Maybe you have been having a hard time picking the better hosting service between HostGator and InMotion; you do not need to stress yourself anymore. In this review, we will compare the similarities, differences, the pros and cons of these two fantastic and popular hosting providers. By the end of this review, you will have all the information that you need to pick the right one for your website.
HostGator and InMotion Hosting Overview
Hostgator
Created in 2002 by Brent Oxley, a student of Florida Atlantic University, HostGator is one of the most widely accepted hosting services in the website building industry right now. After some years of impressive delivery of hosting services, it was bought by Endurance International Group and can now boast of hosting up to 8 million websites. Hostgator is popular for being one of the most reliable ones when it comes to shared hosting services because of its simplicity.
Inmotion
InMotion is another dependable web hosting service that has been around for almost 20 years, owned and managed independently. InMotion network is basically based on Linux and Unix OS which has made the network to be quite popular. And thanks to their partnership with a non-profit organization that is focused on building trees worldwide (they’ve planted more than 5000 trees), they are now a force to reckon with.
It’s important to point out that these two web hosting providers are PCI compliant.
InMotion vs HostGator Hosting Comparison
Speed and Uptime
One of the major factors that you need to consider before choosing a web hosting service is the speed, and the second one is the uptime. Almost all web hosting companies boast of having a fast network and a high uptime.
To be certain, we decided to test the speed and uptime claims of HostGator and InMotion, we registered for the shared hosting packages of the two services and created a website on each account. To make it more realistic, we installed WordPress and added some contents and pictures.
We then carried out some tests on different speed and uptime of the websites. We used three different tests to determine the actual speed and uptime.
Pingdom test: To know the actual time it will take for a page to load.
Load Impact test: To see how our servers will react to a traffic surge on our sites during peak load time.
Bitcatcha test: To take note of the server response time from 8 different locations in the world.
Using the Pingdom test for HostGator, we realized that it took 702ms for the page to load from Dallas while the same test was carried out with InMotion, and it took 999ms to come up with the page.
We conducted a load impact test on both servers to determine their capability to withstand huge traffic. To determine this, we sent some virtual users to our test sites and made sure we had up to 100 visitors at a time.
From Load Impact assessment, HostGator was doing great until the visitors reached 80, while InMotion could only handle 25 visitors before it started slowing down. The server’s performance was not really impressive throughout the test.
Usually, Bitcatcha will analyze each server response time regardless of the site’s content. It will look for an average speed over eight different geographical locations: Los Angeles, New York, Brazil, London, India, Singapore, Japan, and Australia. It will carry out the test in 3 separate times and then decide on an average.
After the tests were carried out, both web hosting providers were rated C by Bitcatcha. They both had similar response times in the United States, but the response times were quite high in other locations outside the US.
Ease of Use
Both hosting companies are using cPanel as the platform for their user interface. cPanel is considered to be the most widely used platform because it is easy to use. You will be able to carry out website management tasks easily. There is also the easy-to-use installer feature that makes it possible to install script packages like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla quickly.
Features
In terms of features, InMotion is definitely the best in the market right now. Although, HostGator ensures that you have all the necessary features that you will need for your website. However, Inmotion is quite impressive and more appealing because of the extra features that come with their plans.
Let me mention some InMotion extra exciting features that you won’t find in HostGator:
HostGator will only provide you with a 45-day money-back guarantee, while InMotion comes with a 90-day money-back guarantee, just to show that they are more confident in their product.
With InMotion, you will be allowed to select a data center that you will like to use when you register for their hosting plan. This option is not available on HostGator.
Most od the packages that come with InMotion support SSD storage, which is a lot faster than the standard HDD storage provided by HostGator.
It’s clear to see that when it comes to features, InMotion is definitely the winner.
Support and Documentation
Another major factor that you need to consider before picking a web hosting provider is the customer support system.
HostGator offers 24/7 customer support service, and you can reach them through phone, live chat, or email. They also have a comprehensive knowledge base on their website (up to 700 help articles and 500 video tutorials) that will significantly assist you to use the service.
On the other hand, InMotion offers 24/7 customer service via phone, live chat, email/tickets, and you can still reach them on Skype. In addition to that, they also have a large knowledge base on their website that you can check anytime you come across any issue.
When it comes to support and documentation, both services are quite impressive, so it’s a tie.
Pricing
In terms of pricing, HostGator will charge you $2.78 per month if you are subscribing for the monthly plan while InMotion will cost you $3.99. However, InMotion has a cheaper plan for its WordPress hosting, dedicated server, and reseller hosting.
Conclusion: Which Provider is Better?
After comparing both services, we believe that HostGator is quite better than Inmotion. Considering the important factors of an excellent web hosting service- speed and uptime, it is clear that HostGator is better.
Shared hosting plans are considered to be the most widely used hosting plan, and HostGator offers cheap shared hosting plans, which automatically makes them more accessible. Whenever you come across any issue, you can rely on their customer support system.