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Work · alternatives · 2026

IF

24 alternatives to I failed for a weekend project, here is my 5 days side project

I was wondering whether it’s possible to successfully create a weekend project and if so, with which quality. Here at HN I’ve read many stories of random people (to me they are like teachers) creating “Show HN” projects in 48 hrs which are amazingly awesome and also hit the top site of HN. So here I’m presenting mine: http://keepandplay.com. This is actually not a weekend project, I tried for it to be, but I failed. It actually took me 5 days to have it as it is right now. So I’m still profoundly skeptic on how to realize a 48 hrs side project with the look and feel and quality I…

Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. I failed for a weekend project, here is my 5 days side project launched in 2016; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

  1. 1CO

    Check out my (sort-of) weekend project . . . And by weekend project, I mean something that I thought sounded like a small idea that I could throw together over one or two weekends, but ended up taking over six months. This is a bit of a long submission, but after lurking on HN for the last few years, I thought this might be a chance to contribute something back. I’m just going to briefly discuss why my “weekend project” took so long, and how I got where I am. The url is http://dudmail.com - it's a disposable email site. Similar in intention/scope to the many existing ones out there, but…

    2011 · dudmail.com · its alternatives →

  2. 2

    A few days ago, I responded to a comment by bloggergirl offering to read anyone's web copy and help. I shot off an email hoping for a paragraph or two of feedback on my startup's copy. Instead I received a professional, detailed deck of tons of invaluable well thought out feedback. It must have taken her an entire afternoon. Here's a link to it: http://www.slideshare.net/shereefb/recommendations-for-bettermeans To top it off, this isn't someone with a lot of free time on her hands, she's only days away from launching her own startup (page99test) This community blows my mind!

    2010 · slideshare.net · its alternatives →

  3. 3

    Well HN, I've finally produced something I think is worthy of sharing, but I didn't do it "in a weekend". Yeah, it's an iOS puzzle game. And yeah, it's a game I built because I wanted to play it rather than based on market research, so all this sort of makes it the antithesis of a popular HN post. But whatever. Still hoping for some of that patented (har har) expert HN feedback. Critique any part of it except the music. Also, PM me for upgrade codes, or I can post some here if there's any interest. Download (it's free):…

    2012 · itunes.apple.com · its alternatives →

  4. 4

    http://www.hnshowcase.com Moses (nnythm) and I browse Hacker News daily. Show HN posts are some of our favorite parts of HN. We wanted to create a way to browse Show HN articles, even those that might not quite make it to the front page. We created http://www.hnshowcase.com last weekend to make discovering projects posted on HN easier. It searches all "Show HN" posts and generates a thumbnail view for each of them. You can sort by submission date, points, and number of comments, and navigate with left/right or j/k keys. We used the following technologies: HN Search API, Pyramid web…

    2011 · hnshowcase.com · its alternatives →

  5. 5WP

    I had this domain for some time and I never got around to make a project for it. This last weekend I finally managed to find a few hours to work on it and I've just finished putting the code into production. The site lets you choose some pictures from your Facebook photos and then it will let other users vote on them, as long as they know your URL. This way you can find your best picture. Some random facts the HN crowd will appreciate: - Technologies: Tornado, mongodb and memcache, served with nginx - The site took around 5 hours to design and write (including time spent in Photoshop and…

    2011 · onepic.me · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    I loved this recent "Show and Tell" thread about side projects posted on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42373343 It inspired me to build a mini directory that aggregates over 500 side projects posted to HN since 2017. You can filter by year, category, or revenue level. Thank you Cursor + Next.js for making this insanely fun to build. Hopefully you discover hidden gems or find inspiration in what the HN community is creating. Happy browsing!

    2024 · hnsideprojects.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7MW
  8. 8

    I figured, "what better way to look at a list of (hopefully) inspiring projects?" The upvotes work and are globally synced.

    2024 · guycombinator.net · its alternatives →

  9. 9

    I will build the top crowdsourced project idea in 1 week.

    2021 · its alternatives →

  10. 10MW
  11. 11NY

    / This is an old post in HN (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5360453), but could not get enough response, so posting again, A friend told me that 'Show HN' will help better. */ Hi All, (http://www.mistrics.com/) I made a project that helps in documenting Academic projects and sharing them with teachers. It also provides facility to ask questions. Students needs to simply create projects, after that just create task and documents under it. Also inviting others into team and so on.... In Indian colleges this process is all manual right now. And I am trying to get this process online. I am…

    2013 · its alternatives →

  12. 12

    I scraped every Show HN from the last 12 months (41,301 posts) plus the full comment tree of every launch with 10+ comments, ~100k comment timestamps, all from the Algolia HN API. The median launch gets 2 points and 0 comments. For launches that do get traction, half the comments they'll ever get arrive within 7.2 hours and 90% within 26, and the top decile decays on the same clock as everyone else. Vote timestamps aren't public, so comment timing is the attention proxy; caveats are in the post. Everything reproduces from the repo with one command…

    Jul 2026 · jonno.nz · its alternatives →

  13. 13IM

    I am a non-hacker "idea guy" with zero discernible talent. Like most, the story starts with me doing things the hard way. I dreamt of a tool that would save me countless hours. Like most of my ideas, it was supposed to die in a couple of hours, but this one had some legs.... "If I needed this, surely others did too" kept looping in my head. Could I get this built? Could I build it myself? Nah...too lazy to learn how, but before I did anything, I had to promise myself one thing: No more ideas! If ideas were sit-ups, I would have a six pack instead of this tire. It was a constant mental…

    2012 · readwriteweb.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14SY

    This is a thread for posting anything cool or interesting you've done lately. I always love seeing what the HN community is up to!

    2013 · its alternatives →

  15. 15IM

    Hi HN! I made a thing and wanted to share it with the builders of HN. Problem: I’ve found it hard/impossible to stay consistent on my side projects over the years with a pretty demanding full-time job and now kids. When the job picks up, it’s too easy to drop the side project for a day, which becomes a week, which becomes months. It’s also been somewhat demotivating to build alone on the side because you only have so much time and projects take so long. In college it was easier to find people to work with. Now, not so much. Solution: I think it’ll be easier to stay motivated and…

    2025 · guildorigin.com · its alternatives →

  16. 16UO

    When I see what some HN members have done in a weekend on their projects, it makes it hard to confess that it has taken us 1 year to get to this stage. I kept trying to make things perfect, but finally I have seen the light - it will never be perfect and even in its current state, I see so much we need to improve, but it's something. Instead of delaying even more, I thought I would release it to the best critics out there - HN say hello to MyProperty.com Hope to hear your feedback, criticism, thoughts.

    2011 · its alternatives →

  17. 17SH

    I think my design is kind of awful, that's why I've been always looking for a designer (co-founder). If you're interested in what I'm building, contact me at wanghq # kidsfriend.ly or leave your contact here. I'd also like to hear some suggestions. If you want to get some feedback for your projects, we can exchange our ideas. http://www.kidsfriend.ly

    2013 · its alternatives →

  18. 18NF

    Hi, I spent the last couple of months developing OurClubFundraiser(http://www.ourclubfundraiser.com) and launched it about two weeks ago.I would love to get some feedback from the HN community on how I could improve the site and tweak the concept. Since launching I have found that: 1) I am not getting enough visits(Average around 5 a day) 2) Any of the visits I do get are not converting. I am working on 1) and will hopefully be able to dramatically increase the number of visits over the next few weeks. I could really do with some third party perspectives on point 2. 1)Is the concept not…

    2012 · ourclubfundraiser.com · its alternatives →

  19. 19MW
  20. 20MH

    Back in October, the "HN Make November Launch an App Month" discussion was started and it sounded like a great opportunity, so I joined the Facebook group and decided to build my take on an iOS version of the classic Quotefalls puzzle game, thinking I would learn a ton and it would be a great way to get my feet wet with making, marketing, and managing my own software. A week before the group presentation (end of Nov.), I took my project off the project list because I was nowhere near finished. One of the many great things I’ve learned in all this is how easy it is to justify all the feature…

    2011 · quotiac.com · its alternatives →

  21. 21

    Build and Ship a new Side Project every weekend

    2021 · its alternatives →

  22. 22MS

    linkrdr (www.linkrdr.com), a personal link aggregator, was directly inspired by http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3555923 I read while browsing on HN. It's still a bit rough, but the concept is an interesting one and people have already shown interest. Let me know what you think. Also, if anyone knows a good UX designer, email me :)

    2012 · its alternatives →

  23. 23IT

    I created http://devtest.net as a weekend project, and I'm pretty proud of it from a technical and UI standpoint. The problem is, I've built this by myself in a bit of a vacuum, to "scratch my own itch", and I don't know if this is useful to anyone other than me. I'm also not so hot on the business side and don't really know what I'm doing. Basically, I'm looking for some advice, now that I've actually launched, what now? One thing that this has shown me is that I'm capable of putting together a pretty decent web application on my own in my spare time. Should I stick with this idea, or…

    2012 · devtest.net · its alternatives →

  24. 24FY

    2016 · antontarasenko.github.io · its alternatives →

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