21 Best Side Hustles UK: You Can Work from Home on the Side to Make Money
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Looking for the best side hustles to start doing in the UK to make money on the side working from home?
We have done the research to find the easiest to start side hustle jobs which you can get started with today with no upfront investment, apart from your time obviously.
Most of these jobs can be done remotely with just an internet connection and a digital device like a laptop. So if you are keen to start doing location-independent work and get paid while being at home or travelling like a digital nomad then this list of jobs can help you get started with online freelancing work.
What are the Benefits of a Side Hustle?
With the population boom around the world and ongoing work automation through AI and robotics, a scarcity of jobs is becoming a problem for many. Such factors have given rise to the extremely popular phenomenon that Gen Z has coined ‘side hustles.’
1. Availability in various sectors and industries
Side hustles are often taken by workers who feel or realise their salaries are not enough to support their families, and their lifestyle, or older retired individuals who don’t feel like sitting back home doing anything, but wish to pursue a simple day job and make a little money in the process. Young school and college kids often also want to or need to earn more than the meagre pocket money they receive. Side hustlers come from a wide variety of backgrounds and motivations.
Similarly, side hustles are of varied types and earnings and are a great starting point to work online. But one thing that connects all the dots is the energetic persuasion of a job, alongside their respective daily cycle of activities in life for whatever motive they do it for.
2. Flexibility for Better Work-Life Balance
Another advantage is flexibility. Most side hustles allow you to set your own hours, giving you the freedom to balance them with your full-time job or other commitments. This can be especially appealing for students, parents, or retirees who need extra cash without sacrificing too much time.
3. Levelling Up Skills and Career Opportunities
Moreover, side hustles provide an opportunity to explore passions and build new skills. For example, a freelance writer may start writing as a hobby but turn it into a lucrative career or even an online business. This enables individuals to gain valuable experience in a field they are interested in, potentially opening the door to future career shifts.
4. Increasing Financial Stability
Lastly, side hustles can help you diversify your income streams, reducing your financial reliance on a single job. This financial buffer can be vital during economic downturns or layoffs, offering greater stability and peace of mind.
Rise of a Side Hustle to Pay the Bills
In most instances, people take up a side hustle following a skill set they already have or they are keen on learning rather quickly or while working.
Side hustles ensure you don’t work tirelessly for the money which would somewhat simply mean, pursuing two-day jobs instead of a ‘SIDE’ hustle.
The flexibility and ease of starting one make it a viable solution for people who need to bridge the gap between their primary income and their essential expenses.
As the name suggests, one must make sure they balance it well in life and that these side hustles are assets that could provide them with constant financial aid, especially with rising living costs ahead.
Experts are warning that there is a possible 18% inflation next year in the UK. A quarterly review by Ofgem could send monthly energy bills skyrocketing to £4,000 or more this winter.
You could earn up to £5,000 annually and defray the higher cost of gas and energy with a part-time side hustle, even if you only work around 130 days for 3 hours daily.
So, get into gear and check out this best side hustles UK list to make that extra dosh.
Top 21 Side Hustles UK
In a country like the UK, with a diverse cultural landscape, innovation, tradition, and history, the job market offers side hustles and hustlers plenty of opportunities with something for everyone.
The opportunities in the UK are not limited to this country with the internet making it possible to work anywhere in the world beyond borders. However, it is important that one picks and pursues the right-side hustles according to their goals.
To help you begin your journey on the right track we list the 21 best side hustles so you can work from home on the side to make extra money.
Disclaimer: The information shared in this post was correct at the time of publication but may be subject to change. The side hustles are listed from most profitable to least profitable according to the average estimated earnings.
1. Transcription Services
Transcription is one of the simplest yet rewarding side hustles that involves converting audio or video recordings into written text. It’s in high demand across various industries, including media, legal, medical, and corporate sectors. Companies and individuals often need their podcasts, interviews, meetings, or conferences transcribed for documentation, which opens a consistent flow of work for freelancers. Since transcription is project-based, it’s ideal for people looking to work remotely on their own schedules.
With a range of work that goes behind running any media company. Transcription doesn’t require much skill, and companies are looking for freelancers to do their work on a contractual basis. Make the most out of it.
Estimated Income: The average rate for transcribing is £0.92 per minute of audio, with rates ranging from £0.65 to £2.00 per minute, based on data from August 2024.
Investment Needed:
Minimal (transcription software)
Requirements:
Typing skills, attention to detail, and transcription platform access (e.g., Rev or TranscribeMe).
2. Online Teaching or Tutoring
Be it a subject at school, a dance form, or something else. We all are masters of at least one of them. What better way to put it to use than teaching the younger generations in exchange for a fee online. With both parties mutually benefitting from the agreement. The fees wouldn’t probably be as high as an established institute of the same provision, but neither are you investing as much time or energy to pursue it full time.
Check out these well-paid tutoring job platforms or other established providers like Ostado to apply.
Estimated Income: £15 – £40 per hour
Investment Needed:
Minimal (a reliable internet connection and teaching platform subscription)
Requirements:
Expertise in a subject, teaching skills, and a platform like Tutorful or Superprof to connect with students.
3. Website Development
Website development is one of the most in-demand side hustles, especially in a digital-first world where businesses, influencers, and entrepreneurs need a strong online presence. As a website developer, you can either build your own sites or offer your services to clients in need of custom websites for their brands or businesses. The demand spans across multiple industries, from small businesses needing a simple portfolio site to large companies requiring complex e-commerce platforms.
Build and design your own or help others do so. And gain profits out of one of the most trending job types.
Estimated Income: The average salary for a web developer in the United Kingdom is £37,500 per year or approximately £19.23 per hour.
Investment Needed:
Moderate (development tools, website)
Requirements:
Web development skills (HTML, CSS, JavaScript). Having a personal website is crucial for showcasing your portfolio.
4. Remote IT Support
Provide personalised tech support and help people out with their technical issues. Charge for your assistance. This is a job you can do from anywhere and all you need is a PC and an internet connection. Many web hosting companies like SeekaHost offer tech support specialists for WordPress, server management, and all the other web services needed. So if you are one of them, apply and get the job to hustle on the side in the evenings after your day job.
Estimated Income: The average salary for a remote support engineer in the United Kingdom is £35,849 per year or approximately £18.38 per hour.
Investment Needed:
Minimal (computer, internet, remote tools)
Requirements:
Tech skills, especially in troubleshooting and customer service, with potential certifications in IT support.
5. Digital Marketing Consultant
With the increasing importance of online presence, businesses are willing to invest in digital marketing to improve their visibility. As a digital marketing consultant, you can offer services like SEO, PPC advertising, content marketing, and social media management. This side hustle is particularly appealing for marketing professionals or those with experience in building online campaigns. The need for effective digital strategies ensures that this side hustle has high earning potential and room for growth.
Estimated Income: The average salary for a digital marketing consultant in the United Kingdom is £35,833 per year or approximately £18.38 per hour.
Investment Needed:
Moderate (website, tools for SEO, marketing and analytics)
Requirements:
Expertise in SEO, content marketing, and PPC. Build a website to offer your services and attract clients.
6. SEO Services
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is essential for businesses wanting to improve their online visibility and drive organic traffic. Offering SEO services, such as keyword research, backlink building, and on-page optimisation, can be a highly profitable side hustle. As companies compete for higher rankings in search results, skilled SEO professionals are in demand. This side hustle allows you to work remotely, and as your expertise grows, so does your earning potential.
Estimated Income: The average salary for an SEO specialist in the United Kingdom is £34,125 per year or approximately £17.50 per hour.
Investment Needed:
Moderate (website, SEO tools)
Requirements:
Knowledge of SEO best practices. You can refer clients to SeekaHost’s SEO blog for insights and tips.
7. App Testing
App testing offers an easy way to make money from home by reviewing new apps and websites. Companies need user feedback to identify bugs and improve usability before launching their products. By signing up as a tester, you’ll be paid to navigate apps, report issues, and provide feedback on your user experience. App testing requires no special skills, making it an accessible side hustle for anyone with a smartphone or computer.
Estimated Income: The average salary for a tester in the United Kingdom is £33,420 per year or approximately £17.14 per hour.
Investment Needed:
Minimal (good internet connection, devices)
Requirements:
No specific qualifications, just a keen eye for detail.
8. Social Media Marketing
Take over the social media of businesses or celebrities and influencers and facilitate their growth and engagement while earning out of it, which is fun if you are constantly on your socials anyway. Help businesses manage their social media profiles and increase engagement. This side hustle is perfect for people who are already active on social media and have a good understanding of trends and analytics.
Estimated Income: The average salary for a social media digital marketing professional in the United Kingdom is £30,000 per year or approximately £15.38 per hour.
Investment Needed:
Minimal (social media management tools)
Requirements:
Strong social media skills, knowledge of platforms like Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, and content creation.
9. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing allows you to earn passive income by promoting products or services online. By writing reviews, creating blogs, or posting videos that contain affiliate links, you receive a commission when someone makes a purchase through your referral. It’s a flexible side hustle that you can do entirely from home, and it works particularly well if you have an existing online presence or social media following. As your traffic and influence grow, so does your earning potential.
Estimated Income: The average salary for an affiliate marketing executive in the United Kingdom is £29,333 per year or approximately £15.04 per hour.
Investment Needed:
Minimal (website and content creation)
Requirements:
A website, SEO knowledge, and content marketing. SeekaHost’s SEO strategies can help boost your website’s visibility.
10. Become a Virtual Assistant
Virtual assistants (VAs) offer administrative, technical, or creative support to businesses and entrepreneurs. As a VA, you might manage emails, handle customer service, or run social media accounts, all from the comfort of your home. Virtual assistance is ideal for organised, self-driven individuals who can juggle multiple tasks. The role is growing in demand as more businesses look to outsource administrative work, making it a flexible and scalable side hustle with the potential for ongoing client relationships.
Estimated Income: The average salary for a virtual assistant in the United Kingdom is £29,250 per year or approximately £15 per hour.
Investment Needed:
Minimal (website for showcasing services & good equipment like laptop, headphones etc.)
Requirements:
Time management and organisation skills. Create a professional portfolio website to attract clients and showcase testimonials
11. Online Content Creation
With companies in constant need of creators, provide them the services on a budget and make a few pounds out of it for yourself. You can get started as a Blogger and work your way to get more content writing gigs. Your best way to start is by building your blog with the content you’ve written. If you optimise the content well to rank higher up on search engines like Google then you will get visitors that will spread the word about your work. The best way to get content creation gigs is by having a well-built blog site that ranks higher on Google and gets traffic. Showing that to your target clients will definitely land you more and more work. Learn more about content marketing strategies here.
Freelance writers create content for blogs, businesses, and publications. With demand growing for online content, writing can be a highly lucrative side hustle.
Estimated Income: The average salary for a content creator in the United Kingdom is £28,000 per year or approximately £14.36 per hour.
Investment Needed:
Minimal (website/portfolio)
Requirements:
Writing skills and a blog or portfolio website to showcase your work. Check out SeekaHost’s guide on starting a blog to get your writing journey started.
12. Create Vlogs
Make videos of your everyday life and post them on YouTube or TikTok. Make it engaging and entertaining. You could earn a fortune and even become a celebrity or influencer, all for no big investments whatsoever.
Monetisation options such as ad revenue, sponsorships, affiliate marketing, and brand collaborations can turn vlogging into a substantial source of income. Once your channel gains traction, brands may approach you for paid promotions or collaborations, which could significantly boost your earnings. The key to success lies in being authentic, relatable, and consistent in posting content. Some successful vloggers started with minimal resources, using their smartphones and free editing software to produce their videos.
Estimated Income: You can expect to earn between £2.50 and £4.10 for every 1,000 views on YouTube. However, if you have a popular account, your earnings could increase to around £6 or £7 per 1,000 views.
Investment Needed:
Minimal (camera and editing software)
Requirements:
Creativity, engaging personality, and consistency in posting content.
13. Create Podcasts
Host a podcast of your own or manage the notes and scripts for one that someone else hosts. Podcasts are a massive hit lately and making no good use of the phenomenon despite having the necessary skill sets. It is a foolish move.
Estimated Income: The estimated total pay for a podcast producer and host is £45,085 per year, with an average base salary of £42,221 per year.
Investment Needed:
Low Medium (good camera or a premium smartphone, microphone, recording software)
Requirements:
Good communication & video editing skills, creativity, and good presentation ideas. You can host podcasts using platforms like Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
14. Graphic Designing
Graphic design is a highly sought-after skill in today’s digital world, making it a fantastic side hustle for anyone with a creative flair and design expertise. Businesses across all industries need visually appealing graphics for their branding, marketing materials, websites, social media, and advertisements. As a graphic designer, you can take advantage of this vast demand by offering a wide range of services, including logo design, social media graphics, infographics, business cards, product packaging, and more.
Companies are in need of making their websites and works attractive. There’s a huge market for graphic designers to hop onto and earn.
Estimated Income: The average salary ranges from £20,000 per year for starters to £40,000 per year for experienced professionals.
Investment Needed:
Moderate (graphic design software)
Requirements:
Design skills, and a portfolio of your work. You can showcase designs on platforms like Behance or Fiverr.
15. Print on Demand (POD)
Print on Demand is a simple yet lucrative side hustle that involves designing custom products like t-shirts, mugs, or posters. You create the designs, and when customers place orders, a POD provider prints and ships the products on your behalf. This means you don’t need to hold any inventory or deal with shipping, making it a low-risk option for creatives. By promoting your designs on your own website or through platforms like Etsy or Redbubble, you can reach a wide audience and generate consistent sales.
Estimated Income: The average salary in the print-on-demand industry ranges from approximately £20,789 per year for a digital marketer to £29,592 per year for a web developer.
Investment Needed:
Low (website and design tools)
Requirements:
A website and basic design skills using tools like Canva. You can sell via your own website or integrate with platforms like Etsy or Redbubble.
16. Online Coaching
Online coaching is a great side hustle for experts in fitness, business, life coaching, or any other specialised field. Offering one-on-one coaching via video calls allows you to help others achieve their goals while working from home. You can create customised coaching plans, schedule appointments around your other commitments, and build a loyal client base. Online coaching is a scalable business model, and with the rise of virtual interactions, this side hustle has become increasingly popular.
Estimated Income: The national average salary of a life coach is approximately £25,693 per year.
Investment Needed:
Low (website, video call tools)
Requirements:
Expertise in a coaching field, a website, and video conferencing tools.
17. eBook Writing
Writing and selling eBooks is a great way to turn your writing skills into a passive income stream. By self-publishing on platforms like Amazon Kindle, you can reach a wide audience and earn royalties with every sale. Whether you write fiction or non-fiction, the key is to target a specific niche that interests your audience. Once your eBook is complete, you can sell it indefinitely without needing to do much extra work, making it a sustainable side hustle.
Estimated Income: Professional authors earn an average of only £7,000 per year.
Investment Needed:
Minimal (writing software, website)
Requirements:
Writing skills, knowledge of a specific niche, and a platform to sell your ebooks.
18. Dropshipping
Dropshipping is an eCommerce business model that allows you to sell products without holding any inventory. When a customer places an order, your supplier ships the product directly to them, meaning you never have to worry about storage or shipping logistics. This low-overhead model makes it an ideal side hustle for those looking to start an online business with minimal upfront costs. You can sell almost anything, from apparel to electronics, and the flexibility of dropshipping means you can scale the business as it grows.
Estimated Income: In 2022, the average dropshipper in the UK earns around £2,000 a month, but there is no upper limit to potential earnings.
Investment Needed:
Low to moderate (website setup, marketing)
Requirements:
A well-optimised e-commerce website (check out platforms like Shopify or WooCommerce) and digital marketing skills. For guidance on building a website for dropshipping, refer to SeekaHost’s ecommerce website guide.
19. Online Course Creation
If you’re an expert in a particular field, online course creation is a highly scalable side hustle that allows you to share your knowledge with a global audience. By developing and selling courses on platforms like Udemy or Teachable, you can earn passive income from students looking to enhance their skills. Once you’ve created the course content, you can continuously promote it, earning money for each enrollment. The growing trend toward online learning makes this an increasingly popular side hustle.
Estimated Income: Successful course creators can earn between $1,000 and $10,000 per month on average by creating and selling high-quality courses.
Investment Needed:
Moderate (course creation tools, website, marketing)
Requirements:
Expertise in a specific niche, a website, and marketing skills.
20. Website Flipping
Website flipping involves buying underperforming websites, improving their design, SEO, and revenue streams, then selling them for a profit. This side hustle is perfect for individuals with website development and digital marketing skills. By identifying sites with potential and enhancing their performance, you can turn around a substantial profit. Platforms like Flippa make it easy to buy and sell websites, and with practice, you can scale this business into a consistent income source.
Estimated Income: Website flipping in the UK can be highly profitable, with successful flippers often achieving returns of 30% to 150% on their investments. The average sale price for a flipped website is typically between £2,000 and £3,000.
Investment Needed:
Moderate (initial purchase of websites, SEO tools)
Requirements:
Website building and SEO skills. Use platforms like Flippa to buy and sell websites.
21. Sell Digital Products
Selling digital products, such as eBooks, templates, or online tools, is an excellent way to generate passive income. Once you’ve created a product, you can sell it over and over without additional effort. Platforms like Gumroad, Etsy, or your own website make it easy to reach a global audience. This side hustle allows you to monetise your skills and knowledge, and with digital products, there are no inventory or shipping concerns to deal with.
Estimated Income: Anyone can earn over $2,000 a month by selling digital products, with more than 1,300 individuals achieving this milestone in March 2024 alone.
Investment Needed:
Low (website, tools for creating digital products)
Requirements:
A website and a platform like Gumroad or Etsy to sell your products.
Conclusion
As you can see, anyone has some of the skills required to do some of the side hustle jobs listed here. So using these to cash out money is what the ideology of a side hustle somewhat is.
Side hustles have seen a hike in numbers during the pandemic over two years, with more and more people utilising their free time to learn and teach skills, sell goods, and a lot more online.
More than 99.9% of all UK businesses are small to medium-sized and many need online support or services. Around 46% of people in the UK have started a side hustle.
With this side hustle spirit and the era of connectivity joining hands in a widespread way, online side hustles have taken up pace and don’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.
If you want us to add a suggestion here based on your experience, please get in touch with us!
Author Profile
- Blogger and Educator by Passion | Senior Online Media & PR Strategist at ClickDo Ltd. | Contributor to many Business Blogs in the United Kingdom | Fascinated to Write Blogs in News & Education I have completed a journalism summer course at the London School of Journalism and manage various blogs.
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