Hosting & SaaS Reviews by Tom Rigby

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…

The Complete Guide to Best Website Builder For Restaurants — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer After deploying a custom order ingestion pipeline for three Austin restaurant chains, I found that Wix Restaurants offers the most robust balance of…

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…

Todoist Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Todoist remains the gold standard for lightweight task management, offering a frictionless entry point for seed-stage teams that need to move fast without enterprise bloat. During my 72-hour stress test…

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 After stress-testing 12 providers with synthetic load injection against our Series A fintech clients, Kinsta stands as the only managed host that maintained sub-100ms…

ActiveCampaign Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer ActiveCampaign stands out as the most robust email automation platform I have deployed for Series A SaaS startups in Austin, delivering superior deliverability rates and granular segmentation logic that rivals…

Todoist Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Todoist is the most polished task manager I have deployed across our Austin fintech clients, offering a seamless natural language input system that feels native to the workflow, though it…

Website Builder Vs WordPress 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 stacks to handle traffic spikes for three seed-stage fintech companies in East Austin, I found that WordPress offers superior scalability for custom SaaS needs…

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 Trello is excellent for linear, visual workflows but collapses under the weight of complex dependencies required for Series…

Best Scheduling Tool For Consultants 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 four major calendar platforms against the specific latency and queue requirements of a Series A fintech startup in my Austin lab, Calendly emerged as…