Independent field notes · 2026

Passive income app
reference.

9 currently tracked earning services, with personal payout experience, platform support, and payout terms. Another 11 services are archived as dead, pivoted, or unusable. Earnings depend on demand and region; network isolation matters for bandwidth sharing.

Important / Security

Assume the traffic is untrusted.

Providers differ, but none can remove the risk of malicious traffic reaching or going through your network.

Isolate the device

Use a separate device on a guest or isolated network. Keep it away from personal devices, NAS, cameras, printers, and router administration.

Limit what it can reach

Use least privilege, restrictive firewall rules, required ports only, and keep the OS, containers, and app updated.

03 · Advanced

Inspect the traffic

Advanced users can add Suricata with maintained rulesets. It requires expertise and tuning; detection is not a guarantee.

Provider assurances do not eliminate the risk. If you cannot stomach or mitigate them, skip it.

Want to support the library?If these notes help, using my referral link when you sign up is a simple way to do that.

01 / Active directory

Currently tracked

Read details inline or open a service page for experience notes, payout minimums, and extra context. OS support and payout types are visible at a glance.

Filter by OS

EarnApp

Demand-based earnings; many successful payouts.

iOS

Pays viaPayPal · Wise · Amazon Gift Cards

Open EarnApp ↗

Experience & details

Earnings & payouts

Experience regionNortheastern Europe

~$3.50 per month (as of 2026-09).

Wise and PayPal have minimums of $10, while Amazon Gift Cards have $50 minimum. I have received successful payouts via PayPal, most recently in 2026-09.

Experience

Pays for time used, not bandwidth. Max rate is 5 USD/month per device/IP, or $10 if in the US, but actual utility can be a lot lower and depends on demand. In general though one of the better ones for me.

Full service page →Markdown Visit EarnApp ↗

Mysterium

VPN node with configurable traffic types.

Pays viaCrypto

Open Mysterium ↗

Experience & details

Earnings & payouts

Experience regionNortheastern Europe

~$1.50 per month (as of 2026-09).

Paid in the network token, MYST, on Polygon (an Ethereum layer 2) network. Automatic withdraws when a node earns 5 MYST, but 20% of it goes for Mysterium's own fees. I have received successful payouts via MYST tokens, most recently in 2026-09.

Experience

Bit more involved setup, but has toggles to choose what type of bandwidth to allow. Personally I allow only business traffic, but you can also allow normal consumer VPN traffic.

Full service page →Markdown Visit Mysterium ↗

Honeygain

Reliable earnings; payout terms depend on mode.

Pays viaPayPal · Crypto · Gift cards

Open Honeygain ↗

Experience & details

Earnings & payouts

Experience regionNortheastern Europe

~$1.10 per month (as of 2026-09).

Depends on mode: in Honeygain mode you can payout with PayPal with $20 minimum (or payout to JumpTask). With JumpTask mode, minimum is $0.5, and can payout in crypto or gift cards. I have received successful payouts via Crypto via JumpTask, most recently in 2026-07.

Experience

Generally has been quite reliably earning decent amounts for me. Currently I recommend using HoneyGain mode, while before 2026 summer the recommendation would have been to use JumpTask mode. There was a period around end of 2025 when it didn't earn at all and there wasn't any clear communication from them about what was happening, so they are not without any hiccups.

Full service page →Markdown Visit Honeygain ↗

Pawns.app

Desktop bandwidth sharing plus surveys.

Pays viaPayPal · Crypto · Gift Card · Venmo (US)

Open Pawns.app ↗

Experience & details

Earnings & payouts

Experience regionNortheastern Europe

~$0.80 per month (as of 2026-09).

Minimum payout is $5, with PayPal having a 4% fee, and Crypto to BTC having a flat $4 fee. Payout options vary by country. I have received successful payouts via PayPal, most recently in 2026-08.

Experience

Note that bandwidth sharing is only available on desktop apps now, while before it was also available on their Android app at least. It has a nice app to do surveys on if you really have time to kill and absolutely nothing better to do, and on the app it's possible to get a 15% earning boosters that last 24h that in addition to boosting survey earnings, also boosts the bandwidth sharing earnings. The booster used to last 2 weeks in first half of 2026.

Full service page →Markdown Visit Pawns.app ↗

Traffmonetizer

Stable bandwidth sharing; $10 payout minimum.

Pays viaCrypto

Open Traffmonetizer ↗

Experience & details

Earnings & payouts

Experience regionNortheastern Europe

~$0.30 per month (as of 2026-09).

$10 minimum payout threshold. Can only payout in USDT cryptocoins. I have received successful payouts via USDT Arbitrum, most recently in 2026-06.

Experience

Generally has been stable, and nothing really to write about. Plain and simple service.

Full service page →Markdown Visit Traffmonetizer ↗

PacketStream

Slower earnings, with recent improvement.

Pays viaPayPal

Open PacketStream ↗

Experience & details

Earnings & payouts

Experience regionNortheastern Europe

~$0.20 per month (as of 2026-09).

There doesn't seem to be a minimum amount, but there is a stated 3% fee for the PayPal payout. I have received successful payouts via PayPal, most recently in 2026-06.

Experience

Mostly has been one of the slower ones for me, but recently seems to have picked up steam.

Full service page →Markdown Visit PacketStream ↗

bytelixir

Bandwidth sharing with higher per-data rates.

Pays viaCrypto

Open bytelixir ↗

Experience & details

Earnings & payouts

Experience regionNortheastern Europe

~$0.10 per month (as of 2026-09).

Minimum payout varies by cryptocurrency: $5 for USDT and USDC, $8 for TON, $10 for LTC, $40 for ETH, $250 for BTC. I have received successful payouts via USDC cryptocoin, most recently in 2026-07.

Experience

Pays higher than others for data amounts, and even have a support line. If you want to get advanced with them you need to pass a KYC, which would then allow deploying eg SOCKS5 proxies via Docker and listing them on this site.

Full service page →Markdown Visit bytelixir ↗

EarnFM

Bandwidth sharing with a $15 payout minimum.

iOS

Pays viaPaypal · Crypto · Amazon Gift Cards · Starbucks Gift Cards

Open EarnFM ↗

Experience & details

Earnings & payouts

Experience regionNortheastern Europe

~$0.10 per month (as of 2026-09).

Minimum payout is $15, with crypto there's at least a $1 fee. I have received successful payouts via PayPal, most recently in 2026-02.

Experience

Generally the app has been fine, though sometimes for me their dashboard page doesn't load.

Full service page →Markdown Visit EarnFM ↗

ProxyBase

Growing service; payout still untested.

Pays viaCrypto

Open ProxyBase ↗

Experience & details

Earnings & payouts

Experience regionNortheastern Europe

~$0.05 per month (as of 2026-09).

Unusually low $0.2 payout minimum, can be paid in cryptocurrencies in USDC, LTC or POL. I have not yet received a payout.

Experience

Has been growing in utility and usage, and seems promising.

Full service page →Markdown Visit ProxyBase ↗

Used / activeTesting / validatingAware of it; no experience yetExists, but I do not use it

Rates, bonuses, payout methods, and availability change. Check current provider terms before signing up. This is personal experience and research, not financial advice.