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Neck pain from side sleeping almost always comes down to one thing: the pillow is the wrong height, so your head tips up or drops down and your neck spends all night bent. Fixing the height fixes most of it.
You've got two routes. An adjustable pillow lets you tune the loft until your neck is dead level, the flexible fix. A contour pillow builds the correct shape in, so your muscles don't have to hold the position, the specific fix, as long as its dimensions match your body. Below are the picks for each. This isn't medical advice; pain that persists deserves a professional.
Start here if you don't want to think too hard. You unzip the cover, pull a handful of shredded foam out until your head stops tilting up, and your neck sits level with your spine. That one feature solves the thing that wrecks side sleeping: a pillow that's the wrong height for your shoulder.
If the first thing you do every morning is roll your neck to loosen it, a contour pillow is worth a try before anything fancier. This one has the familiar cervical shape (a scooped center with a taller and a shorter ridge) so the pillow does the aligning instead of asking your muscles to hold the position all night.
A high-low ergonomic contour. Flip it for two heights; the taller side is the one most side sleepers want.
A butterfly-shaped contour with a hollow center that cradles the head and a cooling case. The low price makes it the budget way to try a cervical shape before spending more.
The curved cut-out is the whole point. The bottom edge scoops inward so your shoulder tucks into the gap rather than getting jammed up against a straight pillow edge, which is exactly where side sleepers feel pressure and wake with an aching shoulder.