InMotion vs Bluehost Hosting: Which Is Your Best Choice?
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Bluehost is our overall winner, with a score of 4.8 out of 5 due to fantastic features, great value for money, and good help and support. Plus Bluehost is best for ecommerce websites, WordPress sites, and sites that need VPS or dedicated hosting.
InMotion did well in our research, but couldn’t quite beat Bluehost in this match-up, coming in with a score of 4.5 out of 5 thanks to it being the best for photography websites and scoring well for security features.
As the hours of searching go on, it’s tempting to just close your eyes and pick one at random. Luckily for you we’ve compared the leading hosting providers, so you don’t have to.
If you’ve already spent hours scrolling the internet doing research, here’s a short and sweet summary:
Bluehost | InMotion |
Overall rating 4.8 | Overall rating 4.5 |
Starting from $2.95 | Starting from $3.49 |
Uptime 99.98% | Uptime 99.98% |
Free backups | Free backups |
Free domain | Free domain |
Storage space 10GB – Unlimited | Storage space 75GB – Unlimited |
Visit Bluehost | Visit InMotion |
Bluehost scores higher than InMotion in our rankings, making it the overall winner. If you’re curious for more information, keep reading as we delve into the nitty gritty of what makes these hosts tick.
Bluehost is better for you if you’re after value…
… It consistently offers feature rich and cheap plans, plus it is a top rated provider in 4/8 of our category tests, including VPS hosting, dedicated, WordPress and ecommerce hosting.
InMotion is better for you if you’re building a photography site…
…Thanks to rich security and backup options, InMotion has been deemed the best host for photography websites.
Want us to shave some time off of researching the right hosting provider for what you need? This quiz below will ask you a few questions and we’ll direct you to the best hosting provider for your website.
InMotion and Bluehost: Quick Comparison
With so much information online about each provider, it can be difficult to separate them. You want to figure out which one has the best features for your site. What better way to do this than with a comparison chart that you’ll find below.
Bluehost | InMotion | |
---|---|---|
Features, Performance, & Ease of Use Winner: InMotion | Bluehost has a large number of features to enjoy, a free domain for a year, unmetered bandwidth, and a 30 day money-back guarantee. Its interface is also more polished than InMotion. | InMotion has some extensive features even on the cheapest shared plan like plenty of storage, fantastic backup features, free SSL, malware protection, and much more. |
Pricing & Value for Money Winner: Bluehost | Alongside Bluehost's 30 day money-back guarantee, its hosting plans are extremely cost-effective, and its renewal prices are very competitive. | InMotion introductory costs are a little higher than Bluehost, and while you do get extra features for the price tag, Bluehost is one of the best overall hosts and saves money too! |
WordPress integration Winner: Bluehost | Bluehost is renowned as the best platform for WordPress integration, getting a mention from WordPress itself as the best provider. All it takes is one click to install! | InMotion does have great WordPress integration capabilities, but the process is not as seamless as Bluehost. |
Migration Winner: InMotion | Bluehost offers a manual migration service on dedicated plans. All it takes is a few clicks, and Bluehost's support team will be on hand throughout the process. But on the cheapest shared plan the transfer will cost an extra $149.99 | InMotion offers one free migration on shared plans and free expert migration on all dedicated plans. |
Help and Support Winner: Bluehost | Bluehost has excellent help and support options, including an awesome knowledge center, 24/7 phone, live chat, and email services. | InMotion has every kind of help and support available, including 24/7 live chat! But the knowledge base is a little clunky to use and you need to sign up with your email for the chat support. |
Are You Ready? | Bluehost | InMotion |
As you can see, there are close similarities between Bluehost and InMotion. No two sites are the same, and as always your choice will depend on what you need from your hosting provider.
Features, Performance, & Ease of Use
The Winner
InMotion has more features than Bluehost
How well do these providers live up to their reputations? Both Bluehost and InMotion value their customers’ experience, and this is reflected in their cheapest shared plan features.
Bluehost | InMotion | |
---|---|---|
Free Domain | Yes (for 12 months) | 1 parked Unlimited subdomains |
Control Panel | cPanel, Plesk | cPanel |
Free Backups | No | Yes |
Unmetered Bandwidth | Yes | Yes |
Storage Space | 10GB | 100GB |
Uptime | 99.98% | 99.98% |
Features is an incredibly even match between these two providers! So, it’s worth breaking down their different scores to really get to grips with what they’re offering and how it will affect your site.
In our research, InMotion just about beat Bluehost in every hosting type for features. InMotion got a shared hosting features score of 4.1 out of 5, compared to Bluehost’s 3.3/5. In VPS hosting InMotion gets a feature score 3.9/5, while Bluehost gets a 3.8/5.
For dedicated features InMotion gets a huge 4.8/5 and Bluehost gets a really great 4.4/5. Lastly for WordPress the two tie for the features provided, both getting a 4.4 out of 5. But what do all these numbers mean? Let’s break down what each of them offers.
Only Bluehost offer a free domain for the first year, which is a great perk that will save you money the first year.
With InMotion, you must sign up to the Launch hosting plan which costs $6.99 per month (for 12 months) to get the free domain, or free domain transfer if you already have one! It’s worth noting this offer does not apply to the Dedicated hosting plan.
Both providers use cPanel, which is a reliable and popular control panel used by most leading providers. cPanel is designed to help simplify hosting. But another Bluehost perk is that it comes with Plesk too.
Where InMotion wins in features is with it’s backups and storage space of 100GB on the cheapest shared plan. Instead of Bluehost’s 10GB on the cheapest plan, to get to 100GB with Bluehost you would need the shared Pro plan that comes in at $13.95 per month. Also Bluehost doesn’t provide backups unless you pick the shared Choice Plus plan ($5.45 per month).
InMotion offers free SSD storage. SSD stands for Solid State Drive. This type of storage is different from traditional hard drives because they are 100% electronic.
But what does this mean?
The main thing to know about SSD storage is that it’s speedier and more reliable than older systems. It helps websites perform up to 20x faster! This will really help your rankings in search engines like Google.
Most hosting providers add the price of SSD storage into the overall cost of your plan. Bluehost does this for its VPS hosting plan. InMotion include theirs for free!
Bluehost and InMotion both offer a free SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate, which again is included on all plans.
SSL basically encrypts any information people enter on your website. This is great for your site because it shows your visitors (and search engines like Google) they can trust you! Security like this is extra important for ecommerce and business sites.
But where they differ is that Bluehost offers an SSL free for the first year. Comparitively, InMotion offers a free SSL, hack and malware protection, and other security features.
InMotion just takes home this win, thanks to it’s extra security features and free expert migrations on the cheapest shared plan. While Bluehost offers 5 migrations for an extra $149.99.
Which has Better WordPress Integration?
The Winner
Bluehost has better WordPress Integration
WordPress is a major presence online. Those of you using WordPress, or thinking about using it to set up your site, are certainly not alone. Over 30% of the internet is powered by WordPress!
Choosing a hosting provider for your WordPress site with no WordPress focus would be like trying to jam a random key into the wrong lock. Sure, it might fit okay, but it’s not going to open any doors for you!
If you want to unlock your site’s potential through WordPress, Bluehost is the best option. It is recommended at the top of WordPress’ hosting list, and we’re not going to argue! In our research, Bluehost has a chart-topping WordPress score of 4.6 out of 5, really standing out for features, market analysis, and pricing.
With one click installation, specialized 24/7 support, auto updates, and a free custom email, Bluehost has got you and your WordPress site totally covered. Along with the perks of that free domain, 30 day money back guarantee, and free SSL certificate to keep everything safe and secure, it would be hard to say no
Wondering how to install WordPress with Bluehost? See our guide for a step by step explanation!!
InMotion also has a hosting platform with special WordPress focus, and aims to offer a superior and high class service. In our testing, InMotion has a WordPress score of 4.4 out of 5, placing it second after Bluehost. It was on par with Bluehost in terms of features, help and support, and performance – but fell short in terms of price and market analysis.
This includes free website migration for those who already have a WordPress site. If you’re setting one up first time, you can have it pre-installed during checkout so it’s all ready and set up for you to use.
Other features such as the free domain, 24/7 support, automatic updates, a range of price plans, and a 90 day money-back guarantee make this a great choice for WordPress users. Just bear in mind that while InMotion does offer a great WordPress experience, it is not InMotion’s main focus.
Website Migration Support
The Winner
InMotion is better for migrating websites than Bluehost
If you’ve already got a website, an important step is sussing out how easy it will be to transfer your existing site to your new host.
Migrating to Bluehost
Bluehost actually offers a free professional switching service for WordPress websites which fulfill its qualification criteria. The criteria includes pretty standard stuff, like using a recent version of WordPress, and being malware-free).
Free migration is a huge plus, but unfortunately you’ll only find out if you qualify after you sign up for an account. If, for any reason, you don’t qualify, remember you’ve always got your 30-day money-back guarantee to fall back on.
On other plans like the shared plans, you also have the option to pay a one-off fee of $149.99 for the Bluehost professionals to migrate your website. This is a more comprehensive process, including up to five websites and 20 email accounts (email accounts aren’t included in the free migration).
Bluehost also has plenty of helpful guides to manually migrating your site to its servers.
Migrating to InMotion
Like Bluehost, InMotion also has guides to manually website migration, as well as the option for a professional service. The main difference here is that the first website migration on the shared plan is free!
It’s clear there is some cost involved here, but how much is hard to say, as it’s decided on a case by case basis. InMotion aims to have professional transfers completed within 14 days, whereas Bluehost aims for 2-3 business days – something to consider if you’re in a rush.
Customer Support
The Winner
Bluehost wins for help and support
When building your website, you want to be sure that there’s good quality help on hand from your hosting provider. Just like when your car breaks down, help and support is your team of mechanics rushing to get you back on the road. Let’s compare your customer support options on both providers cheapest shared plans.
Bluehost | InMotion | |
---|---|---|
Knowledge Center | Yes | Yes |
Live Chat | Yes | Yes |
24/7 Live Chat | No | Yes |
Phone | Yes | Yes |
24/7 Phone | Yes | No |
Community Center | No | Yes |
InMotion’s trained experts are on hand via live chat, phone, so you can leave your worries behind. There is also a support center forum with articles written by the company. The support center also includes product guides, website and email tutorials, an education channel, Frequently Asked Questions, and a community support area where you can browse and ask questions.
And that’s not all! InMotion has a YouTube channel you can subscribe to, where videos are posted regularly. And Bluehost also has a YouTube, where both providers offer tutorials, guides and tips.
The Bluehost knowledge base is clean, simple, and far easier to use. With a search bar, articles, how to guides, and a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page, you can find your answer in no time. When compared to InMotion’s, Bluehost is a lot better at providing a quick and accurate response to queries.
Categories such as FAQ, WordPress, email, and domains, make navigating the knowledge base easy and logical. There are also video tutorials, with written guides and screenshots to give a proper overview.
The contact us page is split into sections, so you can get in touch with the right person to help with your query. All categories have either a “chat now” button or relevant phone number to put you through to the right department. In short, Bluehost has a robust online library of helpful information.
Additionally, with the live chat service you need to enter an email with InMotion which can be a little off putting if you want to ask something before using the product, whereas Bluehost it is just a quick pop up that gets started straight away.
Bluehost also offers really well trained 24/7 phone support, who are able to handle any queries you have about your site.
Overall, Bluehost scores 3.5 out of 5 for help and support overall, while InMotion scores 2.5 out of 5. So there’s not much in it, but Bluehost’s 24/7 phone support and helpful knowledge center beat InMotion this time round!
Pricing & Value for Money
The Winner
Bluehost beats InMotion for value for money
While great hosting is worth investing in, you don’t want to be paying an arm and a leg for it. Budgeting is important, whether you’re a tech millionaire or a startup business. So, what have InMotion and Bluehost got to offer?
Well our research has shown that Bluehost’s value for money score is a huge 4.7 out of 5, comparatively, InMotion has an average and somewhat below average 2.9 out of 5 score for value. Let’s take a closer look at the prices of each.
Monthly rates when paid annually
Bluehost | InMotion | |
---|---|---|
Shared Hosting | $2.95-$9.95 | $4.49-$16.99 |
VPS Hosting | $23.99-$83.99 | $24.99-$59.99 |
Dedicated Hosting | $99.99-$139.99 | $89.99-$269.99 |
WordPress Hosting | $2.95-$13.95 | $4.49-$16.99 |
That’s a lot of dollar signs! Let’s break it down.
Bluehost’s most basic plan is its shared hosting, starting at the discounted $2.95 a month when you sign up for a year. InMotion’s most basic plan is its Core, which starts at $4.49 per month (yearly). These are introductory prices which will renew at $9.99 (Bluehost) and $11.99 (InMotion) respectively – so Bluehost works out just slightly cheaper for shared hosting.
InMotion’s higher tier VPS hosting ranges from $24.99 – $59.99 per month. Whereas Bluehost has a reasonable VPS plan range of $23.99 – $83.99 per month. But where Bluehost’s prices shine are on the higher dedicated plans and for it’s cheap WordPress plans that you can see in the table above.
Especially because Bluehost is voted as the top WordPress host around!
Bluehost does offer reseller hosting, but it is powered by ResellerClub, who are recommended by Bluehost. If you enter Bluehost’s promo code you get 35% off.
Bluehost’s size and reputation can be seen in its competitive prices. There is always a sale on for new customers. For example, at the moment there are heavy discounts on plans like WordPress hosting. These constant sales give you a great price for your first term, just remember it will revert to the original full price when renewal time comes around.
Both InMotion and Bluehost value your experience, offering money back guarantees. Bluehost’s is a great 30-day period on all plans, and InMotion’s is a whopping 90 days! (on all plans except for shared plans)
This is a brilliant way of trying out your provider without the pressure that comes with signing up for life straight away!
InMotion vs Bluehost: Conclusion
Bluehost and InMotion are very different providers, but they both offer a great service that won’t dissapoint.
InMotion’s plans can handle websites with larger files like images than Bluehost’s plans, making it fantastic for a photography webiste. But Bluehost offers scalability at more affordable prices.
InMotion also offers a wide range of features, while Bluehost’s WordPress Integration is very impressive. Plus, Bluehost’s interface and customer support is very easy to use.
Overall, Bluehost is our winner. Its combination of great value for money, ease of use, and tailored WordPress integration are unrivaled. We recommend it if you want a great all-round provider, are using WordPress, or you’re a small business on a budget.
However, InMotion isn’t far behind, and is a great option for photography sites due to its great security features. In the end, it all comes down to which features you value most!
Website Builder Expert aims to provide you with honest data. That’s why we conduct our own research and obtain direct, personal insight. Analyses and graphics in this article are based on authentic sources cross-validated by our in-house experts. We take great care to ensure the information we publish is reliable and accurate. However, WBE takes no responsibility for any inaccuracy in information supplied to us by users, research participants, or other entities.
Please note the insight contained within this article is for general information purposes only. We’re glad to answer any questions you may have about this article and its supporting research. For further information, please contact Website Builder Expert directly via email at info@websitebuilderexpert.com.
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