Frontend to backend, one owner
Splitting work across several freelancers creates handoff problems. Keeping it with one accountable engineer or small pod protects both quality and pace.
You talk directly to the people writing the code, which keeps architecture decisions close to the implementation.
If that sounds like your situation, Arcode is set up for founders and teams needing full-stack ownership. UI, APIs, auth, payments, and infrastructure delivered as a coherent product system.
What you get
- Complete product delivery
- API and database design
- Auth, billing, and realtime
- Maintainable TypeScript codebases
- One studio accountable for the result
- Design and engineering on the same schedule
- Support available after launch
How engagement works
As your full stack developer, we run a shared backlog, design reviews, and engineering sprints, and you keep one point of contact throughout.
- 01
Discover
Goals, constraints, data sources, and success metrics, all settled before we touch architecture or prompts. Nothing here waits on a handover between separate teams.
- 02
Design
System design, AI/tool boundaries, interface direction, and interaction prototypes. On full stack development projects we favour practical architecture over trendy defaults.
- 03
Build
Modern stack, clean architecture, evaluated AI behavior, and iterative demos you can react to. The work for teams in Edinburgh stays tied to the outcome you asked for.
- 04
Launch
Ship, monitor, harden, and keep improving models, tools, and product after go-live. You see progress on the critical path every week.
How we build it, and why
The stack is chosen per project, not applied from a template. For full stack developer work these are the defaults, and the reason each one is on the list.
- React
- the component model most teams can already hire for and maintain
- Next.js
- server rendering and static generation in one framework, so marketing pages stay fast and app routes stay dynamic
- Node.js
- one language across the stack, so context does not get lost at the boundary
- NestJS
- structure and dependency injection on the backend, which keeps a growing API from turning into a pile of route handlers
- Stripe
- payments, subscriptions, and the tax and invoicing edge cases you do not want to build
What the first weeks look like
- Days 1-3
Context and constraints
Codebase, deploy path, and what "done" means for the full stack development. Short, because the useful version of this is specific.
- Week 1
First shipped slice
Something real goes out in the first week — complete product delivery rather than a setup ticket.
- Weeks 2-6
Build to the milestone
Pull requests, reviews, and weekly demos. You see the work as it happens rather than at a handover meeting.
- Handover
Documented and transferable
Runbooks, architecture notes, and a walkthrough, so the work does not depend on us still being here.
Weighing up your options
There are three realistic ways to get this built. Each is the right answer for someone.
A solo freelancer
Cheapest per hour and fine for a contained task. The risk on full stack development is breadth — one person covering design, backend, infrastructure, and launch usually means one of them is weak, and there is no cover when they are unavailable.
A local agency in Edinburgh
Same timezone and a face to meet, which genuinely matters for some teams. You are also paying Edinburgh product companies valuing clean engineering and AI. rates for the whole team including the layers that never touch your full stack development, and a local shortlist is a small shortlist.
Arcode
A small senior team. The people who scope the full stack development write the code, you get weekly demos instead of status decks, and the engagement ends when the thing is live and handed over.
Work we have shipped
Dumbiez
Frontend · NFT product
NFT comics platform for exploring and interacting with digital comic collectibles.
Independent Next.js product for browsing and engaging with NFT comics, styled with Tailwind and shipped on Vercel.
- · NFT comics browsing
- · Interactive collectible UX
- · Responsive Next.js UI
- · Vercel deployment
Next.js · React · Tailwind · Vercel
StudioX Localization
Frontend · i18n
UI polish and language translation pages for the StudioX product experience.
Contract contribution implementing UI fixes and localization pages with Next.js, React, and Tailwind to improve accessibility and multi-language use.
- · Language translation pages
- · UI accessibility fixes
- · Next.js page delivery
- · Clearer multi-language UX
Next.js · React · Tailwind
React Email Templates
Email systems · Resend
Reusable React Email templates sent through Resend for production transactional mail.
Freelance email kit using React Email, Resend, TypeScript, and Tailwind to create and send branded emails from a React app.
- · Reusable email templates
- · Resend delivery integration
- · TypeScript-safe composition
- · Tailwind-styled layouts
React Email · Resend · TypeScript · Tailwind
Working with teams in Edinburgh
Edinburgh product companies valuing clean engineering and AI. We work with clients in Edinburgh remotely and keep overlapping hours in GMT/BST. We usually collaborate in English.
How we work with Edinburgh teams
Edinburgh runs on GMT/BST, giving us a full overlapping day. Written updates land before your morning, so the first thing you read is what moved since you logged off.
What Edinburgh clients usually need
Edinburgh briefs cluster around SaaS and fintech — Scotland's financial sector pulls a lot of product work with it — alongside university-adjacent research tools that need to become real software.
Contracts, data, and compliance
Financial-sector clients bring security questionnaires and DPAs early, so we handle those upfront and keep personal data in UK or EU regions by default. We invoice in GBP.
