Mike Brown

Owner - Mike Brown

Author: Mike Brown
Last Updated: 14th March 2024

InMotion Hosting Company Overview

Fortunately, you don't have to look far to understand this host's growing popularity. Take a few seconds to check out this InMotion Hosting review for all of the insights that savvy consumers need to make more educated choices.

Touting a core team of highly trained professionals and a history dating back to 2001, InMotion Hosting promotes itself as an independent alternative to other web hosts. But is the company's claim of catering to technically minded users really indicative of its superiority we'll find the answers to this question in this comprehensive InMotion Hosting review

InMotion Hosting, Inc. got its start in 2001. Today, it operates as a California-registered firm. The company prides itself on offering many distinct shared hosting plans that revolve around powerful server and top notch customer support


In addition to offering web hosting, InMotion provides a range of supplementary services, such as web design, authoring tools, reseller plans, merchant accounts, additional domains and shopping carts. The company also caters to those who prefer to take more control of their hosting experience by choosing software components and database implementations.

InMotion Hosting restricts the kinds of content that its consumers can place online using its servers. It prohibits adult material, although it permits some forms of artistic content.

InMotion Hosting has earned a reputation for being a privately owned company with one subsidiary called Web Hosting Hub. The web hosting company serves at least 300,000 customers from its Los Angeles, CA, and Ashburn Virginia, data centers with the help of more than 200 staff. This is a huge leap from when it was founded by a duo of entrepreneurs in 2001.

Today, the company is one of the biggest web hosts that remains privately held. As many InMotion Hosting review writers have pointed out, this has its benefits and disadvantages.

InMotion Hosting Review: Customer Service & Support

InMotion Hosting reviews are quick to note that the company invests quite a lot of time into its customer service. All of its plans include Premium 100% U.S. base Customer Support that automatically affords users access to features like:

  • 24/7/365 customer service responses and support
  • Communication channels such as phone, email and live chat
  • Assistance from New Account Specialists who help guide novices through the setup process
  • Thousands of online self-help tutorials and pointers, and
  • A Customer Community-powered Questions & Answers forum that InMotion Hosting claims can usually return answers within an hour on regular business weekdays

Learning to Use InMotion Hosting

A review of InMotion Hosting's Education Channel also includes courses on how to use the software tools promoted by InMotion Hosting, such as Android, cPanel, Premium Website Builder, and Web Host Manager, or WHM.

InMotion Hosting Support Center

Since these tutorials and articles seem geared towards beginners, they may prove particularly useful for those who want to get their sites up and running with minimal delay. The Support Center team also produces articles concerning highly demanded topics and tasks.

Overall, learning to use the platform doesn't seem like much of a problem for those willing to put in the effort. This level of self-guided support is definitely something that many hosts lack. On the other hand, it suggests that exploring the true potential of the company's offerings might require an unavoidable time commitment. Luckily InMotion Hosting has 24/7/365 phone, chat, and email support.


Customer Service Assistance

One expert who conducted their own InMotion Hosting comparison said that the company's customer service could use a bit of work, but very few reviewers expressed deal-breaking concerns in this area.

Some consumers found themselves waiting for a few minutes to speak with real humans, but this was likely related to the firm’s significant user base.  On the contrary customer provide them with glowing testimonials. As the company expands, it may end up remedying the problem by augmenting its staff.

The well-designed account management panel makes it pretty easy to reach out to tech support. Since you can get in touch with a single click, it’s unlikely that you’ll lose your train of thought in the time it takes to make contact. Such a system contributes to more likely problem resolutions by increasing the ease of interaction.

Better Support Staff?

Another benefit that other InMotion Hosting reviews highlighted is the fact that the company employs knowledgeable personnel. This is a far cry from providers that force you to troubleshoot your issues with support staff who simply walk you through rote steps that feel like you’re just going through the motions.

One important distinction between this host’s support teams and those at other companies is the fact that InMotion Hosting mandates strict training requirements. Each support associate has to complete 160 hours of technical training, and the firm says that its expert-level team members have more than ten years of hosting experience on average. These factors could explain the generally positive experiences that users report when they interact with the hosting company

More Community Support

InMotion Hosting’s user community is also fairly robust. Notably, the comment sections below many of the support articles and blogs actually host thriving conversations, so it’s possible to get help there from the company’s staff or other users who have gone through the same trials that you’re currently facing.

InMotion Provides Guided Onboarding

Need help getting from point A to point B? This hosting company will essentially guide you by the hand. In addition to being able to work with managers who specialize in new accounts, you can choose to follow a sequence of customized support articles via email to figure out how best to use the features that you’ve purchased. Past reviewers claimed that this made it easier to work around many potential problems before they became unmanageable.


InMotion Hosting Dashboard

The shows what InMotion Hosting's Account Management Panel (AMP) looks like. This is the interface between you and the hosting company.

InMotion Hosting Account Management Panel

Additional Features:

  • Softaculous App Installer
  • Tech Support with Skype Integration
  • Google App Integration
  • BoldGrid WordPress Website Builder


InMotion Hosting Web Hosting Plans and Features

InMotion Hosting doesn’t limit your options when it comes to hosting plans. You can choose from:

  • Business Hosting
  • VPS Hosting
  • Dedicated Servers
  • Reseller Hosting
  • WordPress Hosting or
  • Managed Hosting

Each of these products comes in one of three tiers that give you a bit more flexibility to pick a budget-appropriate setup. The Managed Hosting also offers a pay-as-you-go model, but for the most part, you’ll have to purchase year-long service plans and pay monthly. Let’s take a look at the options:


Shared Business Hosting

Business Class hosting products target those who want to create database-driven CMS implementations, statistics and custom apps. Like all InMotion Hosting plans, they incorporate

InMotion Hosting Shared Hosting
  • Free new domains or transfers of existing domains
  • cPanel site management
  • Money-back guarantees
  • Free data backups
  • A one-click installer for more than 400 apps
  • SSH access
  • $250 worth of free advertising credits
  • Google Apps integration
  • Unlimited disk space, monthly transfers, storage accounts and email accounts
  • Secure, device-agnostic IMAP email access, and
  • Complimentary SSD drives


You can also program in a range of languages and choose your data center's location to accommodate users at higher speeds. Here are some key differences between the three tiers:

  • Launch: Support for two databases, two websites, six parked domains and 26 subdomains at $4.19 per month.
  • Power: Support for six websites, 50 databases, E-commerce readiness and 100 subdomains at $4.49 per month.
  • Pro: Pro-level support, unlimited databases, unlimited parked domains and unlimited subdomains at $7.49 per month.

Reviewers say that the different accounts cater to distinct classes of site owners and web professionals. The Shared Business plans also include some of the WordPress features that you’ll find in the WordPress Hosting packages, so you can dive in and start tweaking faster.

If you prefer Joomla or PrestaShop, you can have either one installed while you check out. Another important speed factor is that the company offers to transfer existing website databases, domains, files and emails so that you don’t have to deal with downtime.

VPS Hosting

Virtual Private Server plans feature Linux SSD servers that include:

  • Cloud-based infrastructures
  • Real-time redundancies that maximize availability and reduce downtime
  • Complimentary server management with OS, cPanel and WHM security patches and updates
  • Free licenses for cPanel
  • Unlocked CPU cores
  • Resource utilization dashboards
  • Optional root access
  • Custom Advanced Policy Firewalls
  • Reseller access via WHM
  • LAMP stacks using CentOS, and
  • Live-state snapshotting that lets you revert to previous versions
InMotion Hosting VPS


The VPS products also build upon the same perks that the Managed Business options offer, such as complimentary backups, free domains and the ability to choose your data center. Here’s what the three varieties provide:

  • VPS-1000HA-S: Three dedicated IP addresses, 4 GB of RAM, 4 TB monthly transfer limits and 75 GB of fault-tolerant disk space for $24.99 monthly.
  • VPS-2000HA-S: Four dedicated IP addresses, 6GB of RAM, 5TB monthly transfer limits and 150 GB of storage for $39.99 monthly.
  • VPS-3000HA-S: Five dedicated IP addresses, 8 GB of RAM, 6 TB monthly transfer limits and 260 GB of storage for $54.99 monthly.

These plans let you implement as many domains or websites as you want to, and they all include a free launch assistance session. This two-hour one-on-one with an InMotion Hosting SysAdmin may help you overcome common growing pains.

Dedicated Servers

Dedicated Servers start at $99.99, $159.99 or $229.99 per month, you can get an Essential, Advanced or Elite InMotion Hosting Dedicated Server.

These servers run Linux, and they come in single- and dual-processor flavors that are made for scalable flexibility.

InMotion Hosting Dedicated Servers

Dedicated Servers may suit those who want to get moving as fast as possible since they have a LAMP stack preinstalled.

Although all three versions include complimentary server management, cPanel, WHM tools and SSD performance, they improve on the other service levels with 100 percent network uptime guarantees.

Unlike the firm’s other products, however, they only offer a 30-daymoney-back guarantee. You may also be interested in the following distinctions:

  • Essential: 8 GB of RAM, software RAID, 6 TB data transfer and five IP addresses.
  • Advanced: 16 GB of RAM, 10 TB datatransfer and 10 IP addresses.
  • Elite: 32 GB of RAM, hardwareRAID and 15 IP addresses.


All three of these options incorporate some variety of Intel® Xeon® processor with clock speeds starting at 2.8 GHz. While the Essential and Advanced tiers let you take your pick of a 500 GB SSD or a 1 TB, 7,200 RPM hard drive, the Elite’s RAID 1 configuration doubles the number of drives for added redundancy.

All of the dedicated servers are compatible with remote KVM devices, and you can configure a server online before making a purchase by adding perks like backup or secondary drives, which gives you plenty of pricing flexibility.

Reseller Hosting

Want to resell hosting space? InMotion Hosting Reseller plans make it a bit easier with free tools like WHMCS software that lets you

  • Create custom hosting packages with your data segmentation, pricing and service features of choice
  • Add and track clients' accounts, fees and billing cycles, and
  • Automate payments and invoicing

You also get an eNom license that lets you sell domain names under your own branding, which is handy if you’re trying to establish your company’s white-label reputability.

At the time of this review, InMotion Hosting is offering to transfer up to 30 cPanel accounts to their service for free, and you can start one of the three packages for $13.99, $19.99 or $27.49 per month. In order of expense, your options include:

  • R-1000S: 80 GB of disk space and 800 GB of monthly bandwidth.
  • R-2000S: 120 GB of disk space and 1,200 GB of monthly bandwidth.
  • R-3000S: 160 GB of disk space, 1,600 GB of monthly bandwidth and free Launch Assist.


All Reseller Hosting plans include RAID 6 SSD arrays and unlimited domains and websites. You also get features like DNS clustering, private name servers and the Softaculous auto installer by default. While InMotion Hosting’s famous 90-day refund guarantee is available with these servers, you’ll need to purchase a 6- or 12-month plan to take advantage of it.

WordPress Hosting

InMotion's WordPress hosting platform seems to have its target demographics figured out fairly well.

While other service plans let you delve into the nitty gritty with LAMP stacks and similar technologies, you don’t have to sweat the details to deploy a quick WordPress site that promotes your blog or business.

For as little as $5.99 per month, the Launch service gives you a free domain, two websites and limitless storage space, bandwidth and email.

Upgrade to the Power option for $7.99 per month to bump your limit to six sites, or pay $13.99 monthly for the Pro option and no website limitation.

The Power and Pro variants also claim to boost performance by factors of two and four respectively using a combination of added RAM, entry processes and connections.

Although only the Pro option features Pro Level Support, there are few other differences worth noting.

InMotion Hosting WordPress Hosting Plans

All of these plans include the 90-day money-back guarantee, support for choosing your preferred speed zone data center and roll-back features.

Perhaps best of all, they also incorporate WordPress preinstallations, making them ideal for quick content publication. InMotion Hosting is one of the best WordPress hosting providers in the web hosting industry.


Managed Hosting

If there’s one thing that InMotion Hosting does right, it’s taking care of the network architecture administration for you. The firm’s Managed Hosting plans let you focus on coding, deployment and other tasks while you gain access to a dedicated team that deals with

  • Uptime problems,
  • Server performance,
  • Server-sidecron scheduling and automation,
  • Platform optimization, Varnish caching, APC and LAMP management,
  • Enhanced security measures, like CSF/LFD and OSSsec,
  • NGINX implementations and configuration, and
  • Bespoke troubleshooting.

You can purchase Managed Hosting in one-, two- or three-hour monthly levels for $40, $70 or $100 respectively. You can also purchase additional management hours as needed or pay an à la carte consulting flat rate of $75 per hour. The firm’s confidence in its ability to manage servers in such small time frames bodes well for those in search of skilled, cost-effective assistance.

InMotion Hosting Web Servers, Network, and Performance

Now we lets go in to a detailed scientific review of the InMotion Hosting infrastructure and performance.

Performance (LoadImpact & Pingdom Tests)

 In this InMotion Hosting review show how well InMotion Hosting preformed during the stress they sustained a response time under 1 second for the majority of the test. It was not until over 80 concurrent users coming in from the 10 different geographic locations hit the server that a spike in response time occurred.  

Anything under 4 seconds is considered ideal in the eyes will typically give you an A rating in a Google speed test.

The Pingdom test was very impressive. InMotion Hosting scored an 88 with a load time of 537ms.


InMotion Hosting (Click for zoomed image)

(Full stress test video capturing 100 concurrent connections from 10 geographic locations around the world hitting the InMotion Hosting server in 5 minutes.)


InMotion Hosting - Pingdom test results


The review of InMotion Hosting so far has allowed you to understand InMotion Hosting’s basic value propositions, what about how its services actually function in real life?

Many people have had great experiences, and there seem to be a few key contributing factors to the company’s prior successes:

Now that you understand InMotion Hosting’s basic value propositions, what about how its services actually function in real life? Many people have had great experiences, and there seem to be a few key contributing factors to the company’s prior successes:

Their Data Centers Are Green

InMotion Hosting pushes for ecologically responsible data centers may not really impact your bottom line, but it’s definitely a stand-out feature. It also suggests that the company is actively involved in data center infrastructure management, or DCIM. Depending on what kinds of audiences you’re trying to reach, advertising the fact that you use green hosting could even be advantageous.

Backups Come Included (Most of the Time)

Whereas many hosting companies leave you to your own devices after a data compromise event, InMotion Hosting includes backup services with its hosting plans. If you’ve ever lost everything due to a stupid mistake, then you know how important this feature is.

Beware, however, of the fact that backups are only automatic for websites that are less than 10 GB in size. Although you can add backup services to larger sites, you’ll need to make a request, and you'll probably pay a surcharge.

You Get High-quality Hardware

InMotion plans use business-class machines to deliver more consistent service quality. This policy makes the lower-cost tiers a bit more worthwhile.

InMotion Hosting’s servers are all Dell PowerEdge machines running CentOS. Although you can choose from many different configurations, the vast majority are equipped with between

  • 6 to 35 hard drives or SSDs
  • 4 to 40 processors, and
  • 16 to 96 GB of RAM

What does this mean in non-technical terms? In short, the company’s hardware uniformity works well for those who aren’t quite sure how they’ll host their site or what they might need in the future. Since all of the plans are upgradeable, you can migrate with less work. The fact that there are plenty of SysAdmins willing to help you along doesn’t hurt either.

Performance and Uptime: Max Speed Zones Limit Latency

With most of the plans, you can pick your preferred data center for housing your content. The firm’s Max Speed Zone system uses a network of facilities to reduce the amount of time that your users have to wait to view your sites, apps and data. This arrangement also contributes to reduced downtime when a server goes down.

Reliable performance is a hallmark of InMotion Hosting in general. Most reviewers seem to agree with the consensus, and so do the numbers. From August 2016 to May 2019, the firm’s test site uptime never dipped below 99.94 percent, and it maintained response times that were solidly below 800 ms.

Although there was naturally some variance in these figures, reviewers hailed the fact that the web host was nothing if not consistent. Of course, with its facilities based in the U.S., it enjoys the fastest response times in North America, but past users noted that the hosting services were fast across the board.

When it comes to server performance, most reviewers had nothing but praise for this hosting service. While there were some unsatisfied outliers, this is only natural for such a large company. It’s also worth noting that the firm’s focus on customer service and guided hosting may mean that you never run into problems if you follow the tutorials and other resources.

Money-Back Guarantee

What about protecting your investment? Even if InMotion Hosting reviews are mostly favorable, there’s no guarantee that the company will be the right fit for your unique needs. Fortunately, this is where the firm’s 100 percent satisfaction guarantees come into play with a 90-full money back guarantee.

InMotion Hosting offers to refund your costs for any Business, VPS or Reseller Hosting plan. As long as the initial length of your plan is at least six months, you can exercise your right to a refund for up to 90 days following your purchase. It’s important to note that this doesn’t apply to monthly-billed Reseller and VPS packages or Dedicated Servers, which are only eligible for 30-day refunds.

Takeing a look at the company’s standard Terms of Service agreementt, InMotion Hosting can terminate your account at its discretion and cancel your refund.

While this is a pretty common inclusion in hosting agreements, the company may make such a decision in response to a broad range of events, like if you host material containing nudity, use torrenting software or "abuse" the servers. This last item is interesting because InMotion Hosting can technically revoke your service for improper coding even if it wasn’t intentional.

As a word to the wise, you may want to talk to the customer support staff about any experimental modifications that you plan on making.

InMotion Hosting Pros

Getting Deployed Is Fast ✓

In addition to letting you set up your installation parameters during your purchase, InMotion Hosting makes it easy to transfer your existing site regardless which service plan you use. Because the host uses the nearly ubiquitous cPanel, it’s highly likely that you can migrate without even talking to the technical support staff.

 

You Get a Tested Product ✓

InMotion Hosting has a robust, well-established infrastructure that means you’re unlikely to contend with service interruptions or other barriers on your way to deployment. Thanks to a huge selection of hosting plans and prices, you shouldn’t ever get stuck with something that doesn’t quite fit. Starting out with business-class equipment by default isn't too shabby either.


Customer Service Is a Given ✓

The company’s strong focus on keeping users happy goes a long way in terms of empowering you to work through technical issues as they arise. Even when you don’t get immediate live help, the existence of education-based alternatives to email, chat and calling ensure that you can keep making progress.


Pricing Is Generally Low ✓

Considering the breadth of the features that this hosting service offers, its plans usually represent good deals. You can see exactly what you’re paying for by starting an order and adding services selectively to get a feel for how the pricing works. The company also routinely offers promotions, so you might be able to pick up a package at a discount.


Hardware Upgrades Occur Regularly ✓

InMotion Hosting doesn't make you worry about upgrading your server configuration and hardware if you'd rather not concern yourself with these matters. For those worried about downtime, the firm also seems to be fairly good about scheduling its planned maintenance to coincide with periods of low demand and provide you with email alerts, so it's easier to minimize the impact of routine service interruptions


Integrations Abound ✓

Not having to set up your WordPress, Google Apps or cPanel implementation is definitely a massive time saver. While you can modify how your server works to meet your specific goals, you really don’t have to dive into administration to leverage powerful apps, scheduling and automation. Such a plug-and-play approach isn’t always common in web hosts, but this company’s experience and size make it easy to build on lessons that others have already learned.

Is InMotion Hosting Right for You?

Where you might run into trouble is if you want to implement custom server solutions or massive scaling.

Although these plans have their advantages, they’re not ideal for everyone. Based on the web’s massive population of InMotion Hosting reviews and evaluations, it’s probably not a bad place to start out, especially if you’re just learning the ropes. And they compare better than other hosting companies.

If all you want to do is deploy small sites quickly and start engaging with audiences, then you can’t really go wrong with such a low-cost, middle-of-the-road option.

InMotion Hosting is also good for people who don’t want to spend time learning to code or figuring out how to build a website.

Because your account comes with free Google AdSense, Yahoo!, YP.com or Microsoft Bing Ads credits, it definitely serves an important purpose for users who want to build specialty content, like mobile apps and social media outreach sites.

Of course, the developer tools and integrations for Google Apps, Perl, Python, Ruby and PostgreSQL only go so far.

Those who disliked the services said that even with its near-legendary customer service, the company was quick to put the blame for certain problems on users’ heads and exercise its right to suspend accounts.

While the firm welcomes those who like developing via the command line, it makes it clear that users need to respect the usage limits it institutes.

The fact that services like root access are only enabled for Managed Hosting accounts is somewhat indicative of this host’s general stance. If you crave wild, freeform experimentation, then perhaps you should stick to something like Amazon AWS.

In the end, InMotion Hosting is likely to check most, if not all, of the boxes for a broad cross-section of personal, developer and corporate users. 

Best of all, you can jump into the knowledge base and articles to see how others have used the platform and its plans before you actually commit to a purchase.

After The Review InMotion Hosting FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions

Do I get a free domain?

Is the checkout process easy and straight forward?

After I make my purchase when do I get access to my server?

What methods of payment does InMotion Hosting accept?

Am I able to upgrade and downgrade my hosting account?

Does InMotion Hosting put any advertising on my website with any of their hosting plans?

Does my account automaticallly renew?

How do I get the lowest price available for each of the hosting accounts offered?

Am I able to install database driven applications like WordPress, PrestaShop, phpBB, Joomla, osCommerce, etc...?

What control panel is being used on the server?

Conclusion

This brings us to the end of this comprehensive InMotion Hosting review. If you are interested in giving them a shot you can choose one of the platforms below that best suites your needs. With a 90-full money back guarantee on most of their hosting plans it's well worth checking them out.

Free Domain

Unlimited Diskspace

Unlimited Bandwidth

SSD Drives

WordPress Pre-Installed

cPanel

90 Day Money Back Guarantee

From $4.19/mo.

Inmotion Hosting

TOTAL SCORE

Multiple Platforms

Product Scalability

Stable Infrastructure

SSD Drives

Rapid Deployment

cPanel

90 Day Money Back Guarantee

From $4.19/mo.

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