InMotion Hosting

InMotion Brief Overview

When it comes to web hosting, there are easy as many options available as there are stars in the sky. In fact, without a little bit of prior information on either the business, functions, or classes of hosting one might be looking to purchase, we haven’t a clue at all how a conscientious web master could ever make an optimal decision. With that in mind, we feel it’s our duty to bring you the absolute best and the absolute worst on the most popular web hosting providers in town: And falling squarely into the former category, may we now present InMotion Hosting, a long-standing industry leader and innovator within the field.

InMotion Hosting is one of our favorite options for personal, business, and dedicated hosting, offering a wealth of plans, features, and support designed to keep your Web presence running smoothly. But then again, all of that stuff can be ascribed to just about every web hosting business in the book. So, when the quick hits the bone, who in the heck really are InMotion?

Who is InMotion Hosting?

InMotion first took on its name and business way back when in 2001, arriving out of a merger between business and Internet capability. As such, the provider offers a unique focus to the business consumer, bringing an unparalleled level of services and support aimed at keeping Web-necessary content online at any and all times—even during periods of extreme stress.

InMotion Hosting Awards

The company has been winning awards for these stellar services since as early as 2003, racking up a truly astonishing number of commendations since. Among these is the Drupal Association “Organization Member” aware, a CNET Certified Service Provider, an A-Rated Accredited Business with the BBB, the “Best Business Web Hosting“, the “Best Ecommerce Web Hosting“, the “Best VPS Hosting” awards from WebHostingGeeks.com, and the “Best Business Hosting” award from 100WebHosting.com—all of these given in the latest 2011 year. In other words, the company has existed for more than a decade but has not slacked off on its duties during any time in that period.

InMotion Hosting Customers

Backed by a team of experts with diverse technical backgrounds, the company claims to be committed to its customer base, and according to its continued growth, it seems to be living up to all the talk.

As mentioned before, InMotion comes absolutely loaded to the gills with all kinds of awards, commendations, customer testimonials, and general pats on the back. The company has been turning heads since its initial inception a decade ago, and now supports a track record few—if any—other web hosting providers can match.

That all might be well and grand, but when it comes down to things, what in fact are those services that are so award-winning? Is it possible to knock them down into only a few bullets? In fact yes, yes it is!

Blazing Fast Hosting

One of the things we love most about InMotion is that it allows the user to choose their server of origin, an unprecedented level of control that we can’t match to any other web host. Typically, a shared hosting experience assigns the user a databank somewhere in the country. This datacenter may or may not be closest to the user’s home demographic, potentially stripping the consumer’s site of all useable performance. In comparison, InMotion offers two East and West coast oriented options, based on their Max Speed Zones system.

This system provides unparalleled protection and performance across the board, no matter what market you’re attempting to reach within the continental United States. In addition, for those hard to reach spots (like our native Denver) InMotion offers peer-based connectivity to give extra boosts as needed.

Green Like A City-Slicker Rancher

Believe it or not, server banks are actually one of the premier causes of pollution in modern times. InMotion is one of only a few select companies to recognize this fact and to have taken measures to lessen their initial impact. For example, the company now runs its technology and cutting-edge cooling systems that reduce server grid drain by as much as 70%. There’s also the fact that InMotion plants 5,000 trees a year to offset any negative impact it may put into the ecosystem. All in all, InMotion is green as it gets, and that’s an incredible thing.

InMotion Hosting Support

However, it isn’t just features, or general overviews, that get our goat about the web hosting company. In fact, almost more than anything else, it’s their unique dedication to solving and preventing customer complications as they arise. InMotion offers a fully operational 24/7 chat line for customers to call, day or night, for resolutions to their web hosting conundrums as they appear.

Should you find yourself without a telephone, there’s absolutely no reason to panic. In fact, InMotion offers more than enough additional ways to get the job done, and have your website back up and running in no time. This includes a dedicated email support ticket system, live chat to aide you day-or-night directly from your computer, traditional email, and of course, the social networks.

Telephone Sales: 888-321-4678 x1 or 757-416-6575 x1
Telephone Support: 888-321-4678 x2 or 757-416-6575 x2

Email Sales: sales@inmotionhosting.com
Email Support: support@inmotionhosting.com

Google+: https://plus.google.com/109777154476249834137/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/inmotionhosting
Twitter: https://twitter.com/inmotionhosting

InMotion Hosting Help Center

In addition, InMotion also offers a full support center that’s loaded with a knowledge base of Alexandrian proportions. There’s website and email tutorials, as well as domain name set-up information, and even tutorials on general website education. It’s as if InMotion secretly has a hidden agenda, and it’s to make you smarter than you were when you went in! And when all else fails, there’s also a community support forum where you’re free to ask other customers for their time-earned and trial-and-error advice.

All in all, InMotion offers quite an impressive package on paper. They’re award-winning, have lasted over a decade, and offer a set of features that can be boiled down into a simple list, yet still strike the reader with a sense of overwhelming pizzazz. But don’t think we’re done with the company just yet: In fact, we’re only just warming up! Stick around, as we now change gears, and head directly into the hosting plans themselves to look for even more reasons why InMotion is one of the premier choices in online Web hosting.

Web Hosting Plans

We have detailed a few of the ways in which InMotion might appeal to the carefully selective webmaster, and we have given a few of the ways in which InMotion is prepared to help its customers with any technical problems, should they arise. However, what we have not yet discussed was perhaps the most crucial part of the whole scheme—the hosting plans themselves! To this end, we are now prepared to dish the full details on the topic. So without further ado, dive on below to peep the full details on what makes InMotion’s web hosting plans absolutely essential for the conscientious business with a desire for a firmer Web presence.

Shared Hosting (For Personal or Business Use)

Without a doubt, shared web hosting is certainly the largest part of the market, and we have a feeling most of our readers will be looking for a quality package in this category. Shared web hosting is, after all, a great way to save on initial overhead while still garnering an incredible level of performance and Net presence. But how does InMotion stack up? Is it possible to achieve this level of success with the web host? The short answer: Totally yeah!

Right off the bat, InMotion promises to deliver the performance you want at the price you need. Just take this quote, which we’ve pulled directly from the company’s shared hosting page:

“Rest assured, you will get the best quality hosting from InMotion – even if you are shopping for cheap hosting.”

We’re willing to take InMotion at face value, but the facts are all there to support exactly this sort of claim. Consider the fact that the company offers not one, but two different shared hosting plans.

One, the Value Class Hosting is fast, offers SPAM protection, 2 MB attachment size, and even a web site builder. Should you need a little more oomph, there’s also the Business Class Hosting tier, which offers 50% faster server speeds, thanks to the Max Speed Zone capability, as well as increased attachment size, daily backups, 5 bandwidth providers, and a premium-style website creation tool.

And across the board, InMotion offers a mammoth amount of functionality, including MySQL support, dedicated email accounts, FTP access, shared SSL, additional sub-domains, and even support for popular coding and development platforms like WordPress, PHP, HTML5, and CSS. All in all, it’s an impressive package and one that starts at as little as $3.00 a month.

Visit http://www.inmotionhosting.com for more information.

VPS Hosting (For Ecommerce Websites)

But what if you’d like just a step-up, but aren’t quite ready to commit to a full-on dedicated server with your business? What if you’d prefer to have your data physically separated from all the other tenants of the server, but can’t quite cough up the budget to get it done with a unique hardware set? With InMotion, it’s no trouble at all! The hosting provider offers a wealth of comprehensive and powerful virtual private server hosting options that are guaranteed to meet your needs and then some. Best of all, these plans start at only $39.95 a month—a cheaper price than we’ve seen just about anywhere else on the market.

For that money, users can enjoy a bevy of ground-breaking features. These include 24×7 managed support, exactly as we mentioned in the previous articles. This means that day-or-night, InMotion is available via phone, live chat, or email to help you with your virtual hosting needs. In addition, the company also offers burstable RAM for when peak periods creep up, as well as full data backups to preserve and protect your site from unwanted down-time. Not to mention a full cPanel and WHM license, granting you unparalleled access to the inner workings of your site—without even any need for complex HTML or CSS coding knowledge!

To throw some last numbers into the mix, consider this: A virtual private server hosting experience with InMotion comes stock with up to 1024 MB of RAM, 3 GB of burstable memory, 1500 GB transfer limits, and 160 GB in RAID 10 Fault Tolerant Disc Space. And if that doesn’t sound like a bargain to you, we don’t know what else we can say (except move on to the next category, Soldier).

And finally, the big one. If you’re looking for the utmost in performance, security, and personal web power, there’s no better option than dedicated server hosting. Typically, this kind of hosting would run you a quick bundle to own. But with InMotion, it’s nearly a walk in the park! Starting at as little as $199.95 a month, you can own and operate your very own server without even having to lift a finger. This process is made even more powerful by the fully-capable 24×7 support mentioned earlier, which guarantees your server is managed and operated personally by trained professionals. Should you be dissatisfied with the server’s performance, though, the company offers a full, 30-day money-back guarantee: An offer we have not seen anywhere else but InMotion for dedicated hosting.

To round out this part of our InMotion overview, have a look at some of the raw statistics (and power) behind the servers. A dedicated server with the company earns you up to 2.53 GHz, Intel Xeon Quad Core performance, tied to an 8 MB CPU Cache, and 8 GB RAM. In addition, pans max out at a whopping 500 GB disc space, and a 2500 GB monthly transfer limit. Add to this a full cPanel license, 2-Hour hardware replacement, and no set-up fee, and you’re looking at a solidly budget way to experience top-end performance.

Whether you require a simple personal or business website, a more powerful virtualized environment, or your own dedicated server, InMotion Hosting definitely makes a fine choice for your web hosting needs and our visitors have confirmed that over the years.

Common Customer Complaints

We’ve taken the liberty of compiling a few of the choicest and most clearly stated negative reviews we’ve received on the site about InMotion. You’ll find them all below, categorized by section, but before we get there, why not take a second, hard look at who InMotion claims they are? We feel it’s our duty to keep you informed, and as such, you’ll find a short summary below of some of InMotion’s biggest selling points.

First and foremost, InMotion is best known for its Max Speed Zone placement areas. The idea behind this is simple: The company puts data centers along both the East and West coasts and then allows the customer to choose between them. In this way, they can obtain a faster internet connection by choosing a point that’s closest to either their own home base or even their website viewers. It’s an ingenious idea, and it’s won the company a number of awards over the years—including several "Best Web Host awards". However, as stated earlier, there’s really no way to know just how good a web host’s technology is without looking at real, first-hand experience. With that in mind, let’s go ahead and dive right into some of the more common complaints and problems our readers have experienced with InMotion, starting with:

Sales Department Complaints

Hard-to-Get Refund: By and large, one of the most common complaints we received from our readers concerns the promised 30-day money-back guarantee. By all indications, it appears that InMotion is somewhat reluctant to give up a client once they’ve been signed. In fact, it appears the web host will try just about anything to please a customer, save refund their money. Our users have had the company swap their server, add additional features, change various services, etc. Sadly, though, it appears they aren’t s ready to simply hand back the cash—an aggravating experience no matter how you slice it!

Site Building Hoax: We haven’t seen as much of this complaint, but because of its severity, we still feel it’s worth mentioning. Apparently, it’s a rather hit-or-miss affair when it comes to having InMotion design your website. We’ve had a few readers complain of early payments, and then terribly late—or even non-existent—web designs being returned. In other words, some of our readers have paid for web design, only to never receive it, or acquire it far beyond the promised deadline. If true, this is quite a troubling report.

Technical Support Problems

Not Very Helpful Help: We’ve seen this complaint with a few other major web hosting companies, and sadly, it seems like an epidemic. By all indications, the tech support specialists at InMotion seem to have a bit of a hard time providing answers or support for common hosting problems. Our readers noticed a special issue with virtual private servers, which the tech support representatives seemed ill-equipped to answer. All in all, we’d like to say you’re guaranteed a quick and professional solution from your tech support rep, but with the user reviews we’re getting, it just doesn’t seem to be so!

Localized Downtime: Another issue our reviewers have been experiencing relates directly to the unique hardware layout we discussed earlier. It appears that, on occasion, one of the coastal databanks will go down, taking a load of websites with it: However, this usually spares the other coast any pain. On top of this, we’ve been getting numerous reports of long downtime, sometimes as much as several hours. Overall, we’re starting to get the feeling that the promised 99% uptime isn’t quite as accurate as InMotion would have us believe. The complaints don’t seem too out of the ordinary for a shared web host, but it’s still not spectacular news.

Functionality Problems

Too Techy: On a more interesting level, it appears that some of our users—even the brainy ones—found the hosting experience with InMotion to be just a tad too tech-oriented. They often reported problems using the provided utilities, including the site builder, control panel, and even file uploader. Overall, it appears someone with even a basic understanding of modern technology can get by with InMotion, but headier problems will take a near rocket scientist to complete. And in our eyes, any web host that has you hitting the textbooks just to enjoy its service is hardly worth our time.

Hacks Among Us: On another note, it appears that the web hosting provider is particularly prone to hacking. We’re hearing most of these reports emerging from the dedicated server camp, but no matter how you slice it, it’s still quite an uncomfortable feeling to know your data is at risk. The provider promises they’ve taken every necessary security precaution, but until we stop seeing reports of malicious break-ins, we can’t yet recommend InMotion for their security or stability against outside malevolence.

All in all, we haven’t seen quite as many complaints out of the user reviews with InMotion as we usually do with other hosting providers. Still, you should always check our user-created reports before signing any dotted lines or agreeing to any forms of service. You just never know what you’re getting into, but with our user reviews, you can at least have a general idea.

Compare Inmotion vs Siteground, another great host with the same popularity among webmasters.