Hostgator vs InMotion Hosting

• Hostgator
• InMotion Hosting

First reviewed by WHSR back in 2009, InMotion Hosting is another host with a sterling reputation that has proven itself to be a success. They are a true one-stop hosting shop and can cater to almost anyone – from the single, small-time blogger to large businesses.

HostGator on the other hand isn’t a stranger to many as well. Their cute mascot may not be a household theme, but the company is worth well into the hundreds of millions today. In 2012 HostGator was sold to Endurance International Group and the post transfer period did see a couple of hiccups.

InMotion Trumps for WordPress Hosting

As mentioned above, InMotion caters to all level of web hosting needs, from shared accounts to VPS or even dedicated servers. They have a wide variety of plans and have even edged into a specialized category for WordPress sites.

Aside from the usual hosting features, InMotion WordPress hosting accounts feature themes and plugins by BoldGrid, which offer users a strong inventory of extra features to bolster the performance (and looks) of their sites, even at their entry level WordPress plans. As plan prices increase, so do features such as the inclusion of JetPack Personal or Professional.

HostGator on the other hand also offers a range of services but seem to be more focused on their standard shared web hosting plans. While they do have one click installation for applications such as WordPress, it seems to be quite frill-free.

Trying to leverage on WordPress hosting’s popularity doesn’t cut it too well here as there doesn’t seem to be any remarkable difference between their WordPress hosting plans and their usual shared plans. The one thing we did note recently was the inclusion of Email Marketing features.

Both Have Excellent Performance

As they say, the proof is in the pudding and InMotion Hosting are some of the best cooks. Their servers are excellent and WHSR test have shown them to be able to (mostly) stay above the industry standard of 99.95% uptime.

Even better is the fact that our tests from various locations have indicated good speeds, which is one of the key directives in looking for a host. They can field sites that boast Time to First Byte (TTFB) of below 450ms.

Luckily for them HostGator also shows remarkable performance figures with uptime in excess of 99.99% and fast servers. In our speed tests we clocked them in at under 50ms response from their US servers.

Is there a Catch?

There is very little to dislike in general about InMotion Hosting. Aside from the usual price hikes upon service renewal, the only thing to note is that they don’t have instant account activation.

HostGator is a little more complicated because of their great performance. Since EIG took over the company, they have had two major service outages in 2013 and 2014. Yet despite this, they still managed to come out tops in two surveys WHSR carried out.

It should be saying something that despite any issues they might have, HostGator users are still happy enough to stick with them.

Verdict

InMotion hosting is one of the very rare and few who have gained a five-star review from WHSR. The reason for this is not just excellence in performance, but because they have gone the extra mile to perfect their hosting plans.

Rather than simply re-market plans, InMotion has put enough focus in their WordPress hosting to come across as the more credible. This isn’t to say HostGator loses out here since they also have great performance figures.

I would rather say that for standard no-frills accounts, HostGator would be an excellent choice, but if you’re looking to suit certain specific needs it might help to take a closer look at InMotion.