The web hosting field is a crowded one, so it takes a special service to stand out from the pack. InMotion Hosting, with its many capable offerings, is one such hosting platform. The service isn't the best in any one category, but it has a rich, flexible feature set that caters to many web hosting scenarios with its excellent shared, dedicated, reseller, virtual private server (VPS), and WordPress plans. Its customer service chops are excellent, too. In fact, a lack of Windows servers is its only notable omission. If you don't need Windows-based servers, InMotion is easy to recommend for just about any scenario, earning it our Editors' Choice award.
Building a website doesn't need to be an expensive endeavor. With shared hosting, your site is in a roommate situation with many other sites on a single server, so you split the server cost and the available resources. Shared web hosting isn't very powerful, but it's cheap web hosting and a good solution if you don't expect tremendous website traffic.
InMotion offers four linux-based shared web hosting plans. The entry-level plan is Core ($14.49 per month, dropping to $2.24 per month with an annual commitment). It lets you host two websites and offers 100GB of SSD storage, 10 email addresses, and unlimited monthly data transfers. The Launch plan ($16.99 per month, or $3.59 per month with an annual subscription builds upon that with unlimited websites, unlimited email accounts, and 200GB NVMe SSD storage. It also introduces InMotion's unique 6x UltraStack server configuration for faster speed and improved performance.
Next up the ladder is the Power plan, which gives you the same unlimited websites, unlimited email accounts, and unlimited NVMe SSD storage, but grants 12x UltraStack configuration and advanced caching. Its annual plan costs the same as the Launch plan, but it renews at $18.99 per month. Pro is the highest shared hosting tier, and it has the same unlimited features as the Launch and Power tiers. However, it bumps the UltraStack speed to 20x and offers a 99.99% uptime guarantee. It starts at $20.99 per month, dropping to $8.09 per month with a one-year plan. All InMotion shared tiers include unlimited monthly data transfers, a free SSL certificate, and a free domain.
Similar Products
ScalaHosting Web Hosting
That said, HostGator remains our top pick for shared web hosting services. InMotion's rival offers unlimited email, storage, and monthly data transfers with each plan, and adds the choice of linux- or Windows-based servers. The Windows option is important for sites that have software that runs on an ASP.NET framework.
In terms of power, VPS hosting offers more muscle than shared hosting. That's due to the fact that your site lives on a server with far fewer sites competing for resources than with shared hosting. Plus, the web hosts supply your site with a guaranteed minimum of resources. As a result, VPS hosting is more expensive than shared hosting, but it's a far more powerful and reliable system. You can think of VPS hosting as living in your own apartment; you'll have neighbors, but they aren't borrowing server power.
InMotion has five tiers for linux-based VPS web hosting. The starter VPS 2 vCPU plan costs $8.99 per month, or $4.49 a month with an annual contract. With this plan, your site gets 4GB of RAM, 50GB of NVMe SSD storage, 5TB of monthly data transfers, one dedicated IP address, DDoS protection, and live chat support from a real human staff. On the top end of the spectrum is the VPS 16 vCPU package ($52.99 per month or $49.99 per year). It features 32GB of RAM, 460GB of NVMe SSD storage, unlimited monthly data transfers, and 10 dedicated IPs.
Likewise, InMotion offers managed hosting and unmanaged cloud VPS web hosting. Managed VPS starts at $79.99 per month (or $59.99 per month with a one-year plan), while unmanaged, scalable cloud VPS starts at $6 per month. You get respectable top-level specs for the managed offerings, including 16GB of RAM, unlimited monthly data transfers, 10 dedicated IPs, and 360GB of NVMe SSD storage. Unlimited email, domains, websites, and MySQL databases are included, too. The scalable cloud VPS tops out at 32GB of RAM, 32 CPU cores, 540GB of SSD storage, and 12TB of monthly data transfer for a hefty $192 per month. InMotion has a good VPS offering, but it isn't as robust as Hostwinds, which tops InMotion with many robust VPS packages that include up to 96GB of RAM, unlimited email, unlimited monthly data transfers, and linux- or Windows-based server options.
With dedicated hosting, your website lives on a server all by itself and leverages the system's full power. In other words, you don't share your server with roommates—you have the whole house to yourself. As a result, dedicated hosting is an extremely powerful type of web hosting. It's one that you should look into if you expect your website to receive a large amount of traffic. Mission-critical sites that can't go down (or slow down) should be on dedicated servers.
InMotion uses the latest Intel Xeon tech and more linux OS options, including CentOS, Debian, and Ubuntu, making the company’s dedicated and bare metal plans a strong choice for large websites. InMotion has a lot of options for customers looking for a dedicated server. For a managed dedicated server, you can choose from two different categories, each with several tiers. Standard tiers feature more affordable hosting solutions, and Commercial Class tiers are more expensive and geared toward larger businesses.
Aspire is the starter Standard plan. It costs $45.00 per month, or $35 per month with a one-year commitment. Aspire includes 16GB of DDR3 RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, and 10 GB of backup storage. The highest-end Extreme plan costs $269.99 per month, or $249.99 with an annual plan. With it, you get 128GB of RAM, two 4TB of NVMe SSD storage, 32 dedicated IPs, and 500 GB of backup storage. Commercial class plans are far more expensive. The starter CC-1000 tier costs $559.99 per month, or $499.99 per month with a year's signup. It includes 192GB of RAM, two 1TB of NVMe SSD storage, 20 dedicated IPs, and 1TB of backup storage. All dedicated plans have unlimited monthly data transfers.
For enterprise-sized businesses, you can call InMotion for a quote for a customized plan. These plans include custom private networks, a 1-5 year price agreement, custom-built servers, and premium technical support.
InMotion offers solid dedicated web hosting plans, but AccuWeb has better all-around packages. AccuWeb offers dedicated hosting packages (starting at $105 per month) that can be outfitted with up to 8TB of SSD storage and 128GB of RAM. They boast 20TB of monthly data transfers, too. You even get a choice of linux- or Windows-based servers for extra flexibility.
WordPress is one of the top names in web hosting, as the service is the content management system for roughly 40% of the internet. If you're looking for WordPress hosting, InMotion offers dependable packages. Your digital footprint will reside on a server that exclusively hosts WordPress websites. This is a huge advantage in terms of load times and reliability. Your WordPress website sits in a WordPress-only ecosystem, which translates to big benefits. Server settings such as cache, PHP workers, and more are dialed in to the specs recommended directly from WordPress. No more having to host your website on a server where one website is running Concrete5 and another is running Joomla. All sites now live in a WordPress world of harmony, speed, and reliability.
All the Latest Tech, Tested by Our Experts
By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Thanks for signing up!
Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!
InMotion's linux-based, WordPress-optimized servers come with the content management system preinstalled, and they offer website staging and automatic software updates. In a nice touch, InMotion automatically updates your third-party WordPress plug-ins. It also bolsters your WordPress installation with a custom-configured NGINX stack and an in-house caching system.
The WP Core ($14.99 per month, or $2.62 per month with an annual plan) offers 100GB of SSD storage, the ability to host two websites, 10 email addresses, and unlimited monthly data transfers. WP Launch ($17.49 per month, or $3.97 per month with a one-year commitment) boosts that baseline to an unlimited NVMe SSD, Jetpack Personal, unlimited emails, and unlimited websites. The similarly priced WP Power gives you a better-performing server and adds dedicated Opcode caching for better website loading. WP Pro ($21.49 per month, or $16.99 per month with an annual sign-up) includes all previously listed perks, but also improves performance, adds a dedicated IP, and swaps Jetpack Personal for Jetpack Professional.
Then there are the WordPress VPS plans, which mirror the pricing on the aforementioned managed VPS plans. These top-of-the-line packages are fully managed by in-house pros and offer unlimited sites, dedicated resources, a dedicated IP, up to 120GB of storage, and unlimited monthly data transfers.
Lastly, InMotion offers WordPress Dedicated hosting plans ($169.99 per month, or $89.99 per month with a 12-month plan) that include 30 dedicated IPs, website migration, and the option to add a RAID.
That said, Bluehost and WP Engine reign as our top picks for WordPress hosting. For more information, check out our individual reviews.
If you're looking to get into the web hosting game, but you don't want to spin up your own servers or worry about providing the bandwidth for them, check out InMotion's reseller hosting packages. The six linux-based plans (starting at $35.99 per month) offer up to 100GB in monthly data transfers, unlimited email, and multiple cPanel accounts (depending on the plan). InMotion provides 24/7/365 customer support, as well. The plans are quite respectable, though they don't match Hostwinds, which offers linux servers with unlimited email and storage.
We were initially a bit dubious when the sign-up confirmation page mentioned that an account specialist would contact us by phone to complete the setup process; we couldn't log in until that happened. However, the call was prompt and helpful, and we weren't pushed into making additional purchases. The representative asked a few questions about the type of website that we wanted to build, and then emailed the appropriate welcome materials.
The service's website builder requires a separate login and password, but building a website is an otherwise straightforward affair. You have three site types to choose from: Site, Blog, or Photo Gallery. The website builder lets you select themes and colors, as well as the types of pages you'd like to include on your site. In addition to standard pages, such as Contact Us and About Us, you can add special pages, such as Flash Intro and eShop. Next, you can add a map, poll, RSS reader, or script module to your pages. The website builder doesn't produce particularly attractive pages; however, our site looked dated. Alternatively, you can use WordPress to create your site. That opens the door to many site-enhancing WordPress themes and plug-ins.
InMotion has many e-commerce options, but the payment options are a bit limited. You can also download OpenCart or PrestaShop (both free) for a more robust store. We gave OpenCart a try; it offers a comprehensive dashboard for tracking customers and sales, and multiple shipping and payment options. Unfortunately, e-commerce is only available on the Power and Pro plans. That's not unusual; many web hosts save e-commerce for their more robust offerings.
InMotion offers several security features, including free remote backup services for accounts under 10GB in size. For WordPress sites, you can leverage the free Sucuri Security plug-in to scan for malware and other security risks. McAfee spam and virus protection (starting at $1.39 per month) is also available for email accounts. You can purchase SSL certificates ($99.99 per year, with a $25 installation fee), which include a dedicated IP address.
Uptime is an incredibly important aspect of the hosting experience. If your website is down, clients or customers will be unable to find you or access your products or services. That is a nightmare scenario. InMotion has a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and you can check out its network status monitor should your site go down.
We fired up InMotion's 24/7 web chat on a weeknight to learn how shared hosting differed from WordPress hosting. A few seconds later, an InMotion customer support representative appeared and gave us the information we needed. We later called InMotion's 24/7 customer support squad by telephone for details about dedicated hosting. Someone quickly fielded our call and gently explained the differences in everyday language. Overall, we're very pleased with InMotion's customer service.
InMotion offers an extremely generous 90-day money-back guarantee that is better than most other web hosts' 30-day refund policies. DreamHost's 97-day money-back guarantee, however, beats InMotion by a week.
Final Thoughts
(Credit: InMotion Hosting)
InMotion Web Hosting
- 5.0 - Exemplary: Near perfection, ground-breaking
- 4.5 - Outstanding: Best in class, acts as a benchmark for measuring competitors
- 4.0 - Excellent: A performance, feature, or value leader in its class, with few shortfalls
- 3.5 - Good: Does what the product should do, and does so better than many competitors
- 3.0 - Average: Does what the product should do, and sits in the middle of the pack
- 2.5 - Fair: We have some reservations, buy with caution
- 2.0 - Subpar: We do not recommend, buy with extreme caution
- 1.5 - Poor: Do not buy this product
- 1.0 - Dismal: Don't even think about buying this product
Read Our Editorial Mission Statement and Testing Methodologies.
Featuring a multitude of hosting types, excellent customer service, and a lengthy money-back guarantee, InMotion Hosting is a well-rounded web hosting service that has the chops to meet your personal- or business-related hosting needs, provided you don't need a Windows-powered server. It earns our Editors' Choice award for deftly balancing price, features, and functionality.
STILL ON THE FENCE?
Read the latest from Gabriel Zamora
Read the latest from Robert Anderson
- Can't Wait to Rob Banks in GTA VI? These Crime Couple Classics Will Satisfy Your Inner Outlaw
- UltaHost Review: Right-Priced Web Hosting, With a Few Uncommon Options
- DreamHost Web Hosting Review: Top-Notch Cloud Servers for SMBs
- Hostinger Web Hosting Review: Cool AI Tools for Quickly Building Sites
- Bluehost Web Hosting Review: Powerful WordPress Site Creation
- More from Robert Anderson
