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Performance Tracking  > 2012 Tax Websites

Websitepulse 2012 Tax Performance & Uptime Report Summary


The tax filing period came to a close and so did our Performance and Uptime Summary report. We monitored 12 of the top online destinations for tax filing between April 3rd and April 18th.

From the results we can safely conclude that their performance was superb - 9 out of the 12 sites provided continuous, reliable and uninterrupted services all the time. The downtime of the rest of the websites was caused only by some brief disruptions related to network latency. You can see all the summarized results in the charts and tables below.

The WebSitePulse Performance Reports measure uptime and response time as the most important metrics for the availability and the reliability of any web-based operation. To provide accurate results, we measure the performance of a complete web transaction which simulates the typical End User’s interaction with a website. The measurements of the multi-step online transactions were made every 15 minutes, simultaneously from 3 different monitoring locations.

WebSitePulse advanced monitoring system has automated, built-in false alarm prevention and error verification controls that ensure the reliability of the measurement results. Also, in case of detected errors, WebSitePulse experts and engineers are available 24/7 to analyze the data, and to recommend additional actions to better understand and explain the malfunctions.

The summarized numbers and averages for the entire monitoring period are shown in the tables below:

Average Response times for the whole period
#TargetSan Francisco, CAChicago, ILWashington, DCAvg. resp. time
1etax.com9.3081.1305.3895.276
2hrblock.com7.3594.5557.5156.476
3taxact.com7.9855.2956.4876.589
4expresstaxrefund.com10.0044.6666.5927.087
5e-file-online.com10.0057.2499.9989.084
6olt.com12.7545.9698.5999.107
7taxbrain.com4.56411.27914.1549.999
8completetax.com13.8999.26911.49011.553
91040.com19.04510.7408.82512.870
10efile.com23.38811.1536.58613.709
11taxslayer.com21.6499.74711.87314.423
12turbotax.com14.11516.12622.25817.500

Average Uptime for the whole period
#TargetSan Francisco, CAChicago, ILWashington, DCAvg. uptime
1olt.com100.000%100.000%100.000%100.000%
2taxbrain.com100.000%100.000%100.000%100.000%
3efile.com100.000%100.000%100.000%100.000%
4etax.com100.000%100.000%100.000%100.000%
5taxact.com100.000%100.000%100.000%100.000%
6taxslayer.com100.000%100.000%100.000%100.000%
7completetax.com100.000%100.000%100.000%100.000%
8e-file-online.com100.000%100.000%100.000%100.000%
9expresstaxrefund.com100.000%100.000%100.000%100.000%
101040.com100.000%99.987%99.985%99.991%
11hrblock.com100.000%99.964%100.000%99.988%
12turbotax.com99.985%99.985%99.985%99.985%

Best regards, and takeITeasy™ with WebSitePulse™

Iavor Marinoff, CEO

Methodology:
The 2012 Tax Reports reflect a complete web transaction, representative for the End Users' interactions with a website. The reporting period covers the dates between April 05 and April 18, 2011. Performance and availability measurements are made for a typical multi-step web transaction at 15 minute monitoring interval, every day between the hours of 6AM and 3AM EST. Between 3AM and 6AM is the time when a scheduled maintenance most likely will be performed by IT staff and that is why we automatically suspend the monitoring process during this time every day. The WebSitePulse application monitoring service is used to collect data and to create the reports.
The steps in each transaction are comparable for all websites, and reflect the real online user and tax e-filer experience. The simultaneous monitoring is performed from 3 US-based locations of the WebSitePulse monitoring network: San Francisco, CA, Chicago, IL, and Washington, DC. In case of a detected malfunction or unavailability, the system performs automated error verification from 3 independent resources and only after the above procedure is performed and has returned consistent results, the detected error is confirmed, recorded, and included in the daily performance reports. In these cases, an advanced WebSitePulse exclusive feature comes into play - Forced Monitoring -, which automatically switches to a 3 minute monitoring interval for increased accuracy.

About WebSitePulse:
WebSitePulse is a leading provider of global, independent, and objective availability and performance monitoring of web sites, servers, network components, web applications, e-business- and email round-trip transactions.

Contact:
For more information about this report please contact:
George T., CTO
phone: 1-407-380-1600
email:


Reproduction:
WebSitePulse launched the Performance and Uptime Reports program to keep the general public and the Internet community informed about the performance of spe cific websites and the challenges their webmasters, owners and operators are facing on a daily basis, especially when the web traffic intensifies due to som e special events through the year. Some of the most popular web destinations, related to each particular event, are selected for the purpose of the Reports, and data from their performance measurements is made available on the WebSitePulse public website.

With the intention to broadly disseminate this information for the benefit of the Internet community, we encourage the use of this information without prior approval and under the following Terms and Conditions:
  • WebSitePulse should be referred as the "Source" of the information;
  • WebSitePulse should be acknowledged as the owner of the copyrights of the information in the Reports;
  • The texts of the Reports could be changed or altered to better suit the needs and the style of the publisher without prior notice to WebSitePu lse. However, the integrity and the meaning of the information should be preserved;

The Data from the performance measurements cannot be changed or manipulated and should be used "as is".