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WebSitePulse 2006 Tax Websites Performance and Uptime Report
According to comScore, there was a spike in traffic to tax sites from late January to mid-February as early filers file their tax returns. Some 29 million users visited tax sites in February. The peak was the week ending February 6th, when 14 million users visited tax sites.
Early filers are outnumbered by late ones, who represent the second major spike in traffic to tax sites. In 2004, 1.9 million users visited irs.gov on April 15th. In 2005, that number hit 2.15 million users.
According to the IRS, electronically filed returns have increased, led by a big increase in home computer use.
Through early March, more than 39.5 million taxpayers have e-filed this year. Home computer use is up 16.5 percent, with e-file by tax professionals up nearly 4 percent. Out of 54 million tax returns filed so far this year, e-file represents 73 percent of the total returns. By comparison, 72 percent of returns were filed electronically for the comparable period last year.
Led by the belief that tax returns e-filing is of major importance for the US tax payers, WebSitePulse is monitoring twelve of the most popular tax websites for the 2006 Tax season. The measurement results reflect the performance levels and the availability of the websites related to the increased Internet traffic during the period. This information is helpful to analyze the End Users' experience, the reliability of the IT infrastructure of the Tax websites, as well as their estimated losses in case of downtime and unavailability of critical web pages, web systems, network devices, and web applications.
Continuous monitoring for all websites covers the period March 31 through April 17, 2006. The reports and charts are updated daily showing the results from the previous day and for the entire monitoring period to the current date.
Daily Report for April 17, 2006
See report for:
WebSitePulse reports the following results from web performance measurement of the leading US Tax Websites:
The daily Average Response time from all monitored websites was 1.114 sec.
The Average Response time as measured from the US East Coast (Washington, DC) was:
1.149 sec.
The Average Response time as measured from the US West Coast (San Francisco, CA) was:
1.148 sec.
The Average Response time as measured from US Central (Chicago, IL) was:
1.046 sec.
The Best Response time measured from the US East Coast was:
0.423 sec.
The Best Response time measured from the US West Coast was:
0.198 sec.
The Best Response time measured from the US Central was:
0.608 sec.
The typical e-filing transaction took the least time for taxbrain.com visitors - 0.517 sec., while the Customers of irs.gov had to be the most patient, as the transaction there took in average of 2.029 sec. Four of the monitored websites delivered above-the-average response times for their e-business-critical web pages, while eight of them demonstrated below-the-average daily performance.
The daily average uptime for the entire Group was 99.93%.
The Average Uptime as measured from the US East Coast (Washington, DC) was:
100.00%
The Average Uptime as measured from the US West Coast (San Francisco, CA) was:
99.80%
The Average Uptime as measured from US Central (Chicago, IL) was:
100.00%
Eleven websites were available with no interruptions - 100%. Eleven websites' availability was above the average, while one online retailers dragged the average down with below-the-average availability.
No events of particular importance or possible negative impact on the tax returns e-filing process were detected during the reported period, and according to WebSitePulse, the Group delivered the expected levels of End-User experience and Customer satisfaction.
Please, scroll down for Detailed Reports and Charts provided by WebSitePulse:
Daily Response Times
Legend:
irs.gov
turbotax.com
hrblock.com
expresstaxrefund.com
taxact.com
completetax.com
taxcut.com
esmarttax.com
taxslayer.com
taxbrain.com
taxengine.com
efile.com
Average Response Times for April 17, 2006
#
Target
San Francisco, CA
Chicago, IL
Washington, DC
Avg. resp. time
1
taxbrain.com
0.198
0.618
0.734
0.517
2
taxslayer.com
1.281
0.608
0.423
0.771
3
turbotax.com
0.490
1.007
1.082
0.860
4
taxcut.com
1.145
0.706
0.789
0.880
5
efile.com
1.204
0.671
0.858
0.911
6
esmarttax.com
0.342
1.219
1.198
0.920
7
completetax.com
0.683
0.802
1.381
0.955
8
taxengine.com
0.724
1.099
1.112
0.978
9
expresstaxrefund.com
1.708
1.076
0.937
1.240
10
taxact.com
2.005
1.012
1.494
1.504
11
hrblock.com
2.133
1.775
1.514
1.807
12
irs.gov
1.858
1.963
2.265
2.029
Average Response Times March 31, 2006 - April 17, 2006
#
Target
San Francisco, CA
Chicago, IL
Washington, DC
Avg. resp. time
1
taxbrain.com
0.215
0.617
0.762
0.531
2
taxslayer.com
1.295
0.590
0.394
0.760
3
turbotax.com
0.457
0.944
1.058
0.820
4
taxcut.com
1.086
0.691
0.727
0.835
5
efile.com
1.187
0.729
0.907
0.941
6
taxengine.com
0.763
1.028
1.071
0.954
7
completetax.com
0.694
0.766
1.522
0.994
8
expresstaxrefund.com
1.654
1.055
0.870
1.193
9
esmarttax.com
1.012
1.807
1.903
1.574
10
taxact.com
2.232
0.982
1.513
1.576
11
hrblock.com
2.131
1.708
1.550
1.796
12
irs.gov
1.840
1.758
1.854
1.817
Hourly Average Response Times Select individual website to display:
Legend:
individual company response times
monitored group average response times
Average response times by hour for April 17, 2006
Target
Hours
00
01
02
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
completetax
0.91
1.06
0.93
0.96
0.93
0.89
0.96
0.92
0.95
0.94
0.95
0.94
0.95
0.95
1.02
0.95
0.93
0.99
0.97
0.98
1.00
efile
0.90
0.89
1.01
1.10
0.89
1.01
0.84
0.81
0.89
0.85
0.87
0.81
0.83
0.91
0.94
0.95
0.95
0.87
0.90
1.02
0.90
esmarttax
1.37
0.86
0.84
0.87
0.85
0.80
0.85
0.90
0.86
0.92
0.95
0.92
0.96
0.93
0.91
0.92
0.92
0.86
0.89
0.85
1.07
expresstaxrefund
1.15
1.12
1.06
1.16
1.30
1.02
1.10
1.18
1.16
1.65
1.28
1.17
1.37
1.17
1.28
1.18
1.37
1.28
1.43
1.34
1.27
hrblock
1.74
1.91
1.75
1.78
1.68
1.92
1.80
2.09
1.79
1.67
1.82
1.84
1.73
1.62
1.70
1.80
1.76
2.03
1.92
1.73
1.86
irs.gov
1.71
1.06
1.11
1.84
2.11
2.31
2.00
2.29
2.79
2.26
2.14
1.63
2.46
2.51
2.00
1.67
2.14
1.98
2.10
1.77
2.73
taxact
1.46
1.43
1.49
1.46
1.51
1.47
1.45
1.48
1.51
1.52
1.48
1.50
1.62
1.69
1.49
1.56
1.46
1.53
1.52
1.48
1.48
taxbrain
0.49
0.47
0.48
0.61
0.45
0.44
0.44
0.82
0.49
0.48
0.48
0.46
0.46
0.47
0.47
0.74
0.49
0.50
0.55
0.54
0.52
taxcut
0.94
0.83
1.26
0.84
0.87
0.77
0.76
0.73
0.86
0.80
0.77
1.00
0.88
1.19
0.80
0.82
0.76
0.83
1.14
0.79
0.85
taxengine
1.11
0.80
0.87
0.95
0.92
0.88
0.91
0.96
0.96
1.09
0.98
0.97
1.01
1.06
1.08
0.94
1.12
1.01
0.91
1.00
1.05
taxslayer
0.73
0.90
0.70
0.80
0.77
0.69
0.76
0.75
0.72
0.78
0.81
0.74
0.83
0.73
0.73
0.77
0.74
0.83
0.82
0.86
0.73
turbotax
0.83
0.68
0.77
0.80
0.74
0.85
0.72
0.86
0.81
0.74
1.05
0.95
0.80
0.73
1.26
1.24
0.79
1.05
0.74
0.83
0.84
Average response times by hour March 31, 2006 - April 17, 2006
Target
Hours
00
01
02
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
completetax
0.96
1.05
0.95
1.04
0.97
0.97
0.99
1.00
0.99
1.01
1.02
1.02
0.99
0.99
1.10
1.00
0.97
0.96
0.96
0.97
0.97
efile
0.90
0.92
0.94
1.05
0.91
0.96
0.91
0.99
0.94
0.96
0.90
0.90
0.92
0.91
1.17
1.02
0.89
0.91
0.88
0.90
0.90
esmarttax
1.58
1.98
3.08
1.57
1.45
1.70
1.70
1.26
1.46
1.25
1.17
1.53
1.98
1.93
1.72
0.98
1.40
1.16
1.29
1.45
1.52
expresstaxrefund
1.12
1.16
1.11
1.17
1.14
1.16
1.15
1.39
1.20
1.32
1.24
1.22
1.28
1.25
1.22
1.16
1.18
1.16
1.17
1.14
1.13
hrblock
1.80
1.84
1.84
1.95
1.77
1.83
1.78
1.78
1.76
1.78
1.76
1.84
1.76
1.79
1.79
1.73
1.81
1.78
1.77
1.76
1.83
irs.gov
1.60
1.74
1.56
1.95
1.83
1.78
1.97
2.00
1.91
1.99
1.89
1.92
1.92
1.87
1.77
1.80
1.72
1.57
1.72
1.90
1.77
taxact
1.47
1.52
1.49
1.50
1.45
1.52
1.55
1.55
1.68
1.80
1.71
1.67
1.66
1.58
1.55
1.63
1.50
1.64
1.50
1.53
1.59
taxbrain
0.48
0.47
0.60
0.70
0.47
0.48
0.49
0.78
0.49
0.50
0.47
0.59
0.49
0.47
0.48
0.58
0.60
0.50
0.48
0.53
0.49
taxcut
0.85
0.83
0.89
0.84
0.80
0.82
0.81
0.79
0.83
0.90
0.82
0.87
0.83
0.86
0.81
0.87
0.79
0.81
0.83
0.86
0.83
taxengine
0.94
0.90
1.13
0.98
0.92
0.90
0.93
0.92
1.02
1.14
0.94
0.93
0.98
0.94
0.91
0.94
0.94
0.92
0.95
0.91
0.92
taxslayer
0.74
0.82
0.72
1.03
0.71
0.72
0.76
0.74
0.72
0.76
0.75
0.75
0.76
0.75
0.73
0.76
0.76
0.73
0.76
0.75
0.72
turbotax
0.81
0.89
0.75
0.93
0.81
0.82
0.83
0.80
0.81
0.87
0.81
0.82
0.81
0.79
0.81
0.86
0.82
0.77
0.82
0.78
0.81
Uptime
Uptime April 17, 2006
#
Target
San Francisco, CA
Chicago, IL
Washington, DC
Avg. uptime
1
esmarttax.com
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
2
taxslayer.com
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
3
taxbrain.com
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
4
efile.com
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
5
taxcut.com
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
6
completetax.com
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
7
turbotax.com
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
8
hrblock.com
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
9
expresstaxrefund.com
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
10
irs.gov
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
11
taxact.com
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
12
taxengine.com
97.620%
100.000%
100.000%
99.207%
Uptime March 31, 2006 - April 17, 2006
#
Target
San Francisco, CA
Chicago, IL
Washington, DC
Avg. uptime
1
taxbrain.com
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
2
expresstaxrefund.com
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
3
hrblock.com
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
4
taxcut.com
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
5
taxact.com
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
6
irs.gov
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
100.000%
7
turbotax.com
99.934%
100.000%
100.000%
99.978%
8
efile.com
99.868%
99.934%
99.934%
99.912%
9
completetax.com
99.802%
99.934%
99.934%
99.890%
10
taxslayer.com
99.802%
99.593%
99.868%
99.754%
11
esmarttax.com
99.339%
99.332%
99.198%
99.290%
12
taxengine.com
98.610%
99.864%
98.478%
98.984%
Methodology:
Performance and availability are measured for a typical shopping web transaction at 15 minute monitoring interval every day between the hours of 6AM and 3AM EST. 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 buyers' experience. The simultaneous monitoring is performed from 3 US locations of the WebSitePulse monitoring network: Chicago, IL; San Francisco, CA, and Washington, DC. In case of a detected malfunction or unavailability, the system performs automated error verification from 3 independent resources before it is confirmed, recorded and included in the daily performance reports.
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 specific websites and the challenges their webmasters, owners and operators are facing on a daily basis, especially when the web traffic intensifies due to some 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 WebSitePulse. 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".
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