InMotion Hosting Review: Is it Better than Bluehost?
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Host your website online with InMotion Hosting and benefit from excellent features for a minimal price. For $4.99/Month, you’ll be getting a free SSL certificate, free migration, unlimited bandwidth, email accounts, and so much more. Read our full review to have an idea about InMotion Hosting’s shared hosting plans.
Pros
Cons
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Quick Stats
InMotion Hosting has been around for decades, and they’re pretty well-known among people. If you haven’t heard about it previously, we’ll tell you all you need to know. The company provides hosting services for bloggers, big corporations, and anyone who needs to host a website. Let’s see what it’s all about.
InMotion Hosting Plans
Other than shared hosting, InMotion Hosting offers the following types of hosting:
- WordPress Hosting: Host your WordPress website with InMotion Hosting starting from $4.99/Month.
- VPS Hosting: Whether you want cloud VPS or managed VPS, InMotion Hosting offers both for you to decide on the one you want.
- Reseller Hosting: Host your server for third parties and earn some money with InMotion Hosting. The price ranges between $15.39-$39.99/Month.
- Dedicated Hosting: If you’re a large business that can afford their own dedicated server and your own resources, get it with InMotion Hosting for $139.99/Month for a year.
Like always, this is a reminder that the following article is about InMotion Hosting’s shared hosting plans. So, if you’re a small or medium business looking for affordable hosting plans, stay with us.
Shared Hosting Plans
Like other web hosts, InMotion has multiple shared hosting plans to choose from, and similarly, these prices increase upon renewal. However, InMotion Hosting’s shared hosting plans come with plenty of features that’ll get your attention. Some are listed in the table below. Others will be mentioned in the features below.
Let’s take a look at the plans in detail:
| Plans | Lite | Launch | Power | Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Websites | 1 | 2 | 50 | 100 |
| Domain Names | Not Available | Free for the first year | Free for the first year | Free for the first year |
| SSD Storage | 10 GB | 50 GB | 100 GB | 200 GB |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Email Accounts | 1 | 10 | 50 | Unlimited |
| Performance & Speed | x2 | 3x | 4x | 6x |
| SSL Certificate | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| E-Commerce Tools | Not Included | Not Included | Included | Included |
| Free Advertising Credit | Not Included | $150 | $150 | $150 |
| Starting Price (3-Year Plan) | $2.49/Month | $4.99/Month | $4.99/Month | $12.99/Month |
| Renewal Price (3-Year Plan) | $7.49/Month | $10.99/Month | $14.99/Month | $23.99/Month |
All plans come with a 90-day money-back guarantee. This means you almost have 3 months to try it out before deciding if it’s the one for you or, well, get a refund.
InMotion Hosting Payment Methods
To pay for your plan, you can use one of the following payment gateways:
- Credit Cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or Discover)
- PayPal
- Checks (Must be in US Dollars)
- Money Order
To pay in checks or money orders, you must mail the payment to InMotion Hosting’s mailing address.
Ease of Use
Right from the start, most people look for an easy web host. Well, InMotion Hosting’s sign-up process is pretty simple.
It doesn’t require a professional to get you started with InMotion Hosting, but there are a few bumps along the way. Let’s just say the interface is a bit confusing, but I think once you get used to it, you’ll be fine. On the bright side, you’ll get emails with instructions to help guide you through everything you need.
If you still don’t get it, you can contact their customer support.
Customer Support
All web hosts come with customer support. Some are available 24/7, and others are really hard to get a hold of. So, what’s InMotion Hostings customer support like? Customer support is available 24/7 on the following platforms:
- Live Chat
- Phone
- Skype
- Knowledge Base
While you’ll get answers within a few minutes, you’ll get the answer you’re looking for eventually. If you prefer, you can look for answers yourself on their knowledge base.
Security
Free SSL certificate
Most web hosts come with a free SSL certificate. InMotion Hosting is one of them, and the SSL certificate comes with the cheapest shared hosting plan. It’s essential to secure your website in order to get you a better SEO ranking and earn your customers’ trust.
Password protected directories
Protect parts of your website and allow access to a few users by placing passwords. It’s simple and can be done from the cPanel. To make it easier for you, there’s a step-by-step guide in their knowledge base.
Dedicated IP
While it’s not included for free, you can request a dedicated IP from your Account Management Panel (AMP) anytime, and when it’s ready, the InMotion Hosting team will notify you. There are several reasons why dedicated IP is essential, like more flexibility and freedom to access and edit your website. Plus, making sure your website isn’t impacted by other websites sharing an IP address with you.
SpamAssassin protection
We all hate spam emails. However, you never know when it’s safe or it’s a phishing email trying to steal your data. That’s why SpamAssassin protection is needed and found with InMotion Hosting plans. This security feature filters spam emails, but it needs to be enabled.
Hotlink protection
To avoid other websites from stealing your bandwidth and linking to your website, enabling your hotlink protection is better. This will also help in preventing your website from slowing down. The downside is that you’ll need to know how to code, but there’s a step-by-step guide in their knowledge base to save your day.
Malware protection
To avoid malware and virus attacks on your website, InMotion Hosting has malware and virus protection to save the day. So sleep at night knowing your website is safe with InMotion Hosting.
Site backup
Your website is backed up and safe with InMotion Hosting’s backup manager. All your data, files, and emails are backed up and can be restored with one click.
Load Times, Reliability, & Features
InMotion Hosting has everything you need to get your site up and running in no time. Compared to other web hosts, it has plenty of features, so let’s take a look:
Uptime & Speed
In terms of speed, InMotion Hosting provides decent speed. Other web hosts can be faster, like HostGator and Bluehost. However, it’s good enough for a shared hosting website. Unfortunately, in terms of uptime, it’s below the usual average of 99.95% and can be as low as 99.91%. It’s not so bad, but it’s not the best either.
Features
In terms of features, their shared hosting plans have a lot of them. Let’s take a look:
- Free SSD Drives
- Free Domain Name for the First Year
- Free Website Builder
- Free Site Migration
- cPanel Included
- One-click App Installer
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Backup Manager
- $150 Advertising Credit
- Email Accounts
- Google Apps Integration
So not only will you get a secure website, but also a fully-featured shared hosting plan.
For advanced users
If you’re an advanced user not looking for an easy way to host your website, InMotion Hosting has several developer-friendly features. These include the following:
- Multiple Coding Language: Ruby & PHP
- MySQL Databases
- FTP Access
- SSH Access
Manage everything you need from the cPanel with all these features and more.
Custom error pages
When your website is down, your customers will be led to the error page. If you want your website to look more professional, instead of showing them the usual error page, customize your own and guide your customers to another page of your website. To do so, contact customer support or read an article from their knowledge base.
Server location
InMotion Hosting doesn’t have plenty of servers. Their servers are only found in the United States. So the only decision you’ll have to make is choosing between servers on the east or west coast.
BoldGrid, the website builder
Get your website up and running in no time, even if you’re a beginner. InMotion Hosting provides an easy-to-use website builder with a drag-and-drop editor; they call it BoldGrid. That’s right; you don’t need to know how to code. As a result, building a website is as easy as creating a PowerPoint presentation nowadays.
There are hundreds of templates to choose from; it all depends on your preference. The website builder even has a full suite of WordPress plugins included.
E-Commerce features
As you saw in the table above, the Power & Pro plans come with e-commerce tools to help you start. However, what are these tools? InMotion Hosting provides optimized hosting for e-commerce platforms like Magneto and PrestaShop that can be downloaded with one click.
Not to mention, you’ll benefit from the professional website and other e-commerce tools integration that’ll help you get started. With the SSL certificate included, your website is secure and trusted by customers, which is a huge advantage.
Bottom Line
Overall, InMotion Hosting has plenty of excellent features for you to host your website. From unlimited bandwidth to email accounts, your tools are all available within one shared hosting plan. However, let’s face the truth here; InMotion Hosting is not as comprehensive as Bluehost, but it’s still a good and reliable web host.
If you want to give it a try, you have 90 days to get a refund.