You’re hiring the person who writes the code.
5 Spices Agency is Danny Xa, an Orange County web developer and designer. No account managers, no junior handoff, nothing offshored. That caps how many clients we take — six right now — and it’s why scope can go from a website to an operating system without changing who you deal with.
Motion Designer Who Kept Going One Layer Deeper
I started in motion graphics. Clients asked for a video, then a website to put it on, then wondered why nobody visited the website. Each answer was one layer further down, so I kept learning the next one — design, development, search, then databases.
That’s why the work looks like it does. I don’t hand over a website and call it finished, because the website usually isn’t the bottleneck. It’s a contact form nobody wired. A booking button landing on a page with no services listed. A business running on a group chat where nobody can see what’s blocked.
I’ve worked as an Orange County web developer for over five years. I grew up in the Vietnamese-American community here and work with owners in English or Vietnamese. That’s opened doors and let us build in four languages when a market needed it — but it’s a capability, not a limit. Clients range from construction to insurance to safety training.
Six Things We Hold To
Month to Month
No contracts, no minimum terms. If the work stops being worth the invoice you should be able to stop. Six partners, none have left.
Honest Numbers
Every figure carries its date range. One client had 61 form submissions in a month and one was real — reporting 61 would have been true and dishonest.
Fit How You Already Work
Every operations tool dies on data entry. If your crew lives in a group chat, the software reads the group chat instead of demanding they learn a new one.
You Run It
Every build ends with something you operate yourself — blocking a night, adding a project, publishing an update. No calling us for routine changes.
No Lock-In
Hand-coded, minimal plugins, no proprietary builder holding your site hostage. If you leave, it’s files and a database any developer can pick up.
We’ll Say When It’s Not Us
Some problems aren’t marketing problems. If nobody answers your phone, ad spend makes it worse — and we’ll tell you before taking the budget.
Simple Where It Can Be,
Serious Where It Counts
Sites run on WordPress used as a plain container — no page builder, minimal plugins, all design hand-written. Fast pages, small attack surface, nothing breaking because a plugin vendor pushed an update.
When a project needs a real backend, that’s Postgres with row-level security and scheduled jobs. A booking system that oversells seats or a dashboard leaking financials between staff isn’t a small bug.
- Front endHand-written HTML, CSS and JavaScript. One site ships with zero JavaScript at all.
- WordPressAs a container only. Blank templates, code snippets, no theme lock-in.
- BackendsPostgres and Supabase. Row-level security, server functions, edge functions, cron.
- Apps and portalsNext.js on Vercel where a real application is needed.
- PaymentsWhatever you already have approved, wired as checkout only. We never hold your money or card data.
- Search and analyticsHand-written schema, Analytics, Search Console, automated monthly reports.
- Design and motionIn-house. Reels, promos, brand motion graphics.
Who This Works For
Let’s Talk
Tell me about the business and what’s frustrating you. I’ll tell you honestly whether I can help.