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In an era where the traditional 9-to-5 job increasingly feels like a vestige of the past, the best gig economy apps shine as beacons of flexibility and extra cash. Imagine a world where work isn't a place you go, but a thing you do from anywhere, anytime. This is the reality of what gig apps can offer, connecting skill with opportunity in a few taps on a screen.
Whether you're an artist, a coder, or a delivery driver, there's a gig that fits your schedule, skill set, and financial goals. So, let's embark on a swift journey through the top gig economy apps that are redefining what it means to work, turning side hustles into serious business. Get ready to meet the digital platforms making the gig economy not just a buzzword, but a lifestyle.
The Best Gig Economy Jobs
Here are more than a few side gig opportunities that you can try that you can do near you to get paid today.
“This list of gig economy apps is curated by us to maximize your profit for the effort you put in and over a wide variety of different things you can get done.”
Let’s take a look at them.
DoorDash Dasher
Earning potential: Pay varies
If you’re free nights and weekends, you can earn extra money delivering food for fellow citizens around your city. It’s easy to deliver food as a DoorDash Dasher – if you have a car, it’s a perfect way to make a good amount of extra cash whenever it’s convenient for you.
A lot of people do this full time, so you can imagine that’s it definitely possible to do this to make money on the side and make money by delivering food with DoorDash and be on your own schedule.
- Choose your own flexible working hours
- Get $150 when you refer a friend to join
- You get to keep 100% of all customer tips
Instacart Shopper
Earning potential: $15 to $25 per hour
If you’re free nights and weekends, you can earn extra cash delivering groceries with Instacart. You can earn money by becoming an Instacart Shopper – as a shopper, you'll pick and deliver the items that customers want and get paid for it.
Instacart tips are one of the most lucrative out of all the food delivery apps and you can keep 100% of all tips earned. In addition, there are no set hours with this gig economy job. Just open the app and shop whenever it works for you. Download the Shopper app to start earning and working when you want with this on-demand app job.
- 2 different types of work available
- Earn up to $25 per hour
- Get up to $600 for each friend you refer
- Work as much or as little as you want
Rover Pet Sitter
Earning potential: $1,000 per month
This one is for all the animal-lovers out there. Dog walking has two lucrative benefits – you get to spend time with your four-legged friends and you yourself get some exercise.
You can find dog-walking gigs on Rover. They are one of the nation’s largest networks of pet sitters and dog walkers. Users can easily search for the services they need, connect with a sitter or dog walker, and even book and pay securely without the need for cash, checks, or tips.
By signing up as a dog sitter through Rover, you’ll be connected to a nationwide network of pet owners in need of caring providers who offer boarding, pet sitting, or dog walking.
Postmates Fleet
Earning potential: $18 to $25 per hour
If you are looking for a way to support yourself full time in the gig economy you can look into joining the Postmates Fleet. There are good chances that you’ve come across Postmates and even used their services when you wanted something delivered to your home.
Postmates is another gig app where you can download the app and come online whenever you want to make money. You get to keep 100% of your tips and earnings every time you complete a delivery. Plus, you can cash out instantly anytime you want, or get free weekly deposits.
Getaround
Earning potential: $250+ per month
Did you know that you can rent out your car when you're not using it? And that you can likely make $1000 fast in a few days by doing so? Do you plan on heading on a vacation soon while your car sits unused at your home? Do you sometimes not use your car on the weekends? If so, renting out your car while you're not using it could be an easy way to make passive income with this gig economy app.
Getaround lets you make extra money and turn your second car into a payment with no driving necessary. You can get paid monthly, and earn $1,000s per year actively sharing your parked car.
If you are interested you can sign up for more information from Getaround here.
What Are the Best Gig Apps?
If you are in need of some extra money part-time or even full-time, you'll want to use the best gig apps to earn money. In case you are interested in delivery jobs, the best apps are:
Delivery Jobs in the Gig Economy
This is a list of the best gig jobs if you want to become a delivery driver.
Most of these gig economy apps will require that you have an insured car, truck, van, motorcycle, scooter, or just a bicycle if you're located in a populated city.
These are the best apps for gig work as a driver:
- Postmates: You can earn $8 and $15 per hour with this gig job delivering everything from booze to home office supplies.
- Instacart: You can earn $300-$500 per week depending on how much you work delivering groceries as an Instacart Shopper.
- Uber Eats: Your pay varies when being a delivery person with Uber Eats.
- DoorDash: You can earn $10 to $15 per hour delivering take-out from restaurants as a DoorDash Driver.
- AmazonFlex: You can earn $18 to $25 per hour delivering packages from Amazon to client's homes.
- Shipt: You can earn a bit more than Instacart and Postmates delivering groceries with Shipt.
- GrubHub: You can earn $10 to $15 per hour delivering food from restaurants as a GrubHub Delivery Driver.
Best Skilled Worker Gig Economy Jobs
Why not start your own business with these gig jobs for skilled workers.
Here are the best gig economy jobs for skilled workers:
- Care: You can earn $10 to $20 per hour babysitting, taking care of seniors, tutoring or housekeeping.
- Rover: You can earn over $1,000 per month as an active dog walker or dog sitter on Rover.
- Your Mechanic: You can earn $40 and $60 per hour for simple auto repairs.
- Soothe: You can earn $50 per hour on average for giving massages as a licensed massage therapist.
Best Driving Gig Economy Jobs
Don't feel like delivering food to people and rather just pick up people and drive them to their destination? Then gig economy jobs for drivers is your best bet.
You probably already know about the top two players in the ride-sharing space, Uber and Lyft:
- Uber: Your pay will vary when giving people rides to their desired locations.
- Lyft: You can earn a bit more Uber, according to reviews, with this ride-sharing app.
Manual Labor Gig Economy Jobs
Do you want to get access to hundreds of jobs in your city and build your own schedule with manual labor gigs?
This is a list of the best manual labor gig economy jobs:
- Handy: You can earn $45 per hour helping people with handymen services such as cleaning, electrical work, or plumbing.
- TaskRabbit: You can earn on average $110 a month working for TaskRabbit by doing house cleaning, handyman work, moving services and more.
- Bellhops: You can earn $15 to $21 per hour to help people move heavy boxes and furniture.
- TaskEasy: You can earn money for helping people with on-demand services like lawn care and snow removal.
On-Demand Rental Gig Economy Jobs
Have a car, RV, boat, or spare room to rent out? You can make money passively renting them out with these gig economy apps.
Here is a list of the best on-demand rental jobs:
- RVShare: You can rent out your RV and make up to $22,00 per year doing it according to user reviews.
- Turo: You can rent out your car when you're not using it with Turo. You can make 75% of what you charge to rent out your car on the Turo platform.
- Getaround: Similar to Turo, you can make 60% of what you charge to rent out your car on the Getaround platform.
- Airbnb: You can rent out your entire house, apartment or just a room on Airbnb. What you earn will vary by location.
- Boatsetter: You can rent out your boat on Boatsetter. You'll get charged a 10% listing fee based on the boat price, plus the processing fee is 2.7% + $0.55 per charge.
Best Side Hustle Apps in the Gig Economy
Check out the list below of ways to make extra money right now in the side gig economy online with side hustle apps.
All of these you can do from home in order to make money online fast:
Survey Junkie
Survey Junkie gives out cash for taking surveys on different products and services. You also unlock rewards for virtual points that accrue as you take surveys. There are a variety of different products that you can choose from based on your preferences.
As you build your profile, more choices open up adding incentives to keep at it. A great simple online gig that'll really pay you in cash.
Swagbucks
If you browse the internet a lot, this could actually turn your past time into a moneymaking endeavor. Swagbucks rewards you for shopping online, watching videos, searching and answering surveys.
You are credited with points that you can then redeem with your favorite e-tailers online including Pay Pal, Amazon, Walmart or cash via PayPal. This is one of our favorite side gigs that pays cash instantly.
Join Swagbucks and get $10 free
InboxDollars
InboxDollars is another survey-based app that offers attractive rewards for taking surveys. They pay out real cash after you complete watching videos or taking surveys.
They have great reviews from their customers and look like they revert with payments quickly. An award-winning company, they have paid out $57 million in cash rewards so far.
MyPoints
If you are a fan of getting rewards for purchases online, then you’ll love MyPoints. You can take up to $5 per survey, watch videos, read emails and more to earn points that you can reimburse for various online services.
They are also partnered with Swagbucks who was mentioned earlier. You can even redeem your points for cash and travel miles which makes it more flexible.
Earn legit rewards at MyPoints
Branded Surveys
Branded Surveys is another survey app for which you can get rewarded cash either through checks or PayPal and not points. This website is also optimized for mobile platforms so you can take surveys on the move. They have great reviews with Trustpilot and have paid our close to $7 million to customers already.
Nielsen Mobile
This is an interesting gig economy gig that Nielsen offers – all you need to do is install it on registered mobile devices and get $50 per year passively. It unobtrusively works in the background and collects certain statistics about browsing habits for which you get paid by them.
Start earning $50/year passively
Fetch Rewards App
The Fetch Rewards app makes it super easy to save money on grocery purchases by letting you send over just a picture of the receipt. Your account will automatically be eligible for the offer on the sent receipt. This works for any type of grocery receipt which makes this a very useful app. You can cash out your points for free gift cards instantly.
Blackout Bingo
Historically, Bingo was a game of chance. If you were lucky enough to have the right card, you’d win.
Now with Blackout Bingo – you are in control of how much you can make with this game app. This app is easy to use, everyone playing sees the same balls and cards. It takes concentration, speed, and strategy to become a bingo master.
Games only take about 2 minutes to play, so players can pick up and play whenever they like. If you wanted to try it out, you can compete for cash prizes as well. Blackout Bingo is one of the best game apps that pay real money.
Top Gig Economy Jobs
While we did not highlight all of the gig economy app-based jobs out there, we did list the most lucrative ones.
But if you wanted to see more, here are what we consider some of the most popular gig economy jobs.
Here is a list of gig economy companies for 2024:
- Airbnb – Rent out your room
- Amazon Flex – Delivery services
- Cabify – Uber competitor
- Care.com – Caregiver and home services provider
- Etsy – Sell your own products
- Fiverr – Freelancing services
- Shipt – Personal shoppers
- Talkspace – Licensed therapists
- TaskRabbit – Wide variety of home services
- Uber – On-demand ridesharing
- Lyft – On-demand ridesharing
- Wag! – Dog walkers
- Grubhub – Food delivery
Tips for Gig Economy Workers
There are a plethora of opportunities out there for you if you are a talented freelancer. There are a few things that you need to keep track of to survive in the economic climate today. We are going to list a few of them here and help you plan your independent contracting career.
Proper budgeting
This is perhaps the most important part of your freelancing stint, and this can make or break your plans. Living cheap is especially tough because your income stream is going to be intermittent for quite some time. It is advisable to start small in any case – if you’ve never freelanced before, set a low budget while keeping spending to a minimum. One valuable tip is to focus on what you can control when it comes to your budget – this includes everything from utilities to food and even entertainment which is easy when using online savings accounts.
You need to keep this number as low as possible or until you start to get more steady-income stints on your freelancing platform. This step is critical because it sets the minimal basic budget for jobs. You can even accept gigs for a few months and then work out your budget from your lowest earning month.
Flexible financial goals
While the gig economy is a great enabler for people who thrive on being their own boss and setting their own goals, the opposite is sometimes true as well. Some people who are not used to this kind of freedom might find it too unstable for daily functioning. What is required here is proper goal-setting which also needs to be able to flex a bit in response to your changing requirements.
Working gigs can be, for the lack of a better word, temperamental. For instance, there might be a steady client who might uncharacteristically request a whole bunch of revisions because they have a new engagement with stricter guidelines. This means that payment would be delayed and you need to sort things out. It would be best if you allowed your budgeting and goals to be a bit more flexible compared to a regular 9-5 stint. This means initially when you are still learning the market, you should make sure that you don’t “rock the boat” too much.
Plan for the endgame
You can’t work endlessly, and you need to hang up your boots – regular office goer or freelancer. You should focus on planning for this inevitability, and you need to keep adding to your emergency savings fund as well as for your retirement. A lot of financial experts have said that you need to save at least 15% of your income by cutting expenses for a decently sized nest egg.
The key is to route your spending effectively so you can put away enough for your retirement. You cover basic expenses first, then you route it to your emergency savings and the rest you put it into your retirement fund. If you have debts of any sort, that should come way before anything else on the list.
FAQs
The best delivery jobs are similar, such as Postmates where you can earn $8 and $15 per hour with this gig job delivering everything from booze to home office supplies. Next is Instacart where you can earn $300–$500 per week depending on how much you work delivering groceries as an Instacart Shopper. Another delivery job is DoorDash and you can earn $10 to $15 per hour delivering take-out from restaurants as a DoorDash Driver. Lastly, AmazonFlex is a good option allowing you to earn $18 to $15 per hour delivering packages from Amazon to client's homes.
You probably already know about the top two players in the ride-sharing space, Uber and Lyft. In general, ride-sharing gig jobs can earn around $18 to $25 per hour giving people rides to their desired locations. These vary depending on the ride-sharing app and location you're in.
The best labor gig jobs are:
Handy: You can earn $45 per hour helping people with handymen services such as cleaning, electrical work, or plumbing.
TaskRabbit: You can earn on average $110 a month working for TaskRabbit by doing house cleaning, handyman work, moving services and more.
Bellhops: You can earn $15 to $21 per hour to help people move heavy boxes and furniture.
TaskEasy: You can earn money for helping people with on-demand services like lawn care and snow removal.
Here is a list of the best on-demand rental jobs:
RVShare: You can rent out your RV and make up to $22,00 per year doing it according to user reviews.
Turo: You can rent out your car when you're not using it with Turo. You can make 75% of what you charge to rent out your car on the Turo platform.
Getaround: Similar to Turo, you can make 60% of what you charge to rent out your car on the Getaround platform.
Airbnb: You can rent out your entire house, apartment or just a room on Airbnb. What you earn will vary by location.
Boatsetter: You can rent out your boat on Boatsetter. You'll get charged a 10% listing fee based on the boat price, plus the processing fee is 2.7% + $0.55 per charge.
The Gig Economy is Alive and Well
If you don’t like your job but are paranoid about making money in a side gig economy, don’t be.
As you can see, there are many ways where you can make money, and you don’t have to be stuck in a dead-end job for you to lead a comfortable life.
Consider jobs that pay cash on the spot or even ways to make money without a website — get creative.
We hope that this article gave you some tips on the best gig economy apps for you to make some money on the side.
That’s a pretty extensive list. There are literally hundreds of ways to make a few bucks out there. I have used Swagbucks and Survey Junkie apps for making some extra money and These two apps are really good for making some quick money by doing little tasks. Thanks for your effort to make such a great list of gig-economy apps and share them with us.
Great write up. Good guidance for newbies too.