How to share your startup on r/sidebusiness

TL;DR

r/sidebusiness is a free subreddit about side hustles and extra sources of income, and it is tiny: about 314 members (October 2026). Earlier listings, including ours, claimed 22,000 members, and that figure is wrong. It suits founders of a side business who want a few honest replies, and it gives almost no reach for a launch.

How we checked: we read these rules through public subreddit trackers in October 2026. Read the sidebar and the pinned posts before you post, since moderators update the rules.

What is r/sidebusiness?

The subreddit's description reads: "It's 2025! It's time to have a side hustle, side business or even several avenues of income." A side business (or side hustle) is a business you run next to a job, such as a small online shop, freelance work or a digital product.

GummySearch counted 314 members on 25 October 2026, with about 70 new members in the past year. The community is public and still growing, slowly. The tracker shows no rules, flairs or topic data for it, so check the sidebar yourself before you post.

The domain authority of 95 on this listing belongs to reddit.com. Links in Reddit posts carry the nofollow attribute, so a post here does nothing measurable for search rankings. With a few hundred members, expect a handful of views and replies at most.

Who should post on r/sidebusiness?

Good fit:

• People running a side business next to a job who want to compare notes with peers.
• Founders testing how they describe their side project before they post in a larger community.
• Makers of tools for side hustlers who want to start a conversation with a small, on-topic group.

Skip it if:

• You need launch traffic, sign-ups or press. 314 members cannot deliver that.
• You run a full-time startup with outside funding. The topic is extra income next to a job.

How much does r/sidebusiness cost?

Posting on r/sidebusiness is free and needs only a Reddit account. For paid reach, Reddit sells self-serve ads through Reddit Ads (ads.reddit.com), and a subreddit this small is too narrow to target on its own.

How do you share your startup on r/sidebusiness?

1. Open r/sidebusiness and read the sidebar rules and the pinned posts first. Reddit's sitewide rules apply as well, including the ban on spam.
2. Look at the latest posts and their dates to see how active the community is right now.
3. Write a text post about your side business: what you sell, how many hours a week it takes and what you want to learn.
4. Add your link only where it helps the story, and answer every reply.

Tips to get more out of r/sidebusiness

• Treat it as a test run. Use the replies to sharpen your pitch before you post in bigger subreddits.
• Share real figures, such as monthly income, hours spent and startup costs. Side hustlers respond to numbers.
• Ask a practical question, such as how others find their first ten customers while working full time.
• Spend your main effort elsewhere. Larger founder and side-project subreddits reach hundreds of times more people.

Our verdict

r/sidebusiness exists, is public and fits its topic, and with about 314 members it is a very small community. A post there costs ten minutes and brings a few replies at best. Use it as a quiet place to test your story, and put your real launch effort into larger subreddits.

More options: see all subreddits for founders. Planning the launch around this listing? The Fe/male Switch startup game walks women founders from idea to first customers.