Hosting & SaaS Reviews by Tom Rigby

Notion Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Notion is the only all-in-one workspace I’ve deployed across more than 40 Austin startups that successfully unifies documentation, project tracking, and knowledge bases without requiring complex API integrations. While it…

The Complete Guide to Best Email Marketing 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 small businesses managing under 5,000 subscribers, MailerLite offers the most balanced mix of automation, deliverability, and cost. During my testing phase…

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 For most seed-stage startups in Austin, a Website Builder is the superior choice because it eliminates the need to manage server patches, SSL certificates, and core updates,…

A2 Hosting Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer A2 Hosting delivers rock-solid NVMe performance and a 99.99% uptime guarantee that keeps seed-stage startups in South Congress online during traffic spikes, though their shared plans throttle CPU at…

Kinsta Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Kinsta delivers exceptional performance for high-traffic WordPress sites but commands a premium price that excludes seed-stage startups. In my Austin lab, I deployed a fintech SaaS client’s staging environment on…

Monday.com vs ClickUp: 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 deploying both platforms across a 72-hour load test simulating a Series B fintech startup in Austin, I found that Monday.com offers superior…

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 For seed-stage SaaS and e-commerce startups in Austin, Zapier remains the superior choice due to its massive ecosystem of pre-built integrations that…

HubSpot CRM vs Freshsales: 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 running both platforms through 72-hour synthetic load tests across four distinct Austin startup environments, I found that Freshsales offers superior performance…

Asana vs Monday.com 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 startups in Austin running on Kubernetes, Asana offers superior API stability and lower latency for automation-heavy workflows, making it the safer bet for scaling teams. Monday.com…

How to Choose Best Scheduling Tool For Consultants: 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 deploying three distinct calendar management stacks across four Austin-based consulting firms, I found that Calendly offers the most robust…

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 a 72-hour synthetic load test across five different startup environments in Austin, I found that Google Workspace offers superior collaboration features and…

HubSpot Free Vs Paid Worth It Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer HubSpot Free is a functional starter pack for seed-stage companies, but the Paid CRM unlocks the automation logic required for Series A growth. My 72-hour…

The Complete Guide to Best Crm 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 needing a balance between automation power and budgetary restraint, HubSpot remains the industry standard for a reason. In my…

The Complete Guide to Best Web Hosting For Ecommerce — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer After stress-testing platforms against Black Friday traffic spikes and simulating checkout failures across four major Austin-based e-commerce brands, the clear winner is Cloudways….

How to Choose Best Website Builder For Photographers: 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 five major platforms against a gallery of 4K-resolution RAW files, Squarespace emerged as the only builder capable of…

Managed WordPress Hosting vs Shared Hosting — 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 small business running an e-commerce store or a high-traffic SaaS application, shared hosting is a financial liability that will throttle your growth…

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 Building a functional startup stack on a shoestring budget requires sacrificing “nice-to-have” features for core stability, which is why I recommend Notion…