r/SideProject

🔥 Hot ▲ 1.1k r/SideProject

Introducing Zperiod — A beautifully interactive chemistry app.

I built Zperiod to make chemistry actually interactive.

It features 3D atoms, 4 amazing tools, a worksheet generator... and lots more. And absolutely no ads.

Try it here: Zperiod.app (Desktop only for now, phone is just an intro)

I'm still in high school, so any feedback or criticism is super appreciated! ❤️

u/Zhilips — 20 hours ago
🔥 Hot ▲ 137 r/SideProject+2 crossposts

My Sketchbook Style Component Library is finally Live

What I envisioned months ago is finally out for use.

My Sketchbook-style React Component Library is Live!

The goal is to make UI feel a bit more human and less perfectly polished. Components that look like they came out of a sketchbook rather than a design system.

Includes 20+ components and I have tried to optimize them as much as possible.

No need to install anything else besides react and react-dom and thus it works with all frameworks based on React.

Using Storybook for docs and I have tried to keep it informational but concise.

The npm package is simply named sketchbook-ui

Feedback is appreciated!

Consider giving a ⭐ if you like it

Github :- https://github.com/SarthakRawat-1/sketchbook-ui

Docs :- https://sarthakrawat-1.github.io/sketchbook-ui/

NPM :- https://www.npmjs.com/package/sketchbook-ui

u/TragicPrince525 — 1 day ago
▲ 44 r/SideProject+1 crossposts

Farm Sim 100% made with AI - 6h build so far

Hello everyone,

I posted my Diablo 2 build yesterday, and thought I'd share some more games I'm trying to build (with the correct flair this time),

This is a farm simulator where the goal is to survive 10 nights, and build up your farm with plants, animals and food to survive. I started this morning and this is how far I am so far

Happy so share some prompts that got me started! (I'll post an update later on my Diablo 2 ARPG progress)

u/sharkymcstevenson2 — 19 hours ago
Built this on a Friday night - reached 60k users in 3 days
▲ 30 r/SideProject+1 crossposts

Built this on a Friday night - reached 60k users in 3 days

Tldr; I built 3 different applications, each of which took months to build and they never gained traction. Last week, built a simple form to tackle a very specific use case and the usage shot up.

Last couple of weeks my friends were constantly talking about the H1B lottery results and scrolling the r/h1b searching for comments from people who got selected.

Friday night I decided to create a simple website that would scrap reddit comments and create a dashboard to track the h1b status.

Reddit blocked anything trying to scrap comments so I thought, well, why not just make it crowd sourced - so I added a small form (3 fields only) and a dashboard and put that as comments in a few subreddits at 11:50pm EST, Friday.

By Saturday morning, it reached 2k users and as of today, it has more than 50k users.

I literally got teary eyed by looking at more than 10 users on my app.

I am thinking of ways to retain this traction but all to say, don’t give up on building.

Some day, something will definitely click.

————————

Website: h1bpulse.com

u/ComputerSciToFinance — 2 days ago
▲ 15 r/SideProject+3 crossposts

episode 5 of my weekly animated web series: Liv & Di

as the title says. in hindsight this is probably kind of a weird episode to jump in on so, some back story: it's like zelda if navi looked like zelda and told a new random person that they're "the chosen one" after the latest one dies

u/cosentino — 3 hours ago
Built this on a Friday night - 5 days later, ~73k users

Built this on a Friday night - 5 days later, ~73k users

Tldr; I built 3 different applications, each of which took months to build and they never gained traction. Last week, built a simple form to tackle a very specific use case and the usage shot up.

Last couple of weeks my friends were constantly talking about the H1B lottery results and scrolling the r/h1b searching for comments from people who got selected.

Friday night I decided to create a simple website that would scrap reddit comments and create a dashboard to track the h1b status.

Reddit blocked anything trying to scrap comments so I thought, well, why not just make it crowd sourced - so I added a small form (3 fields only) and a dashboard and put that as comments in a few subreddits at 11:50pm EST, Friday.

By Saturday morning, it reached 2k users and as of today, it has more than 50k users.

I literally got teary eyed by looking at more than 10 users on my app.

I am thinking of ways to retain this traction but all to say, don’t give up on building.

Some day, something will definitely click.

————————

Website: h1bpulse.com

u/ComputerSciToFinance — 3 hours ago
▲ 6 r/SideProject+1 crossposts

3D Mockup - Free iPhone Mockup Tool

Showcase your app on a realistic 3D iPhone. Upload screenshots, customize device colors and backgrounds, and export beautiful mockups in seconds. Free to use tool.

Export supports PNG of mock it self or whole scene

Let me know your thoughts

https://appgram.dev/tools/iphone-mock

u/im-here-to-lose-time — 1 hour ago

read a thread about the death of the 'technical founder' moat and it gave me an existential crisis

found this massive thread on X today by an investor and tbh it gave me a bit of an existential crisis as a dev. core premise is simple. code is basically free now. the timeline to ship production-ready saas has completely collapsed.

he pointed out a stat that really stuck with me. with agentic workflows like claude code and cursor, a single dev can now output in 48 hours what would have taken a whole engineering team months to build back in 2015.

but the scary part wasn't the speed. its who is actually winning with it.

he brought up that recent anthropic hackathon. out of 13k applicants, the winners weren't senior faang engineers. top spots went to a personal injury lawyer, a cardiologist, and a highway technician from uganda. only one of the top 5 had a traditional programming background. the lawyer built an automated compliance tool in 6 days that basically replaces an entire bureaucratic industry.

the thesis is that the real moat is no longer 'knowing how to build the complex system'. the moat is domain expertise, product intuition, and the ability to get immediate brutal feedback from real users.

the thread pointed out that this isnt just a US thing. its accelerating globally because platforms are starting to merge the building phase with the distribution phase. he pointed specifically to whats happening with young builders in china right now. over there they dont really have a distinct 'tech twitter' where builders just talk in a vacuum. instead you have 15 and 16 year olds building AI tools and posting their raw demos directly onto massive consumer platforms like xiaohongshu (rednote).

because the builders and the actual high-intent consumers are on the exact same app, the feedback loop is instantaneous. a 16 year old high schooler literally built an AI app, dropped a demo video, got roasted and praised by thousands of real end-users in the comments, iterated the UI, and ended up getting sponsored by a CEO who saw the post. all without ever leaving the app. it acts as a discovery, validation, and distribution engine all at once.

he highlighted how in these 48-hour AI hackathons, the wildcard winners aren't senior architects anymore. theyre teenagers who just string APIs together but completely understand consumer algorithm distribution.

honestly it made me realize how completely disconnected my own feedback loop is. we build in silos, drop a link on product hunt, and pray. ive spent the last month obsessing over our backend architecture, completely ignoring that the baseline for tech has been leveled.

if a cardiologist can build a medical API on a flight to SF, and teenagers are treating consumer social algorithms as their QA and distribution teams, what protects us?

i feel like i cant put my moat-building shovel down but ive definately been digging in the wrong place. anyone else feeling the pressure of this shift lately?

reddit.com
u/Paulheyman7 — 5 hours ago
Made a small app that turns photos into coloring pages
▲ 9 r/SideProject+1 crossposts

Made a small app that turns photos into coloring pages

hi guys, I’ve been working on a simple iOS app that turns photos into line art / coloring pages + a few other styles.

honestly built it because i couldn’t get clean results from other tools without messing around too much.

i’m kinda stuck wondering is this actually useful or just something that looks cool once?

would you ever use something like this or nah?

sharing the link if anyone wants to try. will be good to hear your feedbacks

https://apps.apple.com/tr/app/linea-coloring-book-maker/id6759576198

u/Empty-Option-4276 — 3 hours ago
▲ 5 r/SideProject+3 crossposts

I used Remotion and LLM to create a promo video for Featurely

I know it's a little on the long side, but fun little project nevertheless!
Feel free to test out Featurely if you are a single developer looking for a management tool for your application!

u/chanassa — 9 hours ago
I made an app for people who travel and want to remember how a place actually felt
▲ 5 r/SideProject+2 crossposts

I made an app for people who travel and want to remember how a place actually felt

Not photos. Not check-ins. Just your voice, 20 seconds, tied to the exact GPS coordinates where you stood.

When you go back months or years later your phone quietly reminds you that you left something there.

There’s also a time capsule mode.

https://apps.apple.com/it/app/sonorae/id6760564492

u/gmnt_808 — 4 days ago

Do developers prioritize UI or logic first? (from a beginner’s perspective)

I’m not a developer, just learning and exploring tech tools .

Recently I’ve been seeing more and more beautifully designed interactive apps (like visual learning tools, simulations, etc.)

As a beginner, they feel really helpful and less intimidating.

But I’m also wondering —

do developers focus more on making things look good first, or on the underlying logic?

Curious how you all think about this.

reddit.com
u/Ok-Reporter5044 — 3 hours ago

Name your favourite side project that isn’t yours

That you saw in this community or elsewhere. Ideally that you currently use. Share the name and the link, but please make sure it’s something you didn’t build. Let’s pay it forward this time and give other products/founders visibility.

reddit.com
u/mauriciorubio — 3 hours ago
▲ 28 r/SideProject+1 crossposts

I didn’t like any of the multitool apps on the market, so I made my own, and I am so happy with it, but I'd love to get some feedback since it's my first app.

Hey guys :) 
In the last month I built a new all in one multitool app since almost all of them are full of ads and many useless tools... I made it for myself because I didn’t like those but I'd be very happy if someone finds it useful as well.

Right now there are 72 tools (some of them have multiple tools inside and almost all of them work offline)

I’d be happy to know what you think of it!
Thank you in advance 🙂

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.meloni.punto.app

u/Popular-Surprise28 — 21 hours ago
I just vibecoded two tools to kill food waste brain rot. W or Tarpit?
▲ 3 r/SideProject+1 crossposts

I just vibecoded two tools to kill food waste brain rot. W or Tarpit?

I’ve been deep in the vibe coding loop for the last few months. Instead of raw dogging code, I’ve been using AI agents to solve a problem that was giving me serious negative aura: staring at a full fridge at 5 PM, getting hit by decision fatigue, and ordering mid takeout while my groceries rot.

I ended up shipping two separate tools to test different logics:

  1. FridgeHero (https://fridgehero-mealgenerator-antiwaste.base44.app): This one is for the "now." It takes your random leftovers (especially the ones about to expire) and generates smart recipes. It also tracks how much money and CO2 you’re saving so you can see the actual W for your wallet and the planet.
  2. AegisTable (https://aegistable-mealplanner-antiwaste.base44.app): This is the "planner." It builds full meal plans based on your specific diet and allergies, then puts everything into a clean calendar.

The Vibe Check: I’m at a crossroads and need some builder-to-builder feedback before I keep cooking.

  • Merge vs Separate: Should I fuse them into one "Super App" or keep them as small, single-purpose tools? What’s the move for retention?
  • The "Impact" Logic: Is the money/CO2 tracker in FridgeHero actually "based," or is it just a gimmick people will ignore after two days?
  • The Tarpit Check: Is "AI meal planning" a classic Tarpit Idea (looks easy but impossible to scale), or is there a real gap for something zero-friction and privacy-first?

Let me cook? Or should I pivot?

u/Emavike — 1 day ago
Honest feedback wanted. Built an AI Fine Tuning tool for Marketing
▲ 2 r/SideProject+1 crossposts

Honest feedback wanted. Built an AI Fine Tuning tool for Marketing

I mentor and invest in startups and over the last couple of years I kept seeing the same thing. Founders using AI for marketing, producing more content than ever, and none of it landing. Every brand starting to sound identical. AI slop everywhere.

As a marketer I know why. The AI doesn't know your messaging, your positioning, or your target market so it guesses, and it guesses generic every time.

At the same time there are so many vibe coders building great apps with no marketing judgment to put together a solid go to market plan and actually grow.

So I built something to fix both. You answer 20 questions and it builds your complete brand strategy, go to market plan, and tech stack recommendations unique to your budget and stage. Once it's built you export it and plug it into whatever AI you already use. ChatGPT, Claude, whatever. It gives your AI the context and judgment it needs to stop producing generic output.

Free to try, takes 20 minutes, no credit card.

Curious if this is a problem others are actually feeling.

guideiq.ai/brand-dna

u/johnyrockets1779 — 1 hour ago

Created a website to search private Reddit accounts and deleted posts (by username)

Rosint.dev

Enter a username and it simultaneously searches both ArcticShift and PullPush repos for as much data as possible, merges the results, and deduplicates them.

It works even for private profiles and deleted posts/comments that Reddit itself no longer shows.

I am still working on adding new features. Feel free to add any suggestions :)

u/zzz_x9 — 10 hours ago
40 installs per day to 130. 34 USD per day to 130. 5 aso changes I made for my App.

40 installs per day to 130. 34 USD per day to 130. 5 aso changes I made for my App.

my app was making money but not from the App Store. it was from tiktoks I made earlier & from discord. it had Around 40 organic installs a day, 2.1% paid conversion, roughly $34 per day in revenue.

The App Store metadata I'd written at launch had never been touched. Same title, same subtitle, same screenshots, same keywords. I'd treated ASO as a one-time setup task and moved on.

I was ranking for almost nothing.

Before I started: I needed to understand what I was actually optimizing for

The most useful resource I found wasn't a paid tool. It was a free GitHub repo aso-skills. It's a set of AI agent skills built specifically for ASO - keyword research, metadata optimization, competitor analysis designed to work directly inside Cursor, Claude Code, or any agent-compatible AI assistant.

The way it works: your AI agent reads the skill, pulls real App Store data via the Appeeky API, and gives you scored, prioritized recommendations. Not generic advice actual output like "title: 7/10, here's why, here's the rewrite." I used it to run a full ASO audit on my own listing before touching a single field. The gaps it surfaced in 10 minutes would have taken me hours to find manually.

Change 1: Moved the primary keyword into the title

My original title was the app name. Clean, brandable, meaningless to the algorithm.

My primary keyword the exact phrase users type when looking for an app like mine was buried in the description. On iOS the description isn't indexed. It was doing nothing there.

The title is your primary ranking lever on iOS. Use it.

Change 2: Rewrote the subtitle from feature description to outcome statement

My original subtitle described what the app did mechanically. I changed it to what the user gets. The outcome they're buying, not the features they're operating.

it improved my open Rate.

Change 3: Redesigned the first screenshot

Your first screenshot isn't a UI preview. It's a conversion asset. The user sees it before they decide to read anything. It needs to communicate the outcome in a single glance.

I redesigned it to show the result state what the user's life looks like after using the app with a single headline overlaid that mirrored the outcome statement from my subtitle.

Impressions-to-install conversion improved 18%.

I eventually set up fastlane for this. Open source, free, and it handles screenshot generation across device sizes, metadata updates, and App Store submission from the command line. The deliver action pushes your metadata and screenshots directly to App Store Connect. The snapshot action generates localized screenshots automatically using Xcode UI tests. What used to be 45 minutes of manual work per iteration became a single command. If you're doing any serious ASO iteration testing different screenshot copy, updating keyword fields across locales fastlane is the tool that makes it sustainable.

Change 4: Found and targeted 3 long-tail keywords

ran a small Apple Search Ads campaign to mine keyword data. Search Ads shows you impression volume. I was looking for the intersection of high volume and low competition terms where the top-ranking apps were weak on relevance or had low ratings.

The aso-skills /keyword-research skill was useful here it groups keywords into primary, secondary, and long-tail clusters ranked by volume × difficulty × relevance. Running it against my category surfaced terms I hadn't considered and validated the ones I was already targeting.

Change 5: Fixed the review prompt

My rating was 3.9. Not catastrophic but not good. I had a review prompt that fired on app launch after 5 sessions. Technically functional. Completely wrong timing.

I moved the prompt to trigger after a user completed a specific positive action the moment in the app where they'd just gotten value. The moment where if you asked "are you happy right now?" the answer would be yes.

The submission side

Every metadata change, every screenshot update, every keyword field tweak requires a trip back into App Store Connect and Play Console. When you're actively optimizing testing subtitle copy, updating keyword fields per locale, refreshing screenshots you're making these changes constantly.

used Vibecodeapp for the building the app & also for submission workflow itself & it handles the app build process to store submission process and takes the manual back-and-forth out of getting builds and metadata live. For a solo developer shipping and iterating frequently, I was actively running these changes.

90 days later

  • Organic installs: 40 per day → 130 per day
  • Paid conversion: 2.1% → 2.8%
  • Daily revenue: $34 → ~$130

ASO is the only marketing channel where you pay for it once with your time and the return compounds indefinitely. Most indie developers treat it as a launch checklist and never touch it again.

u/Born-Comfortable2868 — 9 hours ago
I'm a hiring manager. I got tired of reading AI-garbage resumes so I built a tool that does it right.
▲ 2 r/SideProject+1 crossposts

I'm a hiring manager. I got tired of reading AI-garbage resumes so I built a tool that does it right.

I built Tamar. It tailors a resume to a specific job description using only your actual experience.

I'm a data science manager at Uber. Every time I open a new role, I get hundreds of applications in the first 12 hours. Not exaggerating, I've watched it happen repeatedly.

At that volume, the first resume screen is a game of probabilities, and those who take an extra effort to match their resume to the actual job description get through that filter more often

But here's what's been driving me insane. I'm not unique in this idea, and recently I've observed a wave of resumes that overfit to the job description in the worst way: people claiming skills they don't have, experiences that never happened, buzzword salads that match the JD perfectly, but not at all - the candidate

When I have 100 resumes to review in a couple hours - this is darn obvious, for me and for any hiring manager.

The frustrating part is that the core idea is right. Matching your real experience to what the role needs? That's genuinely powerful. AI can absolutely help with that. The problem is most tools go straight to fabrication without extensive pre-training and prompting.

So I built Tamar. It build an extensive real user profile, learns what they actually can do, and only than it tailors a resume to a specific job description using only your actual experience. No fake achievements, no exaggeration. It focuses on transferable skills, relevant experience, and the stuff that actually makes you a fit instead of inventing stuff that'll get you caught in the first interview.

It's a side project. Free tier available. Would love feedback from people who've been on either side of the hiring process.

https://reddit.com/link/1sbf5tk/video/o8nrheb3vzsg1/player

reddit.com
u/Adorable_Insect_652 — 8 hours ago
Week