About
A plinth is the part nobody photographs.
It’s the block a statue or column stands on: plain, heavy, and the reason the thing on top is still upright. It’s also a fair description of the work.
Where the name comes from.
A plinth is the base a column or statue is set on. It takes the load, spreads it, and keeps everything above it level. It’s rarely the part anyone looks at.
Small companies seldom struggle because the idea was wrong. More often it’s the layer underneath that went unattended: the process that lives in one person’s head, the server nobody wants to restart, the export that runs at two in the morning.
That layer is the work.
Fit
Who this is for.
A good fit
- 5 to 200 people, with revenue and no engineering department
- Something that worked at ten people and is straining at forty
- An owner who can make a decision in the room
- Wants to own the result outright
Probably not
- Looking for the cheapest hourly rate
- Hoping to pay in equity
- Needs a large team starting next week
- Wants a rewrite decided before anyone has looked
Comparison
Where we sit.
Three ways to get technical help, and the trade you make with each.
| An agency | A freelance marketplace | Plinthix | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who does the work | Sold by one person, built by whoever is free | Whoever won the bid, until they stop replying | The person who looked at it, start to finish |
| What you pay for | Account managers, salespeople, offices | Less — but you do the managing | The work |
| Experience | Varies. Often someone junior does the building | Unknown until it’s too late to matter | Senior — there’s only one of us |
| If they leave | Fine while you’re spending a lot | Ends when something better comes along | Written down, so it doesn’t depend on us |
| Who owns it | Sometimes them. Read the contract | Usually you, rarely in writing | You, from the first day, in your own accounts |
| Being told no | Rare. They have staff to keep busy | Rare. They have a next payment to reach | Expected, even when it costs us the work |
Practice
Who you actually work with.
One senior engineer, from the first call to the handover.
Plinthix is deliberately small. Whoever works out what needs doing is the person who builds it, and the person who answers when it breaks at an awkward hour.
That limits how much work we take on, which is the point. When a job needs more people than that, we say so early and help you find them.
- Size
- One senior engineer
- Projects at once
- Two, at most
- Who owns the code
- You, always
- Bringing in others
- Only if you agree
Day to day
What working with us is like.
Less about tools, more about what happens on an ordinary Tuesday.
Your words
We use the names you already use for your customers, jobs and paperwork. You should recognize every screen.
Basic questions
We ask things that feel too basic to bother with. That’s often where the real problem is.
Early and rough
You see it working before it looks finished. Changing your mind then costs very little; changing it later costs a lot.
In writing
Emails you can read, not tickets in a system you have to learn.
Bad news early
If something is late, broken or costing more than expected, you hear it from us first, along with what we suggest doing about it.
Saying no
We’ll tell you when you’re about to spend money you don’t need to, including money you’d be spending with us.
If you have someone technical who wants the specifics — what it’s written in, where it runs, how it’s backed up — ask and we’ll send them. They aren’t on this page because they wouldn’t help you decide anything.
Bring us the unglamorous problem.
The one that’s too small for an agency and too important to keep ignoring.