InMotion Hosting Review
InMotion Hosting is almost always found rated in the top 10 hosting category by web hosting customers, yet they really only focus on one niche: business. While they offer a hosting plan for the individual webmaster, the business theme can be found all across their website. The InMotion home page is plastered with all sorts of information on business hosting plans. There is a wealth of information on VPS and dedicated hosting plans as well. On their ‘Meet Us’ page, it says “We Understand Business.” They frequently refer to their superior reliability, high speeds and quality service – all telltale signs of a business hosting provider. It does not matter if you are a small or large business; InMotion has a suitable plan for you. However, if you are an individual, we recommend you look elsewhere.
Features
Since InMotion primarily supplies web hosting to businesses, they offer some pretty advanced features. However, because they cater to businesses, you must pay to play. These advanced features are only available on upgraded plans. A fine example is how InMotion only offers 2 websites on one account but 25 websites on the upgraded plan. Further, on their most basic plan, you are only given a laughable 2 MySQL databases yet on their most upgraded plan, you have 200. The same can be said for parked and sub domains whereby you are restricted to a handful of them on the basic plan, but you have unlimited sub and parked domains on the fully upgraded plan. We would like to note that since InMotion is for business class hosting, we will list the main features of the fully upgraded plan instead of the basic plan:
- Unlimited disk space
- Unlimited transfer/bandwidth
- 200 MySQL Databases
- Unlimited FTP Accounts
- Unlimited sub and parked domains
- Premium website builder
- Unlimited e-mail accounts (and unlimited IMAP support)
- Business class hardware
- Data backups
- Max speed zones
InMotion Hosting Feature List by Plan
Customer Support
For all of the business targeting that InMotion does, their support center looks like it was made for individuals. It is loaded with information and various support channels. There are website tutorials, an online community and education channels with tons of content. They even hold weekly Google+ hangouts. We have no idea why most businesses would need all this information who commonly employ IT professionals but it is refreshing to see just in case you are a sole webmaster who is adamant about choosing InMotion. Additionally, of course they have the big three support options – live chat, phone and e-mail, all of which are 24/7/365. If you are a heavy social media users, you can also contact them through all major social outlets: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn.
Ease of Use
Like many of the other top web hosting providers, InMotion uses the comprehensive cPanel control panel. However, they have also customized it so their business users would enjoy a deeper user experience. One main element that was tweaked is the accessibility of your email accounts directly from the control panel. This is not typical with the regular cPanel. You also have the ability to upload your files through the actual control panel or via FTP. They can be a bit more difficult to use for the advanced features however they can also be just as easy to use as it really depends on what you are doing. As an example, InMotion also has one click installation processes which make installing your CMS a breeze.
Website Building
We found InMotion’s website building to be an overall pleasure. First off, they provide their customers with the option of using the ‘drag & drop’ site builder. Even with an InMotion hosting plan for an individual webmaster, you can have a site up within a matter of minutes. InMotion also uses the script library Fantastico which currently has a very respectable 39 scripts. This also makes for an extremely fast CMS installation as stated above. You will also have access to over 310 free applications. Additionally, we strongly recommend you use the premium website builder. This site builder puts the rest to shame and while there is a bit of a learning curve, once you get the hang of it, there is more flexibility with it over the competition.
Premium Site Builder: Choosing Site Type
Reliability
If there is one area of expertise for InMotion, it is their reliability. Bear with us for a moment and allow us to express our praise. InMotion guarantees 99.9% uptime. But, that is just like almost every other huge hosting company. So, what’s the big deal? Well, for starters, InMotion employs a technological strategy called Max Speed Zones. It is with this that you are able to actually choose the location of the data center you would like to be hosted on. They operate two data centers; one in Los Angeles and one in Washington D.C. Moreover, if you are part of their exclusive club, your website can run at speeds of up to six times faster. InMotion also cooperates with some of the largest ISPs and peering exchanges. This eliminates third party data networks so that the connection is more direct. This in turn speeds up your website even more so. InMotion also uses a BGP4 network which thwarts downtime, and N+1 configurations across their servers using RAID5. And lastly, their data centers are monitored every second of every day.
Summary
While we personally do not recommend InMotion for individual webmasters, you can still find an excellent plan if you are absolutely fixed on reliability. If you are a small or large business, your choice of InMotion is a no brainer. They offer a nice range of features and quality support. InMotion is a bit more expensive than the rest of the hosting providers however as they say, “you get what you pay for.”
