InMotion Hosting VPS Review: Are Pricier Plans Worth It? [2024]

The Softaculous Installer

Provided you select a control panel for your VPS plan, you can get access to the Softaculous Installer. With this tool, you can install numerous (okay, more like hundreds) popular and niche plugins, scripts, web apps, and CMSs in one click – no coding or technical knowledge required. That said, you’ll still be able to configure some settings during the installation process or after setup.

Softaculous is a useful feature for sure, making InMotion Hosting’s VPS about as beginner-friendly and accessible as any of its shared or WordPress plans. In fact, I could hardly tell the setup of my site on InMotion Hosting’s shared plan and its VPS plan apart. The process was pretty much identical.

2-10 Free Dedicated IPs

Depending on the InMotion Hosting VPS plan you choose, you’ll get 2 to 10 dedicated IPs included for free. Most hosts offer this at an additional cost, so you’ll automatically receive network and server security, account isolation, and improved website performance. These plans also come with a free AutoSSL certificate.

Launch Assist and 2 Hours of Managed Hosting Support

When paired with a paid control panel (cPanel or Control Web Panel, which was formerly CentOS), InMotion Hosting’s VPS plans include Launch Assist, a special offer designed to assist new customers in setting up their server. Included in the service are two free hours of Managed Hosting Support (the equivalent of a 1-month Pro Managed Service subscription worth almost $100).

You can use this time to transfer your website, install software, optimize your site, conduct security hardening, or even set up routine server tasks.

Note that instead of offering managed plans, InMotion Hosting lets you add the aforementioned managed services to any of its plans as needed. Though quite costly, the flexibility and quality of this support may well be worth it when compared to the managed services of some competitor VPS plans. It’s nice that you get to try these managed services for free before paying full price as well.

Free Site Migration

As part of your Launch Assist offer, you’ll also get free white glove site migration if you need it. InMotion Hosting’s support team will assist with moving your site professionally and even guarantees no downtime during the process.

Note, again, that, just like Launch Assist, this feature is also only available with a choice of a VPS package and a paid control panel (cPanel or Control Web Panel).

InMotion Hosting VPS Features at a Glance

Ease of Use

One of the Easiest VPS Services To Use – Once Your Server is Set Up

InMotion Hosting really makes it easy to host a website or project on any of its VPS plans. However, waiting for the VPS server setup took much longer than I anticipated.

After paying, I waited just under 24 hours for my server to be ready despite promises it would “only take a few moments” – yes, this occurred with both my shared and VPS hosting tests. Since you can’t set up your website until the server is ready, this prolongs the process considerably.

Creating a New VPS Account with InMotion Hosting

The process of setting up a site on an InMotion Hosting VPS plan is much the same as it is with shared hosting. Simply select a package, choose your server location, add-ons, and domain name, and then pay. Accepted payment methods include credit/debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover), PayPal, checks, and money orders (mail only).

During the process, you can link your own third-party domain, buy a new one from InMotion Hosting, or opt to set this up later. If you defer, InMotion Hosting will assign you a temporary domain to use. Sadly, VPS plans don’t include a free domain.

But you do get a $100 Microsoft ad credit and $50 worth of Amazon ad clicks for free. I received no upsells at the time of purchase or via email afterward – maybe because my domain, backups, domain privacy, and cPanel already cost extra (and a lot at that!).

After signing up, you just need to wait until InMotion Hosting sets up your server, which may be the only downside to this process because of the wait. All in all, expect an easy sign-up process but don’t expect to have a site up and running on the same day.

Connecting a Domain and Installing WordPress

If you select or buy a domain name, it will automatically become your main domain for your InMotion Hosting account and website. There’s no need to point it to new DNS servers or configure it (which is not always the case).

InMotion Hosting’s VPS plans don’t come with pre-installed WordPress. However, if you choose a plan with a control panel, you do have access to the Softaculous Installer. Using Softaculous, the process of installing a CMS is as easy as it’s going to get without it already being pre-installed.

The nice thing is that you don’t necessarily need to opt for WordPress as your CMS as there are hundreds of other web apps and script options to choose from. General VPS plans aren’t locked into using any particular one, either.

One-Click VPS Server Configuration

InMotion Hosting offers 4 server configurations: WordPress, Magento, PHP, and Standard. Each configuration is completely scalable, offers NVMe SSD storage, and NGINX as the proxy cache server on top of Apache for optimized performance.

It’s important to note that server configuration isn’t the same as website configuration, however. Though I chose the WordPress server configuration, I still needed to install the WordPress CMS using Softaculous.

The BoldGrid Website Builder

Between all the popular CMS platforms – such as WordPress, WooCommerce, and Drupal – you can also opt to build a website using InMotion Hosting’s free site builder, BoldGrid. This drag-and-drop site builder allows you to easily build an attractive custom site from scratch with no coding experience necessary.

The only pitfall is that BoldGrid is only meant for designing WordPress sites. You’d need to outsource the design or use another platform to create a custom site outside of WordPress.

Multiple Control Panel Options

I chose to add cPanel to my plan. It’s the priciest option but happens to be the Admin plan and around 30% cheaper than cPanel’s direct pricing. Control Web Panel is the cheaper option but has its limitations, including fewer security features and built-in integrations with third-party apps. Choosing neither gives you command line access only.

Regardless of your choice, you also get access to InMotion Hosting’s proprietary Account Management Panel (AMP). Despite having two control panels to navigate plus an app installer (AMP, cPanel, and Softaculous), the set up and maintenance process was actually quite straightforward. What’s more, you can switch from one platform to another without leaving your admin area.

Performance

Above Average Performance – But Not the Absolute Best Around

In my VPS tests, InMotion Hosting performed quite well, offering both satisfactory and consistent loading speeds and uptime. The host has data centers located in the US and Europe, which improves global performance.

Your site data is also replicated across multiple locations to ensure maximum redundancy, availability, and uptime. That said, global performance outside of the US and EU could be better. But this is easily fixed with a CDN, which I didn’t activate for this round of testing.

Provided you bought a cPanel license, you can even test and monitor your own site for free using the Site Quality Monitoring tool powered by Koality. It measures metrics such as uptime, loading speeds, site security, content quality, SEO, and more. Since both Koality and cPanel operate separately from InMotion Hosting, the results are accurate and objective.

GTmetrix

I chose InMotion Hosting’s Washington, D.C. server for my hosting plan. First things first, I decided to monitor my site performance using the nearest GTmetrix test server located in Chicago, Illinois. What I noted during testing was how consistent my test site loading speeds were, generally only deviating by a second.

However, I couldn’t help but notice my site’s struggles over the weekend. Overall, around 0.5 to 2 seconds for a fully loaded site is still a satisfactory loading speed, though.

As for global loading speeds, those outside of InMotion Hosting’s operational regions may suffer slower loading speeds. With servers in both Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., as well as Amsterdam, it’s no surprise that InMotion Hosting’s VPS performs best in areas nearby. Further afield, particularly in Asia, Oceania, and Africa, performance drops considerably.

UptimeRobot

While InMotion Hosting has no SLA or uptime guarantee in place, you can still expect stable performance thanks to triple storage redundancy: InMotion Hosting stores your site data in three separate locations, which is why this host achieves such high uptime scores.

According to UptimeRobot, my test site achieved 100% uptime. While you can expect some good results, just don’t anticipate a refund if things go awry. Curiously, only InMotion Hosting’s Pro web hosting plan has an SLA in place.

Support

Extremely Efficient Support Available via Numerous Channels

InMotion Hosting offers 24/7/365 US-based support. And if that weren’t enough, sales, technical, and billing/accounts support channels include:

• Contact form
• Email
• Phone
• Live chat
• Skype

For non-customers, sales support is only available via live chat and phone.

The specialized Managed Hosting support team is only available from Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM – 9:00 PM EST.

When I tried to contact InMotion Hosting support via live chat late on Sunday afternoon, response time was an ETA of 45-60 minutes. Despite this, I was connected to an agent within a couple of minutes. The agent was very engaged, professional, knowledgeable, and helpful – which is rare coming from someone who’s written dozens of reviews. Most support agents tick a few of these boxes, but not all.

If you’re logged in, your account and verification code are automatically connected to the chat, further speeding up the process while keeping my information secure.

I also sent an email to the managed support team. The team is only available to those with Launch Assist included (paid cPanel and Control Web Panel accounts) or an active Managed Hosting plan. The team has experienced system administrators able to handle site migration, complex server optimizations, software installations, and more.

Due to their limited working hours, I assumed someone would reply on Monday. As expected, I received an email reply at midday the following day. As usual, the agent was professional, polite, and helpful.

The InMotion Hosting Support Center also features a ton of self-help content, including 5000+ articles and guides, helpful resources, and tools. For visual learners, InMotion Hosting offers an extensive YouTube page with video tutorials. I like that some of its help articles also feature snapshots to guide you through various processes.

Pricing

Deals Galore… but No Discounts for Selecting Longer VPS Hosting Terms

The majority of InMotion Hosting’s hosting plans are competitively priced, but its VPS offering is definitely one of its pricier products. And if you add managed services, you’re looking at a hefty bill.

Unlike shared hosting, signing up for a longer-term InMotion Hosting VPS plan gives you zero savings. The monthly VPS price remains the same regardless of your hosting term. Instead, you’ll just pay up-front for the entirety of the term you choose.

That said, you can sign up for a VPS plan on a monthly basis. This is a key difference compared to shared hosting, which only offers monthly payments for the priciest Pro plan. Overall, InMotion Hosting’s VPS plans are good value, include many useful features, and perform well.

If InMotion’s VPS plans run too high, consider InMotion Hosting’s Managed WordPress and WooCommerce Platform i VPS plans. They offer ramped-up UltraStack performance at a fraction of the price, which includes NGINX caching, CDN integration, PHP-FPM optimizations, and more.

The only two other ways to save on InMotion Hosting’s VPS are to choose a lower-range package or sign up when there’s a special offer. Oh, and you can refer friends as well for a discount.