InMotion Review for WordPress Hosting: A Dark Horse Among the Pack?

Finding a web host is one of the first (and perhaps most complicated) steps you’ll take when starting with WordPress. However, it’s not down to a lack of options, but how to sort through them all – especially if you don’t know what to look for. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at one with our in-depth InMotion review for WordPress.

When it comes to WordPress-specific hosts, InMotion is one of the stalwarts. However, they’re not normally a name that trips off of the tongue when discussing suitable hosts.

Let’s put that right! In this InMotion review for WordPress, we’ll firstly cover any platform-specific features. Next, we’ll check out the host’s support, performance, and pricing, before weighing up InMotion’s pros and cons.

Let’s get started!

InMotion review for WordPress: features

As a WordPress user, one of the main things you should be on the lookout for in a host is whether it offers options tailored to the platform. In InMotion’s case, it certainly does! Let’s see what they are:

• Pre-installed WordPress: This is a handy feature that helps get you up and running quickly.
• BoldGrid builder: Every WordPress plan includes the premium BoldGrid builder. This drag-and-drop builder is compatible with most WordPress themes.
• Free themes included: InMotion includes several free themes with your subscription, including niches such as restaurants and lifestyle.
• WordPress Command Line Interface (WP-CLI) support: Each of InMotion’s installations supports the WP-CLI. This enables you to manage your WordPress website using a command line, and is perfect for advanced users.

As you can see, InMotion offers a decent set of WordPress-specific features for beginner users; however, aside from WP-CLI support, advanced users could find the feature set lacking.

Support

Our experience with InMotion’s support team was very positive. Each time we contacted them, they got back to us quite quickly – sometimes in less than a minute. It’s spectacular timing for a popular web host that probably receives hundreds of queries per day.

Furthermore, their support team was relatively well-versed when it came to WordPress. While they weren’t the most most knowledgeable we’ve seen so far, for new users with simple queries, they should be helpful enough.

Performance

As far as performance is concerned, we need to take two criterion into consideration – performance-specific features and loading speeds. Let’s see how InMotion fares with the former:

• Solid State Drive (SSD) hosting: InMotion offers SSD storage for all its customers, which cuts down on loading times.
• The choice of two data centers: You can pick between east and west coast based data centers, which gives you more control over your loading speeds.

Although InMotion offers unlimited bandwidth and storage, the rest of their performance features are pretty threadbare. Furthermore, since their data centers are entirely based in the US, your international loading times could suffer. Let’s check if that logic holds up with a couple of performance tests.

Page speed tests with Pingdom

Pingdom is a relatively straightforward tool. It enables you to measure how fast a website loads by testing it from a particular location, then assigns it a grade based on that speed. For this, we tested our InMotion website using three different servers. Let’s take a look at the results:

(Chart by Visualizer Lite.)

InMotion did well with the New York server (unsurprisingly), but ultimately fell apart the farther away we went from the US. Let’s see if those results hold up under strain.

Basic load testing with Load Impact

Unlike Pingdom, Load Impact doesn’t offer a straightforward speed test. Rather, it seeks to highlight how a website does under strain by simulating up to 25 simultaneous users accessing the site at once. Here’s how InMotion did:

• Load Generator: Ashburn, US.
• Test Server: Ashburn, US.
• Minimum Response Time: 0.27 seconds.
• Maximum Response Time: 0.84 seconds.

As we saw earlier, InMotion does well when it comes to US servers due to the location of their data centers. There are a few more spikes than we like to see, but overall, this is a good showing. That being said, we recommend you consider a good Content Delivery Network (CDN) to lower loading speeds for users outside of the US.

Pricing

Prices are a huge factor when it comes to picking the right WordPress host. InMotion offers three different plans for WordPress users – here’s what you need to know:

• WP-1000S ($4.99 per month): A modest plan that supports one WordPress website. Perfect for personal websites. Plus, you get a free domain.
• WP-2000S ($8.99 per month): This plan supports up to two sites. It’s a good pick for small business ventures. You get more SSD storage (80GB).
• WP-3000S ($11.99 per month): The top tier supports up to three sites, and packs enough power for medium businesses. You get even more SSD storage (120GB).

InMotion currently offers some of the most competitive prices in the WordPress hosting sphere. Their deals are pretty hard to beat, but as you can glean from the other sections, overall the host lacks a bit of polish. For one, all their plans supposedly include unlimited space and bandwidth, but they don’t do well when accessed from outside the US. Secondly, you don’t get access to many advanced WordPress features.

For these reasons, we would recommend InMotion only for small websites and modest business ventures.

Overall pros and cons

We’ve already hit all the major points you need to know, so let’s recap things with a quick list of pros and cons before wrapping up our InMotion review for WordPress:

Pros

• Offers a decent set of WordPress-specific features for beginners.
• Provides a fast-acting support team, who are knowledgeable about basic WordPress issues.
• Provides fast page loading times, which hold up under load – for visitors within the US anyway.
• Offers competitive prices, and are among the cheapest WordPress hosts available.

Cons

• Lacks features for advanced WordPress users.
• Provides few performance enhancing features.
• Offers little in the way of good speeds for non-US customers.

InMotion review for WordPress – conclusion

Picking the right host for your WordPress website is no walk in the park, especially if you’re a new WordPress user. Ultimately, while choice is good, you’ll need to sort through a lot of candidates to make the right decision based on your needs.

It’s important to compare and contrast different hosts, and aside from this InMotion review for WordPress, we’ve recently also studied several others:

1. A2 Hosting Review for WordPress: Fastest Hosting You’ve Heard Of?
2. HostGator WordPress Hosting Review: A Surprise Turnaround.
3. Bluehost Review for WordPress: Is It Worth Your Time?
4. SiteGround Review for WordPress: Websites and Blogs, Good Enough?

Do you agree with our InMotion review for WordPress? Share your opinions with us in the comment section below!

* This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and then purchase the product, we’ll receive a small fee. No worries though, you’ll still pay the standard amount so there’s no cost on your part.

InMotion

$4.99

8.9

USER RATING

8.5/10

RELIABILITY

8.7/10

PERFORMANCE

9.5/10

Pros

• A set of WordPress-specific features for beginners
• Fast-acting support team
• Fast page loading times, which hold up under load

Cons

• Lacks features for advanced WP users
• Lower speeds for non-US customers

Go to InMotion