Nearly half of British adults now have a side hustle. Finder's January 2026 survey put it at 46%, up from 39% a year earlier, earning an average of £872 a month. That average hides the real question, which is which one. Most side hustle lists throw fifty ideas at you as if dog walking, dropshipping and crypto belonged in the same sentence. This one ranks twelve by the three things that decide whether you stick with it: how fast the first £100 arrives, what you actually earn per hour once you are going, and what it costs to start.
One disclosure before the list. We run Resellers Paradise, a community of 1,000+ UK resellers, so we know reselling best and we rank it first. We have tried to be as straight about its downsides as everyone else's, and we say clearly below who it is not for.
Source: Finder, survey of 2,000 British adults by Censuswide, 3-6 January 2026.
The ranking at a glance
Earnings are typical ranges at five to ten hours a week, after costs. They are our estimates from members, public rate cards and the platforms' own figures, not promises. Anyone quoting you a precise number for a side hustle is selling something.
| # | Side hustle | First £100 | Typical monthly | To start | Needs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reselling on Vinted, eBay and Depop | Days | £200-1,000+, scales with hours | £0-100 | A phone, an eye for value |
| 2 | Retail flipping (clearance, price errors, outlets) | Days to weeks | £300-2,000+ | £100-300 | Capital, speed on deals |
| 3 | Delivery driving | First week | £400-800 | Bike or car | Vehicle, evenings free |
| 4 | Freelancing | Weeks to months | £300-1,500+ | £0 | A sellable skill |
| 5 | Tutoring | Weeks | £300-800 | £0 | Subject knowledge, DBS check |
| 6 | Local services (cleaning, gardening, valeting) | Weeks | £300-1,000 | £50-300 | Equipment, transport |
| 7 | Dog walking and pet sitting | Weeks | £150-500 | £0 | Daytime availability |
| 8 | Renting out what you own | Weeks | £50-600 | £0 | A driveway, a spare room, kit |
| 9 | Paid user research | First month | £50-200 | £0 | A laptop, patience |
| 10 | Etsy, print on demand, digital products | Months | £0-300, occasionally more | £0-50 | Design sense, marketing |
| 11 | Content creation | Months to a year | £0 for most, high ceiling | £0 | Consistency, thick skin |
| 12 | Surveys and cashback | Weeks | £20-80 | £0 | Dead time only |
1. Reselling on Vinted, eBay and Depop
Buy things for less than they are worth, sell them for what they are worth. Trainers, clothing, electronics, trading cards, LEGO, toys, anything with a known resale price. The stock comes from other people's Vinted listings, Facebook Marketplace, charity shops, car boots and your own wardrobe.
Why it ranks first. It is the only hustle on this list that needs no skill, no vehicle, no audience and almost no money, where the first sale lands within days and the earnings keep going up as you get better. Finder found selling on Vinted or similar was the single most common side hustle in the country, and it is the one people stick with because the feedback loop is fast: buy Monday, list Tuesday, paid Friday.
What it actually pays. A beginner flipping a few items a week clears £100-300 a month. Members of our community who source daily with monitors report £500-1,000 a month around a full-time job, and a minority run it as a second job at £3,000 a month or more. Some of the figures members have shared with screenshots: Cal, our co-founder, £50,000 profit in a year on Vinted alone; Jayan, started at 17 with £400, now £3,091 a month; Daly, £19,008 at 15; one member, £7,000 realised profit in his first 30 days, mostly from one air conditioner deal.
The downsides. Fees and postage eat 15-20% of every sale. You are holding stock, so money is tied up until it sells. Returns and the odd scam buyer happen. The best listings go in seconds, which is why serious resellers use a Vinted bot rather than refreshing the app. And past £1,000 a year it is taxable income, which we cover below.
2. Retail flipping: clearance, price errors and outlets
The same idea as reselling, but the stock is new and comes from retailers. A Nike outlet clearance, a supermarket pricing error, an ASOS sample sale, a Smyths clearance on trading cards. You buy at the mistake price and sell at the market price. The margins are bigger than second-hand reselling, and so is the capital needed, because the good deals reward buying in quantity.
What it actually pays. Spiky. Nothing for a fortnight, then one alert pays the month. A recent example from our Discord: Nike P-6000s at £30 in an ASOS sample sale, selling for £70 a pair. One member bought 270 pairs from a single alert, over £10,000 profit. Between them the community took more than 900 pairs. That is the top end. A typical member catches a few hundred pounds of profit a month from clearance and price errors.
The downsides. You need £100-300 to make a deal worth catching, you need to hear about it within minutes (which is what discount monitors are for), and retailers cancel orders on genuine price errors more often than you would like.
3. Delivery driving
Deliveroo, Uber Eats, Just Eat, Amazon Flex. Log on when you want, deliver, log off. The most predictable money on this list: an hour worked is an hour paid.
What it actually pays. Roughly £10-15 an hour after fuel and wear, depending on city, time of day and whether you are on a bike or in a car. Evenings and weekends pay best. Ten hours a week is £400-600 a month.
The downsides. It does not scale. Your ceiling is your hours. You need a vehicle, insurance that covers hire and reward, and the willingness to be out in January rain. It is a job with flexible hours rather than a business.
4. Freelancing
Selling a skill you already have: writing, design, web development, video editing, bookkeeping, translation. Upwork, Fiverr and PeoplePerHour for the first clients, then referrals.
What it actually pays. The highest hourly rate on the list once established, £20-50 an hour and up. But the first client takes weeks of pitching at low rates, and unpaid time (proposals, revisions, chasing invoices) drags the real hourly figure down for the first year.
The downsides. You need a skill someone will pay for, and if you had it and the spare time, you might already be doing this. Feast and famine. Clients on someone else's schedule.
5. Tutoring
GCSE and A-level subjects, music, languages, coding. MyTutor, Tutorful and Superprof handle the finding; you handle the teaching, usually online in the evening.
What it actually pays. £15-40 an hour depending on subject and level, with maths and sciences at the top. A regular roster of five students is £300-800 a month.
The downsides. You need real subject knowledge and usually a DBS check. Demand follows the school year and vanishes in July. Cancellations are common. Building a roster takes weeks.
6. Local services: cleaning, gardening, car valeting, handyman work
The oldest side hustles there are, and still among the best paid per hour because demand never runs out. Word of mouth, a Facebook post in the local group, Nextdoor, a card in the newsagent's window.
What it actually pays. £15-30 an hour. A mobile valeter with a regular Saturday round or a gardener with ten lawns clears £500-1,000 a month in season.
The downsides. Equipment costs £50-300 to start, you need transport, the work is physical, and gardening is seasonal. Public liability insurance is worth having once you are in people's homes.
7. Dog walking and pet sitting
Rover, Tailster and local Facebook groups connect you with owners. Group walks at lunchtime are the money maker; overnight sitting pays more per booking but ties up your evenings.
What it actually pays. £10-20 a walk, £25-50 a night sitting. Three regular lunchtime dogs is £300-500 a month.
The downsides. It needs daytime availability, which rules out most full-time workers. Trust takes time to build. Insurance again.
8. Renting out what you already own
A driveway on JustPark or YourParkingSpace, a spare room under the Rent a Room scheme, camera kit or tools on Fat Llama, a car on Turo or Hiyacar. The closest thing to passive income on this list, if you own the asset.
What it actually pays. A driveway near a station or stadium earns £50-200 a month. A spare room earns £400-600 in most cities and the first £7,500 a year is tax free under Rent a Room. Kit rental is occasional money.
The downsides. You need the asset. A lodger is a lifestyle change, not a side hustle. Cars get returned dirty.
9. Paid user research and testing
Prolific pays for academic studies. UserTesting and similar pay to record yourself using a website. Both are real money for real time, unlike surveys, but the supply of studies is capped and everyone is chasing them.
What it actually pays. £8-12 an hour on Prolific when studies are available; £30-50 for a user testing session, a few a month if you are lucky. £50-200 a month in practice.
The downsides. You cannot scale it and you cannot rely on it. It is decent money for time you would otherwise spend scrolling.
10. Etsy, print on demand and digital products
Design a T-shirt or a planner template once, sell it forever. The dream on every side hustle list. The reality is that most shops never make their first hundred sales, because the platforms are saturated and you are competing on marketing, not design.
What it actually pays. For most people, under £100 a month after fees. A small number find a niche and make thousands. There is no reliable middle.
The downsides. Months of work before any signal, listing fees, and a platform that changes the rules under you. It is a lottery ticket with better odds than the lottery.
11. Content creation
TikTok, YouTube, a newsletter, a podcast. The highest ceiling on this list and the longest wait. Most creators earn nothing for a year. The ones who break through often do it by documenting another side hustle, which is worth noting: the reselling accounts on TikTok earn from the videos and from the reselling.
What it actually pays. £0 for the vast majority in year one. Ad revenue and sponsorships only become meaningful past tens of thousands of followers.
The downsides. Everything about it is slow and public. You will post two hundred videos before one works.
12. Surveys and cashback
Last, deliberately. Survey sites pay £2-3 an hour. Cashback apps like TopCashback pay you back for spending you were doing anyway, which is fine, but it is not income.
What it actually pays. £20-80 a month if you are diligent, and you will not stay diligent.
How to pick one for your situation
- No money, no car, no particular skill: reselling. Start by selling what you own on Vinted this weekend, then reinvest into stock you know.
- Need reliable cash this month: delivery driving, or local services if you have a car and tools.
- Have a skill or a degree subject: freelancing or tutoring. Slower to start, higher hourly rate.
- Have an idle asset: rent it out first. It is the only nearly passive option.
- Have a year and no urgency: content or digital products, ideally documenting one of the hustles above so you have something to show.
- Have £200 and already resell: add retail flipping. It is where the bigger single wins come from.
Reselling in practice: what the first month looks like
Since we ranked it first, here is what doing it actually involves, so you can judge whether you would stick with it.
Sourcing is finding things to buy. Vinted and Facebook Marketplace sorted newest first in a niche you know, charity shops and car boots at the weekend, retailer clearance when you hear about it. Serious resellers automate the first part with a Vinted bot that shows new listings before the app does and buys with one tap, and with eBay and discount monitors that watch for them, because the best listings go in seconds.
Listing is photographing, describing and pricing. Clean background, natural light, honest description. Good photos add £10-20 to a sale price. The RP app writes descriptions and tracks profit if you want the boring part done for you.
Shipping is a parcel at the corner shop on the way to work. Most InPost and Evri points are inside shops you already pass.
A settled routine takes one to two hours a day, in whatever gaps you have. Parents do it during school hours, students between lectures, full-time workers in the evening.
Starting this weekend
- Sell what you own. Ten items from your wardrobe on Vinted. Free stock, and you learn the platform.
- Pick a niche you know. Trainers, a clothing brand, a game, a toy line. Knowledge is how you spot a mispriced listing.
- Set £50-100 aside as stock money. Reinvest profit; do not add more until you have sold what you bought.
- Buy below resale minus fees and postage. Check sold prices on eBay before every purchase. If the margin is not there, do not buy.
- List the same day. Stock sat in a cupboard is money sat in a cupboard.
- Join a community once you are selling. Resellers Paradise is £25 a month (£20 the first month with code WEBSITE) for the Vinted bot, eBay and Depop monitors, discount monitors for 50+ retailers, the app, the guides and 1,000+ people doing the same thing. It is worth it once you have proved to yourself you will do the work, not before.
Tax: the £1,000 allowance and platform reporting
Every UK taxpayer gets a £1,000 trading allowance each tax year. If your total side hustle income, before costs, is under £1,000, you owe nothing and do not need to tell HMRC. Above it, you register for Self Assessment and pay income tax on your profit: sales minus stock, postage, packaging, platform fees and tools. Keep every receipt from day one and this is a half-hour job in January.
Separately, platforms such as Vinted, eBay and Depop now report sellers to HMRC once you pass 30 sales or around £1,700 in a year. Being reported is not a tax bill and it does not change whether you owe tax. It means HMRC can see the income, so the days of quietly ignoring it are over. Selling your own unwanted belongings is not trading and is not taxed; buying to sell on is.
If you are employed, side hustle profit is added to your salary and taxed at your marginal rate. Reselling costs, including a community membership, are deductible against reselling profit.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best side hustle in the UK in 2026?
For most people, reselling: buying underpriced items on Vinted, eBay, Facebook Marketplace, charity shops and retail clearance, and selling them for what they are worth. It needs under £100 to start, no qualifications, the first sale usually lands within days, and it scales with the hours you put in. Finder's January 2026 survey found selling on Vinted or similar was the single most common side hustle in Britain. Delivery driving and freelancing pay well per hour but do not scale; tutoring and local services need a skill or equipment; surveys and cashback are not worth the hours.
How much do side hustles make in the UK?
Finder's January 2026 survey of 2,000 British adults put the average side hustle income at £201 a week, about £872 a month, across everyone with a side hustle. Averages hide a wide spread. Surveys and cashback earn a few pounds an hour. Delivery, tutoring and local services earn £10-30 an hour but stop when you stop. Reselling ranges from £200 a month for a couple of hours a week to several thousand a month for members who treat it as a second job.
Do I need to pay tax on a side hustle in the UK?
You get a £1,000 trading allowance each tax year. If your total side hustle income is under £1,000 you owe nothing and do not need to tell HMRC. Above that you register for Self Assessment and pay income tax on your profit, which is sales minus costs like stock, postage and fees. Separately, since 2024 platforms such as Vinted and eBay report sellers who make 30 or more sales or receive around £1,700 in a year to HMRC. Being reported is not a tax bill; it just means HMRC can see the income, so keep records.
Which side hustle can I start with no money?
Reselling what you already own on Vinted costs nothing and teaches you the platform. Delivery driving needs a bike or car. User research panels like Prolific need only a laptop. Freelancing and tutoring need a skill you already have. Everything else on the list needs either money, equipment or an audience first.
How many hours a week does a side hustle take?
Finder's survey put the average at around nine hours a week. Reselling fits into odd gaps: sourcing on your phone in a queue, listing in the evening, dropping parcels at a corner shop on the way to work. Delivery and tutoring need fixed blocks of time. Content and digital products need a lot of hours up front before any money arrives.
Is reselling better than dropshipping?
For a side hustle, yes. Dropshipping needs a website, paid ads and months of testing, and most stores never turn a profit. Reselling needs a phone and £50, you handle real products with known margins, and you are paid within days of a sale. No ad spend and no supplier risk.
Sources
- Finder, Side hustle statistics UK: 46% of UK adults have a side hustle (39% in 2025), average £201 a week, selling on Vinted or similar the most common hustle. Censuswide survey of 2,000 British adults, 3-6 January 2026.
- HMRC, Tax-free allowances on property and trading income.
- HMRC, Selling goods or services on a digital platform.
- Member earnings are self-reported in the Resellers Paradise Discord with screenshots. Earnings ranges for other hustles are our estimates from public rate cards and member experience, not survey data.
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