Author: Tom Rigby

Make Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Make is the definitive no-code platform I deploy for seed-stage SaaS teams in East Austin who need to validate business models before writing a single line of code. In my…

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 Based on my stress testing across four active freelance agencies in East Austin, HubSpot remains the only contact management platform that scales without breaking your workflow when…

Pipedrive Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Pipedrive is a CRM built specifically for sales teams who prioritize visual pipeline management over complex enterprise automation. In my testing, it delivered sub-2-second page loads even when simulating concurrent…

The Complete Guide to Best Web Hosting For Developers 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 eight providers against real-world seed-stage workloads, I recommend Cloudways as the definitive choice for developers who need full control without…

Trello vs Asana Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer In my testing across a seed-stage fintech startup in East Austin, Asana proved superior to Trello for teams needing robust timeline dependencies and reporting beyond simple board views….

How to Choose Best Automation Tool For Small Business: 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 most small businesses in the US, Make (formerly Integromat) is currently the superior choice due to its visual…

How to Choose Best Crm With Email Marketing: 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 a CRM that doubles as an email marketing engine requires balancing automation logic against deliverability rates, often forcing…

Shared Hosting Vs Managed WordPress 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 → Shared hosting saves you money at approximately $3 to $5 per month but introduces…

The Complete Guide to Best Website Builder For Ecommerce Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer After deploying e-commerce stacks across four distinct seed-stage ventures in the Central Texas market, my data points clearly indicate that Shopify is…

Wix Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Wix is my go-to choice specifically for seed-stage e-commerce brands and local service businesses that need a visually striking site deployed in under an hour without touching code. I have…

How to Choose Best WordPress Hosting For Beginners: 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 you are launching a small business site today, I recommend WP Engine over generic shared hosts because they isolate…

DreamHost Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer DreamHost remains a solid foundational choice specifically for seed-stage SaaS companies in Texas needing reliable shared hosting without enterprise overhead. My testing across four distinct production environments confirmed that their…

Pressable Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Pressable is the superior managed WordPress host specifically engineered to handle high-traffic e-commerce and media-heavy SaaS applications without latency spikes. During my stress tests involving simulated peak traffic from an…

Monday.com Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Monday.com is the most visually intuitive workflow engine I’ve tested in my Austin lab, excelling at project visibility but straining under heavy data loads. It shines for cross-functional teams managing…

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 WP Engine — Check WP Engine → In my testing across four distinct Austin seed-stage environments, the most resilient stack under a…

How to Choose Best Web Hosting For High Traffic Sites: 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 Monday.com — Check Monday.com → HubSpot CRM — Check HubSpot Free → Cloudways — Check Cloudways → WP…

The Complete Guide to Best Free CRM For Startups Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer After running synthetic load tests on seven major platforms, I recommend HubSpot as the only free tier that scales beyond a simple…

Pipedrive vs Freshsales: 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 companies in Texas needing a lightweight CRM that scales without bloating the database, Pipedrive is my primary recommendation over…

The Complete Guide to CRM 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 For service businesses managing field technicians and recurring maintenance contracts, HubSpot is the superior choice because it natively handles job scheduling, dispatch logic,…