Did you know a secret economy of source code is booming — outside the mainstream? They’re not on GitHub trending pages. They’re not begging for $5/hour gigs on Upwork. But they’re making money — real money — from code. And most of them have no interest in going viral.
Microcode Products Sold in Niche Discords
Forget full SaaS apps. These devs are building tiny, high-impact scripts — think one-click automatons, web scraping bots, trading tools, and even personal CRMs — and selling them to small, hungry communities.
A guy I met in a Python Discord sells access to a Telegram group where he drops private code snippets for e-commerce scraping. $20/month. Around 300 subscribers.
None of this code is open source. It’s DM-to-buy. No GitHub repo and no licenses. Just zipped files and PayPal receipts. It’s not scalable. It’s not pretty. But it works.
Closed Beta Tools for High-Pressure Industries
High-frequency trading? SEO spam? Affiliate marketing?
These are pressure-cooker spaces where an edge — even a 1% efficiency bump — is worth thousands. Devs who understand these niches are quietly building tools only insiders use.
I saw a React dev pivot to browser automation for affiliate marketers. He’s now charging $250/month for a headless Chrome bot that bypasses detection and rotates proxies. Only 30 clients. He capped it there on purpose.
Private Plugins for Big Problems
Think Notion, Figma, Obsidian, and VS Code — platforms with vibrant plugin ecosystems. Most devs open-source their plugins, hoping for praise.
The underground ones? They sell theirs directly to teams or micro-communities.
Code-as-a-Service (No Website Needed)
Some devs are offering “code drops,” like musicians release mixtapes. Drop a zip file or API key, collect payment via crypto or Stripe, and dip.
Monetizing Through Access, Not Code
Some underground developers are making money not from the code itself, but by selling access to what the code gives them.
A few examples:
- Automated tools that find and reserve rare sneaker drops
- Bots that win online raffles
- SEO tools that find unindexed, low-competition keywords
- Ticket sniping systems
Why This Works
This isn’t the glamorous side of tech. There’s no VC funding, no launch parties, no startup T-shirts. But that’s kind of the point.
The underground dev scene thrives because:
- It’s practical. These tools solve narrow, profitable problems.
- It’s fast. No red tape, no agile sprints, no Jira.
- It’s private. Which means less competition and no code theft.
So… Should You Follow
If you
- Have niche skills
- Hate the job hunt grind.
- I don’t care about building the next unicorn.
- Just want to earn from your code, quietly…
Start by joining obscure communities. Look for problems people are annoyed by — not the ones that win design awards. Solve something small. Offer it directly. Price it fairly.
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