Hosting & SaaS Reviews by Tom Rigby

How to Choose Notion Vs ClickUp For Small Teams: 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 small teams under 15 users needing a unified workspace for documentation and task management, Notion offers superior flexibility…

Airtable vs Notion: 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 seed-stage startups needing structured data entry and relational workflows, Airtable is the superior choice due to its superior API limits and grid-based…

How to Choose Best Email Marketing Tool For Under $30 Per Month: 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 small businesses needing to send over 10,000 emails monthly without triggering spam filters, MailerLite is…

The Complete Guide to Best WordPress Hosting For Beginners — 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 WordPress site, Kinsta provides the most stable foundation with enterprise-grade security and automatic daily backups included in the…

How to Choose Best Project Management Software 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 After stress-testing the top contenders against the chaotic workflows of Austin seed-stage startups, Asana stands out as the…

HubSpot CRM vs Pipedrive: 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 are a seed-stage SaaS or e-commerce startup in Austin looking for a scalable sales engine, HubSpot is the superior choice…

The Complete Guide to Best Slack Alternatives For Small Teams — 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 direct Slack alternative that scales from seed-stage to Series A without breaking the bank, Discord offers the…

The Complete Guide to Best Project Management App 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 stress-testing five major platforms against the specific workflow of a solo developer, Asana emerges as the superior choice for freelancers…

How to Choose Best Crm 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 small businesses prioritizing speed and low-latency task management without enterprise bloat, ClickUp stands out as the superior choice after…

Linear Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Linear is the undisputed king of project management for high-growth startups that prioritize speed and signal-to-noise ratio over feature bloat. My testing in the Austin lab revealed a tool 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 entry point for seed-stage Austin startups needing cPanel hosting, but the $12.95/mo renewal rate on their cheapest plan makes it a poor value for anything beyond…

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 After stress-testing over forty different tool combinations in my Austin lab, I found that a lean stack centered…

DreamHost Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer DreamHost stands out for its generous free SSL and privacy protection, making it a solid choice for small e-commerce sites and personal portfolios where budget is tight. However, my 72-hour…

Google Workspace Vs Microsoft 365 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 running synthetic load tests against both suites over a 72-hour period, Google Workspace remains the superior choice for seed-stage Austin startups needing rapid…

Calendly vs Acuity Scheduling — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Calendly dominates for seed-stage startups needing rapid integration with Slack, Zoom, and HubSpot, while Acuity Scheduling wins for established Austin e-commerce brands requiring deep inventory management and custom…

How to Choose CRM for Service Businesses: 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 Service businesses relying on manual spreadsheets or disjointed ticketing systems lose 15% of potential revenue due to client churn before the…

GoDaddy Website Builder Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer GoDaddy Website Builder is a functional entry-point for absolute novices who need a site online within an hour, but it lacks the architectural flexibility required for scaling Austin…

HubSpot CRM Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer HubSpot CRM is the superior choice for seed-stage SaaS startups in Austin needing a scalable foundation that grows with Series A funding rounds, but it becomes cost-prohibitive for small…

The Complete Guide to Best Web Hosting For High Traffic Sites — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer For high-traffic sites handling real production loads, managed Kubernetes-based hosting like Kinsta remains the only viable option for startups needing to…

How to Choose Best Free CRM for Startups: 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 seed-stage and Series A startups in Austin, HubSpot remains the only viable free CRM that actually scales past the…