InMotion Hosting Review and Stats
InMotion Hosting is known for their free domains, free data backup, green data centers, and a 90 day money back guarantee. They have been operating since 2001, and host over 500K sites. Their data centers are located in Los Angeles, CA and Ashburn, VA (near Washington D.C.)
I have purchased a hosting plan on InMotion Hosting and set up a typical web site. I use that example website to run these tests. Learn more about how I test.
Here's the plan information I chose:
| Plan Name | Business Launch |
| Cost | $6.99/month |
| Disk Space | Unlimited |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited |
| Uptime Guarantee | 99.9% |
| Money-Back Guarantee | 90 days |
| Notes | They had to call me to verify before setting up my account. They normally only do this during business hours, but you can call them if it's at night. After verification my site was ready within 30 minutes. |
On this page: Uptime | Speed | Support | Alternatives
Uptime Test
This test is performed by measuring the % uptime of a host. Higher is better.
I use Pingdom to report website uptime. Pingdom is configured to make an HTTP request to the host every minute, and report if it is unreachable. It'll also report an error if the host takes longer than 30 seconds to respond (Yes, that's not actually down, but if your site takes that long to respond it is unusable in my opinion). Pingdom performs this test from at least 3 servers worldwide, and reports a problem if 2/3 servers do no respond.
This test is important if you are concerned about the reliability of your web host (this is important!)
InMotion Hosting Uptime Test Results
InMotion Hosting performs alright in the Uptime test, with an average result of 99.94 percent. Its best run was 100.00 %, but has been as bad as 91.74 %. InMotion Hosting's most recent result on Jul 18 was 100.00 percent. When InMotion goes down, they typically are unavailable for only a minute or two. That's alright in my book. They're one of the only hosts that lets you know ahead of time of upcoming maintenance, and how long you can expect your server to be unreachable. I appreciate the communication.
Let's see if InMotion Hosting is consistent in its uptime stats:
Recent Raw Results for InMotion Hosting
| Date | Uptime | Downtime | Outages | Avg Response Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 536 ms | |
| 99.931 % | 1 mins | 1 | 533 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 557 ms | |
| 99.861 % | 2 mins | 1 | 554 ms | |
| 91.736 % | 119 mins | 3 | 551 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 564 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 575 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 566 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 547 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 556 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 548 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 539 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 488 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 490 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 486 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 506 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 447 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 442 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 433 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 436 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 404 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 425 ms | |
| 99.861 % | 2 mins | 1 | 474 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 458 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 445 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 455 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 452 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 461 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 481 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 492 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 455 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 470 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 488 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 538 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 535 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 511 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 523 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 535 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 495 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 506 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 498 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 460 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 459 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 456 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 512 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 492 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 491 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 491 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 492 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 494 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 490 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 505 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 501 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 492 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 493 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 499 ms | |
| 98.472 % | 22 mins | 1 | 471 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 418 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 445 ms | |
| 100.000 % | 0 mins | 0 | 420 ms |
Page Speed Test
This test measures the total time it takes to load a standard web page. Lower is better.
This test is performed by submitting a typical web page served on the host to WebPageTest and recording how long it takes to load. This test web page is 56 KB of HTML, 287 KB of JavaScript, 51 KB of CSS, and 1,128 KB of images (these are typical according to the HTTP Archive). WebPageTest (a 3rd-party, vendor-neutral organization) uses servers located in Virgina and California to measure the page load waterfall in the latest version of Chrome, on a very fast internet connection. The test is ran 5 times each, and the middle (median) result is what is counted from each location. Then the east coast and west coast times are averaged, which should eliminate any bias due to server location. We're interested in first page load, not the repeat/cached view.
If you're really interested, I use the 'Load Time' measurement that's returned from WebPageTest for ranking page speed. I still collect other metrics such as TTFB
(time to first byte), fully loaded time, and the speed index, in addition to server setting scores which are translated to grades. You can see these detailed values in the "Raw Results."
This test is important if your site resembles a typical website and you're concerned about speed (which you should be!)
In September 2014 I updated this test to be more accurate, and you'll notice page speeds were a bit higher before then. The test used to be run only 3 times from one location using a simulated cable internet connection on Internet Explorer 11. The new method provides much more consistent results.
InMotion Hosting Page Speed Test Results
InMotion Hosting performs stellar in the Page Speed test, with an average result of 3.19 seconds. Its best run was 2.13 s, but has been as bad as 14.12 s. InMotion Hosting's most recent result on Mar 23 was 2.76 seconds. InMotion proves to be stable in its page speed results, usually showing no spikes or erratic performance. While they do optimize connections, they could be making things faster by compressing images and setting the cache headers properly.
Let's see if InMotion Hosting is consistent in its page speed stats:
Recent Raw Results for InMotion Hosting
| Date | Location | Load time | TTFB | Fully loaded | Speed index | Keep-alive Score | Compress Score | Caching Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.6s | 0.4s | 3.7s | 1.2s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.2s | 2.6s | 1.0s | A | F | F | ||
| 3.3s | 0.4s | 3.5s | 1.5s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.2s | 2.7s | 0.9s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.8s | 0.3s | 3.0s | 1.1s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.2s | 2.6s | 0.9s | A | F | F | ||
| 3.0s | 0.3s | 3.1s | 1.4s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.2s | 2.6s | 1.0s | A | F | F | ||
| 3.0s | 0.3s | 3.1s | 1.3s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.2s | 2.7s | 1.0s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.9s | 0.3s | 3.0s | 1.3s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.2s | 2.7s | 1.0s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.9s | 0.3s | 2.7s | 1.3s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.2s | 2.5s | 1.0s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.9s | 0.3s | 2.7s | 1.3s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.2s | 2.5s | 1.0s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.9s | 0.3s | 2.7s | 1.3s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.2s | 2.5s | 1.0s | A | F | F | ||
| 3.1s | 0.3s | 3.0s | 1.6s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.2s | 2.5s | 1.0s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.9s | 0.3s | 2.7s | 1.4s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.2s | 2.5s | 1.1s | A | F | F | ||
| 3.0s | 0.3s | 2.8s | 1.5s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.2s | 2.5s | 1.0s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.9s | 0.3s | 2.7s | 1.2s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.2s | 2.5s | 1.1s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.9s | 0.4s | 2.7s | 1.3s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.2s | 2.5s | 1.0s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.3s | 2.7s | 1.3s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.4s | 0.2s | 2.5s | 1.0s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.3s | 2.7s | 1.3s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.4s | 0.2s | 2.5s | 1.0s | A | F | F | ||
| 3.3s | 0.3s | 3.4s | 1.3s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.4s | 0.2s | 2.5s | 1.0s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.3s | 2.7s | 1.3s | A | F | F | ||
| 4.6s | 0.2s | 4.6s | 1.1s | B | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.4s | 2.7s | 1.4s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.4s | 0.2s | 2.5s | 1.0s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.3s | 2.7s | 1.3s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.4s | 0.2s | 2.5s | 1.0s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.3s | 2.7s | 1.3s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.4s | 0.2s | 2.5s | 1.0s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.3s | 2.7s | 1.3s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.4s | 0.2s | 2.5s | 1.0s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.3s | 2.8s | 1.3s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.4s | 0.2s | 2.5s | 1.1s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.8s | 0.3s | 2.9s | 1.4s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.4s | 0.2s | 2.5s | 1.0s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.3s | 2.7s | 1.3s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.4s | 0.2s | 2.5s | 1.1s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.5s | 0.3s | 2.6s | 1.3s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.4s | 0.2s | 2.5s | 1.0s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.3s | 2.7s | 1.3s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.4s | 0.2s | 2.5s | 1.0s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.3s | 2.7s | 1.2s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.4s | 0.2s | 2.5s | 0.9s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.8s | 0.3s | 3.0s | 1.2s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.4s | 0.2s | 2.5s | 1.0s | A | F | F | ||
| 3.0s | 0.3s | 3.1s | 1.3s | A | F | F | ||
| 2.6s | 0.2s | 2.7s | 0.9s | A | F | F |
Does InMotion Hosting Suck?
Some people may think InMotion Hosting sucks. Here are some real benchmarks to show you InMotion Hosting's speed, reliability, and support - so you can see if they really do suck.
Is InMotion Hosting slow?
This test measures the total time it takes to load a standard web page. Lower is better. Learn more about the Page Speed Test.
InMotion Hosting performs great in the Page Speed test, with an average result of 3.19 seconds. Its best run was 2.13 s, but has been as bad as 14.12 s. InMotion Hosting's most recent result on Mar 23 was 2.76 seconds. InMotion proves to be stable in its page speed results, usually showing no spikes or erratic performance. While they do optimize connections, they could be making things faster by compressing images and setting the cache headers properly.
Let's take a look at some of the times that InMotion Hosting had some poor page speed performance:
| Date | Location | Load time | TTFB | Fully loaded | Speed index | Keep-alive Score | Compress Score | Caching Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.6s | 0.2s | 4.6s | 1.1s | B | F | F |
Is InMotion Hosting unreliable?
This test is performed by measuring the % uptime of a host. Higher is better. Learn more about the Uptime Test.
InMotion Hosting performs mediocre in the Uptime test, with an average result of 99.94 percent. Its best run was 100.00 %, but has been as bad as 91.74 %. InMotion Hosting's most recent result on Jul 18 was 100.00 percent. When InMotion goes down, they typically are unavailable for only a minute or two. That's alright in my book. They're one of the only hosts that lets you know ahead of time of upcoming maintenance, and how long you can expect your server to be unreachable. I appreciate the communication.
Let's take a look at some of the times that InMotion Hosting had some poor uptime performance:
| Date | Uptime | Downtime | Outages | Avg Response Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 99.861 % | 2 mins | 1 | 554 ms | |
| 91.736 % | 119 mins | 3 | 551 ms | |
| 99.861 % | 2 mins | 1 | 474 ms | |
| 98.472 % | 22 mins | 1 | 471 ms |
Does InMotion Hosting's have poor customer service?
This test measures how quickly the host's support team responds to your request. Lower is better. Learn more about the Support Response Test.
InMotion Hosting performs incredibly in the Support Response test, with an average result of 0.9 hours. Its best run was 0.2 h, but has been as bad as 2.3 h. InMotion Hosting's most recent result on Mar 2016 was 0.2 hours. Typically InMotion's tech support will get back to you within 3 hours, regardless of the time of day. That's key when you need assistance with your site.
Let's take a look at some of the times that InMotion Hosting had some poor support response performance:
| Date | Support Ticket Submitted | Support Ticket Resolved | Response Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| None found! | |||
Still think InMotion Hosting sucks?
I've presented you with lots of data that will show you whether or not InMotion Hosting sucks. So, what do you think? Are they reliable, fast, and helpful? If not, consider these InMotion Hosting alternatives.
Support Response Test
This test measures how quickly the host's support team responds to your request. Lower is better.
I personally contact each host's support department with a new question/concern and measure how long it takes for them to get back to me.
This test is important for every host - it's imperative your web host is able to quickly address your concerns in a timely manner, even if you're an expert webmaster. Who wants to deal with a host that has poor customer service? Tech is hard, and tech support is critical!
InMotion Hosting Support Response Test Results
InMotion Hosting performs impressively in the Support Response test, with an average result of 0.9 hours. Its best run was 0.2 h, but has been as bad as 2.3 h. InMotion Hosting's most recent result on Mar 2016 was 0.2 hours. Typically InMotion's tech support will get back to you within 3 hours, regardless of the time of day. That's key when you need assistance with your site.
Let's see if InMotion Hosting is consistent in its support response stats:
Recent Raw Results for InMotion Hosting
| Date | Support Ticket Submitted | Support Ticket Resolved | Response Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 10, 4:18pm | Mar 10, 4:29pm | 0.2 hours | |
| Feb 24, 3:27am | Feb 24, 4:34am | 1.1 hours | |
| Jan 27, 5:52am | Jan 27, 6:18am | 0.4 hours | |
| Dec 20, 2:49pm | Dec 20, 4:38pm | 1.8 hours | |
| Nov 28, 4:32pm | Nov 28, 5:15pm | 0.7 hours | |
| Oct 26, 10:54am | Oct 26, 11:16am | 0.3 hours | |
| Sept 6, 6:45pm | Sept 6, 9:04pm | 2.3 hours | |
| Aug 9, 2:44pm | Aug 9, 4:17pm | 1.5 hours | |
| July 13, 2:05pm | July 13, 2:14pm | 0.2 hours |
InMotion Hosting Alternatives: Better speed, reliability, and support
Are you having problems with InMotion Hosting? It's not uncommon to want to change to a better host if your current host has issues with being slow, down, or unsupportive.
Let's see if we can find a InMotion Hosting competitor that has better uptime, faster load times, and speedier support.
Hosts faster than InMotion Hosting
This test measures the total time it takes to load a standard web page. Lower is better. Learn more about the Page Speed Test.
If InMotion Hosting is having page speed problems, consider these alternative hosts that score better:
Hosts more reliable than InMotion Hosting
This test is performed by measuring the % uptime of a host. Higher is better. Learn more about the Uptime Test.
If InMotion Hosting is having uptime problems, consider these alternative hosts that score better:
Hosts more helpful than InMotion Hosting
This test measures how quickly the host's support team responds to your request. Lower is better. Learn more about the Support Response Test.
If InMotion Hosting is having support response problems, consider these alternative hosts that score better:
InMotion Hosting Versus Other Hosts
If you're trying to decide between InMotion Hosting and another host, here's are some specific comparisons that will show you the differences in detail:
Yes, I do use affiliate links on this site to help cover the cost of testing and $1000+ per year in server charges. Results are 100% unbiased and never skewed to favor a higher commission. Thanks for understanding :)
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