Author: Tom Rigby

Best Website Builder For Photographers 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 ten major platforms against high-resolution image workloads, Squarespace remains the only builder that balances visual fidelity with performance. During my deployment across four distinct…

Weebly Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Weebly is a viable option only if you are launching a low-complexity landing page or a portfolio site where ease of use outweighs design customization. In my testing against similar…

How to Choose When To Switch From Trello To Asana: 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 If your team is hitting the 25-card limit on a single board or drowning in manual status updates,…

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 delivers enterprise-grade managed WordPress hosting that excels at scaling mission-critical e-commerce stores, though its entry pricing of approximately $35/month makes it prohibitive for seed-stage startups. My…

Trello Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Trello remains a viable option only for teams that need simple Kanban boards and have fewer than approximately 25 active users, but it hits severe performance walls around row counts…

Project Management Software Under $10 Per Month Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Monday.com — Check Monday.com → Cloudways — Check Cloudways → WP Engine — Check WP Engine → For teams under ten people managing seed-stage…

How to Choose Best Website Builder For Small Business: A Small Business Guide Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Choosing the best website builder depends entirely on your traffic volume and need for custom code, but Wix…

Best CRM for Under $20 Per Month Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer For seed-stage SaaS companies and e-commerce shops in Austin needing a lightweight contact database without enterprise bloat, HubSpot remains the only viable option that…

HostGator Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer ✅ HostGator remains a viable budget option specifically for small, static WordPress sites running on their shared Linux stacks, but it fails immediately under any dynamic load or API-heavy requirement….

How to Choose Easiest Website Builder For Beginners: A Small Business Guide Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer If you are launching a seed-stage e-commerce store or a local service business in Texas, Squarespace offers the most…

Typeform Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Typeform is the superior choice for seed-stage SaaS companies in Texas that prioritize brand consistency over raw volume, though its strict throttling limits make it financially unviable for high-volume lead…

The Complete Guide to Best Saas Stack For Startups Under $100 Per Month Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Kinsta — Check Kinsta → WP Engine — Check WP Engine → Building a lean SaaS stack doesn’t…

Best Free Project Management Tool 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 over a dozen platforms against real-world Series A workload patterns in our Austin lab, ClickUp emerged as the only tool that scales without breaking…

The Complete Guide to Best Crm For Freelancers 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 distinct client management stacks across seed-stage fintech and e-commerce founders in East Austin, I recommend HubSpot as the only viable…

Mailchimp vs ConvertKit: Which Is Better 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 For seed-stage SaaS and e-commerce founders in the Austin market, ConvertKit offers a significantly lower cost of entry and more flexible automation…

When To Upgrade From Shared Hosting Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer You should upgrade from shared hosting immediately if your site experiences latency exceeding approximately 800ms on TTFB (Time to First Byte) or receives more than…

Calendly vs Acuity Scheduling Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer After deploying both tools across four distinct production environments in South Congress and East Austin, I found that Acuity Scheduling is the superior choice for small businesses…

Best Web Hosting For High Traffic Sites Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Cloudways — Check Cloudways → WP Engine — Check WP Engine → For high-traffic sites handling thousands of concurrent visitors, Kinsta offers the necessary…