When it comes to finding a host for your website or web apps, you should never take things at face value, although it’s a daunting task to research 1000s of hosting Services on the internet, you should be committed to knowing what you’ll be paying for.
If you are looking for an InMotion web hosting review, you found the right one.
InMotion needs no introduction if you’ve read up on websites hosting; they feature in the top 10 the best hosting providers in all major tech sites guides on website hosting.
Have you been considering signing up for InMotion hosting plans?
I bet that’s why you are here, or maybe you’re just curious about their services.
To save you from making guesses about InMotion, this extensive InMotion hosting review is all you need. Keep reading for the nitty-gritty of everything related to their hosting.
Let’s jump right in.
About InMotion Hosting
InMotion got established in 2001 and has its headquarters in Los Angeles, California. Other offices are in Virginia Beach (Virginia) and Denver (Colorado).
They are a privately held company– owned by their employees- which is a good thing for the web hosting sphere where significant brands like EIG own most of the providers. It brings healthy competition and provides clients with a wide range of hosting options.
In an age with lots of environmental pollution from hosting, InMotion has been taking part in Go Green’ initiatives since 2010; they opened their first-ever Green Data Center in Los Angeles.
InMotion has also grown to also become a significant domain registrar. They host over 300,000 domains, have over 300 employees, and are rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau.
Despite not being as big as BlueHost and HostGator, they’ve got a lot going for them.
What’s Included In This InMotion Review?
We’ll firstly cover their general pros and cons, then dive into everything you should expect in terms of hosting packages, features, security, pricing, uptime, speed performance as well as their customer support experience.
Pros
Cons
Should you try InMotion Web hosting?
As you’ve seen, they have excellent pros and minimal cons. I think trying them out is just better. They will offer you free website migration, and you will get covered by their 90-day money-back guarantee.
Table of Contents
Hosting Services Offered By InMotion
InMotion is a full-service web hosting company offering the following services
Shared Hosting
If you’re leaning towards cheap hosting, there are 3 entry-level shared hosting plans: Launch, Power, and Pro plan.
Each of the shared business plans gets you unlimited disk storage, bandwidth, email accounts with unlimited email storage and unlimited spam safe protection.
An extra array of free features fo the plans includes a free 1-click shared SSL certificate, automatic daily backup and restore, $150 free advertising credits, free marketing tools for selling your store products and access to over 400 free apps to install.
Most importantly, the main shared hosting servers don’t get stretched too thin with lots of users. This helps to cushion your overall site’s performance from other hosting accounts thirsting for resources during periods they get skyrocketing traffic.
Spoiler
Despite having your data backed up frequently, you get to perform free file restoration only once in 4 months.
The Launch plan supports 2 websites; the next tier Power plan gets the following additional features:
- Its ecommerce ready with great functionality supported
- 2X performance
- You’re permitted to host up to 6 sites.
The Pro-business plan is the best for hosting unlimited websites and e-commerce sites. It has extras such as support for unlimited sites, domains, parked domains, and subdomains. To make it all worth the price, its 4x better in terms of performance over the Launch plan.
Info Tip
To get you started fast with your site, you can request WordPress, Joomla, or PrestaShop free preinstallation by selecting the option when buying your plan.
Managed WordPress Hosting
WordPress plans from InMotion get fully managed support. InMotion experts will take care of almost all server and most of the site management to offer you comfortable and luxurious hosting. A welcome feature for business people and site owners who want to channel their focus and time on running their business.
Regardless of the plan you buy, it comes with unlimited websites, email accounts, parked domains, and sub-domains.
There are 4 plans from WP-1000S to WP-4000S with the following resources
Notable WordPress specific features:
- Automatic updating of your WordPress version, themes as well as plug-ins. It’s optional, though; you can opt-out if you want to take care of that yourself.
- Free WordPress SEO tools
- WordPress Speed up features like NGINX server optimization and free Cloudflare CDN integration
- Safe application rollback
- Premium subscription for WordPress Themes and Plug-ins for WP-2000s and above plans
- Site-staging environment
- Pre-installed WordPress or an alternative 1-click installation.
The WP-2000S and WP-3000S plans get the JetPack personal plug-in license while the WP-4000S gets JetPack professional license.
Info
Most importantly, InMotion does not enforce WordPress plug-in restrictions like other hosts.
InMotion extend their support for WordPress to VPS, a helpful addition for those leaning towards running an e-commerce store or freelancers and bloggers looking to thrive with more flexibility, better security, privacy, and more assured resources.
WordPress-VPS Hosting
WordPress comes pre-installed and ready, you can launch your site in under 1 hour.
From there, you get server management support, which should always be a priority feature if you’re a novice. Competitors typically charge for such on a VPS environment, but not InMotion.
What else do you get?
- A free domain if you commit for over 6+ months plans
- WordPress optimized configuration
- Unlimited websites hosting on 100% SSD servers
- Unlocked CPU cores
- 3+ free Dedicated IP’s
- Managed security – OS security patches, scheduled snapshots, and Corero DDoS protection.
- Free cPanel and WHM panels (resellers) with full root access for managing your site, server and performing desired customizations.
All right, great so far, but what’s unlimited? Bandwidth, websites, parked and sub-domains for all plans
WordPress speed up features involves the use of an NGINX server as a reverse proxy in combination with an Apache server, enabling of PHP-FPM(for selecting PHP version),use of Brotlis compression,and implementation of REDIS object caching.
- VPS-1000HA-S – 4GB RAM,75GB storage, 4TB premium monthly transfers, 3 dedicated IPS
- VPS-2000HA-S – 6GB RAM, 150GB storage, 5TB premium monthly transfers, 4 dedicated IPS
- VPS-3000HA-S – 8GB RAM, 260GB storage, 6TB premium monthly transfers, 5 dedicated IPS
The genuine and significant reasons you should opt for the Managed WordPress VPS over managed WordPress plans include;
Free dedicated IPs, unlimited domains, parked domains, MySQL databases, and PHP workers for caching and boosting speed for your e-commerce and forum sites.
The only advantage WordPress managed plans have is the free inclusion of a free Jetpack Personal or Pro license.
VPS Hosting
All InMotion’s VPS are Linux based, use cloud-powered infrastructure for redundancy, and 100% free SSD based storage.
To get your web hosting off the ground, you get 2 hours of dedicated assistance time (Launch Assist™) from their System Administrators.
You can choose to get managed plans or take care of management yourself with Cloud VPS (next reviewed plans).
Expert support for managed plans includes:
- OS security updates and patches
- Panels updates and security patches
- WHM license and free cPanel with up to (5 cPanel accounts),and a Resource Monitoring Dashboard for showing usage stats
- Full root access.
- Seamless updating of email, database, and domain settings using cPanel.
- Quick set up with Launch Assist
All plans get eCommerce Optimization, a free SSL, and IMTP access to your emails from any device securely.
Unlimited features for all VPS plans:
- Domains, parked domains, and subdomains
- Websites
- Email accounts
- MySQL Databases
- Cron jobs
Their managed VPS plans are the same three offered for managed WordPress VPS, you get similar resources, speed up features, and pricing.
Tip
If you’re RAM isn’t enough to handle traffic spikes, they gives you access to their Burstable RAM feature that kicks in with more memory capacity automatically getting allocated for your plan.
Cloud Hosting
InMotion’s cloud hosting provides VPS servers without any management support. They are suited for tech-savvy users, experienced webmasters, and professional developers.
If you’re not so confident you’ve reached this level, they provide access to their Ansible UltraStack Playbook. It’s an open-source automation framework designed to help in simplification of tasks such as configuring hosts and deployment software in Cloud environments.
All plans have full root access, and you can choose your preferred operating system. Options include CentOS, Ubuntu, or Debian.
Because of the cloud environment (built-in redundancy), availability, and stability is top-notch.
Below are some of the key offerings and advantages of their Cloud hosting over their traditional VPS plans
- Lower prices
- Low-Latency Network with Fast Pings From IXPs
- Enterprise level security
But Beware
There’s no free cPanel, for management functions, but you do have the default Account management panel.
Dedicated Server Hosting
With the cPanel Managed Dedicated Servers, you get the same support as the managed VPS mentioned above plus additional services such as
- 2 hr hardware replacement service
- 1 on 1 System admin support.
- Rebootless Kernel Care upgrades.
Here’s is an image with an overview of their dedicated servers’ resources.
All the dedicated server plans are chock full of impressive yet unique features such as
- Up-to 15 free IP addresses and Both single and dual CPU servers
- No setup fees.
- free cPanels offered
- Free SSL certificates (HTTPS) using Auto SSL
If the provided plans don’t meet your needs in terms of prices and resources, you can request fully custom configurations. You have the freedom to build highly multi-threaded servers, get additional RAM from 8GB up to 512GB (ECC rated) or add more HDD or SDD storage.
Reseller Hosting
Interested in reseller packages?
InMotion got you covered with the following categories
- Reseller Hosting – 6 plans
- VPS Reseller – 3 plans
- Managed VPS – same mentioned in VPS hosting but for resellers
They all come with a free WHMCS license and full root access for easy automated billing management plus assisted setup and migration from InMotion’s expert team. All plans get full expert management at no extra cost.
Also, scalable dedicated resources are available if your clients outgrow what you’re provided with each plan.
This InMotion review wouldn’t be complete without dividing into their other overall services and overall performance. Let’s look at those.
Infrastructure
InMotion uses top performing Infrastructure which continually gets updated to avail the best of hosting services to its customers. You get multiple redundant datacenters hosting on both coasts of the US, East (Ashburn, VA.), and West (Los Angeles, CA).
That’s not even the best part, though. The ability to choose your preferred datacenter (Max Speed Zones™), which acts as a performance booster if your choice is closer to your significant user base, is what excites most.
Why is Choosing a servers a big deal?
With other hosts such as BlueHost, this is not offered, and you should carefully consider it if you run mobile app oriented services on your server.
In those data centers, InMotion has implemented disaster recovery plans such as fire and flooding protection and top security.
To ensure high-availability, reliability, and stability, the servers use fast SSD storage with RAID-6 configuration (not all plans) for unprecedented redundancy. That’s why they confidently give you a 100% Network Uptime Guarantee.
Furthermore, the use of cloud-powered infrastructure for their VPS plans ticks all the boxes of the goals above.
To ensure their networks has the lowest of latency, their data centers servers;
- Are located adjacent to IXPs (Internet exchange points)
- Feature data peering with various ISPs
- Use advanced Smart Routing™ technology.
- Use Tier 1 networks with Gigabit uplink connection
All these give them a competitive advantage when it comes to faster connectivity and delivery of data across the Internet.
Beyond that;
All their data centres are Category A, PCI compliant. If you plan to run an e-commerce store, you’re are covered in terms of protecting your clients’ data. Notably, not all host have this PCI certification e.g. A2 Hosting.
Ease of Use
First off, signing up and getting your account verified is not swift as they use phone verification, which presents extra challenges for international(Non-US) clients.
It not a deal-breaker, but it very frustrating if you are looking to set up your website fast. Despite the “long-delayed verification”, you get cleared mostly within a single business day.
Right out of the gate, you get free website migration with all plans if you are moving from another provider. To set app your website and software, you have a free Softaculous 1-click installer (paid at $5/month for dedicated servers) and access to 400+ supported apps such as WordPress. Google App integration is super easy, and it requires only 3 clicks to get done.
Managed WordPress plans clients get access to over 200 professional WordPress themes. If you’re not sure of the website you want, they throw in free photos for inspiration.
How easy is it to build your website with InMotion hosting?
They have – BoldGrid – a straightforward drag and drop website builder to help you, and you also access free pre-built customizable themes. An alternative for creating websites is using their professional web design service (paid).
To top it off, you get a site staging environment included to help you test the changes you make before deploying them live.
For most people, the managed support is already enough to make life more comfortable if they aren’t well versed with hosting, site and server management, we outlined the benefits earlier in the VPS plans section.
The included cPanel features a modern, intuitive design, with easy to locate tools. It’s a tool that even the pickiest of webmasters will acknowledge its user-friendly. With it, you can perform operations such as the installation of software, password management, IP management, creation of FTP and email accounts, and more.
The main interface for all VPS accounts and unmanaged plans is the AMP (Account Management Panel). It features billing, contact, and hosting services information. You’ll find it a cinch to understand; it can be used for viewing, changing, or removing services quickly.
Reseller, dedicated, and VPS plans get an additional WHM panel.
For dedicated and VPS plans, you can monitor your server and usage statistics with the built-in Server Monitoring and Analytics tools.
Developer Friendly Features
To give developers a warm welcome to their platform, InMotion provides their VPS and dedicated plans with Lamp Stack and Git pre-installed. In terms of freedom of customization, all plans get SSH access, while VPS and dedicated plans’ developers enjoy additional full root access.
All plans have Apache Tomcat, WP-CLI enabled for the robust management of WordPress sites. You can code in the latest version of PHP, Ruby on Rails, and scripting languages PERL and Python, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.
Unmanaged plans give you the freedom to choose your OS, with options we mentioned in the VPS plans such as CentOS, Ubuntu, and Debian available.
The following developer features are exclusive to dedicated servers.
- Mail Transfer Agent – Exim
- Media server – Red5
E-commerce Services Support
With InMotion, you get 1-click installs for Prestashop and OpenCart (free) included with all their shared hosting plans. All plans they have are e-commerce ready and optimized for apps such as WooCommerce, excluding the entry-level Launch plan.
You’re provided with free SSL certificates to secure your store and free dedicated IPs for most plans.
On top of that, you get free marketing and SEO tools to advertise your products online, and they add $150 in free Advertising Credits with all Business Hosting plans!
Domain Services
As we mentioned earlier, they are also a domain registrar. They have a search tool on their website for checking if your desired domain is available, and once you’ve bought it, you can perform domain management on their easy, intuitive cPanel.
Get this – by purchasing a 1 or 2-year plan, you get a free domain or free transfer from your current hosting provider.
Domain features
- Secure Transfer Locking– shields you domain from getting hijacked
- Automatic Domain Renewal – prevents accidental loss of your domain when you forget to renew it.
They charge $12.99 for Domain Privacy.
Performance and Reliability
Fast web hosting and InMotion are synonymous. In a glance, here are speed up technologies they use on their platform
- Fast SSD storage
- CloudLinux OS which provides best shared hosting performance
- PHP 7 enabled
- Cloudflare CDN integration for manged WordPress plans
- OptimumCache integrated for speed optimization
- Dedicated servers get HTTP Accelerators such as Varnish, Memcached, and an NGINX server
Overall, their loading speeds are among the best in the industry, with excellent speed performance even under website load stress.
In terms of reliability, InMotion is no pushover, their multiple redundant datacenters’, cloud-powered servers (VPS only), hardware and software-based RAID redundancy (VPS and dedicated plans), guarantee you get stable uptime, reliable and high availability hosting
For all business class Pro accounts, they give you a 99.9% Uptime Guarantee; if it gets breached, you get one month’s worth of credits. Dedicated Servers have a 99.999% network guarantee covered by an SLA. You’re given prorated credit according to the duration of your server downtime.
Security
InMotion’s security features are rock solid for all plans. You get free SSLs, Malware protection, Real-Time Spam Filtering for emails. DDoS protection is specific to VPS and dedicated servers.
All InMotion’s managed plans get automated security updates,
For backing up your data, you get
- Full, partial, or even file only scheduled backups with their site backup and restore plus safe application roll-back functionality on all shared plans.
- Automated offsite backups for managed WordPress plans excluding the entry plan WP-1000S
- Free scheduled snapshots with easy roll-backs for VPS plans
- Free automatic backups on dedicated servers
Customer Support
You will rarely hear complaints about InMotion’s customer support, that’s because they offer some of the best expert support in the industry. They have US-based staff who have undergone 160hrs of training; your technical questions get adequately answered.
They are available 24/7 via support channels such as phone, live chat, email, tickets, plus even Skype. If you prefer DIY solving, they have a support center forum and a splendid Knowledgebase that even novices will find useful with its over 3,000 articles.
But here’s the interesting thing;
Their beginner-friendly onboarding process is the best in the industry; you get introduced to their hosting platform with helpful email and guides that ensure you quickly get familiar with things to do with website hosting…
What’s more?
Dedicated hosting customers get free 1 on 1 dedicated assistant for 2-4 hrs every month for free.
Pricing
Compared to the rest of the hosts, InMotion’s plans are above the average in prices but not super expensive. Initially, you get promotional rates, but when renewing, the prices get an increase. Small wonder there, this has become a widely spread practice in web hosting space.
Option to pay for each month separately is only for VPS and reseller packages. For the other plans, you’ve got to commit from six months, the longer the commitment, the lower the price.
So how much will you get to pay to enjoy InMotion’s hosting? Below are the best plan-specific prices per month.
Shared
- Launch at $3.99
- Power at $5.99
- Pro $13.99.
Managed WordPress
- WP-1000S- $6.99
- WP-2000S- $9.99
- WP-3000S- $12.99
- WP-4000S- $19.99
VPS (even managed WordPress VPS)
- VPS-1000HA-S – $22.99
- VPS-2000HA-S – $34.99
- VPS-3000HA-S – $54.99
Unmanaged Cloud VPS
- cVPS-1-$5
- cVPS-2-$10
- cVPS-3-$15
- cVPS-4-$20
- cVPS-6-$30
- cVPS-8-$50
- cVPS-16-$80
- cVPS-32-$160
Dedicated servers managed hosting
- Essential-$115.69
- Advanced-$176.59
- Elite-$248.99
- CC-500-$350.99
- CC-1000-$424.49
- CC-2000-$529.49
Bare Metal Dedicated Servers
- Essential-$75.69
- Advanced-$136.59
- Elite-$208.99
- CC-500-$310.99
- CC-1000-$384.49
- CC-2000-$429.49
Pro Tip
As you may have noticed, their unmanaged plans are significantly cheaper than the plans with managed support, if you don’t need the support, why not get the cheaper plans instead.
Refund Policy
Here’s the deal;
InMotion has a 90-day money-back guarantee, and getting refunds is hassle less. Remember, they’ve got an A+ Better Business Bureau rating.
I would be doing you a disservice if I didn’t mention the caveats in their refund policy.
- It doesn’t cover any optional adds you’ve bought.
- To be eligible you must commit for Business, VPS and Reseller hosting for over 6 months when signing up.
Business, VPS,Reseller (paid monthly) and dedicated servers, are eligible for a full amount refund for only 30 days.
InMotion Review Conclusion
Do we recommend InMotion for web hosting? Yes. we have included the reasons and their strong points in the FAQ section.
Time saver – having reached this far in this InMotion hosting review do not even bother checking for other reviews; what you’ve just read is everything there is to know about InMotion.
Most of their services are tailored for small to medium businesses. Their dedicated servers are not the best in the industry, there are better options out there from other providers. But overall, InMotion outstanding services make them a company you can make no mistake when choosing
