In 2009, Germany's Robert Brandl began Tooltester with just $200; by 2023, the business had grown to $120K in monthly revenue

Robert Brandl started Tooltester in 2009 with about $200. There was no large team behind it and no huge technology investment. He was building a website around a simple problem; people needed help choosing the right tools for their own websites and online businesses.

If you were a freelancer or a small shop owner at the time, testing ten different website builders meant signing up for ten accounts, handing over your credit card, and wasting days clicking through frustrating dashboards. Brandl decided to do that tedious legwork himself, document what actually worked, and post it online under the name Tooltester.

That small beginning eventually turned into something much larger. The business also appeared in the Financial Times FT1000 ranking of Europe’s fastest-growing companies for two consecutive years.

How Robert Brandl started Tooltester

Tooltester was built for people who do not necessarily have the time or expertise to test dozens of online services themselves. Its audience includes freelancers and small businesses looking for website builders, hosting services, live chat software and email marketing tools.

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The site’s role is fairly straightforward. It reviews these products, compares them and publishes tutorials explaining how they work. That sounds simple, but the buying decisions behind those searches can be surprisingly important for a small business. Choosing a website builder affects how a company creates and manages its site. Picking an email platform can shape how it communicates with customers.

Brandl built content around those decisions. Instead of trying to sell one particular software product, Tooltester could cover competing services and help readers understand the differences.

SEO turned software research into a business model

Search traffic became a major part of the company’s growth. Tooltester published content aimed at people already looking for answers about specific software and online-business problems.

Someone searching for a website builder comparison is usually not browsing randomly. They are often trying to make a decision. A detailed review can meet that person at exactly that point.

Over time, Tooltester built a wider collection of reviews and tutorials. Each piece could target a different product, category or problem. That gave the company more ways to attract visitors without relying on a single topic.

The model also created room for the business to grow alongside the software market. New products appeared, established companies changed their services and users needed fresh comparisons.

By 2023, Brandl said the result was around $120,000 in monthly revenue. The original $200 investment had become a business generating more than $1.4 million a year.

Tooltester expanded as the online software market changed

The company did not stay focused only on website builders. Its coverage grew into hosting, live chat and email marketing software, among other areas.

EmailToolTester became another part of the business. Brandl said the plan was to eventually integrate it into Tooltester, bringing the email-focused operation closer to the main website.

Then came another shift. In 2023, Tooltester began reviewing AI tools as well. That move reflects how quickly the software market has changed since Brandl launched the company in 2009. The questions businesses ask today are not exactly the same ones they asked when Tooltester began.