Hello!I'mJosh.
Ibuildwebsitesforsmallbusinesses&softwareusedbymillions.
About
Hey, I'm Josh Plaza.
Full-stack developer, studio founder, and the person you'll actually be working with.
The last several years have been spent building software for companies like Amazon, Silent Hill, and Thrasio — products used by millions of people every day.
Plaza Codes LLC is my solo development studio. The idea is simple: help businesses of every size — solo artists, small shops, growing startups — build the software they actually need, without the overhead of a traditional agency. No account managers, no bloated teams. Just direct collaboration with a senior engineer who cares about getting it right.
Great software comes from understanding the problem deeply — not from throwing more developers at it. AI tools are part of every workflow here, but they speed up the execution, never replace the thinking. Every line of code ships reviewed, tested, and built to last.
Outside of code, I produce music under the name Covo. I also dabble in woodworking, silversmithing, ceramics (badly), and crocheting (even worse). And yes — I play too much League of Legends. Fiddlesticks main, no apologies.
My Work
Here's what I've shipped.
MyArtStarz
Website for a children's art school in San Antonio — class schedules, instructor profiles, and online enrollment, easy for parents to use and easy for staff to update.
Silent Hill: Ascension
Emmy Award WinnerEmmy-winning interactive streaming platform for the legendary horror franchise. Millions of fans voted live and shaped the story in real time.
Cascade Beagle Rescue
Website for a beagle rescue non-profit — adoptable dogs, donations, and volunteer sign-ups, simple enough for volunteers to run day to day.
Amazon Autos
500K+ daily usersThe behind-the-scenes systems powering Amazon's car-shopping platform, serving 500,000+ shoppers a day without breaking a sweat.
Bravelets Charity Platform
$3.5M+ raisedOnline store that has raised over $3.5 million for charities. Shop-for-a-cause checkout with live donation tracking.
Parlevel Vending Management
5,000+ operatorsThe software behind 5,000+ vending operations — live machine telemetry, smarter routes, and inventory that tracks itself.
VNN Platform
2,000+ schoolsAthletic department platform used by 2,000+ schools nationwide — scheduling, rosters, and communication between coaches, athletes, and parents.
Thrasio Brands
200+ websitesOne platform managing 200+ online stores across 800+ domains — centralized operations for a whole portfolio of brands.
MyArtStarz
Website for a children's art school in San Antonio — class schedules, instructor profiles, and online enrollment, easy for parents to use and easy for staff to update.
Silent Hill: Ascension
Emmy Award WinnerEmmy-winning interactive streaming platform for the legendary horror franchise. Millions of fans voted live and shaped the story in real time.
Cascade Beagle Rescue
Website for a beagle rescue non-profit — adoptable dogs, donations, and volunteer sign-ups, simple enough for volunteers to run day to day.
Amazon Autos
500K+ daily usersThe behind-the-scenes systems powering Amazon's car-shopping platform, serving 500,000+ shoppers a day without breaking a sweat.
Bravelets Charity Platform
$3.5M+ raisedOnline store that has raised over $3.5 million for charities. Shop-for-a-cause checkout with live donation tracking.
Parlevel Vending Management
5,000+ operatorsThe software behind 5,000+ vending operations — live machine telemetry, smarter routes, and inventory that tracks itself.
VNN Platform
2,000+ schoolsAthletic department platform used by 2,000+ schools nationwide — scheduling, rosters, and communication between coaches, athletes, and parents.
Thrasio Brands
200+ websitesOne platform managing 200+ online stores across 800+ domains — centralized operations for a whole portfolio of brands.
What I Build
Everything from pixel to pipeline.
Websites
Fast, beautiful sites that make people trust your business at first glance. Whether it's your very first website or a full redesign, every detail gets sweated so visitors stick around.
Online Stores
Stores that have processed millions in revenue. Checkout that converts, inventory that stays sane, payments that just work — whether you're selling prints from your studio or scaling a brand.
Mobile Apps
Apps shipped to Android & iOS, downloaded by millions. One codebase, both app stores, a native feel — without the cost of maintaining two separate builds.
Hosting & Care
I don't just build your site — I keep it running. Managed hosting on infrastructure I run myself: daily backups, security updates, SSL, monitoring. You do your work; I keep the lights on.
Apps & Platforms
The heavy engineering behind the pretty pages. APIs and systems built to handle millions of requests — clean code, thorough tests, and infrastructure that scales when your business does.
AI & Automation
Practical automation that hands you your hours back — intake forms that sort themselves, LLM integrations, AI agents. Not hype: real time and real money saved.
Live Events at Scale
Real-time platforms for live audiences — polling, streaming, serverless game backends. Built for the moment half a million people show up at once and downtime isn't an option.
Dashboards & Data
Your numbers, finally readable. Dashboards and reports you can actually act on, fed by pipelines that clean, transform, and quietly just run.
How I Work
Why hire one great dev?
One developer, start to finish.
Architecture, frontend, backend, deployment — all handled by one senior engineer. No handoffs between teams, no miscommunication between departments. Your project stays in one pair of hands.
AI-powered speed.
AI tools are baked into every part of my workflow. The result? Output that matches a small team, quality that doesn't slip, and a bill that reflects one developer — not five.
You talk to the builder.
No project managers filtering your ideas. No account reps guessing what you meant. When you send a message, the person reading it is the same person writing the code.
Small projects? Let's go.
Your business's first real website, an MVP, an internal tool — bring it. A six-figure budget isn't required for quality engineering. Happy to start small and grow with you.
How does that stack up?
Big agency quality. Freelancer speed and price. Here's the honest side-by-side against your other options.
| DIY Site Builders | Marketplace Freelancers | Plaza Codes | Big Agencies | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Custom design, not a template | ||||
| Senior engineering for complex builds | ||||
| Direct access to the builder (me!) | ||||
| Fast turnaround | ||||
| Small-business friendly pricing | ||||
| Hosting, backups & updates handled | ||||
| You own your site & your data | ||||
| Grows from first site to full platform |
Contact
Let's build something.
Got a project in mind? Drop a message below and expect a reply within 24 hours. No tech background needed — tell me what you do and what you're stuck on, in plain English. I'll handle the rest.