Hosting & SaaS Reviews by Tom Rigby

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…

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 For high-traffic e-commerce and SaaS applications where uptime is non-negotiable, Cloudways stands out as the superior choice for balancing raw performance with developer control….

Shared Hosting Vs Managed WordPress 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 running a seed-stage SaaS or an e-commerce store where uptime is non-negotiable, Managed WordPress is the only viable choice, while Shared Hosting is…

How to Choose Best WordPress Hosting For Beginners: 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 business owners launching their first WordPress site, Kinsta is the superior choice because it isolates your database from…

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 After stress-testing both platforms with synthetic load injection and 72-hour observation periods on a seed-stage fintech startup in East…

Kinsta vs Cloudways: 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 with limited DevOps resources, Cloudways offers superior cost-efficiency and flexibility, while Kinsta provides a premium, managed experience that commands a…

Duda vs Webflow: 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 for a Series B fintech startup in South Congress, I found that Webflow is the superior choice for small…

# Cheapest Web Hosting Under $5 Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Finding web hosting under $5 that actually handles production traffic without throttling your database is a rare skill I’ve honed across dozens of failed and…

# Zapier vs Make: 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 HubSpot CRM — Check HubSpot Free → For most small businesses running under 50 concurrent API calls per hour, Zapier remains the…

# Zapier Vs Make For Beginners — Tested by Tom Rigby *By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer · 11 years · 40+ Austin startups* The Short Answer For beginners needing to connect apps without learning a new language, Zapier is the superior choice due to its intuitive drag-and-drop interface and lower barrier to entry. However,…