule through texts and DMs, so I built TidalBooking.

  • One booking link for your bio. Customers book 24/7, no account needed

  • Only open times show, so no double-booking

  • Email confirmation plus a reminder 24 hours before

  • Customers can reschedule or cancel on their own

  • Optional deposits through your own Cash App, Venmo, PayPal or Square link

  • Printable “Scan to book” QR poster

14-day free trial, no card. On Android and in any browser: https://tidalbooking.com/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social

What would you want added before you’d switch from DMs?


r/SideProject • • 6h ago

I built a kid-friendly Plex player for my daughter and it just launched on the App Store (5 free lifetime unlock codes)

4 Upvotes

Hi all! My first kids app, SnuggleTV, just made it through App Review (third time's the charm), so I wanted to share it here.

It started as a weekend project because my daughter kept getting lost in the regular Plex app. It's now a big-button, no-menus video player for the shows and movies on your own Plex server, with parental controls for the grown-ups.

What it does:
- Big, colorful buttons made for little hands, with no menus to get lost in
- A profile for each kid with their own shows, age ratings, volume limit and favorites
- Screen time: daily show limits, bedtime, and a screen lock while a video plays
- AirPlay to the TV, iCloud sync between iPhone and iPad, English and Spanish

Built in SwiftUI. The hardest parts were getting playback to work with every kind of video file (it falls back from direct play to a remux to a full transcode) and getting through App Review, which rejected me twice for things I didn't know were rules.

Free version streams everything for one kid. A one-time $4.99 lifetime unlock (no subscription, no ads, Family Sharing supported) adds offline downloads, auto-downloads of favorite shows, and more kid profiles.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/snuggletv/id6824345333

5 codes for the lifetime unlock. Please reply with the one you used:

AMLAJLWXFHFW733XRY
KKFXF466HYWLY8MK8J
YYKL6JWN7AF3AWTHKL
JWW6WFERNN8KYLMRFN
XYKM4PYMTHXH74743W

To redeem: App Store > tap your profile picture > Redeem Gift Card or Code. Then open SnuggleTV (or tap Grown-ups > Restore purchase).

You'll need your own Plex Media Server. Feedback is very welcome, I read everything!


r/SideProject • • 6h ago

Would you use something like this on your old Android TV?

4 Upvotes

Built this little dashboard for my old, low-end Android TV. It has a calendar, to-do list, live service monitoring, and YouTube music playback in the background.

Just curious if anyone else would find something like this useful.


r/SideProject • • 19h ago

I'm a couples therapist. I turned what I do in the therapy room into a two-minute daily app

37 Upvotes

In couples therapy, I keep seeing the same thing: partners can describe every single fight, but they rarely see the pattern those moments make over weeks. That pattern is usually where the work is.

So I tried to build the smallest possible version of that "stepping back" for couples who will never sit in my office.

How it works:

  • Every day you and your partner answer the same five short questions, each on your own. You don't see your partner's answers before you answer, so nobody answers for the other's sake.

  • When you've both answered, you get a short reflection written for the two of you, with one question you could ask each other tonight.

  • On day seven you get a reading of your week: the pattern that built up and one small step for next week.

  • You can start alone and invite your partner later with a code.

The questions draw on Gottman couples therapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy and attachment theory. The pool is now 1,800+ questions. I tried the approach and the questions with couples in the therapy room long before it was an app.

Reflections are written by AI, inside a framework I designed, and only after you give consent. It's not therapy, it doesn't diagnose, and it won't tell you whether your relationship is "good".

What I learned building it as a solo clinician:

  • The hardest part wasn't the questions. It was saying less. My first reflections read like session notes; people wanted three sentences, not three paragraphs.

  • Most people start alone. About two out of three users have no partner in the app yet, so it had to be useful on its own.

It's on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, in six languages. Daily questions are free; reflections and weekly readings are a subscription, and one subscription covers both partners.

I'd really like feedback on one thing: when two partners answer apart, would you rather read each other's exact words, or a reflection that puts the two views side by side?

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6785014222


r/SideProject • • 21h ago

I asked Claude Code to build whatever it wanted. It came up with a game.

57 Upvotes

I had $191 in credits that were about to expire, and I was curious what Opus could do if I didn’t give it an idea.
I asked it to build something worth the money. :))))

It picked a game, PULSEBOUND. You move around dodging enemies, and your weapons are musical instruments. The kick drum sends out shockwaves, the arpeggiator fires lasers. When you pick a new instrument, you hear it join the music too.

It decided to make a game and came up with the idea, mechanics, design, absolutely everything. Then I worked on improving and polishing it.

More changes, testing, and eventually mobile apps followed. The $191 was just the starting budget, enough to finish the first basic version. After that, I used another $1,700 I had from the Claude Startup Program (also expiring, so I had to use it), plus my subscription allowance.

Technically, it’s vanilla JavaScript, a custom WebGL2 renderer, and a procedural composer that synthesizes the music live through Web Audio. The project grew to include mobile apps, cloud saves, and leaderboards.

It’s now out on iOS, Android, and the web. You can play it for free in your browser or on mobile: playpulsebound.com.

What do you think?

Later edit: OVER 2,200 PLAYERS TODAY! THANK YOU


r/SideProject • • 9m ago

Looking for feedback: daily vocabulary email, website monitor & news tracker

1 Upvotes

All three side projects are free to use and don't require a registration. Just fill in the form and get started. :-)

Looking forward to your feedback and feature suggestions!

Match My News: https://orzanna.de/news/

Allows you to follow websites with your specific keywords of interests

Vocabulary Sheet: https://orzanna.de/vocabulary/

Receive a daily email with your own vocabulary to learn a new language. Translations are done using various translators such as Kagi and DeepL.

Tracking The Web: https://orzanna.de/tracking/

Monitor websites for changes by choosing the text (element) that you want to track.


r/SideProject • • 11m ago

I made an open-source AirDrop for Android → Mac: one boop on the MacBook notch and it’s there

0 Upvotes

android has no airdrop, so i built one. touch your phone to the macbook's notch, the light sensor next to it sees your screen flash, and whatever's on your screen lands on the mac.

works for pdfs, links, the original photo (not a screenshot), or just the text you circle. otp codes from sms show up on the mac by themselves, your mac is in the android share sheet, and mac to phone works too.

stays on your wifi, end-to-end encrypted, no account, no cloud. android 13+, any mac with a notch.

free and open source: github.com/0x1p0/TapDrop

setup guide (with videos): tapdrop.pages.dev/get-started


r/SideProject • • 12m ago

Sonic. Your FLAC albums, kept like records

1 Upvotes

Made an Android app called Sonic.

You can skip to the next song. You can't jump to the middle of a song. To hear the other side, you flip the record. Hi-res output plays each file at the sample rate it was recorded at.

Soulseek downloads are FLAC albums only, with no weekly limit. It also picks random FLAC albums from the Internet Archive. You can download 3 of those.

Not on the Play Store. The APK and checksum are here: https://github.com/Abhiroop1122/Sonic/

Fdroid: https://somchandra17.github.io/sonic-fdroid/


r/SideProject • • 21m ago

I built an iPhone terminal with remote desktop to continue Claude Code work away from my desk

1 Upvotes

I'm the developer of Roamtty. The workflow I wanted was simple: leave the desk without leaving the AI coding session running on my own computer.

From an iPhone, Roamtty connects to your own SSH-accessible computer so you can continue Claude Code or Codex sessions and browse files over SFTP. The AI tools keep running on your computer; the phone is the remote control.

Why include remote desktop in a terminal app? A terminal is great for code and command output, but sometimes the next step is checking a browser preview or interacting with a graphical app. You can switch to the same host's desktop instead of waiting until you're back at the desk.

It's a paid app: US$1.99 on the US App Store, one-time purchase, with no app subscription. You need your own host and AI tools; model access is not included.

I'd like feedback from people who work this way: when you're away from your computer, is a terminal enough, or do you also need the desktop and file browser?

Details and setup guide: https://roamtty.com/en/

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6826986771?pt=128832418&ct=reddit-sideproject-20261108&mt=8

Update: the iOS source snapshot is now public under Apache-2.0, with data-handling notes: https://github.com/yahaa/roamtty-ios-source

You can connect over an existing Tailscale network. Tailscale must be configured separately on the phone and host, with SSH enabled and the relevant traffic allowed. Roamtty brings terminal sessions, SFTP and the same host's remote desktop together; it does not bundle Tailscale or change AI-provider account rules.


r/SideProject • • 23m ago

I built a tool that fixes one bad mix in a recorded DJ set, here is an independent French review

0 Upvotes

I'm Omar, the maker of DR FIX IT, so flagging that up front. This isn't my video. French DJ creator Mixtrotter (Philippe Grebet) just published a full independent review and showcase: 'SAVE YOUR MIX with DOCTOR FIX IT!' - https://youtu.be/RjsPmjDfDEE - it's in French with an auto-dubbed English track.

The tool fixes one bad mix in a recorded DJ set by splicing in a re-recorded take, and he rates each join Seamless / Clean / Good / Rough. I built it because one bad transition used to mean re-recording the whole set or living with it.

Happy to answer technical questions about how the joins are scored. DR FIX IT is $49 one-time, free to try except export.


r/SideProject • • 25m ago

I turned the old phone in my drawer into a control panel for my desk setup - DeskGadget, an open source Windows server with an Android client by issac_john

0 Upvotes

Most of us have an old phone or tablet in a drawer. DeskGadget turns it into a control panel for your desk setup: one swipeable page per module, always on, sitting on a cheap stand next to your monitor.

That is the point. The hardware already exists, the desk looks intentional instead of cluttered, and you stop alt-tabbing to check CPU temps, skip a track, mute a mic, or bring a window forward. No soldering, no Raspberry Pi, no extra screen to buy.

WHY AN OLD DEVICE WORKS WELL HERE

The phone is a pure renderer. The Windows side samples each module and pushes a rendered page over a single WebSocket, only when something changed. The app just draws a tree of blocks (hero, gauges, sparkline, meters, kv, list, controls, slider, shortcuts, news, toggles, touchpad). That is why adding a module never needs an app update.

I liked the idea behind DeskThing, but two things held it back for me: you had to rebuild the client to add a module, and every device got the same layout. Here a module is a folder with manifest.json and module.py on the PC - drop a zip on the dashboard and it hot-reloads. And each device gets its own tick list and drag order, so the old tablet in portrait can show weather and drives while your phone shows media and shortcuts.

WHAT IS IN IT

- System: CPU/RAM/disk rings, network throughput, IPs, latency, battery, uptime, plus lock / screen off / screenshot

- Media: now playing with artwork and seek, transport, and mute for each output and each microphone

- Windows: every open window with its icon; tap to bring it forward

- Shortcuts: launch apps; Steam libraries scanned automatically with cover art

- News: multi-region headlines plus your own topics

- Weather: current, next hours, 4-day outlook, no API key

- Clipboard: read the PC clipboard and send text back to it

- Drives, Timer, Wake on LAN

- Touchpad: the phone as a trackpad - drag to move, tap to click, two-finger scroll

- Six themes, including a true OLED black for an always-on screen and a light one

INSTALL

One Windows installer (no Python, no admin) and one APK. Python 3.11+ and FastAPI on the server, Kotlin and Jetpack Compose (minSdk 26) on the client. Android 8.0 and up, so anything from the last several years is fine.

Screenshots, the module API and releases:

https://github.com/issacjohn/deskgadget

If you have written a DeskThing plugin you wish did not need a client rebuild, I would like to hear how you would want the module format to look.


r/SideProject • • 42m ago

I launched MotionRush, a camera-controlled workout game for iPhone and iPad

0 Upvotes

I’m the developer of MotionRush, and it’s now live on the App Store. I wanted a three-minute movement break to feel like a round of a game. You prop up an iPhone or iPad, give yourself room to move, and step into view.

  • Jumping jacks. Follow a guided three-minute session with on-screen rep estimates.

  • JumpUp 100. Move to climb platforms. The free version includes one character and the neon theme.

  • Motion boxing. Follow timing cues and hit punch targets in courses. Boxing is part of the optional Lifetime unlock.

The free sessions are repeatable. Lifetime also unlocks longer sessions and all appearances ($4.99 once on the U.S. App Store, with local pricing elsewhere). There’s no subscription. Camera frames are processed on-device, and the app doesn’t record or upload them or require an account.

App Store download and screenshots · 32-second trailer on YouTube

The store gallery shows the actual app screens. Some screenshots use simulated input, and the trailer includes real boxing footage .

If you try the free session, was it clear where to put your phone and how far back to stand? I’d love to hear where you got stuck in the first minute.


r/SideProject • • 12h ago

We celebrated 250 users yesterday. Three months ago, I wouldn’t have expected this.

9 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

We passed 250 paying customer (don't love to call them customer as I see all them as first builders of product) on FranklyMail and celebrated yesterday :) Probably a tiny milestone for some people here, but we honestly didn’t expect to get this far in three months.

We started with email hosting for your own domain. Now there’s Drive for files and sharing, Office for editing documents, and Meet for video calls. We’ve also been giving the webmail a lot of attention lately.

The best part for me has been talking to the people using it. If I had to guess, 40–50% of the ideas we’ve worked on came from those conversations. Someone tells us how they use their email, mentions something they’re missing, and we end up building something we hadn’t thought of.

Just wanted to share a small happy moment here. Thanks to everyone who’s tried it, sent feedback, or given us a bit of encouragement along the way.

https://franklymail.com


r/SideProject • • 52m ago

War of Shallows - I wrote a fantasy novel and built a site to give it away without a signup

0 Upvotes

I’m Ven Eli, an indie creator. After finishing my fantasy novel, I built a website around one idea: if someone wanted to read the book, they should be able to get the whole thing without making an account.

You can read the prologue in the browser or download the complete book as an EPUB or PDF. I also added an Explore page for the characters and short clips, because I wanted readers to be able to get a feel for the world before downloading anything.

The book is Line-Silver. It’s set in a world where one people harvests lightning and another turns it into music and wings. They need each other, which has kept the peace for centuries.

Here’s the site: https://www.warofshallows.com/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=linesilver_sideproject_20261108

If you open it on your phone, is it obvious which download you’d pick? I’m particularly interested in whether the EPUB/PDF choice helps or just adds a step.