What is InMotion Hosting?

InMotion is a Los Angeles-based web-hosting company that has been around since 2001. They host more than 300,000 domains worldwide and own a second data center in Virginia Beach. A slightly higher-end hosting solution that markets its customer support and web design services heavily, InMotion clients are often corporate ones who scale to use their VPS and dedicated server services. The company also owns a more blogger- and the small biz-centric host called WebHostingHub.

How Good are InMotion Plans?

InMotion shines in four of the primary categories that we look for in a good hosting company: customer service, speed, data security, and uptime. They are truly reliable, and accessible, and will restore the regular backups they make of your site at no extra charge. But there are a few notable downsides, such as slow activation time and misleading pricing plans, that could be enough to pass them by.

InMotion Shared Hosting Pricing Table

Plan	Core	Launch	Power	Pro
Sale Price	$2.99/mo	$5.99/mo	$5.99/m0	$13.99/mo
Original Price	$9.49/mo	$12.99/mo	$16.99/mo	$23.99/mo
No. of Websites	2	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Storage Space	100 GB SSD	Unlimited NVMe SSD	Unlimited NVMe SSD	Unlimited NVMe SSD
No. of Email Addresses	10	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Feature 1	Free SSL	Free domain & SSL	Free domain & SSL	Free domain & SSL
Feature 2	Python,  Node.JS,  Ruby, and GIT version control.	Python,  Node.JS,  Ruby, and GIT version control.	Python,  Node.JS,  Ruby, and GIT version control.	Python,  Node.JS,  Ruby, and GIT version control.
Feature 3	24/7/365 Live Chat Support	24/7/365 Live Chat Support	24/7/365 Live Chat Support	24/7/365 Live Chat Support

InMotion WordPress Hosting Pricing Table

Plan	WP Core	WP Launch	WP Power	WP Pro
Sale Price	$3.99/mo	$7.99/mo	$7.99/mo	$15.99/mo
Original Price	$11.49/mo	$15.99/mo	$20.99/mo	$29.99/mo
No. of Websites	2	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Storage Space	100 GB NVMe SSD	Unlimited NVMe SSD	Unlimited NVMe SSD	Unlimited NVMe SSD
WP Performance	10x	20x	30x	40x
Bandwidth	Unlimited Bandwidth	Unlimited Bandwidth	Unlimited Bandwidth	Unlimited Bandwidth
No. of Email Addresses	10	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited

InMotion VPS Hosting Pricing Table

Plan	VPS 4GB RAM	VPS 8GB RAM	VPS 12GB RAM	VPS 16GB RAM
Sale Price	$19.99/mo	$39.99/mo	$49.99/mo	$59.99/mo
Original Price	$59.99/mo	$86.99/mo	$106.99/mo	$126.99/mo
vCPU Cores	2	4	6	8
RAM	4 GB	8 GB	12 GB	16 GB
Storage Space	90 GB SSD	150 GB NVMe SSD	210 GB NVMe SSD	360 GB NVMe SSD
Bandwidth	2 TB	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Dedicated IPs	2	3	5	10

Our Official InMotion Hosting Review

InMotion is a U.S.-based hosting company with a truly bi-coastal appeal, with hosting data centers in both California and Virginia. Established in 2001, InMotion has a long reputation for providing business-specific hosting options for businesses of all sizes, even offering customizable and specifically tailored plans for larger business accounts.

Best Features of InMotion Hosting

With a modest starting price point and a lot of features that compete with other higher-priced shared hosting services, InMotion has a lot to offer to business users in search of affordable and powerful web hosting. Here are some of the reasons we would recommend them:

SSD Data Hosting

In general, much of the tech world is shifting over to Solid State Hard Drives from older HDDs, and InMotion has adopted full SSD capability for their data hosting. According to claims on their website, SSD hosting provides up to 20 times the transfer speed of regular HDD hosting. And while it is just about impossible to perform an isolated test that compares the two, since InMotion doesn’t offer any HDD data hosting for reference, it is safe to say that SSD technology is faster and is the future of data storage in just about every field.

Easy WordPress Integration

For many small business owners looking to build a fully operational website on the cheap, WordPress serves as a great platform with versatile functionality and near-limitless web design potential. And InMotion caters to WordPress users specifically by including a one-click install function to get your WordPress site up quickly and easily on their servers. In addition to easy installation, InMotion also has a huge number of WordPress tutorials on their site to help business owners without much web design experience get the most out of the platform. Their customer service reps know the ins and outs of WordPress, too, so they can even help you with any issues you may be having that aren't specifically related to hosting. This brings us to our next point.

InMotion Customer Service is Super Reliable

InMotion makes a point of highlighting their customer and technical support on their website, claiming that each of their support representatives has an average of 4 years of experience in the web hosting industry. Each of their managers also has an average of 10 years of experience with web hosting, meaning that when you dial in for help, you should get someone who knows what they are doing on the other end of the line. Additionally, InMotion provides rigorous internal training programs to all of its support staff to guarantee the quality of support. What that all adds up to is fast support times and a knowledgeable support team, which are incredibly useful features for business owners. Plus, you can reach them through many different mediums 24x7x365: phone support, live chat, email ticketing, and user help forums (which are very comprehensive). A few great hosting companies with otherwise fantastic support fall short in these areas. For example, Dreamhost doesn't have a phone support line, and the WordPress gurus at Flywheel only work regular business hours.

Excellent Uptime and Page Load Performance

All the fun features and helpful support don't really matter if your site is crawling to load or is constantly down. InMotion Hosting does not skimp in these key areas, maintaining an excellent record of 99.99% uptime and page loading speeds that are at least a third faster than average. We would recommend them based on their reliability alone.

Automated Backups & Free Restores

Most shared hosting options perform some sort of regular backups, but many will charge you extra to restore them. HostGator, for example, backs up your site once a week but requires that you pay $19 to retrieve the most recent backup. With InMotion, you can have peace of mind knowing that restoring your site doesn't cost extra. The small catch here is that they do not back up files larger than 10MB, so you'll need to store your high-definition feature-length films elsewhere. We'll discuss this downside, if you consider it as such, in the next section.

Freebies & Other Nice Touches

There are lots of little things to like about InMotion, too. They integrate cPanel into your dashboard, so you don't need to have multiple logins. Scaling up to a VPS or dedicated server is rather seamless. They make great efforts to reduce energy usage and are proud to lay claim to Los Angeles' first green data center. They throw in a free domain name with sign-up. Coupling these nice touches with their top-notch reliability makes them easy to recommend.

Downsides of InMotion Hosting

Despite all of these reliable features, InMotion does have a few drawbacks that need require attention. We'd still recommend them to many, but a few of these cons could make the difference for some.

Vague Usage Cut-off Limits

InMotion offers unlimited disk storage and bandwidth allocation for their users, but with one important caveat: all use must be in keeping with “normal use patterns.” They strictly prohibit any activity that leads to “excessive use,” but doesn’t do a very good job of defining what excessive and regular use amount to in relation to their servers. Some users have found themselves cut off from hosting services with little explanation other than that they were engaging in “excessive use” behavior, but without a strict definition of what that means, it could be hard to avoid a potential loss of service.

In some cases, the usage limits are very clearly delineated as well as perfectly reasonable. For example, only files less than 10MB will be backed up, and restores are free as long as you don't exceed 3 restores per year. But unfortunately, in the case of bandwidth, it can be difficult to gauge what exactly constitutes excessive use.

Limited Domain Hosting

These days, unlimited domain hosting on a shared account is becoming more and more standard, but InMotion still puts strict caps on the number of domains that each user can host. For the basic Launch plan, users can only host one domain name, but with the highest-priced Pro plan, users can host up to 100 domains. Many users won’t have any issues with these limits, as small business owners will typically only need one or two domain names for their purposes anyway. However, the fact that InMotion has such strict limits on domain hosting as the industry moves toward more unlimited models is a definite drawback for some webmasters.

Slow to Activate after Onboarding

After signing up with InMotion, they require phone verification, and in some cases a photo ID, before your site goes online. This process can take over 48 hours sometimes, especially for customers located outside of the U.S. Though we don't condemn this practice as it adds an extra layer of security that is completely understandable and even commendable, this lag time could be a deal breaker for those who need to get online immediately.

InMotion Pricing Lacks Transparency, Annual Billing Only

The low introductory pricing of $2.49/month advertised all over the InMotion website only applies if you pay upfront for two years. This is not the worst deal around, especially if you consider that DreamHost asks you to pay for three years upfront to get the best deal, but it can still feel disingenuous. Furthermore, unlike DreamHost, they don't offer any month-to-month billing plan. All InMotion plans for shared hosting must be paid for in year-long chunks.

Bottom Line:

InMotion offers polished and reliable web hosting services that are meant to help businesses grow.  We would easily recommend them to professionals who want all their bases covered with lots of potentials to scale. For bloggers looking for something flexible on the cheap, you may be happier with a service like SiteGround, or InMotion's sister company WebHostingHub.

InMotion Questions and Answers

With technology, these days, web hosting services are fast becoming more common than ever before. Whereas back in the old days of the internet you had to rely on one or two major players, now you can sign up with one of the dozens of different hosting sites, each of them with tempting offers and incentives.

But how do you know which one is the best? You can’t spend all your time testing each host to find one that meets your needs, nor can you scour the internet to find all of the customer reviews to get a comprehensive picture of the site in question.

Thankfully, though, that is why we offer a complete Q&A of the top-rated hosting sites online. In this case, we have InMotion Hosting, which is a powerhouse in this industry and has one of the most respected hosting programs you can find anywhere.

But don’t take our word for it, check out some of the most commonly asked questions regarding InMotion to see if it has everything you or your company needs. When it comes to online web hosting, only the best will do, so be sure to go in with your eyes open.

InMotion Summary

Before we dive into our Q&A session, we should first give you some insight into the company. InMotion was founded back in 2001 when the internet was still in its adolescence. What’s notable about this particular hosting company is that it is employee-owned, rather than a traditional corporate setup. InMotion has two primary locations; one in LA and the other in Virginia Beach, VA. Because they have two sites, you can choose the one that is best for you, depending on where your clients are. That way, you don’t have to worry about significant lag times due to being in a different time zone.

Top Questions Regarding InMotion Hosting

What Operating System Does InMotion Use?

Unlike most hosting services, InMotion only operates on Linux, which means that if your company uses Mac or Windows, you are unable to use them.

How Many Hosting Plans are Offered?

When you sign up with InMotion, you have five different options from which to choose.

Shared Hosting: if you want a stable and reliable network for your business, then this is the package to get. It is a little basic, but it has all the features you need to keep your company running smoothly.

VPS Hosting: for those who have a more robust business that is experiencing a lot of growth, a VPS plan will be a better option. This plan has a lot more tools to scale up your networking solutions so that you don’t experience too much in the way of growing pains.

Dedicated Servers: if you have a huge online business that has a lot of traffic, you will want to set up a dedicated server so that you can promise reliability and secure connections to your customers. InMotion makes it easy to maintain a large online presence.

Reseller Hosting: for those who want to start their own hosting site, InMotion gives you the tools you need to create and sell domains to other businesses, making it easy to get up and running.

WordPress Hosting: for those that want WordPress pre-installed without having to worry about things like server-to-server migrations. The perfect plan to get started with safer upgrading, on-the-fly security patching, and industry-leading speed.

What is InMotion’s Uptime Percentage?

According to the site, you can expect a 99.99% uptime, guaranteed. When testing out the services, we found that this was pretty accurate. InMotion has a dedicated staff that is there 24/7 to monitor for problems that may occur and fix them on the fly. As a result, you get fast, stable service without any interruption.

Is InMotion Fully Redundant?

Whenever you talk about hosting services, redundancy is always a major concern. After all, you don’t want to be left in a lurch because the network is experiencing problems. Fortunately, InMotion is fantastic at building failsafe systems to keep your sites up and running no matter what. In fact, all of their servers are backed up every 36 hours for safety.

What Kind of Support Does InMotion Provide?

One of the key areas in which InMotion thrives is customer support. Simply put, if you have a problem, you should be able to get it solved within a relatively short period, no matter how big or small the issue is. Here are some examples of support systems that you can expect with InMotion.

• Tutorials: if you have any questions or need to troubleshoot any aspect of your network, the company provides numerous in-depth tutorials so that you or your IT team can manage your system without having to call InMotion for every issue.
• Informative Articles: for those who are not as technically proficient, InMotion has a library of informative and helpful articles that you can browse to find the information you need in a simple, easy-to-read post.
• Direct Access: if you are having an emergency and need something to be taken care of right away, InMotion has a huge support team that you can contact via email, live chat, or by phone. No matter where you are or the time of day, you can find someone to help you fix your problem quickly and without hassle.
• Social Media: another way to reach out to InMotion for support is through social media. Although it’s preferable to contact them through official channels, you can still see what they have to offer on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ with regard to advice or answers to your questions.

Has InMotion Ever Been Hacked Before?

Unfortunately, back in 2011, the company did experience a major hack that affected over 700,000 users. Thankfully, though, the problem was mitigated by InMotion’s security system and the hack was remedied within a few hours. Since then, there have been no identified breaches of security to their system.

What Kind of Control Does InMotion Offer to Customers?

When you sign up for a hosting plan, you can get access to the Cpanel 11 Control Panel. From there, you can set up email accounts, FTP login and setup information, the configuration of your DNS, domain logs, and add-ons, as well as Google apps and features.

Overall, you can manage almost everything you need to with the Cpanel 11 Control Panel, making it easier to take care of your business network and stay on top of any issues that may arise.

Does InMotion Offer any Exclusive Extras?

Fortunately, when you sign up for a Shared Hosting Plan, you get quite a few extra features and bonuses that can help you make the most of your network. You get $75 of credit for Bing and Yahoo! Searches with Launch plans.

Additionally, you will receive the proprietary system Fantastico, which allows you to experiment with different scripts to help maximize your potential. Highlighted scripts include WordPress, Joomla, Geeklog, and Drupal, among others. You also have the option to run Magneto if you purchase a Dedicated Server or VPS Hosting Plan.

Finally, you also get access to InMotion’s website builder, which can help you create a professional-looking website with templates, buttons, and everything else you need to make it unique and memorable for your customers. You can even include Flash animations and E-Commerce solutions on your site with ease. There are over five hundred different themes and templates you can use to make your site stand out from the crowd.

What is InMotion’s Cancellation Policy?

Technically speaking, InMotion does not offer a free trial, which means that if you sign up, you will have to cancel if you are unhappy with the service (as opposed to denying a full membership before your trial expires).

That being said, the company does offer a ninety-day money-back guarantee if you purchase a Business Class Plan (one to a two-year minimum) or a Virtual Dedicated Plan (six to a twelve-month minimum). Other packages also have a money-back guarantee, but it will only last up to thirty days.

As with other hosting sites, you will not get your domain processing fee returned, and you may be hit with a surcharge if you use over 500 MB of bandwidth before you cancel.

The other thing to take note of is that the company has a very specific method for canceling services. That means that you cannot simply put in a request with customer support. Instead, you have to follow the instructions provided on the cancellation page to ensure that your account is terminated properly.

Are There Any Hidden Costs or Fees?

Fortunately, InMotion has a reputation for integrity, which means that you don’t have to worry about any extra fees being snuck into your billing cycle. Once you enter into a plan, you will pay the same amount forever (or until they raise their prices).

What Programming Language Does InMotion Use?

The company’s servers use the latest versions of MySQL, Apache, and PHP. Additionally, they can communicate with other programs such as Ruby, Perl5, and Python, among others. The only language that they don’t speak is Windows, unfortunately.

Does InMotion Offer an Affiliate Plan?

If you want to be able to analyze and track your website’s data, then you can purchase an affiliate plan through the company. You can also get custom landing pages and commissions added to your plan for your convenience.

What Does InMotion Offer With Regards to Security?

The company has a dedicated security team that monitors for threats 24/7. They also have a support team that will make sure that your account is protected from hackers and malware. Additionally, they offer SSL certificates. You can get shared SSL or purchase your own if you want. Finally, they provide technical support to help you make sure that your network is as secure as possible.

What Kind of E-Commerce Solutions are Offered?

There are two primary options you can choose for E-Commerce sites. The first is PrestaShop Hosting, which gives you a plethora of tools and features to customize your business’ shopping experience. There are over 270 different features to help you get the most from your site.

Second, InMotion offers OpenCart Hosting, which is ideal for small businesses that need something simple and easy to set up. OpenCart is included free with all shared hosting plans, and it can be installed in one step for your convenience.

Does InMotion Offer any Educational Hosting Plans?

In fact, InMotion does provide a service called Moodle, which you can use to set up online classes and manage educational data and services. You can create courses, schedule events, and even grade students all through this one versatile program.

If I Have a WordPress Site Already, Can I Transfer it to InMotion?

Yes, the company makes it easy to transfer material that you already have set up online. The best part is that it is super easy to do and it is free to transfer, meaning that you can consolidate your online presence effectively and without hassle.

Does InMotion Have a Lot of Storage Options?

Yes, this is another area where InMotion excels. All of their hosting plans come with unlimited disk space, meaning that if you have tons of images, logos, or documents for your site you can upload them without having to worry about running out of space.

What Payment Options are Available?

InMotion is remarkably flexible when it comes to paying for your plan. You can use any major credit card, PayPal, or even checks and money orders. No matter how you want to set it up, InMotion makes it easy to manage your account.

Does InMotion Have any Caps on Storage or Bandwidth?

Technically speaking, they don’t. With regards to running a business, you have unlimited data storage and bandwidth, but if you exceed what is considered a “normal” amount you may be hit with a surcharge. If you are worried about going over, then you can contact customer support and see if you are close to getting charged extra. For the most part, though, they don’t want you to abuse the system by uploading tons of files and data that are not related to running a business.