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A Solid Range of Hosting Types & Easy-to-Configure Plans
InMotion Hosting caters to small and large projects alike, with a wide range of hosting types on offer, including shared, WordPress, VPS, dedicated, and reseller hosting. Its range of preconfigured plan tiers allows for easy setup and is varied (resource-wise) enough to fit the needs of almost anyone, from individuals up to enterprises.
However, InMotion Hosting specifically appeals to agencies and developers, as its higher-tier shared hosting plans come with unlimited site creation allowances and NVMe storage quotas to match. It’s good to know that there are still hosts like InMotion Hosting out there who offer plans that can accommodate the building of multiple websites within one plan – no additional log-ins or plan purchases are required!
Besides including all the necessities, such as a domain and SSLs, it’s uncomplicated to set up a site (or two) with InMotion Hosting. Softaculous is available directly from your InMotion Hosting dashboard, making installation of WordPress, other content management systems (CMS), or apps easy. Most other hosting functions are no trouble to access and modify from here, too.
FEATURES
(Almost) Everything You Need, but the Extras Add Up
In terms of features, InMotion Hosting has thought out exactly what each tier of user would most likely need. From resource quotas to extras like domain names, PHP workers, and SSLs, InMotion Hosting plans are (almost) all-inclusive. However, the targeted exclusion of specific tools and features can sometimes seem a little exploitative.
What do I mean by this? Well, for example, there’s a lack of free internal, automatic backups with unmanaged plans, selective term options (spoiler: monthly payment is often only available for expensive, higher-resource plans), and limited levels of support per tier (expect to pay more for phone support). Oh, and a domain name is free but privacy isn’t – and InMotion Hosting charges more than usual for it.
Free Domain Name & SSL
A free domain name is the Holy Grail of hosting “freebies” – though most single-site plans should absolutely include one, especially if priced at the premium end of the spectrum. Luckily, InMotion Hosting doesn’t disappoint in this department, allowing you to register .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, and .us domain names for free.
InMotion Hosting’s WordPress on Platform i, monthly, Core shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting plans don’t include free domain names, likely because these are plans aimed at customers who want to host multiple websites, making it more difficult (if not impossible) to fold the unavoidable ICANN domain name fees into the plan fees.
InMotion Hosting also throws in free SSL certificates. From an “already-free” provider – AutoSSL – with encryption levels to match, you’ll get the usual ongoing automatic renewal of your certificates offered by most providers.
Unlimited NVMe SSD Storage
Most of InMotion Hosting’s shared and WordPress on cPanel plans include unlimited storage space. It’s not an offer you usually hear about – especially when the aforementioned storage space is the highly efficient NVMe SSD storage. Just be sure to use your quota only for site-related data and tasks – otherwise, you may have it revoked.
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The InMotion Hosting Website Builder – The BoldGrid Builder
Included with all InMotion Hosting plans is another useful freebie: a website builder called the BoldGrid WordPress Website Builder. With 200+ modern templates, drag-and-drop elements, and a beginner-friendly layout, it’s a winner.
However, BoldGrid does have one minor limitation: as the name implies, it’s only for creating WordPress websites, so it might not be the best option if you’re averse to using WordPress.
Also, you don’t have to use BoldGrid – can just install WordPress using Softaculous, then use the built-in WordPress building tools (or a free or paid theme with advanced building tools) to set up your site if you prefer.
Backup Manager
InMotion Hosting’s standalone backup manager – called the Backup Manager (no surprises there, right?) – is included free with select InMotion Hosting plans. You can add it to all other plans for a fee.
A complete suite for setting up, scheduling, and managing automatic and manual backups and restoring content, the Backup Manager is well worth it. However, if you’re hosting a WordPress site with InMotion Hosting, you can just integrate numerous free or paid backup plugins into your setup, too.
InMotion Hosting Features at a Glance
| Free domain name? | ✔ (select plans and term lengths only) |
| Free SSL? | ✔ (AutoSSL) |
| Money-back guarantee | 7–90 days (depending on renewal term) |
| Uptime guarantee | 99.999% for Shared Business Pro plans only |
| Data centers | 2 in the US (Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.) and 1 in the Netherlands (Amsterdam) |
EASE OF USE
As standard, all of InMotion Hosting’s plans are designed to be easy to set up and manage. However, you may need some advanced knowledge when you use Softaculous to install or manage WordPress or another CMS, script, or plugin.
If you want it all pre-installed, go for one of InMotion Hosting’s WordPress-specific hosting plans rather than the general shared hosting plan that I tested. You have two options: shared WordPress hosting or the powerful, next-generation WordPress “Platform i” cloud VPS hosting. Perfect for developers and enterprises who want to build on WordPress, Platform i WordPress hosting offers ramped-up performance, including dedicated resources.
Though it took no longer than ten minutes to sign up for the Launch plan, my main issue was that it took a whole day (not minutes, as advertised) before I could access Softaculous or the control panel, configure my settings, and install a site.
Creating a New Account with InMotion Hosting
Getting started with InMotion Hosting is a straightforward enough process if you know exactly what type of hosting and resources you need. I quickly picked out the package I wanted: Launch. It’s one up from the entry-level plan and features UltraStack – a custom technology stack with layered caching to increase site performance. Then, I navigated to my cart, at which point I was able to add on some useful extras before choosing a domain and paying.
I wasn’t accosted with many upsells during the sign-up process. However, I noticed some preselected add-ons, like the Backup Manager. But I had the option to opt out of these services, and a simple ticking of the No, Thanks box removed them and the corresponding extra charges.
Other surprises were being charged a lot extra for domain privacy, being given a random 10% off (on top of the existing advertised discounts on InMotion Hosting’s site), and then having my PayPal transaction declined the first time around (for no reason). So, signing up with InMotion Hosting was a mixed bag of pros and cons in my case.
Besides PayPal, other accepted payment methods include credit and debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover), as well as checks and money orders (by mail only).
After checkout, I was automatically redirected to the InMotion Hosting shared hosting plan page instead of the control panel. I had to click Login in the top-right corner, which signed me in without the need to enter my password, and redirected me to my InMotion Hosting Account Management Panel (AMP) and a quick (optional) pop-up survey.
Though simplistic, I found it difficult to navigate the AMP control panel, as there’s no search bar function. Am I just a lazy millennial so used to Google Search? Maybe… but still, it’s just an easier way to get around. Instead, I had to navigate to the InMotion Hosting help section, where I was able to use the search function to find out how to activate an SSL certificate.
A free domain name is included with select InMotion Hosting plans, including the 1-year shared hosting plan I chose. You can also purchase additional domain names for a fee – though, again, from the limited set of domain extensions (.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, and .us).
During the sign-up process, you’ll have to choose your domain or specify an existing one that you own. Once you complete the setup, this domain name will be automatically connected to your plan. No fiddling with pointers and such is necessary, which is much appreciated. I’ve had to do this before for hosting bought with a domain, and it’s not easy.
Then, it’s time to pay and wait for your plan to be ready to configure. Finally, once the setup is complete (almost a whole day later, in my case), you can dabble with the plan settings and access the Softaculous installer where you can install WordPress.
The Softaculous Installer
Need to install WordPress or another CMS, plugin, script, or web app? Meet Softaculous, AKA the main panel through which you will now install all the above CMSes and tools for your InMotion Hosting plan. As with all hosting providers, this is built into your control panel.
Just click the Softaculous button in your InMotion Hosting AMP plan setting menu (it only shows once it’s fully set up) to go to the Softaculous control panel and all the associated tools and installation options.
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UltraStack & W3 Caching Technology
UltaStack is a custom server software stack designed to increase site speed and performance, utilizing NGINX, Redis, Brotli Compression, and PHP-FPM. Perfect for beginners, UltraStack is pre-installed and preconfigured according to your chosen shared hosting plan. There’s no need to adjust its settings, but you can switch between Redis and NGINX caching and modify basic settings using the NGINX Helper WordPress plugin.
If you opt for InMotion Hosting’s shared WordPress hosting plans, a similar tech stack that isn’t explicitly called “UltraStack” is included. With certain VPS configurations, UltraStack is not included, but you do get access to the cPanel Cache Manager plugin tool, and in any case you may be purchasing a VPS to configure your own stack.
Conversely, Platform i WordPress hosting plans include a dedicated Redis cache of 16 MB–256 MB, depending on your plan.
While you can add the popular W3 Total Cache plugin for free to any WordPress website on any hosting platform, you’ll have to figure out the settings on your own. But InMotion Hosting’s managed WordPress hosting plans come with W3 Total Cache pre-installed and configured. You may still have to tweak it for some sites, but it will already be optimized for InMotion Hosting’s own server configuration.
A money-back guarantee is a must if you don’t know exactly what kind of hosting service you’re going to need. A 30-day money-back guarantee is the industry standard.
InMotion Hosting goes one step further, offering a 90-day money-back guarantee for all of its shared and 6-month and longer-term VPS and reseller hosting plans. This should give you more than enough time to trial InMotion Hosting’s service before committing long-term.
Yes, a money-back guarantee also covers dedicated hosting and month-by-month VPS and reseller plans – but only for 30 days.
PERFORMANCE
Performance is one of the most important factors when choosing a host. It doesn’t matter how much a plan costs, how big the discount is, or what others have claimed about a service if your site takes ages to load and crashes. Does it? In the case of InMotion Hosting, you’re well cared for, as it returned some of the best uptime and performance of many of the hosts we’ve tested.
GTmetrix
For this review, I tested the mid-range, shared hosting plan: Launch, which features what InMotion Hosting refers to as “6x” UltraStack technology – for context, the top-end WP Pro plan offers 40x-level tech. I uploaded our test WordPress website, and then monitored the site’s performance over time using GTmetrix and UptimeRobot, taking particular note of uptime and page loading speeds. If you want to find out more about how we test web hosts, read about this here.
In my GTmetrix tests, my test site performed well, scoring the host an “A” grade. With a content delivery network (CDN) activated and some minor tweaks, the results could be slightly better.
When we look at the specific test results, we see that InMotion Hosting’s loading speeds are not just fast but quite stable. That said, they could be a little faster if you install and configure a caching plugin and CDN. Yes, NGINX and/or Redis caching is already installed thanks to UltraStack, but that doesn’t mean you have to settle for the associated preset setting and estimated performance limits.
UptimeRobot
UptimeRobot monitors website uptime and downtime, even reporting specific incidents and events. During my tests, my InMotion Hosting-hosted website actually stayed up throughout, scoring a 100% uptime rate, with no instances of downtime at all. However, it’s possible a little downtime may occur in the future – especially for brief periods of maintenance.
InMotion Hosting also doesn’t have an uptime guarantee in place for any of its plans besides shared Business Pro plans. So, if your uptime were to drop, you aren’t actually entitled to a refund or cancellation of your hosting for any other plans. Though most providers promise an uptime of at least 99.9%, it would be better if InMotion Hosting had a service-level agreement in place stipulating this.
SUPPORT
Impressive 24/7 Support from Helpful Agents
InMotion Hosting offers various support channels through which you can contact its support team, including:
- Live chat
- Ticket
- Skype
- Phone (limited hours)
InMotion Hosting’s support team is separated into three divisions: sales, technical, and accounts and billing. The first two are available 24/7/365. However, do note that billing and accounts-related and phone support is only available from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. (ET), Monday to Friday.
With InMotion Hosting’s basic plans (Launch and Core), phone support is excluded from the support options. You need to purchase a Power or Pro shared or WordPress hosting plan to access it. Or, in the case of reseller, VPS, or dedicated hosting, an R-2000N, VPS 8GB RAM, or Advanced plan or up, respectively.
On contacting InMotion Hosting’s technical support via live chat, a chatbot greeted me and tried to direct me to helpful support resources and articles. I opted to chat with an agent, and I received further detailed questions regarding my customer status, account, and query. After filling out all the required info, which took around 5–10 minutes, the chatbot told me that it would connect me to an agent.
A second thereafter, I received a notification that support had opened a ticket and emailed me a link. Just a minute later, I was connected to a real agent, who advised they would review my account. Within a few minutes, they had reviewed the details and sent an informed response to my query.
Having chatted to a few support teams before, this was a relief. I appreciate that InMotion Hosting asks all the questions beforehand so it can get right to your query. No misunderstandings or fumbling around trying to find out your details and such, which can cause both parties undue stress and annoyance.
Next up, I tested ticket support, which is only available to existing customers via the InMotion Hosting AMP panel. Ticket support response was a little slower (the following morning, but it was New Year’s Eve, so I’ll give them that). But it was no less courteous, informative, and helpful.
Overall, I’m pretty impressed with InMotion Hosting’s support. Not only is it truly 24/7, fast, streamlined, and stress-free, but agents are professional, helpful, friendly, and informed. Definitely one of the best support interactions I’ve had testing hosts thus far.
PRICING
Competitively Priced and Discounted but Nothing Much Stands Out
InMotion Hosting is neither the most expensive nor the cheapest option. Its plans are priced reasonably for the specs and resources offered and discounted competitively enough compared to other hosts’ plans. And that might just be the issue – if you can get a (even if slightly) better deal and performance elsewhere, why go for basic InMotion Hosting?
Well, for a few reasons: InMotion Hosting’s 90-day money-back guarantee and generous longer-term discounts. If you’re going for shared hosting or long-term (6+ months) VPS or reseller hosting, you’re unlikely to find such a lengthy money-back guarantee elsewhere. And it’s nice to be rewarded a little more for opting for a longer term of hosting while still being covered for the above.
Shared Hosting
| Plan Name | Space | Bandwidth | Panel | Number of Sites | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core | 100 GB | Unlimited | cPanel | 2 | $2.29 | Details |
| Launch | Unlimited | Unlimited | cPanel | 25 | $4.99 | Details |
| Power | Unlimited | Unlimited | cPanel | Unlimited | $4.58 | Details |
| Pro | Unlimited | Unlimited | cPanel | Unlimited | $11.91 | Details |
| WP Core | 100 GB | Unlimited | cPanel | 2 | $2.99 | Details |
| WP Launch | Unlimited | Unlimited | cPanel | 25 | $8.99 | Details |
| WP Power | Unlimited | Unlimited | cPanel | Unlimited | $6.75 | Details |
| WP Pro | Unlimited | Unlimited | cPanel | Unlimited | $12.75 | Details |
VPS
| Plan Name | Space | CPU | RAM | OS | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VPS 4GB | 90 GB | 4 cores | 4 GB | $14.99 | Details | |
| VPS 8GB | 150 GB | 8 cores | 8 GB | $24.99 | Details | |
| VPS 12GB RAM | 210 GB | 6 cores | 12 GB | $34.99 | Details | |
| VPS 16GB RAM | 360 GB | 8 cores | 16 GB | $34.99 | Details | |
| VPS 20GB | 420 GB | 20 cores | 20 GB | $54.99 | Details | |
| VPS 24GB | 480 GB | 24 cores | 24 GB | $64.99 | Details | |
| VPS 32GB | 540 GB | 32 cores | 32 GB | $74.99 | Details |
Dedicated Server
| Plan Name | Space | CPU | RAM | OS | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aspire | 1 TB | 4 x 3.00GHz | 16 GB | $69.99 | Details | |
| Essential | 2 TB | 4 x 3.50GHz | 32 GB | $99.99 | Details | |
| Advanced | 2 TB | 6 x 3.50GHz | 64 GB | $169.99 | Details | |
| Elite | 4 TB | 8 x 3.30GHz | 128 GB | $239.99 | Details | |
| CC-1000 | 1 TB | 12 x 3.20GHz | 192 GB | $499.99 | Details | |
| CC-2000 | 2 TB | 24 x 3.20GHz | 256 GB | $599.99 | Details | |
| CC-3000 | 3.2 TB | 32 x 3.20GHz | 512 GB | $749.99 | Details |
Cloud Hosting
| Plan Name | Space | CPU | RAM | Bandwidth | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1GB | 30 GB | 1 core | 1 GB | 2 TB | $6.00 | Details |
| 2GB | 50 GB | 2 cores | 2 GB | 3 TB | $12.00 | Details |
| 2GB | 60 GB | 2 cores | 2 GB | 4 TB | $18.00 | Details |
| 4GB | 100 GB | 4 cores | 3.98 GB | 5 TB | $24.00 | Details |
| 6GB | 120 GB | 6 cores | 6 GB | 6 TB | $34.00 | Details |
| 8GB | 150 GB | 8 cores | 8 GB | 7 TB | $48.00 | Details |
| 12GB | 280 GB | 12 cores | 12 GB | 8 TB | $54.00 | Details |
| 16GB | 360 GB | 16 cores | 16 GB | 9 TB | $96.00 | Details |
| 32GB | 540 GB | 32 cores | 32 GB | 12 TB | $192.00 |
Resellers
INMOTION HOSTING REVIEW: BOTTOM LINE
InMotion Hosting is a reliable hosting provider that offers satisfactory performance, a good range of features, and competitive pricing.
InMotion Hosting’s customer support is definitely a standout feature, so if you happen to be that person who is always contacting support, this could be an ideal choice.
InMotion Hosting also covers many bases. It offers budget shared hosting and premium VPS and dedicated hosting options to suit various projects and make upgrading or downgrading a breeze.
Could you find slightly better-performing and/or cheaper hosting options? Yes, for sure. But I think most customers would be quite satisfied with InMotion Hosting.
FAQ
Does InMotion Hosting offer refunds?
Yes, InMotion Hosting does offer refunds. In fact, its 90-day money-back guarantee covers all of its shared, 6-month, and longer-term VPS and reseller hosting plans. A shorter – but still generous – 30-day money-back guarantee backs up InMotion Hosting’s dedicated and month-by-month VPS and reseller hosting plans. You can cancel your service and get a full refund for your hosting during this time period.
Is InMotion Hosting good for hosting a WordPress site?
Yes, InMotion Hosting even offers two types of WordPress-specific hosting plans: shared WordPress hosting and VPS-based Platform i WordPress hosting. You can also install WordPress easily using Softaculous on all other InMotion Hosting plans, including general shared, VPS, and dedicated options.
What control panel does InMotion Hosting support or offer?
InMotion Hosting’s in-house hosting panel is the Account Management Panel (AMP). However, cPanel is also included with most InMotion Hosting plans, as well as the Softaculous installer. Using all the above, you can easily create, set up, install, manage, and configure sites, site design templates, and numerous CMSes, plugins, scripts, web apps, and hosting settings.
Where are InMotion Hosting’s data centers and servers located?
InMotion Hosting has data centers located on the West (Los Angeles) and East (Washington D.C.) Coast of the US, as well as one European data center in Amsterdam. They’re equipped for maximum performance and security.
InMotion Hosting also utilizes NGINX as a CDN to improve global performance for its hosting products. In addition, websites hosted on InMotion Hosting’s Platform i plans come with W3 Total Cache pre-installed and pre-configured.
