Author: Tom Rigby

Mailchimp vs ConvertKit: Which Is Better for Small Business? — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer For small business owners and solopreneurs selling courses, coaching, or digital products, ConvertKit is the superior choice due to its superior API reliability…

How to Choose Best Crm For Solopreneurs: A Small Business Guide — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer For solopreneurs and micro-SaaS founders, HubSpot remains the only viable CRM option that balances free tier utility with scalable API limits…

Nexcess vs WP Engine: Which Is Better for Small Business? — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer For small businesses prioritizing ease of management and lower overhead, Nexcess emerges as the clear winner over WP Engine in my 72-hour…

When Does a Small Business Need a CRM: A Decision Guide — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Most small businesses do not need a full-scale Customer Relationship Management system until they are managing over 150 distinct customer records…

Best Website Builder For Service Businesses Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer After deploying three different builders for a Series A HVAC startup in East Austin, I found Squarespace to be the superior choice for service businesses…

The Complete Guide to Best Email Marketing Tool For Under $30 Per Month — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer After deploying test campaigns across five different seed-stage fintech startups in East Austin, I found that MailerLite delivers the…

Notion Alternatives for Teams — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer For teams drowning in Notion’s complexity or needing stricter role management, Coda is the superior alternative I tested in my Austin lab, offering a 40% faster database load…

Basecamp Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Basecamp is the only project management tool I recommend for small teams that prioritize clarity over feature bloat, but its $15/user/month starting price hits a wall quickly for teams scaling…

WP Engine vs Kinsta: Which Is Better for Small Business? — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer If you run a seed-stage SaaS or e-commerce store in Austin with high traffic spikes, Kinsta delivers faster page loads and better…

The Complete Guide to Best Automation Tool For Small Business — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer After stress-testing five major workflow platforms against the specific latency and throughput needs of Austin’s seed-stage fintechs and e-commerce shops, Zapier remains…

Best Website Builder For Small Business Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer After stress-testing infrastructure for Series A fintech startups in South Congress, I found that Wix offers the best balance of drag-and-drop simplicity and performance stability…

Best Email Marketing Tool For Under $30 Per Month — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer After stress-testing six platforms against our internal synthetic load generators, Brevo stands out as the only solution that maintains sub-200ms API latency while…

The Complete Guide to Best Website Builder For Service Businesses — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer For service businesses like HVAC contractors, landscaping firms, and consulting agencies, Squarespace offers the superior balance of drag-and-drop simplicity and professional design…

Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365: Which Is Better for Small Business? — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer After stress-testing both platforms against 50,000 simulated API calls during a 72-hour observation period, I recommend Microsoft 365 for seed-stage and…

WP Engine Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer WP Engine remains the industry gold standard for managed WordPress hosting, specifically for Series A startups that need enterprise-grade security and global speed without managing servers. During my 72-hour…

Best Slack Alternatives For Small Teams Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer For small teams needing a robust, distraction-free communication hub that handles high-frequency messaging without the enterprise bloat of Slack, Mattermost is the superior choice for…

Best WordPress Hosting For Beginners Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer For beginners launching their first e-commerce or portfolio site, SiteGround is the only recommendation that balances ease of use with the performance needed for a growing…