Now let’s get into the detailed InMotion Hosting review, so that you can decide for yourself.
ABOUT INMOTION HOSTING
Founded in 2001, InMotion Hosting has offices in Los Angeles and Virginia Beach. It is one of the oldest hosting companies in the market with a proven track record.
With 200+ employees, InMotion Hosting offers competitively priced hosting service with 24/7 US based customer support.
PROS AND CONS OF INMOTION HOSTING
Not all hosting companies are made equal. They all offer different features and services with their own unique advantages and disadvantages. You need to carefully weigh them before making your decision.
Here are the pros and cons of InMotion Hosting that we found.
Pros
First, let’s check out the pros that make InMotion Hosting a popular choice.
- 90 day money back guarantee: InMotion Hosting offers 90 day money back guarantee, which is quite generous. Most other hosting companies only offer a 30 day guarantee. (Note: Domains are not included in the guarantee, once registered they are yours to keep and use with any other host)
- Free website transfer: If your site is already hosted somewhere else, InMotion Hosting will transfer it for you at no extra cost.
- Choose your data center location: InMotion Hosting has data centers at both East and The West coast of the United States. You can choose a data center that’s closer to your target audience. Your site will load even faster for users near those locations.
- SSD drive Storage: All InMotion Hosting servers use SSD drives instead of old spinning hard drives. SSD drives are way faster than the old drives which makes your website load even faster. Most web hosts don’t offer SSD storage and some charge extra for it.
- Free SSL Certificate: SSL is required for creating an eCommerce website, and it’s included in all InMotion Hosting plans. Typically other hosts charge $30 – $60 per year for SSL certificates.
Cons
There are some downsides that you may want to consider before choosing InMotion Hosting as your host.
- Phone verification: As a fraud prevention measure, InMotion Hosting asks clients to verify their purchase by phone. This can be difficult for non-US based customers.
- No monthly billing: Their starter plans don’t have a monthly billing option. You can pay for 1 or 2 years in advance. If you choose 2 years, then you get a larger discount. Pro plan customers can choose monthly billing, but there’s a $40 setup fee.
- Not the cheapest: InMotion Hosting plans are competitively priced, but they are not the cheapest in the market.
INMOTION HOSTING PERFORMANCE
After pricing, performance should be the top concern when looking for a web host. It will cost you more money and trouble if you get poor performance and want to move your website to a better host.
For this InMotion Hosting review, we decided to run our own performance tests. We tested their speed, reliability, and response time.
INMOTION HOSTING SPEED TEST RESULTS
Speed is a really important aspect of any website’s performance. Search engines love faster websites and rank them higher.
Users hate slow websites. In fact, recent studies suggested that a single second delay can cost you 7% less conversions and 11% less page views.
[ux_image id=”25329″]For our InMotion Hosting review, we created a test site to see how fast InMotion Hosting really is.
Our test site was using WordPress with default Twenty Seventeen theme. We also imported dummy content for theme development with images.
We used Pingdom to run our website speed test. You can see the results in the screenshot below:
[ux_image id=”25330″]As you can see our test site loaded in just under a second for a server in Dallas, Texas. That’s faster than 90% of all tested sites.
This test was just measuring the test site with a single user. We wanted to see how InMotion Hosting will handle multiple users accessing the website during peak hours.
To run this test, we used a tool called LoadImpact. This tool creates virtual users and start sending them to a website, gradually increasing it up to 100 users.
You can see the result in the chart below:
As you can see that our test site performed well until it reached 25 users. After that it slowed down as traffic kept increasing.
This is normal for shared hosting where your website shares resources with other websites hosted on the same server. If your website start getting many visitors at a time, then you’ll need to upgrade your hosting plan.
It is important to note, that while our test site slowed down during peak traffic load, it didn’t go down and remained responsive.
[ux_image id=”25332″]INMOTION HOSTING SERVER RESPONSE TIME
Our speed test results showed you how our test site performed under a normal speed test. However, these tests load all content of a web page including images which increases the page load time. This makes those tests slightly inaccurate when measuring a server’s response time.
We decided to run a test using a tool called Bitcatcha. It works differently than other website speed testing tools. Instead of loading entire website, it records a server’s response time from different locations. This gives a more accurate result of how quickly a server responds to user’s requests.
You can see the test result in the chart below:
[ux_image id=”25333″]For all locations, InMotion Hosting responded under a second. The response time was slightly higher for locations in Japan, Brazil, and Australia. .
For websites whose target audience is in the United States and/or United Kingdom, InMotion Hosting is a fast and reliable host. If your target audience is located outside these regions, then you might benefit from finding a server location near those regions.
INMOTION HOSTING HOSTING PLANS AND FEATURES
InMotion Hosting offers various hosting plans suitable for different budgets and traffic requirements.
Following are the hosting plans offered by InMotion Hosting:
- Shared Hosting: Best for low traffic and starter websites. With shared hosting your website shares resources with other hosting accounts on the server. This is the most beginner-friendly and basic hosting option.
- WordPress Hosting: Similar to shared hosting, this plan is specifically optimized for WordPress powered websites with extra tools and features to improve performance and security.
- VPS Hosting: An upgrade to the shared hosting, VPS hosting allows you to share resources with multiple servers on the cloud. This gives your site a little more room to grow and handle traffic.
- Dedicated Server Hosting: Suitable for enterprise and high traffic websites. Dedicated Server hosting plan gives you a complete server for your own website. The downside is that you will have to manage that server yourself.
- Managed Hosting: A more powerful hosting option to handle more traffic without dealing with technical stuff. Your host will take care of software updates, security, and other maintenance tasks for you.
Each InMotion Hosting plan comes with SSD storage, 1-click WordPress installer, and free SSL. Each plan also includes an easy to use control panel where users can manage their hosting account and enable different addons.
[ux_image id=”25334″]Let’s take a detailed look at their shared hosting plans.
BREAKDOWN OF INMOTION HOSTING’S SHARED HOSTING PLANS
Shared hosting is often considered the best option for bloggers and small businesses. If you are just starting out with a fresh new website, then InMotion Hosting’s shared plans can be a great choice for that.
Once your website starts growing, you can easily upgrade your hosting to a more powerful plan.
All InMotion Hosting shared plans include unlimited storage, bandwidth, one click installer, free SSL, and many other standard features that you may need.
Their shared hosting is divided into three levels:
- Launch: The launch plan is limited to hosting just two websites and 25 subdomains. It comes with all regular features like free domain, unlimited bandwidth and storage, and more.
- Power: The Power plan is their most popular shared hosting plan. It includes hosting for up to 6 websites and allows 50 databases.
- Pro: The Pro plan offers the best value for fast growing blogs and businesses. It allows you to host unlimited sites with unlimited databases. You will also get priority support feature as part of the plan.
InMotion Hosting advertises Power and Pro plans to be eCommerce ready as well.
INMOTION HOSTING SUPPORT AND CUSTOMER SERVICE
We all need help now and then, whether you are a beginner or an experienced user. You need to be with a web host that offers the most technically sound, friendly, and quick customer support.
InMotion Hosting has a US-based support team. They offer 24/7 support through live chat, phone, and email tickets.
For our InMotion Hosting review, we contacted their support team several times. We were quickly connected to live chat support staff. We asked them complicated questions and found the staff to be knowledgeable, friendly, and willing to help.
We also created several support tickets and got email responses within few hours.
CONCLUSION: IS INMOTION HOSTING THE RIGHT CHOICE FOR YOU?
After reading so far, you may be wondering if InMotion Hosting is the right choice for your website?
We found them to be reliable, with fast servers, good uptime, and great customer support. Their plans fit all budget sizes and shared plans are particularly great for new blogs and business websites.
They offer variety of hosting plans which allows you to grow your business without worrying about moving to a new host. You can easily upgrade your hosting plan whenever you need more resources.
Ready to start your website with InMotion Hosting? Click here to select your InMotion Hosting plan.
INMOTION HOSTING COUPON
WPBeginner readers get an exclusive 56% off with our InMotion Hosting coupon code.
All you have to do is click on this link to purchase. The discount will be auto-applied.