What is InMotion Hosting?

InMotion hosting offer a range of web hosting and web services. They boast various features including speed, performance, security and customer services. They’ve been CNET certified for over 16 years and have been given an A+ rating by the Better Business Bureau in the U.S. and Canada.

Our data centers are Category A, PCI compliant. With advanced Smart Routing technology, advanced DDoS protection & premium bandwidth providers, we maintain 99.999% network uptime.

Visit InMotion (£5.06/Month)

I’d heard a lot about InMotion hosting and how it’s seemingly got a name for itself in the hosting industry. There seems to be a lot of talk around server performance and uptime with InMotion, so naturally I was curious to find out.

I firstly wanted to see what others thought of the web host. I checked out their Facebook page but there were little to no comments on any of their posts.

Their twitter account seemed much more active. It was great to see them interaction with their customers, and responding in a timely manner.

Although the responses were quick and useful, there did seem to be a running theme of people reporting issues. InMotion Hosting claimed there were no server issues, but would look into the individual cases.

InMotion Hosting offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee. They also offer a 90-day money-back guarantee and 100% satisfaction guaranteed! That’s a lot of guarantees, so it’s time to see if we should have any concerns when it comes to their shared hosting.

InMotion Hosting Server Speed & Uptime

I signed up to one of InMotion’s shared hosting plans. They guarantee a 99.9% uptime but boast fast speeds and high performance. I had my hopes up for this host and started monitoring my website.

in the last 24 hours my site achieved a 100% uptime. However, in the last 7 days it was 99.91% and 99.93% over the last 30 days. Whilst this is better than some hosts, and exceeds their guarantee, I was hoping for slightly better results actually.

I suppose it’s worth bearing in mind that my site was unoptimised. I installed WordPress using InMotion’s control panel with a fresh install.

I didn’t apply any performance or security plugins and just left it as it was. Considering that, the results aren’t terrible by any means, but they’re not as good as I had initially expected.

Visit InMotion (£5.06/Month)

InMotion Hosting Features

Putting performance aside for a minute, InMotion Hosting do offer some pretty amazing features. Their pricing plans all offer something a little different, but they have a wide selection of standard features and tools that come with EVERY plan.

Some of these features include:

Solid State Drives
1-Click installations
Latest languages for developers
Email features
FTP accounts

Above are just the standard features that come with all of their pricing plans. However, there’s a lot more on offer which I’ll discuss in a moment. Whilst InMotion Hosting is more expensive than other shared web hosting, they do include a lot more in even their basic hosting packages.

• Free domains: Whether you choose their cheapest plan or their most expensive, you’ll get a FREE domain included with your package. You can sign up for a new domain or transfer your existing domain over at no extra cost.
• Multiple websites: You can host up to 2 websites on InMotion’s launch plan at £5.06 per month. Most basic hosting only allows you to host 1 website, but InMotion offer a lot more for your money.
• Data backups: InMotion claim that you can backup your data with 1-click, and the same for restores. If you lose your work, make a mistake, or simply don’t like something you’ve done with your website, you can ensure you can retrieve your data with the click of a button.
• Data Centers: InMotion have a variety of data centers to choose from. We’ll go into this in more detail later on, but the short of it is that you’re not just tied to one location. This is great if you want to target customers or gain traffic to your website from a particular area.

InMotion Hosting Customer Support

After seeing that InMotion appeared to respond quickly to people through social media, I was keen to test the waters. InMotion Hosting have a variety of support channels, including their support center, live chat, telephone and ticket system.

Their support center offers a wealth of articles, FAQs, and product guides. Whether you’re trying to find out how to install WordPress, send an email, or setup your website security, I’m sure you’d find the answer here.

In fact, this support center probably offers more than any other web host out there.

The community support forum is a place where you can ask and answer questions. If you need help from community members, this is the place to be. There seems to be a lot of information here and people seem to be willing to help out. Most of the questions I saw had answers.

Next I launched InMotion’s live chat. The time was 10:33 AM in the U.K. and the agent responded literally within 2 seconds. The live chat opened in a new tab rather than a window which I found strangely satisfying!

The agent was really polite and helpful. They answered my questions within a couple of minutes and seemed interested in learning more. If I didn’t respond they would prompt me as to whether I still needed help.

I didn’t find this pushy, and actually found it helpful as sometimes I get lost in the moment and get distracted by other things!

InMotion Hosting Pros and Cons

InMotion Hosting is a bit of a conundrum for me at the moment. Whilst their uptime and performance isn’t amazing, it also isn’t terrible. In some cases, it’s far better than other web hosts I’ve tested and reviewed.

On the flip side, they offer a wealth of exciting features and tools, as well as decent customer support. I’m going to weigh up the pros and cons of InMotion hosting to help both you (and me) decide whether they’re worth giving a go.

Pros

90-day money-back: Their 90-day money-back guarantee is extremely generous. Most hosts only offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. This gives me the reassurance that if anything should go wrong, I won’t be out of pocket.

Free Site Transfer: As we learned from my live chat testing, InMotion Hosting offer free site transfers. They can transfer your existing site from another host over to them with ease, and most importantly for FREE. Some hosts charge up to £100 for this privilege!

Free SSL certificate: InMotion Hosting offer a free SSL certificate with their shared hosting plans. Again, this is very generous and can cost a lot of money elsewhere. A years’ worth of SSL certificate is great news, especially for eCommerce websites.

Cons

Not the cheapest: InMotion Hosting aren’t the cheapest host out there. They do offer some features other hosts don’t, but they are a little pricey from £5.06 per month. In some senses they are competitively priced given what’s on offer, but may not be the most affordable choice for beginners.

Phone Verification: After signing up to InMotion hosting, you are required to verify your identity by telephone. Whilst this is a good security measure, it’s pretty frustrating and difficult for non U.S. customers to contact them.

InMotion Hosting Pricing

InMotion’s pricing plans may be a tad expensive, but they do offer a lot of features and tools. I’m going to recap some of the standard features that are included in each of their plans so we can appreciate what’s on offer here.

• Free domain
• WordPress installation for free
• Free SSL certificates
• Marketing tools (website builder, marketing credits, site statistics)
• Security tools (hack protection, DDoS protection)

Launch:

• No downtime website transfers
• 1 page website created for £78
• £120 free advertising credits
• 6 parked domains
• 25 sub domains
• Malware protection

Power:

• No downtime website transfers
• 1 page website created for £78
• £120 free advertising credits
• eCommerce ready
• 26 parked domains
• 100 sub domains
• Malware protection

Pro:

• No downtime website transfers
• 1 page website created for £78
• £120 free advertising credits
• eCommerce ready
• Unlimited parked domains
• Unlimited sub domains
• Malware protection
• Pro-level support

Do I Recommend InMotion Hosting?

After deliberating whether their uptime and performance is worth giving them a shot, I say YES! I do recommend InMotion Hosting. Whilst you may be splashing out a bit more cash on them, they do offer some very useful features.

I would recommend InMotion Hosting to small business owners and medium-sized websites. For those that just want a small WordPress site or blog, I wouldn’t say it’s worth paying the extra money for when you have competitive hosts like BlueHost available. But for bigger sites, you’ll certainly be able to make use of the extra features and tools at your disposal.

Here’s a quick summary of InMotion Hosting:

Live chat support (24/7 support available, even though they are based in the U.S.)
Wide range of features (DDoS protection, malware protection, marketing credits)
Maintained uptime guarantee (uptime was always above 99.91%)
Free site transfer (saving you loads of money as well as time and effort)

Bit pricey
Would like to see an improvement on uptime and response times