After 3 years of testing, let’s compare Namecheap vs DreamHost and find out how they’ve performed so far…
Namecheap vs DreamHost – 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).
- From the time they were added in Jan 2017, Namecheap’s speed has consistently been in the bottom half of our hosts.
- 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.
- Namecheap is currently sitting in 8th place, with DreamHost in 10th in our Speed Rankings.
H2 2018 Results
H1 2018 Results
H2 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).
- While Namecheap tend to experience downtime each week, the duration was usually short in 2017. This resulted in a 4th place ranking at the end of 2017. Unfortunately, the results have dropped away in H1 & H2 2018, with Namecheap recording 614 minutes of downtime.
- 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.
- Namecheap is currently ranked 7th, while DreamHost is 9th in our Uptime Rankings.
View the Weekly Uptime Tests
Namecheap vs DreamHost – Overall Test Results
The Overall Ranking accumulates the results from the speed & uptime tests to determine the #1 Host.
- The early signs for Namecheap indicated they were below average when it came to speed and above average with uptime. But 2018 has not been kind to Namecheap, with the the below average speed continuing, and the uptime results falling into the bottom 2 active hosts.
- 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.
- Namecheap is currently 8th and DreamHost is in 9th in our Overall Rankings.
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