Week of 22 September 2026
Legitimate side hustles, checked every week.
Extra income you can filter by where you live, the skills you already have, and how many hours you can give it. We leave out anything that looks like a scam. The next review is 29 September 2026.
This week’s review
Still free to join
Profile pages we rechecked this week — Upwork, Fiverr, Wyzant, Tutorful, Prolific, Rover — still do not charge a fee to create an account. A background check, where one exists, is billed by the company itself.
Fees move
Commission percentages on freelance and tutoring sites have changed more than once. Each review names the kind of cut to expect and tells you to read that company’s own pricing page, not a screenshot in an ad.
Left off on purpose
Paid starter kits, crypto signal groups, gift-card jobs, mystery-shopper cheques, and “pay us to place you” boards did not make the list. If the product is the training, it is not a side hustle.
Listed openingFreelance marketplace
Upwork
Offer a skill you can already prove — writing, design, bookkeeping, development, or admin — to clients on a long-running freelance marketplace. Opening a profile is free.
General work often starts around $15–40 an hour before fees
Remote, United States, United Kingdom, and others5–10 hours, 10–20 hours
Listed openingOnline and local tutoring
Wyzant
Tutor academic subjects or test prep for US students. You set an hourly rate. Wyzant takes a commission and pays you for lessons that actually happen.
Tutors commonly set $25–60 an hour and keep about three quarters
Remote, United StatesUnder 5 hours, 5–10 hours
Listed openingDog walking and pet sitting
Rover
Walk dogs, drop in, or host pets overnight. You set your rates. Rover takes a fee and charges sitters for a background check. That fee is the company’s, not a stranger’s.
A 30-minute walk is often listed around $16–25 before Rover’s fee; overnights are higher
United States, Canada, United KingdomUnder 5 hours, 5–10 hours
Listed openingPaid research studies
Prolific
Answer academic and product studies for researchers. The pay is modest and honest. It will not replace a wage. It is one of the few survey sites worth naming.
Often about $8–15 an hour when a study is available. Some pay less. Silence is common.
Remote, United States, United Kingdom, and othersUnder 5 hours, Evenings and weekends
Work for yourselfTeach one subject
Tutor from your own kitchen table
Teach a subject you know to one student at a time, online or in a library. No marketplace required. One regular student on a weeknight is already a side income.
Often £20–45 or $25–60 an hour, depending on subject, age, and city
Remote, United States, United Kingdom, and othersUnder 5 hours, 5–10 hours
Search by location, skill, and hours
Listed openings are places you can sign up. The rest are ways to work for yourself, with no platform taking a cut. Both are on this list because both are real work.
Listed openingFreelance marketplace
Upwork
Offer a skill you can already prove — writing, design, bookkeeping, development, or admin — to clients on a long-running freelance marketplace. Opening a profile is free.
General work often starts around $15–40 an hour before fees
Remote, United States, United Kingdom, and others5–10 hours, 10–20 hours
Listed openingPackaged freelance gigs
Fiverr
Sell a tightly described service — a résumé rewrite, a short voiceover, a simple logo — as a packaged gig. Buyers come to you. Listing is free; Fiverr’s commission is steep.
New sellers often see $150–600 in a good early month, after a 20% commission — many see less
Remote, United States, United Kingdom, and othersUnder 5 hours, 5–10 hours
Listed openingOnline and local tutoring
Wyzant
Tutor academic subjects or test prep for US students. You set an hourly rate. Wyzant takes a commission and pays you for lessons that actually happen.
Tutors commonly set $25–60 an hour and keep about three quarters
Remote, United StatesUnder 5 hours, 5–10 hours
Listed openingUK tutoring
Tutorful
A UK tutoring marketplace for school subjects, music, and languages. You set the lesson price. Tutorful takes a commission. Profiles are free to create.
UK tutors often advertise roughly £25–50 an hour before the platform cut
Remote, United KingdomUnder 5 hours, 5–10 hours
Listed openingUK school tutoring
MyTutor
Online tutoring aimed at UK school subjects and exams. MyTutor screens tutors. You are paid per lesson. There is no kit to buy.
Lesson rates are set within the platform’s bands — read the tutor pay page before you apply
Remote, United KingdomUnder 5 hours, 5–10 hours
Listed openingLanguage tutoring
Preply
Teach a language you actually speak, live, one to one. You set an hourly rate. Commission is higher while you are new and is described in the tutor agreement.
Tutors set their own hourly rate; the commission comes off the top
Remote, United States, United Kingdom, and othersUnder 5 hours, 5–10 hours
Listed openingSmall online classes for children
Outschool
Run a live online class for children — a subject, a hobby, or a club. You are paid when learners enrol. An empty class pays nothing, which is the honest risk.
Teachers with a class that fills often cite roughly $20–70 an hour of teaching time — an empty section pays $0
Remote, United States, Canada5–10 hours, Evenings and weekends
Listed openingDog walking and pet sitting
Rover
Walk dogs, drop in, or host pets overnight. You set your rates. Rover takes a fee and charges sitters for a background check. That fee is the company’s, not a stranger’s.
A 30-minute walk is often listed around $16–25 before Rover’s fee; overnights are higher
United States, Canada, United KingdomUnder 5 hours, 5–10 hours
Listed openingPet care outside the US
Pawshake
Dog walking, sitting, and home visits on Pawshake, which is used in the UK, Australia, and parts of Europe. You set prices. The platform takes a commission.
Local walking rates, minus the platform commission — check both before you publish a price
United Kingdom, Australia, European Union, and othersUnder 5 hours, 5–10 hours
Listed openingLocal tasks and assembly
TaskRabbit
Furniture assembly, mounting, moving help, and similar tasks in selected US and UK cities. You set an hourly rate. You need the tools and the competence. TaskRabbit takes a fee.
Taskers often cite about $20–50 an hour before fees, expenses, and tax
United States, United Kingdom5–10 hours, 10–20 hours
Listed openingLocal tasks in Australia and the UK
Airtasker
Bid on local jobs — gardening, moving, assembly, deliveries of large items — or post an offer. Used heavily in Australia and also in the UK. You are paid per task. Airtasker takes a service fee.
You quote each task; the fee comes off what the client pays
Australia, United KingdomUnder 5 hours, 5–10 hours
Listed openingFood delivery
DoorDash
Deliver restaurant orders by car, bike, or scooter where DoorDash operates. You can start without buying a territory. The costs are fuel, wear, and time spent waiting.
After fuel and wear, many drivers land nearer $12–18 an hour. A quiet zone is less. Gross pay looks higher.
United States, Canada, AustraliaUnder 5 hours, 5–10 hours
Listed openingUK and Ireland delivery
Deliveroo
Cycle, scoot, or drive restaurant deliveries for Deliveroo. Free to apply. The money is per drop, and the bike, the insurance, and the rain are your problem.
Per-drop fees vary by city. After costs, treat a modest hourly figure as the planning number, not the busiest Friday.
United Kingdom, Ireland, European UnionUnder 5 hours, 5–10 hours
Listed openingGrocery shopping and delivery
Instacart
Shop a grocery list and deliver it, where Instacart hires shoppers. You need a car that can take bags, and a tolerance for substitutions. Signup is free.
Batch pay plus tip, before fuel. Net of costs it is ordinary gig money, not a premium hourly rate.
United States, Canada5–10 hours, 10–20 hours
Listed openingHandmade and digital goods
Etsy
Sell things you make, or digital files you designed, to strangers. Etsy charges listing and transaction fees. A new shop is a shop, not a switch.
Fees come off every sale. Many new handmade shops earn little until the photos and the reviews exist.
Remote, United States, United Kingdom, and othersUnder 5 hours, 5–10 hours
Listed openingSelling clothes you already own
Vinted
Clear a wardrobe. Vinted is built for second-hand clothes and is widely used in the UK and Europe, with a US presence. You are paid when someone buys an item you actually have.
You keep most of the price you set on many private sales. Postage mistakes are the usual loss.
United Kingdom, European Union, Ireland, and othersUnder 5 hours, Evenings and weekends
Listed openingPaid research studies
Prolific
Answer academic and product studies for researchers. The pay is modest and honest. It will not replace a wage. It is one of the few survey sites worth naming.
Often about $8–15 an hour when a study is available. Some pay less. Silence is common.
Remote, United States, United Kingdom, and othersUnder 5 hours, Evenings and weekends
Listed openingPaid interviews
Respondent
Companies and researchers pay for an interview if you match a brief — a job, a hobby, a piece of software you use. Invitations are irregular. The pay for a matched hour is better than surveys.
Matched interviews are often $50–200 for about an hour. Most applications get no reply.
Remote, United States, United Kingdom, and othersUnder 5 hours, Evenings and weekends
Listed openingChildcare, pets, and home help
Care.com
Find local families who need babysitting, pet care, or housekeeping in the United States. You apply to jobs families post. You are not employed by the website.
Families set hourly rates. Local babysitting often sits in the mid-teens to mid-twenties per hour, before tax.
United StatesUnder 5 hours, 5–10 hours
Listed openingHosting a room you already have
A spare room on Airbnb
Rent a spare room for nights you choose. It can earn real money. It can also break a lease, a mortgage condition, house rules, or a local registration law. Read those before you buy guest towels.
Highly local. A booked room can beat a few shifts; an empty calendar and a new mattress is a loss.
United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and others5–10 hours, Flexible
Work for yourselfTeach one subject
Tutor from your own kitchen table
Teach a subject you know to one student at a time, online or in a library. No marketplace required. One regular student on a weeknight is already a side income.
Often £20–45 or $25–60 an hour, depending on subject, age, and city
Remote, United States, United Kingdom, and othersUnder 5 hours, 5–10 hours
Work for yourselfPet care without an app
Walk dogs in your own neighbourhood
Walk the same few dogs every week for people who live near you. You keep the whole fee. You also keep the responsibility if a dog slips a lead.
Many walkers charge about $15–25 or £12–20 for half an hour, before travel
United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and othersUnder 5 hours, 5–10 hours
Work for yourselfFreelance writing
Write for local businesses
Write the pages, menus, emails, and listings a nearby business keeps meaning to finish. You are selling a finished page, not “content”. Local beats a race to the bottom on a global board.
A simple page is often $80–250 or £70–200. An ongoing blog is a separate, usually worse, deal.
Remote, United States, United Kingdom, and othersUnder 5 hours, 5–10 hours
Work for yourselfBookkeeping
Keep the books for a sole trader
Reconcile a month of transactions for a plumber, a tutor, or a market stall — someone whose books are a shoebox. You need to be accurate. You do not need to be their accountant.
Monthly packages for a tiny business often land around $80–250 or £70–200
Remote, United States, United Kingdom, and othersUnder 5 hours, 5–10 hours
Work for yourselfSmall repairs
Evening handyperson
Flat-pack furniture, shelves, curtain rails, dripping taps you are actually competent to touch, and the list on someone’s fridge. Small, local, paid by the hour. Leave gas and electrics to people who are qualified.
Local handyperson rates are often $30–60 or £25–45 an hour, plus materials
United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and others5–10 hours, Evenings and weekends
Work for yourselfHome cleaning
Clean houses for a few regulars
A small round of homes you clean on a repeat booking. The money is in regulars, not in one-off deep cleans you underprice. You need to be reliable on a Thursday more than you need a logo.
Regular home cleans are often $25–40 or £15–25 an hour, varying widely by city
United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and others5–10 hours, 10–20 hours
Work for yourselfDeclutter for cash
Sell what you already own
Turn a spare room into cash without becoming a reseller. Clothes, the pushchair, the drill you used twice, the textbooks. It is the side hustle with the least fiction attached.
Whatever your things are worth, minus fees and postage. A clear-out of a few hundred is a success.
Remote, United States, United Kingdom, and othersUnder 5 hours, Evenings and weekends
Work for yourselfRemote admin
Virtual assistant, hired by you
Diary, inbox, invoices, travel, and the spreadsheet a busy person will not open. You work for two or three clients directly. You are not buying a seat in someone else’s agency.
Direct clients often pay $20–40 or £16–30 an hour for solid admin. Specialist support can be more.
Remote, United States, United Kingdom, and others5–10 hours, 10–20 hours
Work for yourselfOutdoor work
Garden and lawn care
Mow, edge, weed, and tidy a handful of gardens on a rota. It is physical, seasonal, and easy for a customer to understand. You can start with one mower.
A small lawn is often $30–60 or £25–45 a visit. Larger gardens are priced on a look, not a guess.
United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and others5–10 hours, 10–20 hours
Work for yourselfLocal photography
Photograph families and small events
Take pictures for people who need a decent set this month: a family in the park, a small party, a menu, a club team. You need to be competent, not famous. You deliver files, not a dream of going viral.
A short family session is often $150–400 or £120–300 for a set of edited photos. Events are higher and heavier.
United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and othersUnder 5 hours, 5–10 hours
What we leave out
Paid starter kits
Anyone who says you must buy a bundle, a licence to their system, or a stock pack before you can earn is selling the kit. The work, if it exists, is the afterthought.
Recruiting schemes
If your income depends on signing other people up, it is a multi-level scheme. We do not list them, including the ones that dress up as wellness, crypto, or “digital products”.
Gift cards and parcel jobs
No real employer asks you to buy gift cards, receive mystery parcels, or “process payments” through your own bank. That is a money-mule setup.