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Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to I made my first few dollars online by publishing a cheatsheet

I recently published the Blender Python Cheatsheet on Gumroad a couple of days ago. In three pages, it is a collection of most frequently used functions and solutions to common problems you will encounter when writing scripts, macros or addons using the Blender API. I released it for free and I did

This is a personal account documenting how someone earned their first online income by creating and publishing a cheatsheet. It falls under life and fun content and was launched in March 2023. The resource appears… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. I made my first few dollars online by publishing a cheatsheet launched in 2023; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

  1. 1

    I launched NumPad v1 on here a few years ago, and back then it wasn't much more than a thin CodeMirror wrapper around the calculator engine I'd written. Now I've rewritten it as a PWA that supports multiple documents, persists them to IndexedDB, and has a syncing service for paying customers. Syncing is handled by Automerge[1] under the hood, which should make it relatively easy to get document sharing working too. [1] https://automerge.org/

    2022 · numpad.io · its alternatives →

  2. 2IM

    Hello. This year I dived into UI/UX area and at the same time I work as a web developer. I sincerely love making good UI. But at my full time job it's not always possible due to different reasons =\ So I've been posting random UI/UX staff on Twitter, then I made a free book that had 50 tips (posted it here as well). I decided to finish this year by collecting everything I learned and here it is: https://akcium.gumroad.com/l/ui-ux-tips. This time it's a paid one. But, you can check ~20 pages of it, just go to…

    2021 · its alternatives →

  3. 3

    Today I'm open sourcing "Grid studio", a web-based spreadsheet application with full integration of the Python programming language.

    2019 · hackernoon.com · its alternatives →

  4. 4CC

    Cheatsheets could be a powerful tool for lots of people, especially a full-stack developer like me, but I hate online cheatsheets for a few reasons: 1. Most online cheatsheets are pdf files or webpages. I can't add my own stuff, nor only take the parts that are useful to me. 2. There is no easy way to search across all the cheatsheets I've collected. 3. Can't make part of a cheatsheet private, therefore, I have to delete sensitive stuff before sharing mine with others. I ended up using multiple txt files to store mine over the years which is cumbersome as well. So I built Cheaki.com. On…

    2020 · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    A selection of printable, one-page cheatsheets, generated from Markdown using Pandoc & LaTeX - kickstartcoding/cheatsheets

    2019 · github.com · its alternatives →

  6. 6IM

    I'm writing a book which teaches Python/Django web app development for non-programmers, and fundraising on Kickstarter (passed minimum funding, 2 days left): http://hellowebapp.com https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1868398473/hello-web-app-intro-to-building-web-apps-with-djan It's basically the process I used to teach myself programming as a web designer a few years back, which I then launched a small web app (infant-version of WeddingInviteLove.com), which has grown into my bootstrapped startup which supports me full-time (WeddingLovely.com). Most…

    2014 · its alternatives →

  7. 7MF

    Hi! Long time reader, first time submitter. I've finallllyy got my first webapp online. It's been a long time coming, I started it over a year ago and just been an hour here, a couple of hours here, and a period of a couple of months of nothing. I first wrote it as a way to learn some python it sort of grew to fill a need I had. It's at a point now where I'd LOVE some feedback as I am going round in circules. Please, it's free, just hit the home page, plugin in a name/email and url you want to links checked on. If you use the name 'DeleteMe' I will remove the account after a week, so feel…

    2012 · sitecrawl.net · its alternatives →

  8. 8

    Step-by-step strategies for beginners to succeed online.

    Jan 2026 · aminebensousi.gumroad.com · its alternatives →

  9. 9

    Hey HN, As a freelancer, I found myself spending time every month manually opening PDF and Word invoices, copying the details into a spreadsheet, and tracking payments. It was tedious and error-prone. I decided to build a simple desktop app to automate this. It's a GUI built with Python and Tkinter that points to a folder of invoices, parses the key details (invoice #, amount, date), and stores everything in a local SQLite database for tracking and analysis. It's been quite a time- and headache-saver for me. A Note on Simplicity & Caveats I'm sharing this in case it's useful to any other…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  10. 10

    Learn to take control of your personal finances using Python, a few plain-text files, and the open-source ecosystem. 100% developer-friendly.

    2021 · personalfinancespython.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11

    🕵️‍♂️ Invisible Income How to Build Passive Income in the Digital AgeBy NetflowLabWhat if you could earn while you sleep, think, or build something once — and let it work for you again and again?Invisible Income is not just another passive income guide. It’s a step-by-step playbook that shows you:✅

    2025 · sanakorolik.gumroad.com · its alternatives →

  12. 12

    I've made another Python cheat sheet tutorial. Yeah yeah, nothing new, I know. But here's the thing: The main idea was not just to write a wall of text telling about everything, but to make it interactive. So that everything would have its own example code snippet, which you could change, run, and see how it worked. And not somewhere in a web version, but on your own computer, in your own environment. Fortunately, Python has the perfect tool for this - the Jupyter Notebook. That's why all chapters are written as separate notebooks and there is an example for each point (well, almost). I…

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  13. 13IM

    Hi HN, I am a solopreneur in the evenings and a software engineer during the day. In the past, I have created lots of calculators for my web projects and freelancing friends. These were pretty basic, but users always welcomed them. I also used currently available builders, but the problem was that they were either slow, broke on mobile devices, had nonsense page view limits, or were expensive. Some even ticked all those boxes. So I have decided to create my own, with a simple interface, and called it Creative Widgets (if it ever takes off, I plan to add more exciting stuff like charts, etc,…

    2024 · creativewidgets.io · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    I’m a financial analyst, and for years I managed our family budget in a massive Excel sheet. I loved the control, but it eventually became an "unpaid second job" of fixing broken CSV formats and patching formulas. The real problem: The spreadsheet was a barrier, not a bridge. It didn’t help me have better money conversations at home. Telling my wife “Dining is high” wasn't helpful; we needed to see where we were overspending (e.g., that one specific cafe vs. grocery runs) without me having to act as a "human pivot table" every Sunday night. I didn't want an app that required our bank…

    Feb 2026 · opboard.io · its alternatives →

  15. 15IB

    I built this as a Garage Project over the weekend. https://x402.backpac.xyz/ Still working on refining things, but let me know your thoughts. Cheers.

    2025 · its alternatives →

  16. 16MF

    A little background: I'd been throwing this idea around in my head for a while, and finally had some free time between two quarters of school, and decided to make the site. I spent several days over the break laying out the backend for the site, and starting coding, and then the next few weekends finishing it up (and I've been making small changes since then). Where I got the idea: I originally got the idea when trying to look up coupons for some pizza places, and having a lot of trouble finding any that worked at my store since they were all regional, or weekly codes, so I just manually…

    2012 · abiteofpizza.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    Hey HN, I started my career as a finance manager, transitioned into product management, and now I’m building my own products. Back in my finance days, while managing a £6M budget, I uncovered a £15k leak hiding in plain sight: FX fees. Today, I see solo founders making the exact same mistake. I realised most founders are quietly losing 2-5% of their revenue to what I call the Lazy Tax: - Stripe's ~2% auto-conversion fee on inbound revenue, - plus their local bank's ~3% spread when paying for global SaaS tools (AWS, Claude, Ads). So I built FixMyFX to show founders their exact leak and how to…

    Apr 2026 · fixmyfx.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    Hi HN! I built ToolDexo - a collection of 29 free online tools because I was tired of websites that force you to sign up just to use a calculator or word counter. What's included: - Calculators: BMI, calorie, mortgage, loan, tax, grade, tip, percentage, age, compound interest - Converters: Currency (36 currencies with live rates), unit, timezone, file size - Generators: Password, QR code, favicon, color picker, Lorem Ipsum, random number - Text tools: Word counter, case converter, character counter, text compare, Markdown editor - Dev tools: JSON formatter, Base64 encoder/decoder Tech…

    2025 · minitools4u.com · its alternatives →

  19. 19

    Collection of developer cheatsheets

    2025 · malharchauhan7.github.io · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    I'm a university student and needed DeFi data for my project. CoinGecko's API pricing was way out of my budget (like, not even close). $35+/month just for high-granularity data – and that's not even minute-by-minute! So I did what any broke student would do – I started querying the blockchain directly instead. Turns out, going straight to the source is not only cheaper, but I could offer the same data for more than 50% less than traditional providers. So I built Qoery, a Python SDK that makes DeFi data actually affordable for students, indie devs, and anyone building side projects. What…

    Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  21. 21WW

    Over three months ago, I posted my book on HN and got tremendous +ve reponse. I am happy to inform that I have published the book to leanpub as per the comments I got on HN itself! It is pay as you go model, and the minimum is $0 because I wanted to contribute back to the FOSS Community

    2016 · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    Hey Everyone! This is my first post on Hacker News, and I wanted to share my project with you! From a young age, I dreamed of becoming a chef, but life took me down the path of software engineering instead. Nevertheless, my passion for creating delicious meals has always remained close to my heart. This journey led me to seek out recipes to enhance my cooking skills, but I often found myself frustrated by the websites I encountered—ads everywhere, walls of text, and recipes that were difficult to follow. That’s where PurePlates comes in. PurePlates allows users to share a recipe through…

    2024 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    VSCode extension with games (Snake, Plinko, slots), HN/LessWrong reader, and Pomodoro timer for AI coding wait times. Fake currency only. Marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=TouchGra... Built in a week with Claude Code after seeing Chad IDE get ratio'd for integrating real gambling. Happy to answer questions or get roasted on the code.

    Dec 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  24. 24IM

    Hello everyone. I'm a relatively new developer and I started my first project to go full production recently. It is a directory of payment processors and payment service providers. It's free to use and gives detailed info on their pricing, business model, supported business types, available countries, prohibited businesses and high risk business support. So far only 40 have been added with more to come. And I allow processors to contact me so that they're details can be added to the database. I'll eventually automate this and add verification the months to come. I hope you'll find it useful.…

    2025 · sourcefees.com · its alternatives →

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