InMotion Hosting Review: In It To Win It?

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InMotion Hosting offers its customers a variety of web hosting options including shared and WordPress plans that come with cPanel. They also offer domain name services and a money-back guarantee.

We think you’ll be surprised by what we found when we tested InMotion’s server response speeds.

Here’s what you need to know.

InMotion Hosting Homepage

About InMotion Hosting

InMotion Hosting was founded in 2001 by Sunil Saxena and Todd Robinson as a privately-held company offering web hosting services.

Today, InMotion Hosting employs over 300 people located across three offices (Los Angeles, California; Virginia Beach, Virignia; and Denver, Colorado).

The company manages two datacenters, one located in Los Angeles and the other in Ashburn, Virginia.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Offers wide range of hosting types
  • Committed to open source technologies
  • PCI compliant datacenters
  • 99.9% uptime guarantee
  • US-based customer service

Cons

  • Not the cheapest hosting option
  • Purchase of annual contracts required
  • No backup services included

Pros

InMotion hosting offers five different hosting types, so most people will find something that fits their needs.

Furthermore, the company is “committed to open source.” So if you rely on technologies like WordPress to build your website or online store, you’ll find InMotion’s plans compatible with your projects.

They also maintain PCI compliant datacenters, offer excellent uptime, and staff their support centers with US-based personnel.

Cons

The downside, however, is that InMotion Hosting isn’t the cheapest option around.

You’ll also pay more for shorter contracts (and at the shared hosting levels, you won’t find the ability to pay on a month-to-month basis).

Finally, despite InMotion’s robust menu of professional services, the company doesn’t bundle some basic ones with its hosting packages, such as automatic backups.

Hosting Plans

InMotion Hosting offers the following types of web hosting:

  • Business Hosting
  • WordPress Hosting
  • VPS Hosting
  • Dedicated Servers
  • Reseller Hosting.
InMotion Hosting Plans

Business Hosting

InMotion’s Business plans offer budget-friendly prices.

InMotion’s Business Hosting plans are the company’s shared hosting plans. This is a budget-friendly option for those with smaller sites.

InMotion offers three different Business Hosting Plans from which you can choose.

Launch Plan

The Launch Plan is a good option for those who want hosting for no more than two websites. You’ll get unlimited SSD (solid-state drive) storage, bandwidth, and email, and your plan comes with a free domain name, marketing tools, and security suite (including a free SSL certificate).

Power Plan

For those who need faster performance or need web hosting for up to six websites, the mid-range Power Plan would be a good fit. The Power Plan is identical to the Launch Plan, but as we’ve mentioned, you’ll get support for up to six websites and, allegedly, double the performance.

Pro Plan

The high-end Pro Plan is a good option for those who want great performance without upgrading to a more expensive hosting type. The Pro Plan builds on the Power Plan by including support for an unlimited number of websites, offering performance four times as fast as the Launch Plan, and Pro Level support (including a 99.9% uptime guarantee).

One-Click Installer

Regardless of which hosting plan you choose, however, you’ll get access to a one-click installer that allows you to install any of the over 400 applications available (options include CMSes like WordPress and PrestaShop, as well as add-ons like message boards/forums).

When signing up, you’ll get to choose the datacenter that hosts your website. Visit InMotion Hosting now.

WordPress Hosting

Those who have built their websites using WordPress (or are planning to do so), will find InMotion’s WordPress Hosting plans to be of interest.

What’s Included With the “Managed” Plan?

The WordPress Hosting plans are managed options that come with pre-installation of the WordPress core, include free website migration, and offers managed security (including protection against hackers and malware, automatic backups) and managed updates (including updates to the core and security patches).

Choose from 6 Plans

InMotion Hosting offers six different WordPress plans from which you can choose. The best option for you depends on how many websites you need hosting for, how big your websites are, and how many visitors you are expecting each month.

The plans range in their support for 1 up to 20 websites, 20,000 to 1.2 million monthly visitors, and 40 GB to 240 GB of SSD storage.

Regardless of which option you choose, all plans come with a free domain name, an unlimited number of email accounts, and access to the BoldGrid Website Builder to help you build your WordPress sites.

BoldGrid Website Builder

The WordPress Hosting plans come with access to the BoldGrid Website Builder. This website builder is actually a suite of WordPress plugins that, together, make it easy for you to design and build your WordPress site.

Video: How to change themes in BoldGrid.

In addition to the included WordPress themes and templates, you’ll get access to a drag-and-drop page builder, SEO aids, an update and backup manager, and a staging environment to test your changes.

VPS Hosting

Those who want to scale up from shared hosting options should consider one of InMotion’s VPS hosting options.

These are also good choices for those looking for PCI compliant e-commerce hosting. Currently, InMotion offers two types of VPS hosting: managed and cloud.

Managed VPS Hosting

The Managed VPS Hosting offers “hands-off server management for ease of use.” The services included are updates to the server’s operating system and cPanel/WHM, installation of security patches, and free backups and live-state snapshots.

InMotion Hosting offers three different managed VPS hosting plans from which you can choose:

  • VPS-1000HA-S: 4 GB RAM, 75 GB SSD storage, and 5 TB bandwidth
  • VPS-2000HA-S: 6 GB RAM, 150 GB SSD storage, and 5 TB bandwidth
  • VPS-3000HA-S: 8 GB RAM, 260 GB SSD storage, and 6 TB bandwidth.

Cloud VPS Hosting

InMotion’s Cloud VPS Hosting gets you the speed and performance of a VPS hosting plan, but because these options are unmanaged, these are cheaper. With that said, managing a server can be complex so we only recommend this option for those with some technical know-how (or have an IT staff on hand).

There are three different Cloud VPS Hosting plans from which you can choose:

  • CLOUD VPS-1000: 4 GB RAM, 75 GB SSD storage, 4 TB bandwidth, and 3 IP addresses
  • CLOUD VPS-2000: 6 GB RAM, 150 GB SSD storage, 5 TB bandwidth, and 4 IP addresses
  • CLOUD VPS-3000: 8 GB RAM, 260 GB SSD storage, 6 TB bandwidth, and 5 IP addresses.

Regardless of which option you choose, you’ll get full root access to your web hosting environment and pre-installation of the operating system of your choice.

The Cloud VPS hosting packages do not come with cPanel/WHM, but you do get a simple control panel so you’re not reliant on the command line to manage your server.

Dedicated Servers

For those with the largest, most resource-intensive websites, InMotion offers dedicated server hosting. There are six different server configurations from which you can choose, but regardless of which option you pick, you can expect:

  • Free server management (including updates to the operating system and your control panel) and a two-hour hardware replacement guarantee
  • Protection against DDoS attacks and a 99.999% network uptime guarantee
  • Choice of datacenter.

The dedicated servers are all managed, and to help you get started, you’ll meet with a member of the InMotion Hosting team to make sure that your purchase includes everything you need to start successfully.

Reseller Hosting

InMotion offers full white-label reseller hosting.

The Reseller Hosting plans offered by InMotion Hosting would appeal to those looking to start up their own web hosting company or those who want to include web hosting services as part of the overall portfolio (eg, web design, digital marketing).

InMotion’s plans are full white-label options, and you can choose from shared and VPS reseller hosting options.

All come with extras like a free WHMCS account for billing your customers, dedicated IP addresses, SSL certificates, and more.

InMotion Hosting offers six different reseller plans, each offering a different allocation of RAM, storage space, bandwidth, and IP addresses.

Website Migration

After you sign up with InMotion Hosting, you can migrate any existing sites you have to your new environment.

InMotion’s plans ship with the cPanel Control Panel, so if you’re coming from a host that also offers cPanel, you can use its export process to facilitate this process.

You can also have InMotion Hosting help you with the migration process. Transfers of three or fewer cPanel accounts, databases, and/or websites are free of charge, with any additional transfers costing $10 each. To request a transfer, you’ll need to fill out and submit the Website Transfer Request.

In most cases, InMotion should be able to complete your request, but depending on the size and scope of your project, InMotion may need to access professional services fees. In some cases, they may not be able to complete the transfer on your behalf.

Transfers done by InMotion Hosting may take up to 14 days to complete.

Onboarding

All new customers can schedule a free, 25-minute appointment with a member of the InMotion Support Team. You can choose the topics to be covered, but some of the options include:

  • Beginners’ Getting Started (which is a general overview)
  • cPanel
  • Domain transfers
  • Account Management Panel (AMP)
  • Email
  • Site transfers
  • Premium website builder
  • Joomla
  • PrestaShop
  • WordPress.

Money-Back Guarantee

InMotion Hosting offers an industry-leading 90-day money back guarantee with purchases of its hosting plans (excepting dedicated servers and VPS and reseller hosting packages with monthly billing, which come with a 30-day money back guarantee).

InMotion Hosting Support

Customer Support

All hosting plans come with 24/7 technical support.

How to Get Help From the Support Team

You can get in touch with the InMotion Hosting support team by:

  • Opening a ticket using the Account Management Panel (AMP)
  • Posting a question to the Community Support Center
  • Sending an email
  • Launching a live chat
  • Calling in from a telephone
  • Starting a Skype call.

Those who are interested in self-help resources can consult the Support Center, which is filled with a large selection of how-to articles, tutorials, and so on.

The Support Center is searchable, but it is also classified by topic so you can browse with ease.

Video: How to install Jekyll.

Domain Names

InMotion Hosting offers robust domain name services, but those who purchase a web hosting package will get a new domain name, free of charge.

User Ratings

Users give InMotion Hosting a rating of 4.1 out of 5, with current customers indicating the company’s customer service is friendly, helpful, and easy to get a hold of.

InMotion Hosting vs SiteGround

If InMotion Hosting isn’t quite the right fit for you, consider SiteGround — both InMotion and SiteGround offer a wide variety of hosting types at budget-friendly prices.

InMotionSiteGround
StorageUnlimited10 GB
BandwidthUnlimitedUnlimited
Websites21
Price$3.99$3.95

SiteGround, however, offers shared hosting plans that are slightly cheaper. Their customer service is also some of the best in the industry, so if this is important to you, you can’t go wrong with SiteGround.

Server Response Speeds: InMotion vs SiteGround

SiteGround also offers better performance — in our testing, we see SiteGround’s average response times to be significantly faster than InMotion’s.

Below we show the results of our server response speed tests from the period of July 2018 through April 2019.

Speed is measured in milliseconds, displayed on the left vertical axis.

During this period InMotion’s speeds slowed down considerably to peak at over 2,000 ms. In 2019 they’ve stayed in this upper range, with a monthly average speed of over 1,800 ms.

SiteGround’s speeds have remained consistent.

Other Hosts to Consider

Other options that you might consider include HostGator, Bluehost, and A2 Hosting.

Of these, A2 Hosting has the fastest server speeds in our tests.

Save on InMotion Hosting

Ready to get started with InMotion Hosting? Use our special link to save up to 50% off your first purchase of hosting services with InMotion. Visit InMotion Hosting now.

Conclusion

InMotion Hosting offers a wide variety of web hosting types and plans, so the company appeals to many. However, what makes the company stand out is its excellent customer service offering — current customers rave about the company’s support.

If you’re interested in web hosting services from a company that values its support and relationships with its customers, visit InMotion Hosting now.

Your Review of InMotion Hosting

Are you a current or past customer of InMotion Hosting? Would you recommend them? Please leave your comments below and let our visitors know what you think of InMotion’s speed, features and customer service.

Visit InMotion Hosting Now


Contributing write: Katie Horne. Contributing editor: Frank Moraes.

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