InMotion Hosting Reviews and Expert Opinion

Today, I’ll dig into InMotion Hosting’s features. After all, it’s always great to hear an objective third-party opinion. Our ultimate research question is, is InMotion Hosting genuinely worth it?

Getting Started With InMotion Hosting

To start, I’ll log in to InMotion Hosting, just like you would if you’d decided to purchase the service.

Once you visit their site, chances are, you will instantly love the interface. The design is not only interactive and easy on the eyes but also appropriate for first-time users. Or at least that’s how it seems.

I assume you don’t have an account. So, you might rush to click “Get Started” to begin with the signup process, just like I did. But apparently, that’s not the right thing to do.

The “Get Started” button redirects you to Shared Hosting. And that’s not all that InMotion Hosting has to provide. So, it would be best to explore your options first.

InMotion Hosting offers WordPress Hosting, VPS Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, and Shared Hosting. If you click “Compare Plans” on any of these options, you’ll get an in-depth explanation of its features, along with different pricing options.

I’ve decided to go for Shared Hosting as it’s a cost-effective solution for small businesses. However, keep in mind, you can always upgrade as your business grows. Also, the starting point is different for each company or individual needs and preferences.

Once you click on “Compare Plans” or “Get Started,” you’ll see that Shared Hosting comes with 24/7 human support and free SSDs. Once you scroll down a bit, you will see a bunch of offers.

There are the Launch, Power, and Pro plan, for one month, a year, or two years. The three plans come with different features. And like any other hosting, the price decreases for more extended periods. If you are confident of InMotion Hosting’s performance, you can benefit from a huge bonus.

Still, I wanted to test the hosting first. So, I went for a monthly plan. I was a bit disappointed at this point, as you can only purchase the Pro plan for a month, being the most expensive of the three. The Power and Launch plans, in turn, are available for one and two-year terms exclusively.

On the good side, InMotion Hosting provides for a 100% satisfaction guarantee. All Shared hosting plans and all six-month and longer-term hosting plans for the VPS and Reseller Hosting packages come with a 90-day money-back guarantee.

The Dedicated Servers and all monthly billed VPS and Reseller Hosting packages are eligible for a full refund for 30 days.

Another thing I especially liked at this point is the “Chat live with a Shared Hosting expert” right next to the plans. If you need help with your decision, there is always someone to assist you in the process.

Better yet, they have a WordPress Hosting expert, VPS Hosting expert, and Dedicated Hosting expert as well.

Back to my purchase, I clicked on “Add to Cart”.

Setting Things Up at Inmotion Hosting

At this point, InMotion Hosting still doesn’t require any personal information. Instead, you will see Hosting, Domain, Billing, and Review my Order in the menu on the screen.

• Hosting
  Here, you will see your Cart, so you can recheck your purchase or even change your mind and “Change Your Plan”.I liked that InMotion Hosting also offered an option to install WordPress at this stage. You can also set it up later in the AMP, but it makes things easier. So, I went for it.

• Domain
  Now, you get to choose between a domain you already own or purchase a new one. If you’re not sure at this point, you can also decide on this later. InMotion Hosting works with .com, .net, .org, .biz, .us and .info domains, which is a bit limiting. However, most InMotion Hosting plans include one free domain registration, or domain registration transfer, for a year. So, you can come up with a brandable and sweet domain to attract your target. Then, you should select a hosting plan and add your domain name during the checkout. I went for a new domain named ‘letsseehowitworks.com’. Once I entered it in the search bar, the site checked for availability. As it wasn’t available, InMotion Hosting offered several free alternatives. When you find one to your liking, you can click “Add to Cart”. The domain is free, but the domain privacy is not. The site automatically adds it to your Cart, but you can choose to skip this feature if you believe you don’t need it.

• Billing
  In this section, you start by entering your email address. Then, you need to enter all account information, including First, Last and Company Name, Country, Address, City, Phone, Email and even a Referral (optional). You can choose between a Credit or Debit Card, PayPal, or U.S. Purchase Order, or Check Order for payment.

• Review My Order
  Once you check if everything is in order, you need to agree with InMotion Hosting’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and “Checkout”.At this point, InMotion Hosting sends you an email that you need to confirm to get started with the service. The site offers support in the form of articles or even an on-call expert to guide you in the process.

• Account Management Panel
  When you log in for the very first time, you will end up seeing this screen. In “My Account” you can edit your login, security, and contact information. Here, you can also improve your security with verification or two-factor authentication. In the “Billing” section, there is information regarding your subscriptions, payments, and renewals. If you want to cancel your subscription, you can contact the team to do so. If you want to manage your domains, encounter any transfers or new registrations, you can do so in the “Domains” section. Here you can also add domain privacy if you skipped it during the purchase, as I did. You can purchase Dedicated I.P.s, Domains, Hosting, Web Design, Managed Hosting, Automated Backups, QuickStarter, WordPress Plugins, and Themes in the “Marketplace”.At last, the “Specials” tab consists of temporary offers specific to your account.

Now that you get the overall picture let’s get into more detail.

The first section in “My Account” refers to your personal information. However, the second one is specific to your domain.

• WordPress Admin
  If you have started a new site, as I did, here you can post your first blog.

• cPanel
  In the cPanel, you can manage most of your website. In Preferences, you can set all your account information, change the language, leave feedback, or even link to InMotion Hosting. You can also find the option to earn free hosting or leave feedback.
  You can set up and manage email accounts in the Email section. You can also find Forwarders, Email Routing, Autoresponders, Track Delivery, Email or Spam Filters, Encryption, BoxTrapper, and Email Deliverability options.
  Domains consist of primary, addon, and subdomains. There are also options for Aliases, Redirects, Zone Editor, and Dynamic DNS. Top Applications is mainly divided into two sections, Scripts, and Categories. In Scripts, you can find BoldGrid, WordPress, Joomla 2.5, Drupal 7, OpenCart 1.5, PrestaShop 1.6, phpBB, phpList, MediaWiki 1.27, Moodle 2.0, Coppermine, and Gallery. In Categories, you can find Blogs, Micro Blogs, Portals/CMS, Forums, Image Galleries, Wikis, Social Networking, Ad Management, Calendars, Gaming, Mails, Polls and Analytics, Project Management, E-Commerce, ERP, Guest Books, Customer Support, Frameworks, Educational, D.B. Tools, Music, Video, RSS, File Management, Others, Libraries, and Widgets. In Software, you can find Set Up Google Analytics, MultiPHP Manager, MultiPHP INI Editor, Softaculous Apps Installer, WordPress Manager by Softaculous, PHP Pear Packages, Perl Modules, Merchant Account Setup, Optimize Website, and Cache Manager. There is a File Manager, Images, Directory Privacy, Disk Usage, FTP Accounts, Git Version Control, and Backup Manager in the Files section. In Databases, you can find phpMyAdmin, MySQL Databases, MySQL Database Wizard, Remote MySQL, PostgreSQL Databases, PostgreSQL Database Wizard, and phpPgAdmin. Metrics is dedicated to the Visitors, Errors, RawAccess, and Resource Usage. At last, there is a Security and an Advanced section.In Security, you can find SSH Access, IP Blocker, SSL/TLS, Manage API Tokens, Leech Protection, ModSecurity, SSL/TLS Status, Two-Factor Authentication, Purchase Dedicated I.P., and Sucuri Website Security.Finally, you can work with Terminal, Cron Jobs, Indexes, Error Pages, Apache Handlers, and MIME Types in the Advanced Section.

• Reset cPanel Password
  Here, you can reset the password for your domain.

• Account Technical Details
  You can find all information regarding the domain in Technical Details, including username, server, URLs, I.P. addresses, and DNS Authority Key.

• Email
  You should click on Email if you need to set up tools regarding the functionality of your inbox.

• Install BoldGrid
  You can build a new site, create another one with BoldGrid or WordPress, or use your existing WordPress setup.

• Softaculous
  Softaculous provides a shortcut to Installations, Outdated Installations, and Backups.

• Purchase Dedicated SSL Certificate
  The cost of an SSL Certificate is $99.99 per year with a one-time installation fee of $25.

• Manage Free Basic SSL
  Here, you can enable a free SSL for domains existent for over four hours.

• Simple CSR Request for 3rd party SSL
  You can also get an SSL from a third party instead of InMotion Hosting. If you choose to do so, you will need a CSR, which you can purchase here.

• Change Hosting Plan/Term
  Once you see how it all works or your business expands, you might upgrade your hosting plan. We have 31 days left in our current plan. We can either change the term of our Pro plan, substitute it with another Shared plan, or another category altogether. InMotion Hosting offers four different WordPress Plans:
  1. WP-1000S
  2. WP-2000S
  3. WP-3000S
  4. WP-4000S

  The first three are available for one, two, or three years, whereas the fourth is also available per month.

  

  InMotion Hosting offers three different Shared Plans:

  1. Launch
  2. Power
  3. Pro

  

  You can purchase all three annually, for two or three years.

  InMotion Hosting offers thirteen different VPS Plans:

  1. VPS 2GB
  2. VPS 3GB
  3. VPS 4GB
  4. VPS 5GB
  5. VPS 6GB
  6. VPS 7GB
  7. VPS 8GB
  8. VPS 9GB
  9. VPS 10GB
  10. VPS 11GB
  11. VPS 12GB
  12. VPS 13GB
  13. VPS 14GB

  

  All VPS plans are available for one or six months, a year, two, or three years.

  InMotion Hosting offers five different Dedicated Servers:

  1. Essential G3
  2. Advanced G3
  3. Elite G3
  4. Commercial Class 1000 G3
  5. Commercial Class 2000 G3

  

  These plans are available for one, three, or six months and annually. As expected, these are the priciest out of them all.

  InMotion Hosting offers nine different Reseller plans:

  1. R-1000S
  2. R-2000S
  3. R-3000S
  4. Reseller VPS 2 G.B.
  5. Reseller VPS 3 G.B.
  6. Reseller VPS 4 G.B.
  7. Reseller VPS 5 G.B.
  8. Reseller VPS 6 G.B.
  9. Reseller VPS 7 G.B.

  The first three are available for one month, six months, one and two years. As for the remainder, you can also purchase for a three-year term, with a better discount.

  

• Change Primary Domain
  You might change your primary domain but should be aware of the consequences.

• Purchase Dedicated I.P.
  You can give your domain its own online address to keep your site running secure and independent for $72 a year.

• DNS Zone Editor
  You can use this zone to manage DNS zones.

• Request Email Limit Exemption
  Here, you can set up your domain, email patterns, related tools, and methods.

• Website Transfer Request
  Website transfers might be free or paid. Also, the estimated time of completion depends on the volume of requests. At this point, you need to enter the old host and information regarding your hostname. The hostname refers to your server I.D. or I.P. address. You also need to enter the number of sites and databases. If you are unsure about the latter, a good rule of thumb is one database per website.

Performance, Speed and Uptime

One thing I liked about InMotion Hosting is its 99.99% uptime. Still, I cannot say if they indeed kept their promise, as the uptime averaged  99.93% in the long term.

In the short term, the network encounters some hiccups. Also, there’s no way to check whether your site has been online by yourself or use a third party. Instead, you need to contact support.

The hosting offers fast speeds due to its Max Speed Zones. In simpler terms, you can choose among multiple data centers to ensure faster web hosting and response times. Or at least that’s what they claim.

After in-depth testing, I can say InMotion Hosting doesn’t provide for the same speeds all around the globe. The closer you are to the U.S., the better the speeds. So, the quality of the service essentially depends on your location. Still, the worldwide speed averaged 172 ms, ranking for a solid A.

When it comes to performance, InMotion Hosting can handle approximately 500-800 views per hour. So, it can adequately distribute its resources even for a vast amount of traffic at once.

Level of Support at InMotion Hosting

InMotion Hosting claims to have the best support team in the web hosting business. If you google this, you might find the same information from several third parties.

It certainly grabbed our attention, so I decided to test it out.

InMotion Hosting offers a live chat and a self-help support center.

Once you click on Chat, you’ll see this window.

At this point, you can choose what kind of support you need. I went for technical support with an existing account, as I wanted to test the refund policy simultaneously.

I went for Account Management. Here, InMotion Hosting offers several more sub-categories, Billing & Account Modifications, New Account Activation, AMP Login, Cancellation, and Payment & Renewals. I went for cancellation and wrote a message as a general user.

At this point, you can spot three types of support InMotion Hosting offers, chat, phone or ticket. Also, they openly claim the wait time for up to 15 minutes. However, I got a response in less than a minute, which is an excellent indicator.

The support was super friendly, asked how I was doing, and instantly agreed upon a refund. He also asked whether I need to keep our domain. It might be helpful, as you will probably forget about this issue.

Once again, the support reminded us that I could get help over the phone, chat, or email.

As great as the live chat feature is, it cannot compete with the support center.

Once you click on Get Support, you will see a comprehensive library of guides.

Here, you can search for various problems you have encountered with their service. As mentioned before, you can also send yourself the guides when you log in to the site by email.

If you scroll a bit down, you will find the options for a call and live chat once again.

There’s also an option to submit a ticket to one of their departments, including Billing or Technical Support.

Finally, you can use Skype to schedule a meeting with a real-life assistant.

Security and Backups

InMotion Hosting also comes with a range of security features to protect your site while you work on growing your business. Their Security Suite consists of free SSL, Hack Protection, Free Automatic Backup, and DDoS Protection.

You can access the SSL feature through the cPanel, as explained before.

Hack Protection works with the internal tool Patchman, detecting and resolving vulnerabilities before they happen.

The backup process is also automated, as expected. No one should rely on manual backups, as you can easily forget to restore your data and lose your progress.

Finally, Corero is responsible for DDoS Protection. As one of the leaders in cybersecurity, it provides high-quality services. So, you can rest assured as you’ll be safe on the web with InMotion Hosting.

Specific Features of InMotion Hosting

Although mentioned in different parts of the review, I’ve decided to point out what gives InMotion Hosting an advantage in the market.

First, they have quick response times with solutions up in minutes.

Their customer support team is available 24/7/365 on the live chat feature, Skype, or on-call. You can also submit a ticket or use their library to assist you in the process.

Another great feature is the availability of different server solutions. More precisely, you can install InMotion Hosting on various operating systems, including CentOS, Ubuntu, or Debian.

InMotion Hosting offers flexibility in billing. You can start small and upgrade the plan as your business grows.

The team is dedicated to security, meaning they can identify and resolve online threats even before they reach your system.

Finally, if something doesn’t work in your favor or you have found a better solution for your business, you can ask for a refund. As tested, the team is willing to cancel your plan and refund your money in 3 to 5 business days.

Pros and Cons of InMotion Hosting

Pros:

• Free SSL Certificate
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Excellent Customer Support Availability
• 90-day Money Back Guarantee
• A Free Domain That Lasts a Lifetime
• Access to BoldGrid – A Powerful Website Builder
• Excellent WordPress Host
• Automated Free Backups
• Functionality and Ease of Use

Cons:

• Specific Plans Are Not Available Monthly
• Potentially Slow Account Activation For Non-U.S. Citizens
• Restricted Files to 50,000

Summary

InMotion Hosting has a reputation as a reliable provider. With my testing, I managed to support this claim. What I like the most about the service is their support. They are here to guide you as soon as you enter their site, in the form of calls, chats, or articles.

InMotion Hosting offers WordPress Hosting, VPS Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, Shared Hosting, and Reseller Hosting. What I didn’t like at this point is the unavailability of monthly contracts for some plans. Also, it might take a while to make an account with the verification process for non-U.S. citizens.

Apart from it, it was primarily positive indicators. As a user, you can benefit from a wide range of features well-organized on their user interface. Whether you are a beginner or an expert in this field, you can quickly move around the site and find all you need for your hosting, especially in the cPanel.