Enquirer Consulting Group
Rupesh Garg | Frugal Testing | October 2026
As of 13 Oct 2026
Frugal Testing runs software testing for other companies, from functional, regression and automation testing to performance, API and security testing, and it opens with a free QA audit.
Your site names the US and UK as the markets you are building into, so this map covers the US side: the groups of companies that buy outside testing, how large each group is where a clean public count exists, and who usually signs off inside each one.
Most of these groups follow the industries Frugal Testing names on its own site, and software companies are added as a group of their own.
Counts are US firms, not sites or offices, and are banded on purpose. A group with no clean public count says so rather than showing a number.
| Group | Organizations in the US | Under 20 staff | 20 to 99 | 100 to 499 | 500 or more |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software and SaaS companies | about 14,000 | about 11,000 | about 1,600 | about 640 | about 420 |
| Online platforms, portals and streaming media | about 7,700 | about 6,900 | about 450 | about 180 | about 150 |
| Payments and transaction processing firms | about 3,500 | about 3,200 | about 180 | about 97 | about 87 |
| Online and mail-order retailers | about 54,000 | about 50,000 | about 2,600 | about 620 | about 440 |
| Healthcare technology companies | no clean public count | ||||
| Education technology platforms | no clean public count |
US firm counts by industry code, banded deliberately.
Titles vary by company size. In smaller firms the founder or CTO holds most of these seats.
| Group | Who usually signs off | Who also weighs in |
|---|---|---|
| Software and SaaS companies | CTO or VP of engineering | Head of QA or QA manager, engineering managers, the founder at smaller firms |
| Online platforms and media | VP of engineering or head of platform | Head of QA, product leads, the site reliability lead for load and uptime |
| Payments and transaction processing | CTO, with the CISO or head of security on security testing | Head of QA, compliance and risk leads, engineering managers |
| Online retailers | VP of ecommerce or head of digital, with the engineering lead | Head of QA, product and site merchandising leads |
| Healthcare technology | CTO or VP of engineering | Head of QA, the compliance or privacy officer, clinical product leads |
| Education technology | CTO or head of product engineering | Head of QA, product leads, customer success on exam and enrollment periods |
| Group | What moves the decision |
|---|---|
| Software and SaaS companies | Release speed against escaped defects, and whether to hire in-house QA or extend the team |
| Online platforms and media | Uptime under traffic spikes, playback and page speed, and coverage across browsers and devices |
| Payments and transaction processing | Security findings before an audit, transaction speed under load, and zero failed payments |
| Online retailers | Checkout holding up at peak season, and mobile and browser coverage |
| Healthcare technology | Patient data security and privacy, and regulated release records |
| Education technology | Platforms that stay up during exams and enrollment, and app quality on student devices |
At smaller software firms the founder or CTO usually decides alone, often after a short trial or audit. At larger firms the head of QA or an engineering manager raises the need, and the CTO or VP of engineering approves the spend.
Security testing often sits in a separate budget. At payments and healthcare technology firms the security or compliance lead can hold that yes, with a dated reason such as an audit or a customer security review.
Built from public federal business statistics and the company's own website, counts banded deliberately.
If a walk-through is useful, pick a time at cal.com/ecg.
Prepared by Ben Beattie, ben@enquirerconsulting.com.