Hosting & SaaS Reviews by Tom Rigby

Slack vs Microsoft Teams: 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 Slack remains the superior choice for small businesses prioritizing real-time communication speed and third-party integrations, whereas Microsoft Teams is only viable…

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 right choice if you are running a seed-stage SaaS or e-commerce store that needs to export complex data structures directly into SQL databases without writing code. In…

Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365: 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 After stress-testing both platforms across four distinct seed-stage fintech and e-commerce environments in my Austin lab, Google Workspace offers superior…

How to Choose Cheapest Web Hosting Under $5: 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 budgets strictly under five dollars per month, Contabo remains the only viable option for hosting multiple low-traffic sites without…

Squarespace Vs Wix Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer For most seed-stage e-commerce ventures in Texas, Wix offers the better balance of speed and customization without a price jump that breaks cash flow. In my stress tests…

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 After deploying across seed-stage fintech firms and Series A e-commerce shops in East Cesar Chavez, I found that Asana offers the most balanced architecture…

Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365 Review 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 your small business relies on cloud-first workflows, real-time collaboration within the Chrome ecosystem, and you want predictable billing without legacy server management…

Best Email Marketing 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 small businesses prioritizing deliverability and automation without enterprise complexity, ConvertKit stands out as the most robust choice. In my lab testing across a seed-stage…

ActiveCampaign Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer ActiveCampaign remains the king of marketing automation, offering roughly $9/month starting pricing and a feature set that justifies its higher-tier costs. However, my testing reveals it is not suitable for…

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…