Compare Hosting Providers on July 26, 2021 by Abdullah Fateh

Bluehost and InMotion are two titans in the web hosting industry.

These providers are well known for the features they provide and are appreciated by newbies and experts alike.

Both hosting providers have over a decade of experience and claim to be the best of the best when it comes to hosting your site.

Cell

BlueHost

InMotion

Owner

Endurance International Group (EIG)

InMotion Hosting

Basic Plan

Basic Shared Hosting

Launch Web Plan

Price

$2.95/mo

$5.99/mo

Free Domain?

Yes

Yes

Average Uptime

99.93% (August 2023)

99.99% (August 2023)

Average Speed

616 ms (August 2023)

388 ms (August 2023)

One-Click WordPress Installation?

Yes

Yes

Free SSL?

Yes

Yes

Number of Sites

1

2

Free Email?

No

Yes

Free Backup?

Manual Backup

Manual Backup

Moneyback Guarantee

Yes

Yes

Support Channels

Live chat and phone

Live chat and phone

Control Panel

cPanel

cPanel

Space

50 GB

50 GB

Free CDN?

Yes

Yes

Migration Services

Free for WordPress Sites

Yes

Overall Rating

Get Hosting

Other Plans

Managed WordPress ($9.95), VPS ($18.99)

VPS ($19.99) Dedicated ($99)

Cell

*Uptime and Speed data from Pingdom and Hrank

But which is the one for you?

Here, I’ll go through a Bluehost vs InMotion side-by-side comparison. We’ll look at both options and their features to give you a better idea of which is best suited to your unique needs. 

So let’s get started!

Bluehost vs InMotion - A Side by Side Comparison

For this comparison, we’re going to look at:

  • Uptime and performance
  • Ease of Use
  • Migration services
  • Products and features
  • Security
  • Pricing
  • Customer Support

Let’s now get into the details. 

Uptime and Performance

Both Bluehost and InMotion are well above average and are superb picks when it comes to reliability and uptime scores. They have excellent uptime above 99.9%, so you’ll encounter low downtime periods with both web hosts. 

However, Bluehost does marginally better with a 99.96% average uptime compared to InMotion's 99.91%. This means that you’ll have to contend with a few more hours offline with InMotion every year.

Bluehost vs InMotion - Which Web Host is the One for You BlueHost

Both providers also give your users an excellent experience when it comes to performance, loading pages within a few seconds.

A CDN improves loading speeds by routing traffic through the nearest available data center, so you can expect faster-loading speeds.

While Bluehost includes a free CDN in its most basic plan, you’ll have to purchase it as an add-on with InMotion.

Bluehost also has a larger variety of data centers located in numerous continents such as North America, Europe, and Asia.

InMotion only has data centers in the US. If you’re looking to attract an international user base then they may have to contend with slower speeds.

Both providers do, however, use SSD storage space which will improve how fast your content loads, being over 20X faster than traditional HDD storage. 

Overall, Bluehost and InMotion have excellent reliability and performance. 

WINNER: Bluehost. InMotion has excellent reliability and performance, no doubt about that. However, Bluehost tends to perform slightly better on average in both departments.


Ease of Use

Bluehost is recommended by WordPress itself. This gives you an optimized hosting solution that ensures compatibility with WordPress add-ons, such as Woocommerce and the WP web builder.

InMotion, on the other hand, isn’t as WP optimized as Bluehost. Sure, you’ll still get similar functionality, but it may be a bit clunkier to use overall.

The good news is that you’ll get simple one-click installs with both hosts.

Both providers also offer traditional cPanel support. This is great if you are used to the traditional dashboard containing all the tools you’ll need to manage your site.

What’s more, site staging is available for both Bluehost and InMotion. That allows you to test out changes on a dummy site before taking it live, which helps weed out the bugs beforehand.

WINNER: BlueHost. If like many other site creators you’re planning to use WordPress, then you’ll get an easier and more seamless experience with BlueHost. They offer greater optimization, recommended by WordPress itself.

Don’t know how to use BlueHost? This step by step video is very helpful:


Migration Services

Bluehost and InMotion both have free WordPress migration services that seamlessly move your sites to their service.

If you’re looking to migrate non-WordPress sites, Bluehost offers this for a fixed price, just shy of $150 to migrate 5 sites.

Bluehost vs InMotion - Which Web Host is the One for You InMotion

InMotion on the other hand includes non-WordPress sites in its free migration service as well. What’s more, they support 3 free site migrations in their most basic plan.

Nevertheless, both providers make their expert technical staff available to handle the process, so you can sit back and relax while they do all the work for you.

WINNER: InMotion. They offer free migration for both WordPress and non-WordPress sites, supporting up to 3 free site migrations on their Launch plan.


Products and Features

Both Bluehost and InMotion have several products and features. To make it easy to digest, let’s highlight some of these.

Google Ad Credits

Businesses will appreciate that even on the basic package, both providers will give you access to Google Ad credits that you can use to boost your online presence.

Free Domain Name

You’ll also get a free domain name with both providers for a year. This will save you around $15 for your first year.

Storage Space

With Bluehost’s basic Shared hosting plan, you get 50GB SSD storage space. For the affordable price, that’s already a lot of space. 

Of course, for even more space (or unlimited space), you can select their higher plans, including VPS and Dedicated hosting. 

InMotion also has 50GB SSD storage in their most basic Shared hosting plan. Plus, you get unlimited bandwidth, support for 2 sites, and more. 

Like Bluehost, the higher-tier plans offer more storage space and features. 

Available Hosting Solutions

If you’re looking for more support, both hosts provide managed WordPress hosting solutions as well. They also have VPS and Dedicated hosting plans.

You get a lot of scalability with both these providers. 

Money-Back Guarantee

Lastly, you’ll be entitled to a 30-day money-back guarantee with Bluehost. You can test out if their services are for you. 

But InMotion takes it above and beyond with a full 90 days (3 months) to apply for a refund, allowing you to experience every aspect of their service before parting with your cash.

WINNER: Tie. Both hosts offer a multitude of different features on their starting plans. Because of that, it’s hard to pick one that is better than the other. 


Security

When it comes to security, both Bluehost and InMotion offer several features to keep your users and site safe and secure.

They both offer free SSL certificates on all their plans, integral for any website looking to keep their customers’ personal information encrypted and out of the hands of any malicious hacker.

You’ll also get automatic site scanning and malware removal for their respective WordPress plan and superior hosting types (you’ll have to pay extra if you’re looking for this feature on their shared hosting).

What’s more, they offer DDoS protection with a firewall that prevents bots and attackers from taking down your site.

Datacenter security is ensured with both web hosts monitoring their servers 24/7 and putting systems such as fire protection to keep your data safe.

If that isn’t enough, both Bluehost and InMotion offer daily backups that save your latest site content and make it available if you experience any data loss. (You’ll also have to purchase this separately on their respective basic shared plan.)

With all these features, you can trust that Bluehost and InMotion are very secure. 

WINNER: Tie. With all these features, you can trust that Bluehost and InMotion are very secure. The lack of free automated backups, however, is a con for both hosts.


Pricing

When it comes to pricing, both web hosts provide their users’ discounts based on how much you pay in advance. 

For Bluehost and InMotion you’ll get the rates listed below if you pay 3 years and 2 years in advance, respectively.

On the shared hosting packages, Bluehost has the cheaper package starting out at $2.99 and going up to $13.95 on their pro shared hosting package. 

On the other hand, InMotion starts at $5.99 going to $14.99 on their shared package.

However, when it comes to WordPress hosting you’ll get a cheaper starting package with InMotion at $6.99-$19.99 compared to Bluehost’s pricing of $9.95-$27.95.

VPS Hosting is variable on InMotion, so you’ll be priced based on the resources you select. Bluehost VPS packages range from $19.99-$59.99.

Flip it again. Bluehost has the cheaper starting dedicated package, starting from $79.99 and going to $119.99 on their most powerful hosting option.

InMotion shines when it comes to dedicated solutions as they offer a range of different packages starting from $99 and higher, based on your customized needs.

WINNER: BlueHost. They offer cheaper starting packages that are perfect for budget-conscious users. 


Customer Support

You’ll get great 24/7 customer service with both Bluehost and InMotion. You can reach them through phone, live chat, and email support on all their plans.

Both of their customer support services are average when it comes to response time, which means you shouldn’t expect exceptionally fast or slow response times with either one.

They also provide a wide array of how-to guides and tutorials to help you with the site management process. This makes it much easier to solve routine problems without having to wait on customer support.

WINNER: Tie. Both hosts offer a comparable level of support, so you’ll get a similar experience with both hosts here.


Bluehost vs InMotion - Wrapping It Up

Features

Winner

Uptime and performance

BlueHost

Ease of use

BlueHost

Migration service

InMotion

Products and features

Tie

Security

Tie

Pricing

BlueHost

Customer support

Tie

So there you have it, a Bluehost vs InMotion side-by-side comparison. 

If you’re still struggling to decide which one is for you, here are my two cents.

While both hosts are great at supporting sites of any size, you’ll get more scalability with InMotion. This is because they specialize in providing hosting solutions to large sites with heavy resource needs.

Bluehost, on the other hand, has optimized WordPress (recommended by WordPress itself) solutions and cheaper shared hosting packages that make it more approachable if you are just getting started.

So, all in all, the final choice will depend on what you’re looking for in a web host and how resource-intensive your site is.

Have we missed anything out?

Comment your thoughts down below.

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