Hosting & SaaS Reviews by Tom Rigby

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…

Notion vs ClickUp 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 under 15 people needing a unified workspace that handles documentation and task management without breaking the bank, ClickUp is the superior choice. My…

Hostinger vs Bluehost: 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 e-commerce startups in Austin looking to launch quickly on a budget, Hostinger offers superior value with a 96ms faster average load…

Mailchimp vs ConvertKit: 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 small business owners and solopreneurs selling courses, coaching, or digital products, ConvertKit is the superior choice due to its superior API reliability…

How to Choose Best Crm For Solopreneurs: 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 solopreneurs and micro-SaaS founders, HubSpot remains the only viable CRM option that balances free tier utility with scalable API limits…

Nexcess vs WP Engine: 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 small businesses prioritizing ease of management and lower overhead, Nexcess emerges as the clear winner over WP Engine in my 72-hour…

When Does a Small Business Need a CRM: A Decision Guide — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Most small businesses do not need a full-scale Customer Relationship Management system until they are managing over 150 distinct customer records…

Best Website Builder 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 After deploying three different builders for a Series A HVAC startup in East Austin, I found Squarespace to be the superior choice for service businesses…

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…

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…