If after some careful deliberation, you’re left with InMotion Hosting and SiteGround for your web hosting providers, your website is in good hands. The only task is to choose between the two, and that can be more difficult than it seems.
In this article, we’ll compare your final options to make the decision-making more bearable for you, As both provide remarkable services and receive great reviews from their users. So, we’ve gone ahead and done the research to help you cut through the chase, and that includes speed, similarities, ease of use, features, uptime and server location, security, and customer support.
SiteGround vs. InMotion: Main similarities and differences
Although SiteGround and InMotion are each other’s fiercest competitions in web hosting, these companies are very different from the other in their own right.
If you want to secure a free domain, InMotion will have that covered for you. With SiteGround, on the other hand, you will have to purchase it separately. There is also a noticeable difference in the money-back guarantee both companies are offering - 30 days for SiteGround, and three times as much if you go with InMotion.
As with similarities, both providers will give you reliable customer service via common channels, will give you a free email account, and unlimited bandwidth with their startup shared hosting plans. You’ll also find cloud hosting and ecommerce hosting offered by both.
- Get yoour site running with the best hosting services of 2021
Pricing
As a key deciding factor, it’s important to know how far your budget can take you. Let’s take a look at SiteGround and Inmotion’s pricing details.
SiteGround’s StartUp plan goes for only $4.99 per month. Succeeding plans with more offerings will cost a few dollars more at $7.99 and $14.99 respectively. Not at all a bad way to start your website. InMotion will get your website up and live for as low as $5.99 per month. Interestingly, the next plan costs the same but comes with a few more inclusions. The highest tier goes for only $14.99 and comes with advanced features.
Taking into consideration the promotions both (as do most web hosting providers) are offering, InMotion’s rates are for their two-year term, after which renewal will cost $7.99 per month, while SiteGround’s will cost you $9.95 per month.
There’s no significantly high difference in their renewal rates, however, as SiteGround is notorious for its massive discount offerings, you’re likely going to get a huge discount when you’re signing up for an account. It’s a tie between them for this round.
Ease of use
Just getting a free domain won’t cut it for the most part, so let’s look at how easy both are to use.
SiteGround’s drag-and-drop basic website builder lets you have freedom with your creativity when designing your website. With this, you can customize your website however you want. InMotion has a WordPress-based builder called BoldGrid, an exclusive InMotion in-house builder that’s as easy to use as SiteGround’s basic builder. This also lets you create and design your website using tools easily.
With cPanel being their common ground, it’s easy to closely differentiate how the two fare in creating a user-friendly atmosphere. InMotion has customized it to create an improved performance, making it easier to use, while SiteGround has added integrated features for more functionality, making it more user-friendly.
As both offer ease of use albeit in different ways, they both own this round, no doubt. It will depend on your preferred platform.
Features
WordPress offers superior shared hosting operating power. As a hosting provider recommended by WordPress.org, SiteGround’s plans include WordPress installation, auto-updates, and WordPress support. Installing the WordPress app on an existing website with both SiteGround and InMotion is fairly easy.
All of SiteGround’s and InMotion’s plans include free SSH and SFTP access, and free email accounts. As previously mentioned, you’ll get a free domain with InMotion, while to get a domain with your SiteGround plan costs extra.
InMotion is generous in terms of storage, offering from 50 to 200GB of SSD storage, while SiteGround’s plans start at 10GB, while their highest tier will only give you 40GB of SSD storage, slightly lower than InMotion’s lowest offering. When it comes to bandwidth, InMotion’s plans all offer “unlimited”, but SiteGround is more transparent in that they specify the amount of disk space and an estimate of the number of visitors to your website, which ranges from 10K to 100K visits per month.
With their free domain, larger storage, and unlimited bandwidth that SiteGround fails to deliver, we’ll have to give this round to InMotion.
Speed & uptime
Strong uptime and website speed will keep your visitors from leaving your website, which can be good for your sales. SiteGround is a high-ranking web hosting provider with uptime and speed records of 99.99% and 716ms respectively in the past year. The company also has a history that ranges from 99.98% to 100% over the last few months.
InMotion is not too far behind at 389ms website loading time and 99.91% uptime. InMotion has been constantly improving its servers over the past few years, which means it’s only going to improve over the next few years.
Speed is certainly SiteGround’s core strength, which means it takes the win in this round easily.
Security
InMotion does not take cyber terrorism lightly. Their DDoS protection comes from their Smartwall Threat Defense System (TDS). For WordPress sites, InMotion provides a free Sucuri Security plugin that detects malware and other risks.
SiteGround, on the other hand, uses an AI-based anti-bot that blocks brute attempts across all of their servers, keeping your website safe from cyberattacks. This AI analyzes data from their servers, detecting malicious patterns, and applies actions.
Both providers take blocking malicious activities and keeping your website safe serious and have taken extra measures.
InMotion partnered with DDoS attack protection firm Corero for its security offerings and SiteGround developed a proprietary tool. So, it’s a tie on this round.
Support
As your website goes live, you need to be able to receive help anytime you run into difficulties. InMotion’s support team is available 24/7 to answer your queries and provide accurate information. Their support team is friendly, reliable, and provides a smooth resolution to get you back on track.
SiteGround’s support team can be reached via phone, email, and chat 24/7 as well. They’re fast, friendly, knowledgeable, and experienced. They provide a 90% resolution rate of the inquiries. Apart from getting assistance whenever you need it, SiteGround also provides helpful and informative tutorials and guides.
Both do really well in providing their customers with the help that they need, so it’s another round with a tie.
Verdict
SiteGround and InMotion are close competitors at the top of the web hosting food chain, tearing their competitors apart with their strong features, excellent website speed and uptime records, and consistent support. The key is to look into their stronger features where your website can definitely benefit from.
SiteGround’s performance was remarkable in uptime, security and support, showing off its strengths and ensuring your website keeps you and your visitors happy.
InMotion, on the other hand, took over with their more affordable year-round pricing, strong security, and features that stand out while maintaining efficient and fast customer support. InMotion takes the number one spot on our list.
- Check out our list of the best small business web host on the market
