After 3 years of testing, let’s compare DreamHost vs InMotion and find out how they’ve performed so far…
DreamHost vs InMotion – Testing Method
- Prior to testing, I have setup identical content on all 8 Live Test Sites
- Each week over 80,000 speed & uptime tests are run using independent tools, GTmetrix & Pingdom
- Test results below are from 04 Apr 2016 to 22 Dec 2018
Test #1: Speed
The GTmetrix Speed Test checks how long it takes for a website to fully load using a desktop internet browser. This test is then repeated every hour throughout the week (1,340 times).
- DreamHost has been consistently slow, but were still competitive in 2016. This situation worsened considerably in 2017, in particular the last 9 weeks, where their average speed dropped to 7.15s. As a result of these unacceptably slow times, DreamHost was replaced by Lightning Base on 23 Apr 2017.
- InMotion Hosting’s speed has been a little inconsistent across the last 3 years. Their load times have been on a bit of a roller coaster, where some weeks they can be the fastest hosts, while other weeks they can drop to slowest. Their most recent results in H2 2018 are their most impressive, where they are the 2nd fastest host.
- InMotion is currently ranked in 3rd place, while DreamHost is 10th in our Speed Rankings.
H2 2018 Results
H1 2018 Results
H2 2017 Results
H1 2017 Results
Test #2: Uptime
The Pingdom Uptime Test confirms that the website is actually accessible to visitors. This test is then repeated every minute throughout the week (80,640 times).
- DreamHost’s uptime was acceptable during 2016, finishing mid-table. However, 2017 has been really disappointing, with the last 9 weeks resulting in a downtime of 476 minutes.
- InMotion Hosting have also performed erratically when it comes to Uptime. Their 2016 performance was positive, finishing 3rd, but as time has gone on, they have progressively dropped away. In 2017 they were 7th and both H1 & H2 2018 they’ve fallen to be the worst active host, recording 765 minutes of downtime.
- InMotion is currently in 8th place, with DreamHost 9th in our Uptime Rankings.
View the Weekly Uptime Tests
DreamHost vs InMotion – Overall Test Results
The Overall Ranking accumulates the results from the speed & uptime tests to determine the #1 Host.
- After being competitive in 2016, and even showing signs of improvement, DreamHost has dramatically fallen off the cliff in the last 9 weeks of 2017. With no actionable solutions coming through from their support team, DreamHost needed to be replaced as they were not able to compete with our other hosts in both speed and uptime.
- InMotion Hosting’s performance started off as promising but inconsistent across 2016 & 2017, resulting in a ranking of 4th at the end of 2017. While their speed in H2 2018 has been very impressive, they have been let down by disappointing uptime results across 2018.
- InMotion is currently 5th and DreamHost is 9th in our Overall Rankings.
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