If I were not to have the utmost faith in InMotion hosting, I would not be forking out hundreds of dollars each year in hosting fees. I believe that two key elements make them one of the top hosts I’ve encountered to date; Exceptional server performance and fantastic customer service.
With almost 20 years in the web hosting business, InMotion Hosting is one of the most recognized names around.
A lot – I mean really a lot of old timers have had their website hosted at InMotion in the past. So doing a review on InMotion is challenging – I need to make sure that my review covers enough depth and show a clear picture what's it like to be an InMotion Hosting customer.
My Experience with InMotion Hosting
InMotion Hosting is one service provider that has remained close to my heart for some time now. I first started up with InMotion when I was offered a free shared hosting account in 2009. The complimentary shared hosting account expired in a year later. I loved their service so much that I stayed on – as a paying customer.
A decade later today, I make use of InMotion VPS hosting plan and still pay hundreds of dollars to the company every year to host my important sites.
I’m sure I’ve dug around in almost every facet of their resources at some time or other through the years.
I have exhausted my shared hosting resources and caused an account suspension twice in the past. I have spoke to their support team – on the phone and via their live chat system countless of times.
What's in this InMotion review?
In this review, I will share I’ve learned about InMotion over the years so you can make an informed decision on the pros and cons of hosting with them.
WHSR reviews are partially based on performance tracking on sites we establish on each host – this (of course) includes InMotion Hosting. And because I am still using InMotion to host my sites today, I get to take you behind the scenes and show you their features through my account.
I will also share an exclusive deal at the bottom of this page – where you can get InMotion at 66% discount. Shared hosting starts at $2.49/mo instead of the regular $7.49/mo.
About InMotion Hosting
Headquarter: Los Angeles, California
Established: 2001
Data centers: United States West and East Coast
Services: Shared, VPS, dedicated, and reseller hosting
Video Summary
InMotion Hosting Pros & Cons
What we like and don't like about InMotion Hosting –
Among the web hosting service providers I have encountered so far InMotion Hosting servers are some of the top performing ones in the budget category. Their uptime is mostly well above the industry standard of 99.95%.
More importantly, I have tested performance from multiple locations, all of which are able to boast Time to First Byte (TTFB) of below 450ms.
The proof, however, is in the pudding as they say. Let’s take a look at the test results I’ve compiled on InMotion Hosting over the years since 2013.
InMotion Hosting Speed Tests
Server Speed Test at Bitcatcha
Speed test (Jun 2019) – Results for test nodes at United States (West/East): 2/60ms, Canada: 74ms, Bangalore: 523ms (slowest).Speed test (Feb 2016) – BitCatcha’s proprietary algorithm pings my test site from different locations, giving it an overall score of A+. The norm is usually a B+ which is three grades below that.
Time-to-First-Byte (TTFB) Based on Webpage Test
WebpageTest.org rates my test site TTFB at 415ms which is very good.
InMotion Hosting Uptime Data
March – May 2020: 100%
InMotion Hosting uptime for March – May 2020: 100%. No outage is recorded during this period.
Jan 2019: 100%
InMotion Hosting uptime for the past 30 days (January 2019) – 100%.
Sep/Oct 2018: 100%
InMotion Hosting uptime for the past 30 days (September / October 2018) – 100%.
June 2018: 100%
January 2018: 100%
March 2017: 100%
July 2016: 99.95%
March 2016: 99.99%
Feb 2016: 99.97%
Sep 2015: 99.83%
Aug 2015: 100%
Mar 2015: 100%
Apr 2014: 100%
Mar 2014: 99.99%
Dec 2013: 100%
2. Great Customer Care and Live Chat Support
Standard support procedure at InMotion Hosting includes:
Unparallel 90-day money back guarantee
Multiple support channels (ticket system, Skype, phone, live chat, emails)
Easy refunds or account cancellations
Well known for its customer service, InMotion Hosting Inc. has been BBB Accredited since 2003 and has an A+ with BBB Busines Review. It’s frequently highly rated by hosting review sites and therefore, also has high expectations to live up to, especially in after-sales service.
To request for InMotion's site migration service, login to AMP dashboard > Account Operations > Website Transfer Request.
4. One-stop Solution: All Hosting Features You Need in One Plan
As is usual, InMotion Hosting carries a complete range of shared plan types to address multiple scenarios. From the most basic starter sites to heavy e-commerce users, there’s something for everyone.
Some critical features included:
Choice of server locations between U.S. East and West Coast,
Daily automated site backup & restore,
eCommerce ready – Get OpenCart, PrestaShop & Magento pre-installed,
Unlimited email accounts – access your inbox via Webmail, IMAP, POP
Free SSL certificates ready (Auto SSL),
Managed WordPress Hosting with built-in WP site builder (BoldGrid),
PHP 7 ready – loads your sites 50% faster,
Pre-configured CMS during order,
Professional web design service at a reasonable price,
Softaculous – install ~400 web apps in a few clicks,
SSH and SFTP access,
Unlimited cron jobs for all hosting plans, and
WP-CLI enabled – install and manage multisite WordPress
Free SSL (the default in cPanel)
There’s obviously a difference between free and paid SSL, but for most of us, the free version is fine. To activate your free SSL (VPS or dedicated hosting users), look for the option in your WHM.
Unfortunately, InMotion Hosting doesn’t support the auto installation of Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates (unlike SiteGround or A2 Hosting). You are given root access and you must install it on your own. You can find the detail instructions in this tutorial.
Here's what InMotion Hosting User Dashboard (known as InMotion AMP) looks like. To activate your free SSL option, login to your Account Management Portal (AMP).Click “On/Off” to enable your free SSL. Yes, it’s really that simple.
Managed WordPress Hosting
InMotion managed WordPress platform comes with free CDN, Jetpack Personal / Professional, and built-in WP site builder – BoldGrid.
Screenshot of InMotion's Managed WordPress Hosting deals.
Host and send your emails from InMotion Hosting
Email hosting at InMotion Hosting is easy and painless to manage.
You can manage all email related tasks from either your Account Management Panel (AMP) or cPanel.
Setup your emails at InMotion Hosting AMP or login to cPanel dashboard > Email ACcount > Setup Mail Client.
Pre-Installed CMS (Joomla, WordPress, Drupal)
Time-saver – Get InMotion Hosting to install CMS or cart applications for you when ordering.
* Note: Shown in the .GIF image are old prices. InMotion Hosting has increased their price for Power plan to $7.99/mo in July 2020.
InMotion Hosting server configuration during order.
No hard limit for inodes on Business Hosting plan
Note that InMotion Hosting does not set a hard limit on inodes count.
While most others (at similar price range) limit 100,000 – 250,000 inodes per account.
Screenshot from InMotion community support.
Web design service at a reasonable price
Time-saver for businesses: Get InMotion (during checkout) to help you design and build a one-page website in 2 days for $99.
QuickStarter is a one-page website created by InMotion Hosting design experts with your business vision in mind.
5. Plenty of room to grow
When running a website, one thing you always must keep in mind is room for expansion. You might be getting 50 hits a day today, but in a year or two that might easily exceed 1,000 or so daily, perhaps even more.
Thankfully, InMotion Hosting has a very wide range of plans that you can incrementally upgrade to as you grow. There is also the option of switching to VPS or dedicated hosting plans if you feel the shared plans are still too restrictive for you.
Different hosting plans at InMotion Hosting (updated price).
Feeling confused? Which InMotion Hosting plans to go with?
Being faced with too many choices can also at times be a headache. If you’re not sure what you need, here’s my 2 cents;
Decide if you’d prefer Shared, VPS or Dedicated Server hosting.
For those who need server root access or special requirements such as custom software, you might like to consider VPS hosting for start.
For everyone else, it’s likely that one of the shared plans will do fine for you (it’s usual to buy in at the lowest tier first).
InMotion has four different tiers of Business Class Hosting – Lite, Launch, Power, and Pro.
While similar in nature, each higher tier offers more features, such as more addon domains, parked domains or something else. The most important thing to note is how many websites each plan supports – if you only need to run a single site, just go with Lite, the lowest package.
Remember, these packages can be upgraded at any time, all you’ll need to do is top up the price difference.
6. 90-day money-back guarantee
Some web hosts might try to get away with no money-back guarantees or limit you to a ridiculous 3-day or 14-day period. InMotion Hosting offers one of the longest trial periods in the business – an eye-raising 90 days!
Anytime within those 90 days, if you feel unsatisfied with what you’ve bought into, you can request an account cancellation along with a full refund.
InMotion Hosting’s Service Terms & Guarantees
All 6 month and longer term hosting plans for our Business, VPS and Reseller Hosting packages are covered by our unmatched 90-day money back guarantee. All Dedicated Servers and all monthly billed VPS and Reseller Hosting packages are eligible for a full refund for 30 days.
Although InMotion is one of the few who have gotten a full five-star review from me, I still have to acknowledge that nothing is perfect.
Let me share with you some of the not so encouraging points about them.
1. After the initial sign up, prices go up
When you’re just signing on with InMotion Hosting, that what I call the honeymoon period. You pay cut-rate fees and both you and the host are happy. Unfortunately, that only lasts the length of your first contract. When it comes time to renew, you’ll be facing full-fee rates.
This means that for a 36-month renewal period, you must pay $7.49/9.99/13.99/22.99 per month depending on the plan.
The even sadder news is that this isn’t all about InMotion Hosting and is in fact an industry norm. The practice has gotten many complaints over the years.
If this is something that you REALLY object to, go to a host that doesn’t practice this instead, such as Interserver.
2. No instant account activation
To prevent fraud, InMotion doesn’t practice instant account activation. That means that you’ll need to be verified via phone before they will activate your account – a slight inconvenience for those living outside of the US, like me.
I’m in Malaysia, which is on the opposite side of the globe from the US. Given time gaps and poor call quality sometimes, it can be a real mess.
3. Server location in the United States only
InMotion Hosting users are limited to host their websites in the United States only. You do get to choose between Los Angeles (West) or Washington D.C. (East) when you order your plan – but that's it. For advanced users, you will need a content delivery network (CDN) or go with other hosting companies (Hostinger, for example, support 8 server locations in U.S., E.U. and Asia).
Choose to host between Washington, D.C. or Los Angeles, CA data center.
InMotion Hosting Plans
Shared Hosting Plans: Launch, Power, Pro
There are four shared web hosting plans at InMotion Hosting: Lite, Launch, Power and Pro. Here are the quick details:
Features
Lite
Launch
Power
Pro
Websites
1
2
50
100
Free First Domain
Parked Domain
1
10
100
U/L
SSD Storage
10 GB
50 GB
100 GB
200 GB
Data Transfer
U/L
U/L
U/L
U/L
Better Server Performance
2x
3x
4x
6x
E-commerce Ready
Automated Data Backup
Signup Price
$2.49/mo
$4.99/mo
$7.99/mo
$12.99/mo
* Note: U/L = Unlimited. All shared hosting prices based on orders with our special promotion and three-year subscription.
We’ve covered a lot of ground on InMotion Hosting so far, but for those of you still unimpressed, fear not – there are other options. BlueHost, SiteGround, and A2 Hosting are three popular alternatives. Personally, I would also recommend A2 Hosting and SiteGround. Both are big dogs in web hosting as well that offer comprehensive plans at competitive prices.
Alternatives #1: SiteGround
Established in 2004, SiteGround has offices in Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, and the US.
Both InMotion Hosting and SiteGround have solid reputations based on their great server performance and customer support. InMotion Hosting is cheaper and comes with a 90-day money-back guarantee. SiteGround however, has better features including a built-in cache, NGINX, etc. The latter also has a better spread of server locations, i.e. US, Europe, and Asia.
The company A2 Hosting has been around since 2001. When it first hit the scene, it was known as Iniquinet. It was then renamed as A2 Hosting in 2003 as a tribute to the founder’s home town – Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The company has data centers in three locations, with the primary data center in Michigan and additional servers in Amsterdam and Singapore, Asia.
Another popular web hosting company is BlueHost. They’re often compared to InMotion Hosting although our research has suggested that InMotion Hosting is better in terms of server performance and live chat support. BlueHost is, however, around 15% cheaper than InMotion Hosting over the long term.
Yes, InMotion is a good web hosting company and offers a wide range of related products. Personally I pay InMotion several hundreds of dollars every year to host my important sites.
How much does InMotion Hosting cost?
There are four Shared Hosting plans offered by InMotion Hosting: Lite, Launch, Power, and Pro. Lite – the entry-level plan, allows you to host 1 website and costs $2.49 per month for 3-year subscription. Launch, Power and Pro Plans cost $4.99, $7.99 and $12.99 per month respectively.
How do I cancel InMotion Hosting after signup?
InMotion Hosting offers 90-day money-back guarantee, however, to cancel your services, you need to contact InMotion Hosting customer support.
What is BoldGrid?
BoldGrid is a WordPress-based website builder developed and offered by InMotion Hosting to its users.
Is BoldGrid free?
The base BoldGrid builder is free to use, but there are premium plugins and themes which may cost money should you decide to use them.
Where are InMotion Hosting servers?
InMotion Hosting servers are located in the US, both on the East as well as West coasts.
If you are looking for a web hosting service provider that has a good reputation and offers solid performance and customer support– InMotion Hosting is the one for you. Also remember that they have the facilities to let you scale up your plans anytime you want, so future-proof as well.
Let’s have a short recap here on its pros and cons:
Founder of WebHostingSecretRevealed.net (WHSR) - a hosting review trusted and used by 100,000's users. More than 15 years experience in web hosting, affiliate marketing, and SEO. Contributor to ProBlogger.net, Business.com, SocialMediaToday.com, and more.
WHSR receives referral fees from hosting companies listed on this website. Our opinions are
based on real experience and actual server data. Please read
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Services
Shared Hosting
Yes
VPS Hosting
Yes
Dedicated Hosting
Yes
Cloud Hosting
Yes
Managed WordPress Hosting
Yes
Managed Cloud Hosting
No
Domain Registration
Yes
Basic Features
Data Transfer
Unlimited
Storage Capacity
100 GB
Control Panel
Cpanel
Extra Domain Reg.
$15.95/year
Private Domain Reg.
$12.99/year
Auto Script Installer
Softaculous
Custom Cron Jobs
Yes
Site Backups
Yes, $2/mo (Backup Manager)
Dedicated IP
$72/year
Free SSL
Auto SSL
Built-in Site Builder
BoldGrid
Server Locations
North America
Yes
South America
No
Asia
No
Europe
No
Oceania
No
Africa
No
Middle East
No
Speed Features
NGINX
No
HTTP/2
Yes
WP Optimized
Yes
Joomla Optimized
No
Drupal optimized
No
Email Features
Email Hosting
Yes
No. of Email Accounts
50
Webmail Support
Yes
Email Forwarder
Yes
e-Commerce Features
Cube Cart
Yes
Zen Shopping Cart
Yes
PrestaShop
Yes
Magento
No
Customer Care Policy
Server Usage Limitation
Account may be suspended due to over-usage of CPU or initiator of DDoS attack.