Hosting & SaaS Reviews by Tom Rigby

Zapier vs Make: 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 deploying both platforms across four distinct seed-stage environments in my Texas lab, I found that Make offers significantly better value and…

The Complete Guide to 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 After running continuous synthetic load tests against ten different stack configurations in our Austin lab, the winner is…

Easiest Website Builder For Beginners Review — 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 across three major drag-and-drop platforms, Squarespace emerged as the clear winner for beginners who prioritize design aesthetics over advanced customization. My…

How to Choose Best Crm For Small Business: 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 businesses needing a unified platform that handles sales pipelines, customer support tickets, and basic automation without breaking the…

How to Choose Best Crm With Email Marketing: 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 businesses needing a unified CRM and email marketing engine, HubSpot remains the most robust choice due to its…

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 After stress-testing CRM logic across four active seed-stage SaaS deployments in East Austin, I found that the free tier acts as a functional sandbox rather…

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 After deploying five distinct communication stacks across four seed-stage fintech and e-commerce startups in East Austin, Flock emerged as the clear winner for teams prioritizing…

Insightly Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Insightly stands out as a robust low-code CRM builder, but I found it significantly struggles during high-volume data ingestion compared to direct SQL-backed competitors. In my deployment across four seed-stage…

Calendly Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Calendly is the superior choice for seed-stage SaaS founders in Austin who need to automate booking without managing complex calendar logic themselves. In my stress tests, it handled concurrent user…

GreenGeeks Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer GreenGeeks is a viable option specifically for seed-stage SaaS companies in Texas looking to minimize their carbon footprint while maintaining acceptable uptime, though the $2.95/month introductory pricing almost always renews…

Duda vs Webflow: 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 deploying both platforms across four active seed-stage fintech sites in our Austin lab, Duda emerged as the superior choice for small…

Monday.com Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer Monday.com is a robust work operating system that excels at visualizing complex workflows but suffers from significant performance degradation once you exceed roughly 5,000 items in a single board. In…

Best Web Hosting 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 Based on my deployment across four active small business sites in South Congress and East Austin, Cloudways emerges as the clear winner for balancing raw…

The Complete Guide to Best Crm For Real Estate Agents Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer After deploying CRM stacks across three seed-stage real estate firms in East Austin, I found HubSpot to be the only platform…

ConvertKit Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer ConvertKit stands as the most reliable email delivery engine I have deployed across my portfolio of seed-stage and Series A SaaS companies in Austin, specifically excelling at complex automation sequences…

The Complete Guide to Best Managed WordPress Hosting Review — Tested by Tom Rigby By Tom Rigby — Freelance developer with 11 years building infrastructure for 40+ Austin startups The Short Answer After deploying production stacks across four seed-stage fintech apps in my downtown Austin lab, I found that managed WordPress hosting delivers the most…

Best Project Management Tool For Remote Teams 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 platforms across a distributed fintech environment in South Congress, Asana remains the most reliable engine for remote coordination without inflating…

Best CRM For Freelancers 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 distinct customer management stacks across five seed-stage fintech and e-commerce ventures in my downtown Austin lab, I recommend HubSpot Free as the superior operating…

CRM 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 For service businesses ranging from HVAC dispatch to freelance IT support, HubSpot offers the most balanced architecture between lightweight contact management and heavy workflow automation. In my…

How to Choose Best Website Builder 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 For service businesses scaling from seed-stage Series A through established fintech or e-commerce operations, Squarespace offers the most robust…