OVERALL RATINGS
Best for?
- Individuals
- Businesses
Price
Starting at $2.95 per month
Our Verdict
Reliable Speed with 99.9% uptime. Although not the best hosting but it’s worth a try!
InMotion is one of the most popular web hosting providers in the US, they have built a solid reputation since its inception in 2001. Boasting over 350 dedicated employees and a staggering 170,000 satisfied customers, they are known for offering affordable shared hosting plans.
Their commitment to excellent customer service, backed by the latest technology, including SSD drives and PHP 8, makes InMotion Hosting an enticing choice for website owners. Their promise of 99.99% uptime on the homepage is particularly appealing, ensuring your site remains accessible and reliable.
However, no hosting service is without its flaws, and it’s essential to be aware of potential shortcomings before making a purchase. To better understand how InMotion Hosting performs compared to its competitors, we have included our test and analysis in this review to assist you in making intelligent decision on your next web hosting provider.
inMotion Hosting Feature Images
InMotion Hosting Product Offer
Domain registration with InMotion Hosting is hassle-free, offering extensions like .com, .net, .biz, .org, .info, and .us. Though other providers may offer more variety, InMotion’s domain pricing at $15.99 per year is notably cheaper than most competitors.
Shared Hosting: Their shared hosting plans are a popular choice, priced from $13.99 to $24.99 per month for 12-month deals, catering well to small to medium-sized projects without requiring intricate server configurations.
WordPress Hosting: InMotion also provides WordPress shared hosting starting at $10.99 per month, going up to $36.99 per month. While these plans include a CDN and integrated backup system, the differences from regular shared hosting plans are unclear, and alternative affordable WordPress hosting options exist.
VPS Hosting: For greater control, inMotion VPS hosting offers subdivided virtual servers starting at $59.99 and reaching $131.99 per month, ideal for custom configurations and isolated resource usage.
Dedicated Hosting: Those seeking top-tier performance for larger projects may opt for dedicated hosting, starting at $169.99 per month at InMotion.
Cloud VPS hosting: inMotion cloud vps hosting interconnects several servers to cater to changing resource demands, perfect for projects with varying traffic peaks, with pricing dependent on selected resources.
Website Builder: InMotion accommodates less tech-savvy individuals with a website builder, although starting at $10.99 per month, it may be pricier compared to more economical alternatives.
Beyond shared hosting, InMotion offers a reseller hosting program and enterprise solutions for sizable projects, showcasing their versatility in catering to diverse needs. In this review, we will focus on InMotion’s shared hosting plans to delve deeper into their offerings.
InMotion Shared Hosting Pricing
- $9.99 Core
- $13.99 Launch
- $17.99 Power
- $24.99 Pro
What Do Their Shared Plans Include?
| FEATURES | CORE | LAUNCH | POWER | PRO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allowed websites | 2 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Domain name | No | 1 free domain first year | 1 free domain first year | 1 free domain first year |
| Support | Regular | Regular | Regular | Pro |
| Storage | 100 GB | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Email accounts | 101 GB/inbox | Unlimited5 GB/inbox | Unlimited10 GB/inbox | Unlimited20 GB/inbox |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Database | 40 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Backup * | Starts at $1/month extra | Starts at $1/month extra | Starts at $1/month extra | Starts at $1/month extra |
| Advanced caching | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| First-term prices for 1 year deals | $3.29 a month | $6.99 a month | $10.99 a month | $14.99 a month |
| Renewal price for 1-year deals | $10.99 a month | $13.99 a month | $17.99 a month | $24.99 a month |
InMotion Hosting provides two options for purchasing their plans – either yearly or bi-yearly. Opting for a longer-term plan offers cost savings, but keep in mind that the full amount must be paid upfront. Alternatively, there are also monthly plans available.
The Core tier includes limitations such as being restricted to 2 websites, 100 GB of storage, 40 databases, and 10 email accounts.
If you require unlimited websites, storage, and email accounts, the Launch plan would be a suitable choice, and it even includes a domain name.
For those seeking an ecommerce-ready solution with advanced caching options, the Power tier is recommended. It’s notable for offering faster customer care support as its primary advantage.
For professional projects, having integrated backup features is crucial. However, InMotion offers this as an add-on starting at $1 per month for 10 GB of backups, which should be factored into the overall price. For instance, the Launch plan would increase from $13.99 to $12.99 per month with this additional feature.
InMotion Hosting Pros and Cons
- User-friendly: Despite the dated appearance of their backend, their system is straightforward to navigate.
- Customer Support: InMotion customer support has proved to be helpful, although they might be slight delays in response times.
- No Bandwidth and Traffic Limitation: InMotion Hosting offers generous bandwidth and traffic allowances, allowing your website to handle a significant number of visitors and data transfer without constraints
- Not the cheapest: While InMotion Hosting provides excellent services, some users may find their pricing slightly higher compared to some competitors.
- Lacking certain advanced features: You may notice the absence of some advanced functionalities, such as the absence of staging areas for your use.
- Lack of free Backup: InMotion Hosting does not provide a built-in backup feature, and to access backups, you'll have to opt for their paid add-on or use the more cumbersome cPanel tool.
Best Time to Use InMotion Hosting
If you seek a web hosting provider with ample bandwidth and user-friendly features, I suggest considering InMotion Hosting. It is particularly suitable for smaller projects that do not require the highest performance or cutting-edge services. Small businesses could benefit from using InMotion Hosting for their websites.
Worst Time to Use InMotion Hosting
It’s important to note that InMotion may not be suitable for everyone. For projects with high dependency on server resources like ecommerce websites or blogs, InMotion might not be the most optimal choice, as it could be slower in such cases. An alternative like shopify can come in handy if you want to setup an ecommerce website.
Moreover, developers or larger teams, such as agencies, who require advanced features like staging areas, GIT repositories, or built-in backup systems, may find InMotion’s relatively simplistic system to be frustrating.
InMotion Hosting Feature Ratings
EASE OF USE
Their system is relatively user-friendly, particularly for those familiar with cPanel-based web hosting. To be completely honest, their backend could benefit from a more contemporary appearance.
UPTIME
InMotion Pro tier ensures a 99.9% uptime guarantee, while the other plans lack any such warranty. Unfortunately, their uptime results, as shown in the table below, were unsatisfactory. They provide robust security features, including data protection, SSL certificates, and malware scanning, to safeguard your website and data.
SECURITY FEATURES
Free SSL encryption is included with all plans through cPanel. They perform regular malware and vulnerability scans, quarantining any affected files they detect.
SERVER LOCATION
You have the option to select between two US locations: West Coast (Los Angeles) and East Coast (Washington DC). However, since there are no data centers outside the US, it may not be the best choice if the majority of your visitors are from regions like Europe.
SERVER SPEED
To enhance performance, InMotion utilize SSD drives and PHP8. The Power plan delivers 4x greater RAM and CPU performance, while the Pro package offers 6x more. However, there is room for improvement in their server speed.
WEBSPACE LIMIT
InMotion’s Core plan provides 100 GB of storage, while the other plans offer unlimited webspace.
MONTHLY DATA TRANSFER LIMIT
InMotion maintains no limitations on bandwidth.
FTP ACCOUNTS AND SECURE FTP
All plans come with unrestricted account access for FTP, SFTP, and SSH.
SERVER FEATURES
You can utilize PHP versions 5, 7, and 8 with InMotion hosting. They support MySQL and PostgreSQL databases and offer compatibility with programming languages such as Ruby, Perl, and Python. However, their shared hosting servers lack PCI compliance, requiring a VPS or dedicated server for that purpose. Unfortunately, features like staging areas and Git repositories are not provided by default.
DATABASES
The Core plan allows up to 40 databases, while the higher tiers offer unlimited database capacity.
DOMAIN NAMES
InMotion includes a complimentary domain name with the Launch, Power, and Pro plans. Subsequently, a yearly fee of $15.99 applies. The available domain extensions to choose from are .com, .net, .org, .us, .info, and .biz. Under the Launch plan, users can have up to 10 domains and 20 subdomains, while the Power package allows for 100 domains and 200 subdomains. Lastly, the Pro plan offers unlimited domains and subdomains.
APPLICATIONS
InMotion provides effortless installation for over 400 leading applications, including popular platforms such as WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla, with just a single click.
EMAIL RATING
The Core plan allows up to 10 email accounts, whereas all other plans provide the flexibility of unlimited email accounts. Regarding inbox storage, the Core, Launch, Power, and Pro plans come with maximum capacities of 1 GB, 5 GB, 10 GB, and 20 GB, respectively.
BACKUPS
If you opt not to purchase their Backup Pro feature, you won’t receive any backups. However, you have the option to create your own backups using cPanel or an external solution like a WordPress plugin. Nonetheless, managing and maintaining these backups manually can become cumbersome over time.
CDN
Although InMotion hosting does not come with a CDN (Content Delivery Network) included, you have the option to integrate an external provider like Cloudflare. However, setting up the CDN is your responsibility, and you need to handle the configuration process.
REFUNDS AND GUARANTEES
In comparison to many competitors, InMotion offers an exceptional 90-day refund policy. With their top-tier Pro plan, they ensure a minimum uptime of 99.9%, although achieving 99.5% uptime or higher is the target.
ASSISTANCE AND SUPPORT
InMotion Hosting provides round-the-clock support through chat, phone, and ticket system (email). Though some may lack in-depth information, they also offer many helpful articles. Overall, my encounters with their support have been primarily positive.
OVERALL RATINGS
InMotion Hosting is the perfect choice for budget-conscious users, despite minor improvements needed in performance, backup costs, and backend design.
InMotion Hosting Performance Tests
Before investing in a hosting provider, it’s essential to understand their performance. Poor services can adversely affect your project. Therefore, let me share the results of my InMotion Hosting uptime and speed tests with you.
InMotion Hosting Speed Test
Experiencing a slow server can be incredibly frustrating, leading to decreased website speed. Nowadays, internet users lack patience and won’t wait for a slow-loading site, affecting your conversion rate negatively. Moreover, search engines consider site speed in their rankings, causing a potential loss of SEO points.
Regrettably, in our recent web host speed tests to identify the fastest provider, InMotion performed poorly.
| Page Load Time in Seconds | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| GreenGeeks | 1.56 | 1.29 | 1.21 |
| A2 Hosting | 2.01 | 1.30 | 1.25 |
| GoDaddy | 1.94 | 1.44 | 1.28 |
| Cloudways | 1.73 | 1.46 | 1.30 |
| SiteGround | 1.54 | 1.56 | 1.35 |
| Hostinger | 1.61 | 1.63 | 1.35 |
| WP Engine | 1.65 | 1.66 | 1.37 |
| Namecheap | 1.60 | 1.69 | 1.40 |
| Dreamhost | 1.84 | 1.75 | 1.63 |
| Kinsta | 1.77 | 1.82 | 1.70 |
| Bluehost | 2.87 | 2.07 | 1.89 |
| IONOS | 1.95 | 2.32 | 2.20 |
| InMotion | 2.75 | 2.58 | 2.35 |
| iPage | 2.76 | 2.60 | 2.58 |
| HostGator | 2.78 | 2.72 | 2.70 |
Although various measures can be taken to enhance a slow website and improve WordPress speed, slow web hosting remains a significant challenge that is not easy to overcome. Thus, this limitation is of crucial importance.
InMotion Hosting Uptime
Uptime levels are crucial for hosting providers as they measure the time your website is online. Occasional short downtimes have minimal impact, but constant downtime leads to reduced conversion rates and displeases search engines like Google and Bing.
Aiming for at least 99.95% uptime, meaning the server (website) is down for no more than around 4 hours in a year, is advisable. As shown in the chart below, InMotion excelled in this year’s web host reliability tests, achieving an impressive 100% uptime!
| Uptime Chart | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SiteGround | 99.97 | 100 | 100 |
| WP Engine | 99.99 | 99.99 | 100 |
| Namecheap | 99.99 | 100 | 100 |
| Kinsta | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| InMotion | 99.73 | 99.95 | 100 |
| A2 Hosting | 99.99 | 99.98 | 99.99 |
| Cloudways | 100 | 100 | 99.99 |
| HostGator | 99.91 | 99.99 | 99.98 |
| GreenGeeks | 99.98 | 99.98 | 99.97 |
| GoDaddy | 99.90 | 99.96 | 99.95 |
| Hostinger | 99.48 | 99.92 | 99.95 |
| Bluehost | 99.96 | 99.99 | 99.95 |
| iPage | 98.45 | 99.85 | 99.95 |
| Dreamhost | 99.99 | 99.96 | 99.83 |
| IONOS | 99.91 | 99.93 | 99.71 |
InMotion Hosting Review: Do I Recommend It?
InMotion’s performance falls short of expectations, with both uptime and loading speed needing improvement. However, their reliable support and initial affordability are advantageous, along with generous storage and unmetered traffic. If performance is not your primary concern, it could be a viable option.
Nonetheless, other providers like DreamHost or GreenGeeks offer similar or cheaper prices with better performance. In fact, numerous superior and budget-friendly web hosting options are available.
Furthermore, InMotion lacks integrated backups unless you purchase their add-on starting at $1 a month—an important consideration. Advanced users may also miss essential features such as Git repositories or staging areas for their projects.
InMotion Hosting Alternatives
InMotion Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What sets InMotion apart from other hosting providers?
InMotion offers comprehensive marketing tools and support, including access to over 400 1-click installations for popular applications like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. Additionally, InMotion hosting plans include free domain names with select packages, making it easier for you to establish your online presence.
How does InMotion optimize website performance?
We understand the importance of website speed for successful marketing campaigns. InMotion Hosting employs cutting-edge technology, SSD storage, and content delivery networks (CDNs) to ensure faster load times. Our focus on uptime guarantees a seamless browsing experience for your visitors, positively impacting your conversion rates and search engine rankings.
Can InMotion assist with SEO and online visibility?
Absolutely! InMotion provides marketing support through SEO tools, guides, and resources to improve your website’s online visibility. With our reliable hosting and 99.9% uptime guarantee, search engines will view your site more favorably, ultimately driving more organic traffic and potential customers to your business.
