Files — the visual database
Every file is a row. Add Notion-style attributes — status, tags, ratings, dates — alongside the smart ones read from your file names. Sort, filter, group, stack versions, compare A/B.
For 3D, motion and design studios
Your filenames already are a database. Plaza just shows you it.
Point Plaza at any project folder and it becomes a visual database, a planning board and a moodboard — over your real files, right where they are. No import. No account. No server.
14-day trial · no email, no account · your files never leave your disk
You already have a pipeline. It's called your file names.
Robot_Binding_ANIM_RB_v014.c4d — you know exactly what that means. Your file browser doesn't. So the meaning stays trapped: you eyeball version numbers in Finder, scroll for the latest render, and answer "which one is current?" from memory.
Plaza reads the naming convention you already use and turns it into live, filterable columns: Version (current vs. superseded), Stage, Owner, Shot. Nothing is written to your files. Nothing is imported. It was always a database — now it looks like one.
Three modes, one folder
The same files, read three ways
Plaza never copies or moves anything. Switching mode changes how you look at the folder, not what's in it.
Planning — tasks glued to real files
A Kanban, a Today agenda, and pipeline lanes that bucket your actual files by stage or owner. Tasks link to files by stable id, so a plan survives renames — and flags itself when a linked file is superseded by a new version on disk.
Board — the infinite moodboard
Drop references, notes, links, colours and project files onto an infinite canvas. Draw and annotate. File cards reference your real files without copying them — and self-heal after renames.
The deal
No server. No accounts. It syncs anyway.
Everything Plaza knows lives in one hidden .plaza/ folder inside your project. Put the project in Dropbox or Drive like you already do, and your tags, boards and tasks arrive on your other machine — or your teammate's — intact. Windows ↔ macOS, no export, no "workspace", no subscription keeping your metadata hostage.
Delete Plaza tomorrow and your files are exactly as they were. That's the deal.
Local-first
Works fully offline, forever. Fonts and all — the app never needs a network to open.
Your cloud, not ours
Dropbox, Google Drive, or none at all. We never see a byte of it.
Rename-proof
Stable ids survive renames and moves, so metadata follows the file, not the path.
Reversible
One hidden folder. Remove it and Plaza never happened.
Previews
It previews the files other apps give up on.
Real thumbnails for EXR and HDR (tone-mapped), Cinema 4D files without Cinema 4D installed, PSD, AI, RAW, SVG, video and audio. Image sequences collapse to a single tile with a frame count and gap warnings. Version stacks collapse to the latest with a ×N badge. Press Space for fullscreen Quick Look.
Stacks, not clutter
Frame sequences and vNNN version families collapse to one tile — latest on top.
Compare, five ways
Side-by-side, wipe, onion, flip — and a difference mode that makes subtle render changes glow.
Renders know their source
Optional C4D and Houdini trackers link every output to the exact scene file that produced it.
Search
"latest version of Binding"
⌘K opens a search that understands your project the way you do: latest: binding, type:video modified: last week, owner = RB, stage = Light. Results come back with their version, stage and owner chips — and plaza:// deep links let you point a teammate at the exact file, rename-proof.
AI, on your terms
Ask your assistant about your project — without uploading it.
Plaza can act as a local MCP server, so Claude, Cursor and other assistants can answer "what's the latest version of shot 040?" or "what's still in Review?" from your real project. Read-only by default, off by default, and it never leaves your machine. An optional extended mode lets an assistant tag files and create tasks — but never move, rename, delete or write your actual files.
Appearance
Themes that stay out of the way
Frosted glass over a quiet ground — Midnight, Cocoa and Nord in the dark, Snow and Cream in the light. The files are the loud part.
Cocoa
Nord
One price. Your files stay yours either way.
Run it free for 14 days — no email, no account. If it has already saved you one "which file is current?" argument, $49 keeps it for good.
$49
one-time · 2 devices · updates included · yours for life
Plaza for Mac
Apple Silicon & Intel
Plaza for Windows
Windows 10 & 11
No subscription. No account. Full refund within 14 days, no questions. If you never pay us again, the app — and every byte of your metadata — keeps working.
FAQ
Frequently asked
Never on its own. Plaza reads your files and writes only to the hidden .plaza/ folder. File operations — move, rename, trash — happen only when you do them, and deletes go to the Recycle Bin on Windows or a recoverable trash on macOS.
The app locks until you enter a licence key. Your files and .plaza/ metadata are untouched — nothing is held hostage.
Two at a time — the desk and the laptop. Moving to a new machine is self-service: Settings → License → Deactivate this device frees the seat, and you activate on the new one. No need to email anyone, and there's no limit on how often you do it.
Full refund within 14 days, no questions — hello@secondmarch.xyz. The 14-day trial is there so you can decide before paying at all, and it's the whole app, not a cut down version.
Yes — share the folder through Dropbox or Drive. Tags, statuses and boards sync as small per-item files designed to tolerate sync engines, and teammates' changes appear live in your open window. Prefer to keep your own private view? Per-machine ("Private") metadata is a project option.
No. The parser is configured per project — your separator, your stage dictionary, your pattern. Turn it off entirely and Plaza is still a tagging, planning and moodboard layer over your files.
Plaza treats placeholders as sacred: it never downloads a file behind your back. Browsing, indexing and thumbnails don't hydrate anything. Only explicit actions — Open, Download, Compare, Quick Look — read bytes.
Windows 10/11 and macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), one licence. Linux: not yet.
None from the app. The only network calls Plaza makes are licence validation and the update check.