PlacidPlan — All-in-One SaaS Workspace for Creative Teams
A full SaaS workspace for creative teams: project boards, team chat, cloud storage, invoicing, an AI assistant and an MCP server, built on custom WordPress.
- Client
- PlacidPlan
- Year
- 2026
- Duration
- 12 weeks
- Role
- full-stack development
Creative teams were paying for five or more separate tools: a task board, a chat app, cloud storage, invoicing software and an AI subscription. Context was lost between apps, files lived far from the tasks they belonged to, and clients needed paid seats just to leave feedback. The product had to replace that stack with one fast, secure workspace that a non-technical owner could run and sell as a subscription.
I built a complete SaaS platform on a custom WordPress theme and my own admin framework. It combines Kanban project boards, real-time team chat, file storage for large video files, a finance module with PDF invoices and PayPal payouts, and an AI assistant on the Claude API that can read and update boards. A public MCP server with OAuth 2.1 lets Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor work with user data securely. I chose WordPress and WooCommerce so the owner controls every text, price and plan from one admin panel. Security came first: email verification, rate limiting, encrypted tokens and permission checks on every request.
A production-ready SaaS product, live at placidplan.com, that replaces a stack of separate subscriptions with one workspace. Teams plan, chat, store files, invoice clients and work with AI in one place, while clients and freelancers join for free. Billing runs automatically with plan-based trials, expiry and reminder emails, and the owner can edit, translate and price the entire product without touching code.
I designed and built PlacidPlan, a complete SaaS workspace for video editors, YouTube creators and creative agencies. It brings project boards, team chat, cloud file storage, invoicing, an AI assistant and third-party integrations into one product, built on a custom WordPress theme and my own admin framework, with WooCommerce for billing.
The challenge
Creative teams usually pay for five or more separate tools: a task board, a chat app, cloud storage, an invoicing tool and an AI subscription. Context gets lost between them, and clients have to be given paid seats just to leave feedback. The goal was one fast, secure workspace where the whole production flow, from idea to invoice, lives in one place.
What I built
Production workspace
- Kanban project boards with lists, cards, labels, priorities, assignees, due dates, checklists, comments, activity history and notifications
- Workspaces with role-based access (owner, member, free guest) and invitations
- Calendar of deadlines with an ICS feed and Google Calendar sync
- Real-time team chat with channels, direct messages, search and unread counters
- Cloud file storage with chunked uploads for large video files, folders, trash, quotas per plan and file attachments on cards
- Global search (Ctrl/⌘ + K) across cards, files, messages, invoices and members
Finance module
- Income and expense ledger with a monthly overview chart
- Invoices with automatic numbering, statuses, PDF generation and sending by email
- Freelancer payout records with PayPal Payouts integration
- CSV and ZIP exports
AI features
- AI assistant built on the Anthropic Claude API, with tool use: it reads workspace data within the user’s permissions and can create cards, checklists and comments
- Monthly AI usage allowances per plan, saved conversations and a library of ready-made AI apps
- A public MCP (Model Context Protocol) server with OAuth 2.1 + PKCE, so Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor can work with a user’s boards
Integrations
- OAuth connections to Google Calendar, Google Drive, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and X, with channel statistics in an analytics dashboard
- WooCommerce checkout with a cryptocurrency payment gateway
- Branded HTML transactional emails over SMTP
SaaS billing logic
- Four plans with monthly and annual passes
- A 14-day free trial that runs on the limits of the plan the user chose
- Automatic read-only mode when a plan expires (no data is deleted) and reminder emails before expiry
Security and performance
- Email verification before dashboard access, rate limiting and an image security challenge on all auth forms
- AES-256-GCM encryption for third-party access tokens; secrets stored only in server config
- Nonce and capability checks on every AJAX endpoint, server-side validation and escaped output
- Custom database tables with indexed queries for boards, chat, files and finance data
Admin panel
Everything on the public site is editable from a custom admin panel: texts, menus, plans and prices, integrations, email templates, AI settings and SEO meta. That means the owner can run and translate the whole product without touching code.
Tech stack
PHP, WordPress (custom theme + custom admin framework), WooCommerce, MySQL, vanilla JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3, Anthropic Claude API, MCP, OAuth 2.1, Google APIs, Meta Graph API, TikTok API, X API, PayPal Payouts API, Playwright for end-to-end testing.
Result
A production-ready SaaS product that replaces a stack of separate subscriptions with one workspace. Teams plan, collaborate, store files, invoice clients and work with AI in one place, and clients and freelancers join as free guests.
Need a custom SaaS platform, WordPress product or AI integration? Let’s talk about your project.
Need something like this?
Free consultation — reply within 2 hours.