HostGator vs InMotion Hosting – Which Hosting Provider is Best?

InMotion Hosting and HostGator are both among the top names right now in the web hosting industry, which is the main reason why we want to compare them in this article. After all, you need to be able to decide which one is better for your website’s needs. There are plenty of strong providers out there, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that every one of them is perfect.

In fact, every provider has its own upsides and flaws. We are here to uncover them for you, thus giving you an insight about what is it like to use their services as a client. There is a reason why these companies are ruling many of the top lists on the Internet. They know how to serve their main audience well, providing them with the exact tools and features they need for their websites.

How reliable are they? Do their prices fit your budget? What are the common feedbacks of their clients? We are going to answer these questions for you and many more. First off, we are going to go through the main advantages and disadvantages of InMotion Hosting, and then we are going to continue with HostGator.

Once you get to the end of our article, you will be able to decide which one works better for you. What we can tell you right away is that InMotion is widely praised for its friendly and helpful customer support, whereas HostGator is the go-to company if you want to ensure a wide range of useful features for your business. Let’s see what else these providers have to offer for their clients!

InMotion Hosting – Reputed Web Hosting Company

According to their achievements, this company has set some strict goals for sure. They have a remarkable number of users who have been using their services for years and they still keep writing positive reviews about the provider. On the other hand, newcomers are highly satisfied as well. According to its user base, this company can hardly do anything wrong.

We are talking about a company that has a long history. InMotion Hosting started its journey back in 2001, when two guys switched on their one and only server in a small office. The two of them were basically the managers, the customer service and the maintenance staff in the company at the beginning. Who would have thought it will turn into such a big deal?

They kept renting out servers for many years, constantly improving their services and they are still considered as a rapidly growing company. They provide shared hosting for bloggers, dedicated servers for enterprises and VPS for medium-sized companies. All in all, they have a wide range of web hosting packages to offer. Now let’s see their main advantages!

Pros & Cons of InMotion Hosting

Pros of InMotion Hosting

• No pressure – With their generous 90-day money-back guarantee, you won’t be pressured whatsoever. You can cancel your subscription whenever you want and InMotion will give you a full refund, no questions asked. This is one of the longest refund periods on the market right now, with most companies offering 15, 30 or 60-day guarantees. Such a long one only shows that the provider is confident in the quality of their own services.
• Best unlimited options – The usual practice among hosting providers is to include a couple of unlimited features in their packages and then offer some other features that you need to pay for. InMotion Hosting is not an exception. The real question is whether you can really make use of those particular unlimited features. InMotion decided to choose data transfer and disk space as their unlimited features. You don’t even need to pay an extra for these to be included in the package, as you can get them even with the most basic plan. If you want to run the type of website that highly demands disk space and data transfer, then you should definitely sign up for one of their plans. Otherwise, you won’t get as much value for your money.
• Free domain, promotion and backup – With InMotion, there is no need to worry about domain name registration. You won’t need to find a domain registrar, as they let you to register one on their site. Also, if you are a newcomer at InMotion, you get a domain for free. Once you sign up, they give you the option to choose one for your website. You will be able to start promoting your website right away thanks to the free credits you get with each plan. The platforms where you can advertise include Google AdWords, Yahoo and Bing. The three sites that truly matter for those who want to promote. And at last, but not least, InMotion will create free backups of your website data automatically. This can be highly useful in case you get in trouble and want your data back in good shape.
• All-round customer support – This is one of the first things you should look for in a hosting provider. Without good customer support, who knows what is going to happen if things go wrong on your website. It is the provider’s job to be tech-savvy and to solve problems as fast as possible. Customer support is one of the strong suits of InMotion Hosting. They are always ready to give you advice and to resolve any issue that comes up. You can see companies stating that their support team is available 24/7, but it is not always true. According to the reviews, the staff at InMotion is indeed available around the clock via live chat, emails, website forums and phone. Keep in mind that we are talking about a relatively small company. When you compare it to the other big names in the market, it turns out that this one is not nearly as big. This is why it is such a big deal that they keep up the good work at all times, providing professional support. For those who don’t want to contact the support team yet, there is a knowledge base available with tons of guides, video tutorials, FAQ and articles. Most of the common issues are documented there so that users can find a quick fix.
• 2 high-tech data centers – One of the reasons why people call InMotion a small company is because it has only 2 data centers, both in the US. Their servers are equipped with the latest hardware, which guarantees high performance. If you are not too far from the US, your website will surely load at lightning speed. Although the company has not extended farther than two datacenters, they definitely don’t shy away from investing into the latest technology. They want to ensure that top-notch user experience for everyone who uses their services.
• Servers work 99% of the time – Besides customer support, uptime is the other thing you need to check out before you choose the provider. Obviously, the lesser the downtime a particular hosting provider has, the better for your business. In fact, it is good for every type of website, as viewers hate it when they can’t access the site they want. At InMotion, the servers are up and running 99% of the time. Their staff is constantly monitoring them, making sure that each server provides maximum performance and also preventing issues. They maximize the uptime by using the most durable Cisco components, Linux operating system and Dell servers. These names talk for themselves, as they have a long history in manufacturing high-end machines and components.
• Protection against spam and malware – With InMotion, there will be no more spam emails. Thanks to the free spam filter software, you will easily find the messages that matter. In addition, they include well-known security software into their packages: Patchman and Sucuri. Patchman finds and removes malware, and it also makes sure that everything is neatly updated on the server. Sucuri, on the other hand is responsible for security alerts, backups, website speed, and DDoS attacks.
• Hosting with green energy – Data centers need a lot of energy, especially if you want top-notch hardware to run at maximum performance. This usually means a lot of pollution for the environment. However, this company generates its energy from renewable sources, ensuring that it doesn’t leave a carbon footprint like most of its competition. By hosting your website at InMotion, you can decrease the damage done on the environment.

Cons of InMotion Hosting

• Expensive hosting – If you visit the official site of InMotion Hosting, you can see various prices. It seems like there are cheap plans and more expensive ones, just like at any other provider. However, if you compare the prices in the market, it turns out that InMotion is not cheap at all. Their prices are clearly above average and they don’t even let you pay month-by-month. The only positive thing about it is that they give you 90 days to cancel the subscription. You start the plan, try out all the features, test the customer support, etc. If you feel like you don’t get enough for your money, you can simply say goodbye and get back all your money; simple as that. Unfortunately, their prices are already bad marketing for the viewers on their site because most of them leave right after seeing them.
• Big price gaps – Their Launch plan is so limited that it forces you to upgrade to the next plan after a short amount of time. If you want to grow online, then it won’t serve you for long. Its features might be powerful, but the plan is limited to a maximum of 2 websites and 2 databases. In this case, the upgrade would be convenient if it would cost only slightly more than your current plan. Unfortunately, there is a quite big gap between the prices. In order to upgrade, you need to account for a significantly higher budget than before. Other providers give you much more freedom even with their most basic plans.
• Takes long to start – InMotion is rather thorough when it comes to security. Maybe that is why it takes so long to set up a new account and, eventually, a website. You need to go through countless pages and forms until you reach the point when you are finally able to kickstart your website. If you decide to sign up, get ready for a long manual activation process.
• Backup disadvantages – Free backup at InMotion is a great free feature and users with small websites are completely satisfied with it. The problem is that as your website grows, you can reach a limit where you need to pay if you want them to continue backing up your website. If you want free backup, then keep the size of your website under 10GB. Otherwise, it is considered as a premium service. Also, don’t expect to bring back data that is older than 4 months. InMotion automatically deletes backup copies older than that.

HostGator – Powerful Business Hosting

HostGator is the provider that offers one of the most diverse repertoires of hosting plans. Their packages are not only diverse, but very powerful and cheap. They guarantee that you get an enormous amount of value for the price, making their services absolutely worth it for everyone.

They are consistently doing a great job in keeping their servers up and running 99% of the time. The higher this number is, the lesser the chance for online businesses to lose potential customers. They are considered as experts in many different types of hosting packages, including shared, cloud, VPS and dedicated hosting.

Shared hosting is widely used by small websites. It is based on servers that are divided into many smaller parts. Each part is an account where the user can host their website. With shared hosting, the account is bound to a single server, whereas cloud hosting allows you to expand by using parts of more than one server.

These parts are virtually glued together, which means that your website data is stored on many servers at the same time. HostGator provides outstanding hosting alternatives for online businesses. This is mainly because they include special solutions in their packages that keep them ahead in the competition. Let’s see what these special offers are!

Pros & Cons of HostGator

Pros of HostGator

• Cheap, full-featured plans – HostGator has a big reputation right now as an inexpensive hosting provider. Every single one of their plans is completely worth the money. They don’t want to force you to pick the more expensive plan. Just take a look at one of their most basic plans, the Baby plan. With this cheap plan, you already get unmetered bandwidth, unlimited domains and plenty of one-click installs. This is more than enough if you want to kickstart a website and establish a solid online presence. If you go one step further, it turns out that their Business plan has some premium plans included that other providers sell at a much higher cost. Also, you got to watch out for discounts since they offer some pretty big ones on a regular basis. The prices are already appealing, but here is the thing: newcomers get their package for a lower price for the first year of their subscription. HostGator gives you freedom in payments, meaning that you will pay month-by-month instead of annually.
• Helpful customer support – Setting up a website on a new hosting account may not be as straightforward as you think; especially if you are doing it the first time. However, you can rest assured that HostGator won’t let you mess it up. They are ready to guide you through the whole process by providing professional support. Of course, you can do it yourself, but there is no need to. They are more than eager to help with quick response times. You can even trust them with your login credentials. Once you send it, they immediately start working and set up the whole thing for you. Don’t want the customer support to be involved? No problem. If you want to do it yourself, there are helpful video tutorials available on their site. You just need to follow them step-by-step and you will finish your tasks in no time.
• Reliable uptime – As we mentioned before, server uptime is one of the strong suits of HostGator. Uptime is one of the most important aspects of web hosting, but many big providers are struggling to keep their uptime above the desired 99%. Server monitoring and infrastructure are so good at HostGator that it’s rather easy for them to satisfy their clients with a good uptime record. They minimize the chance of their servers going down by preventing issues before they even take an effect on their servers. With the 99% uptime, the estimated downtime for your websites will be around 6 hours per year, which is really nothing. On top of that, there was even a decrease in the amount of reported server downtime in the past few years.
• cPanel ready – Hosting providers can’t deny that cPanel is the most popular control panel right now. It is user-friendly and convenient for users that switch from one provider to another. They don’t need to learn a new platform, instead they can keep working in the same environment and that’s a huge advantage. cPanel ensures that you can manage the backend of your website with ease. Thanks to its popularity, numerous useful tutorials emerge on the Internet day by day, providing help for those who don’t have any experience in using it. HostGator is always ready for newcomers that want to transfer their website data from their previous provider. Once you sign up, there is an FTP waiting for you to start.
• Environmental protection – Green energy is a popular thing right now among hosting providers, but it doesn’t lessen its importance even a bit. It is always more preferable to sign up to a provider that powers its servers with green energy. HostGator is one of the players in the game that value this idea. They are huge contributors when it comes to protecting the environment from pollution. By using their service, you can also contribute to a better, cleaner environment. Instead of traditional data centers, HostGator owns plenty of natural power plants that generate renewable energy. It is infinitely better to generate energy using wind farms instead of coal plants.
• Immense knowledge base – The company welcomes inexperienced users and gives them the chance to educate themselves. They have an immense knowledge base where you can find tutorials on different matters related to website building, hosting and online business. You get high-quality material that other companies usually sell for a lot of money. All you need is to create a HostGator account and you can start learning new stuff for free.

Cons of HostGator

• Confusing setup – The signup process at HostGator is rather easy, but it is much more difficult to set up your website. It is rather confusing to get to the point where all your website data is on their server, ready to roll. You will have a hard time even if you leverage the helpful material on their knowledge base.
• Lack of security – Yes, HostGator is quite supportive if you need help with website migration or anything else during your setup. However, this doesn’t mean that you won’t have problems. The fact is that you will encounter problems rather frequently with this company which will waste quite a lot of time. Even though their staff solves most of the problems, many of them will reoccur over and over again. On the other hand, you only get weekly backups instead of the usual daily routine that other providers offer. They seldom scan for malwares, so your data won’t be as protected as you would think. If a virus strikes your website at the right time, it will unavoidably cause harm.
• Least number of freebies – They include some extras in their hosting packages, but there are many other companies that give you much more. HostGator focuses on giving you a reliable server and a premium hosting experience, but not so much on providing additional help. The reasoning behind it is probably their cheap prices. If you want affordable hosting, you don’t get as many valuable freebies. At least they give you a few simple tools that can boost your online presence a little bit. These include credits for Google AdWords that you can use to promote your site on the search engine. They are more generous with the money-back guarantee than the usual hosting provider, allowing you to get your money back if you cancel your subscription within 45 days.

HostGator or InMotion – Which Should You Choose?

We can conclude that HostGator is a provider that you can definitely rely on if you want consistent uptime, high-quality support and high performance. They offer affordable plans for bloggers and other individuals that want to run small websites, while there are well-tailored packages for businesses of all sizes as well. Pretty much everyone can find the plan that suits their needs.

The reason why we would recommend their plans for businesses is because there are some powerful features available in their higher budget plans. These are features that can help you grow online and attract more visitors to your site in a short amount of time. Just take a look at the list of features on their website and it will be obvious why this provider is so recommended for businesses.

There are lots of senior customers who are still satisfied with the service after using it for years, posting positive reviews on various online forums. Now let’s talk about InMotion Hosting for a comparison. We recommend InMotion for those who need a fast-growing, reliable hosting provider that constantly invests into improving their services. It is an independent company that has built up from scratch over many years constantly gaining reputation.

No matter what other companies do, they have a different approach and take matters more seriously. You can notice this by taking a look at their feature list. They offer numerous freebies that help you solve complex problems in a simple way. After all, InMotion doesn’t want you to get stuck and waste your time. You can focus on your online business instead while their tools take care about the rest.