HostGator Vs. InMotion: Which One Is Best For You?

You may be interested in comparing HostGator vs. InMotion and finding out which one will suit your business needs. They have been in the domain for quite a long time and offer value worth the money invested. First, however, you need to do thorough research to find out each company’s weaknesses, strengths and know which one will benefit your site. 

HostGator vs InMotion – An Overview

• HostGator: It is among the fastest developing web hosts in the domain. Their reputation is mainly built on great service, fast servers and affordable pricing structure. Endurance International had acquired this company in 2021. Many site owners find this hosting provider to be quite appealing as they emphasize more on affordability and total value offered. The shared hosting plan offered by this company is quite popular among small businesses. 
• InMotion: This is an independent and fast-growing hosting company based in Los Angeles, USA. It has managed to generate excellent press as well as won numerous awards for its top-notch hosting services. This company is known to offer specific products focusing on DIYers, Organizations and businesses. They prioritize customer support. 

You have to find the most appropriate hosting provider that perfectly matches your desired expertise, resources, and priorities. Both providers have earned a name in the domain and can be relied upon for top-quality services. 

HostGator vs InMotion – Pricing Structure

HostGator offers shared hosting plans while InMotion offers Business plans that you should check out and compare thoroughly. HostGator refers to shared hosting plan as ‘web hosting’ while InMotion considers has named it as ‘business class hosting.’ However, both products are very much the same.

Both also possess top-quality website builder products. HostGator boasts of having ‘Gator’ and InMotion with ‘Website Creator.’ Besides this, HostGator offers WP (WordPress) plans while InMotion offers Managed WP Hosting plans.

When each plan is compared in shared hosting, HostGator is a bit more affordable as they offer discounts. However, the hosting pricing structure is found to be notoriously complicated. Few things are to be taken into consideration to compare each feature. 

HostGator offers more billing flexibility. They allow you to register for their services for just a month or 3 years based on your specific hosting needs. In the case of InMotion, you are to register for a minimum period of one year. But taking a 2-year plan provides you with some discounted rates. 

Scanning through the comprehensive feature checklist is quite easy. They are designed to offer value as well as sell the plan. But you need to identify value and find out which provider and plan fit your goals and objectives perfectly. It also includes allowed websites (domains), disk space, and databases. This is because they are considered to be the primary aspects for which you will be paying. 

HostGator’s Hatchling plan offers unlimited databases, but with one domain only. This plan can be useful if you desire to develop an event site. This way, you can have 2021.yourdomain.com, 2022.yourdomain.com, etc. On the other hand, the cheapest plan of InMotion allows two databases and two websites to be created. Therefore, your activity is limited to just two websites. 

Baby & Business plans of HostGator provide unlimited databases and domains. However, both are capped by InMotion Hosting on its plans. The cheapest plan offered by InMotion is just $1 a month, and it allows developing two sites against one of HostGator. 

When overall price structure is concerned, HostGator is found to be much affordable than InMotion. This is more so if you have plans to run numerous sites on your registered account. Some small sites might not require lots of attention or resources. However, they will require domains/databases. For this, you can choose HostGator. But for your main sites desiring attention and resources, you can select InMotion. 

HostGator charges just one dollar a month when renewing your plan, and most common packages are quite cheaper than InMotion. But InMotion is found to be at par with that of HostGator if you run a single or couple of sites. They offer discounts. 

HostGator vs InMotion – Performance

Your hosting account’s core function is to enable your potential audience to get quick access to your site. Therefore, several factors are accounted for concerning site loading time. Most of it tends to relate to how well your site is configured. However, the major factor to consider is your hosting account’s overall performance. 

TTFB (Time To First Byte) is one metric in shared hosting considered for judging overall performance. It helps measure time right from when your site gets a request to the time it acknowledges it to return the data.

The results derived from both providers are quite close, and they are above average for shared hosts. Historically, InMotion enjoys consistent netter performance. 

Uptime is the other aspect to consider when evaluating host performance. Both claim to offer 99.9% uptime. Thus, they assure consistent performance, and your site will not experience any significant downtime. 

Endurance Group Intl. The event held in August 2013 has helped InMotion Hosting to have an edge in the domain. A large part of HostGator’s infrastructure migrated to Utah data center, Provo, in August 2013, thus resulting in SNAFU. A poor SNAFU is said to hurt all Endurance brands badly. For about three consecutive days, a few sites went down completely. Apart from the isolated incident, HostGator claims to achieve 99.99% uptime. 

HostGator vs InMotion – Features

The key features to look into when comparing both providers are domains, storage and databases offered. 

HostGator is found to emphasize some features, which in truth are not considered as features. InMotion states some marketing jargon or gets too technical without any context. 

InMotion boasts of having a wide range of meaningful features when compared to HostGator. This hosting company supports a variety of programming languages, something not offered by HostGator. The latter seems not to have invested much in developing new features. But InMotion has been including new features, now and then, although super-technical. 

When compared to HostGator, InMotion doesn’t regulate your website for resource usage. For example, you may possess a low-traffic site whose functionality uses databases to develop dynamic redirect. It may work fine at low-traffic levels but not at high traffic. HostGator is likely to lock it out but will be good on InMotion. 

Both offer automated backups for free. However, HostGator charges some amount to restore while InMotion offers free restoration. 

When compared to InMotion, HostGator offers plenty of cross-sells and feature integrations. It can be a good thing for some site owners but not for others. You can either opt for clean software installation before their addition or bundled products. This means your WP install may come preloaded with plugins and themes. 

At all tiers, both offer unlimited email usage and integrate effortlessly with Google Apps. 

When raw features are concerned, InMotion is more versatile and a better product than HostGator. But the latter is considered to be an excellent choice for those seeking basic, functional sites. 

Hostgator vs InMotion – Customer Service

This is one aspect that is often overlooked when selecting an appropriate hosting company. But it is not that easy to factor in since some problems might crop up unexpectedly. Hence, you need to seek a provider who can offer prompt customer support through various platforms.

HostGator and InMotion offer solid support to all their customers irrespective of the plans selected. Checking and comparing their knowledge base gives a basic idea of their support services. You can do some research here and carry out DIY troubleshooting without professional assistance. 

InMotion is found to update its knowledge base continuously when compared to HostGator. This is because it considers its knowledge base as an important support channel for its customers. Here, they consider a top to start the conversation with their clients to answer even those queries that are not related directly to hosting accounts. 

With HostGator, you can install a WP plug-in. However, InMotion takes it a step further. Their piece tends to include time responses to client comments and screenshots. In many cases, it is found to offer more clarity when compared to the original piece. 

The last few years have seen InMotion make significant investments in this particular area. Google has ranked them high as they provide lots of solutions to various technical issues aimed at non-InMotion customers. 

Moreover, the team at InMotion seems to be interested and excited to provide solutions to software issues. Technically such issues are not their own. HostGator offers assistance to such issues. But it only points to the correct direction without any direct assistance. For example, you might have an issue with your WP install timing out while uploading media.

This problem is more to do with WordPress and not the hosting provider. Besides offering the right direction, InMotion also offered the right code to implement. On the other hand, HostGator will provide you with a DIY tutorial and not actual code. So although both offer assistance, it is InMotion that gains a clear edge in this department. 

HostGator vs InMotion – Usability

Usability is crucial for customers allowing them to navigate and explore the different features provided effortlessly. However, it is tough to balance first-time users seeking super-easy information to helping regular users to make necessary changes. 

Both use cPanel to run their backends, considered to be the industry standard and an open-source platform. However, first-timers can find it a bit challenging. Still, it is regarded to be a straightforward process to operate. In addition, you can come across lots of tutorials and documentation on the same. 

Both hosting providers offer fairly clean designs. But InMotion seems to have fewer upsells and less clutter. They also provide a clean WP autoinstall feature. It is their software bundling and account management that they tend to differ. 

You are provided with a login on registering with HostGator for your account/billing management. Then you are offered the direct login details for your cPanel host account. Hence, they are two sites meant for two distinct purposes. 

InMotion provides easy access to Account Management Panel that serves as your billing area, hosting account frontend. It is also the place where you enter within the cPanel. It is claimed to be an easier setup. However, it has several upsells, and you may not come across certain specific information that advanced users seek. 

During the last few years, InMotion has improved its backend significantly. For software such as Joomla, WordPress, etc., both offer simple QuickInstall functionality. Software bundling is one thing that HostGator seems to have changed. 

When performing WP QuickInstall, HostGator’s theme-based marketplace software gets installed automatically with WordPress. Some might find it convenient, and others consider it annoying. 

HostGator software is referred to as the ‘MOJO Marketplace. They can be easily uninstalled if not desired from the Plugins section. 

However, it is InMotion that has an upper edge in the usability category. HostGator is known for its minimalism. However, the single account management of InMotion is quite convenient. It’s zero QuickInstall add-ons are another interesting feature to look into. 

HostGator vs. InMotion – Other factors to consider

You need to take into consideration other factors to make the right choice when seeking hosting providers. 

InMotion is an independent company, while HostGator is part of a public corporation. InMotion offers lots of WP event sponsorship, while HostGator is an established name in the domain. It has managed to win the press and several awards. 

InMotion provides its clients with web designing services, something unrelated to their core hosting competency. But some first-time customers find it an interesting feature. 

InMotion also offers more flexible and correct integrations. For example, you may desire to have complex apps installed on your site. But, by default, HostGator blocks them. Hence, getting it fixed will take some time and effort. But, InMotion offers direct access to your php.ini file while providing necessary support.

HostGator offers shared certificates while InMotion provides Comodo, integrated SSL certificates for free. With it, you use HTTPS for your site development. 

Both provide WP hosting, dedicated servers, and virtual private servers. 

HostGator vs. InMotion – Conclusion

Both are excellent choices and can be used actively for your sites. However, you should choose one based on your specific requirements. InMotion is suitable for 1-2 sites and flexible budget. HostGator can be a better fit for those who desire to operate several sites and focus on performance within the budget.