Advertising disclosure

Hosting Canada is community-supported. We may earn a commission when you make a purchase through one of our links. Read Disclosure.

InMotion Hosting Review

InMotion is a cloud services company that first launched in 2001 and has always had a focus towards business customers.

What separates them from the rest of the major hosting companies is the fact that they aren’t owned by Endurance International. This business giant is already the owner of many major web hosting platforms, including both Bluehost and HostGator.

So, why is this important, you might ask?

InMotion Hosting tries to establish their brand based on the fact that they are an underdog which doesn’t play by the same rules that the big guys do. They do this fairly well and in the world of web hosting, they are known as the ‘geek-choice‘.

They offer a range of packages and plans which include different perks and features to enhance your website. But can InMotion compete with the best Canadian web hosting companies on the market today?

Let’s found out.

TLDR;

InMotion is a large company that delivers on what it promises. If you’re looking for an extremely long testing period then InMotion is a great choice with their 90-day money back guarantee.

People in search for free data backups and transfers also have found a good choice as they offer both along with great uptimes and solid speed.

One of the big reasons not to go with InMotion is their higher than average introductory pricing.

The Hard Science


Our cloud hosting tests can be simplified into two key metrics: uptime and average loadtime. The best companies are strong in both categories, regardless of where you are located in the world.

InMotion Uptime Statistics in Canada

To help our Canadian readers, we’ve performed out tests from all across the country. Here’s what we gathered on InMotion:

  • Montreal

    Uptime – 99.1%
    Loadtime – 2,312Ms

  • Toronto

    Uptime – 99.0%
    Loadtime – 2,232Ms

  • Vancouver

    Uptime – 98.9%
    Loadtime – 2,485Ms

  • Winnipeg

    Uptime – 98.9%
    Loadtime – 2,358Ms

Let’s Talk About Uptime
  • Uptime – shows the percentage of time when everything is working fine with the provider.
  • Montreal’s 99.1% uptime – In Montreal, InMotion’s services were only unavailable 0.9% of time. This comes down roughly to about 78 hours in a year.
  • Everything that goes above 98% is definitely a strong uptime.

InMotion Load Times in Canada

  • Load times are measured and shown in miliseconds.
  • These are tested over an extended period, usually months, and through different browsers.
  • If a provider has an average load time under 2,000 miiseconds, we can say it is high value.

load-time significance

InMotion’s testing results for load time were somewhat average and their uptime scores are above average.

So, eventually it’s up to you to decide whether InMotion, and its average features, are up to your standards, and suitable for your website

InMotion Pricing


As you can see from above, InMotion offers relatively solid performance when it comes to uptime metrics and average pageload times. With that said, the company also has a reputation of being one of the more expensive providers on the market.

Here’s a peek at how InMotion presents their packages and plans:

Inmotion Pricing

InMotion breaks their services into three clear categories. The first is the Launch plan, which is designed for new website designers and simple blogs.

For a skiing review site or a hockey fight review site – this would be more than sufficient – as it includes a free domain name and unlimited bandwidth.

InMotion’s middle plan is called Power, and it’s their most popular option for small businesses looking to migrate web data to a new platform. It allows hosting of six separate websites and performance that is supposedly two times the power of the Launch plan.

The Biggest Plan for the Biggest Users

Lastly, InMotion has a high-end option called the Pro plan, which only a large, matured business would be interested in. It includes unlimited website hosts, double performance versus the Power plan, and a special technical support package.

Long term pricing with InMotion is relatively comparable to all of the other popular hosting platforms available today. The kicker is that their introductory pricing is relatively weak.

For a lot of the most popular hosting platforms you can grab a three year subscription for $2 to $4 per month to start out. This is obviously a giant value add and we love to tell people to take advantage of those pricing models.

If you count out introductory pricing – InMotion is right in there with current pricing trends.

Features


At first glance, InMotion’s three plan options can look quite similar. But as you dig into the details you can see what they have to offer.

To start – InMotion offers a handful of features for all of their plans:

    • ☑️ Free SSD Drives
    • ☑️ Free Domain
    • ☑️ 90-Day Guarantee
    • ☑️ Free Data Backups
    • ☑️ Free 1-Click Installer
    • ☑️ Multiple Coding Options
    • ☑️ Secure IMAP Email
    • ☑️ Max Speed Zone
    • ☑️ SSH Access
    • ☑️ Google Apps Integration
    • ☑️ Unlimited Disk Space
    • ☑️ Free

SSL Certificate☑️ 24/7 Customer Support

The one aspect that really jumps out is the 90-Day Guarantee. Most hosting platforms only offer 30-day money back guarantees. Testing out a hosting platform for three months rather than one can make a huge difference.

When it comes to differences between plans there are a few aspects that may move the needle depending on your hosting needs.

CoreLaunchPowerPro
Databases40UnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited
Websites Supported225UnlimitedUnlimited
Pro Level SupportNoNoNoYes
eCommerce ReadyNoNoYesYes
Parked Domains1UnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited
Sub DomainsUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited

Positives


The positives for InMotion are fantastic and might have you thinking that you are going to sign up for the hosting service right away. Details are important when it comes to bold claims a hosting service offers.

Customer Support

The customer support at InMotion truly makes up for the lack of intuitive knowledge base. With 24/7/365 customer support offered on their website we obviously had to test the system out.

I opened a ticket and was offered a response within five minutes. It begs the question – why do they even offer priority support? It kind of makes me think they just advertise that option as a throw in for upgrading.

90-Day Money Back Guarantee

Everyone should love when companies offer guarantees that are time sensitive. I think they’re extremely telling.

With the industry average being 30-day guarantees it shows that InMotion isn’t scared to offer a long testing duration. They truly think you will be happy with what they are offering.

Free Site Transfers and Data Backups

These are not every day free features that hosting services throw about. It’s true a good host always offers a free site transfer.

But – a great hosting service offers free data backups. A lot of hosting services try to make you pay for backups which is kind of silly in my opinion. Free data backups should be included.

Negatives


High Introductory Prices

Comparing the introductory rates with other industry leaders leaves the pricing for InMotion on the outskirts of being a “cheaper” hosting option.

Taking advantage of introductory rates is a great way to save money when starting out.

The prices offered by InMotion are not exorbitant and are actually right at the industry average for long-term pricing. However, they definitely drop the ball when it comes to introductory pricing.

Average Load Times

This isn’t a negative but more of a non-differentiator. Personally, I prefer blazing fast load times. Most people will want that for their web hosting service.

If that isn’t important to you or average load times are okay then InMotion doesn’t have a negative in this category for you.

Summing It Up


InMotion’s hosting plans offer decent performance and solid reliability and is packed full of features.

InMotion is a fantastic choice if you prioritize data backups and transfers as well as look for longer money back guarantees. The main problem with InMotion is their less than ideal introductory pricing.

You Might Also Like: