A2 Hosting vs. InMotion Hosting
A2 Hosting and InMotion Hosting are two close competitors that are pretty well matched. A2 Hosting is all about quality, speed, and top-notch technical support. InMotion Hosting, on the other hand, is an all-rounded hosting provider that’s focused on giving you quality web service while ensuring that you get value for money in the long run.
The race between A2 Hosting and InMotion Hosting is one between two titans that pride themselves to be the best in the market when it comes to offering blazing fast speeds and are dedicated to hardware and SSD hosting.
As such, it’s not easy to lift a finger and pinpoint that “this” host is the best without critically analyzing each based on some basic parameters such as performance, pricing, customer support, security, and features.
In this A2 Hosting vs. InMotion hosting review, we dissect through each of the above factors to give you a clear idea of what each host is made of. Read on to find out.
A2 Hosting vs. InMotion Hosting: Performance
Whenever we talk about performance in web hosting, the most noticeable factor that comes to mind is the speed and availability of your website.
Speed in this case refers to how fast your website pages are downloaded and displayed on the user’s web browser. Availability or uptime, on the other hand, refers to the percentage of time that your website can be accessed.
While it’s easy to overlook these two factors when shopping for a web host, it’s worth noting that your website’s performance has a measurable effect on conversions, bounce rate, mobile traffic, and Google search rankings.
That said, both A2 Hosting and InMotion Hosting are not the slowest providers in the market neither are they the fastest. To put everything into perspective, we decided to purchase the most basic plans from each of the two hosts and see how fast each of the two hosts loaded a WordPress dummy website.
From our page load tests using Pingdom Tools, A2 Hosting recorded an average load speed of 300ms (0.3s). InMotion hosting, on the other hand, recorded an average page loading speed of 463ms (0.463s).
From the results, it’s clear that A2Hosting boasts whiplash-inducing speeds compared to InMotion hosting to ensure that visitors spend less time waiting for pages to load and more time reading your content.
Part of the reason why A2 Hosting performs well is that the company includes a free Cloudflare CDN and high-speed solid-state drives (SSD) in their entire portfolio of services.
Along with that, the company has a global network of servers located in the USA, Netherlands, and Singapore. On the other hand, InMotion offers SSD storage but does not offer a free CDN. Its data centers are also located in the USA only.
Moving on, we also tested both A2 Hosting and InMotion hosting uptime rating. From our studies, A2 Hosting recorded an uptime rating of 99.99% surpassing its uptime promise of 99.9% or higher.
InMotion hosting, on the other hand, recorded an average uptime rating of 99.93% which was worse than we expected given that the company promises to deliver a 99.99% uptime rating.
As you can see, A2 Hosting outperforms In Motion hosting when it comes to performance. It’s therefore an easy call for us.
A2 Hosting vs. InMotion Hosting: Plans and Pricing
Aside from performance, another critical factor that you need to look out for is the hosting provider’s pricing structure. Naturally, you’ll want an affordable yet reliable hosting provider. But one thing you’ll need to remember is that you’ll always get what you pay for.
Another thing you’ll need to be overly cautious about is the web host’s signup price and renewal prices. In most instances, hosting providers will lure you into their plans by offering low initial costs and then increasing them twofold or threefold depending on how many offers you were initially given when signing up.
That said, we recommend that you go with a hosting provider that’s reasonable with its price jumps. By that, we mean one that does not go beyond 100%. For instance, if the initial signup cost is $3, the renewal cost shouldn’t go beyond $6. But you don’t have to take my word for it.
Now, coming back to A2 Hosting and InMotion hosting, pricing is one factor that takes the center stage between these two hosts. For one, both hosts offer multi-tiered plans – allowing users to select their preferred hosting plans. You can choose to go with Shared, VPS, Dedicated, or WordPress hosting. However, for this review we will be comparing the two hosts shared hosting.
For starters, A2 Hosting and InMotion Hosting offer four shared hosting plans that are reasonably priced and handsomely discounted based on the subscription period. So, the longer the initial sign-up period the more attractive the discount.
Let’s see what A2 Hosting and InMotion Hosting offer in terms of plans and pricing.
A2 Hosting Plans and Pricing
Plan | Features | Price/month |
Startup | 1 WebsiteFree SSL certificatePerpetual security100 GB SSD StorageFree Site Migration | $2.49 |
Drive | Unlimited WebsitesUnlimited SSD StorageFree SSL Free Site MigrationAutomatic Backups | $4.25 |
Turbo Boost | Unlimited WebsitesUnlimited NVMe StorageFree Site Migration Automatic Backups 20X Faster speeds | $5.99 |
Turbo Max | Includes all features that come with the Turbo Boost plan but adds 5X more resources. | $12.99 |
InMotion Hosting Plans and Pricing
Plan | Features | Pricing/mo |
Lite | 1 Website Unlimited bandwidthFree SSL10GB SSD storageFree EmailSecurity suite | $2.49 |
Launch | Free Domain2 Websites50GB SSD StorageFree SSLUnlimited data transfer3x Performance and Speed10 Email Addresses | $4.99 |
Power | Free DomainUp to 50 WebsitesFree SSL Certificate100GB SSD Storage50 email AddressesUnlimited data transfer 4x Performance and Speed | $7.99 |
Pro | Free DomainFree SSL certificateUp to 100 WebsitesUnlimited Bandwidth6x Performance and Speed200GB SSD StorageUnlimited Email Addresses | $12.99 |
As you can see, both hosts offer similar features in various categories. There is also no significant difference when it comes to pricing. However, A2 hosting gives more when it comes to value. For example, it offers more SSD speed boost, free automatic backups, free CDN, and lots of other freebies.
However, compared to InMotion, A2 Hosting renewal rates are higher. They also have a shorter moneyback period of 30 days compared to InMotion’s 90-day moneyback guarantee. So, if you are planning to go long term, InMotion is a solid choice.
A2 Hosting vs. InMotion Hosting: Customer Support
There are times when you cannot be able to solve certain issues by yourself such as server-level issues. During such times, you’ll need all the support you can get.
Ideally, you’ll want a hosting provider whose customer support is responsive in various communication channels, polite, and technically-savvy.
That said, customer support is one area that A2 Hosting strongly excels. The company’s technical support team – christened “Guru Crew” – is always on standby in various channels to assist with any queries.
You can reach them via live chat, phone, ticket, and email. What we liked about the support team is their responsiveness. It took us less than 2 minutes to get connected to an agent via live chat. Phone support was equally excellent and we had to hold for about 10 minutes to speak to an agent.
Conversely, InMotion hosting offers similar customer support channels as A2 Hosting. However, the responsiveness is not as great as we experienced with A2 Hosting.
On live chat, it took us around 5 minutes to get hooked to an agent. Phone support was equally frustrating because we had to hold for about 15 minutes. But despite the long wait times, the agents proved to be very knowledgeable and were very helpful with our queries.
We also liked the fact that both A2 Hosting and InMotion hosting offer extensive knowledge bases, website tutorials, and blog posts where you can get helpful information. So, as far as customer support goes, we feel that A2 Hosting was a good pick thanks to their responsiveness.
A2 Hosting vs. InMotion Hosting: Ease of Use
Usability is not a factor that only affects beginners. It also affects tech-veterans alike. As such, it is essential to ensure that the hosting provider you choose offers an intuitive interface with easy to navigate features.
That said, both A2 Hosting and InMotion hosting are easy to use. This is because of the simple fact that you do not need to jump through too many hoops to sign up for a hosting plan and set up your website.
In this A2 Hosting vs. InMotion hosting review, we’ll look at three main features that simplify usage. They include cPanel, a 1-click installer, and site navigation.
- CPanel: Both A2 Hosting and InMotion hosting offer cPanel as a standard feature where users can access Softaculous auto-installer and other vital website management tools, features, and services.
- 1-Click Installer: Both providers provide users with a 1-click installer. A2 Hosting, for instance, offers a 1-click installer for WordPress themes, plugins, and other popular apps. Similarly, InMotion hosting offers a 1-click installer that allows users to install more than 300 apps in its directory.
- Site Navigation: Nothing sucks like a website that’s hard to navigate. A transparent and organized navigation system acts as a road map that directs visitors to various pages while encouraging visitors to stay and read your content.
That said, both A2 Hosting and InMotion offer better navigation making it very easy to find the information you need. Everything is well laid out on their homepage. So, as far as ease-of-use is concerned, both A2 Hosting and InMotion hosting won’t be a headache to you even if you are a beginner.
A2 Hosting vs. InMotion Hosting: Security
Cybercrime is one of the greatest threats facing many website owners. There is hardly a day that passes when you don’t hear of a site getting hacked or a data breach. So, whether you run a personal blog or an eCommerce store, website security should be at the top of your priorities.
Luckily, both A2 Hosting and InMotion hosting take security seriously. For one, both companies offer free SSL certificates with all their plans. They also offer DDoS protection and 24/7 website monitoring.
A2 Hosting additionally offers free HackScan protection that includes brute force defense, a dual firewall, KernelCare rebootless kernel updates, and many other security features. What’s more, the company includes free automatic backups with some of its plans.
InMotion Hosting doesn’t lag too. It also offers many other security features such as internal vulnerability patching, advanced policy firewall, and hack protection – just like A2 Hosting. However, the company does not provide free data backups to its users so you have to get it as an add-on.
As you can see, these two hosts have a keen eye on security. However, A2 Hosting’s free security pack and free auto-backups make it an excellent choice in this category.
A2 Hosting vs. InMotion Hosting: Features
Features are a major deal-breaker when hunting for a hosting provider. While we’ve discussed most of the features offered by A2 Hosting and InMotion hosting in this review, we felt that it was necessary to provide you with a breakdown of each of these two host’s standard features that you should expect even with the most standard plan.
A2 Hosting Features
- SSD storage
- Free website migration
- 30-day Moneyback guarantee
- Unlimited email accounts
- A2 Site builder
- 24/7/365 customer support (Guru Crew)
- Easy cPanel control
- Free SSL certificate
- 99.9 uptime commitment
- Website staging
- Choice of a data center location
- Unlimited data transfer
- Developer friendly (PHP 7 supported)
- Free HackScan Protection
- Anycast DNS
- SSH Access & Rsync
- Free Cloudflare CDN
- 1-Click setup
Inmotion Hosting Features
- Free website builder
- Free SSD storage
- Free SSL certificate
- Free domain
- Unlimited data transfer (bandwidth)
- Easy Google apps integration
- 1-click installs of 400 plus applications
- Free website migration
- PHP 7 supported
- 24/7/365 U.S.-Based Support
- SSH access
- Max Speed Zones
- Easy cPanel
- Hack and malware protection
- 90-day moneyback guarantee
A2 Hosting vs. InMotion Hosting: Our Pick
The battle between A2 Hosting and InMotion Hosting is a close one. The two hosts are finely tuned to offer outstanding performance at an affordable price. But neither of the two hosts is perfectly perfect – and they each have their shortcomings.
As it stands, however, A2 Hosting is a better choice and here’s why:
- Performance: A2 Hosting offers faster loading speeds with low downtimes. They also have many data centers compared to InMotion hosting.
- Plans and pricing: Both hosts offer affordable pricing. However, A2 Hosting’s renewal prices are higher than InMotion’s. Their moneyback guarantee period is also short. So, Inmotion wins in this category.
- Customer support: A2 Hosting customer support is highly responsive compared to InMotion’s.
- Ease-of-Use: Both hosts are easy to use. They offer cPanel, website builder, 1-click setups, and the parent sites are easy to navigate.
- Security: They both offer advanced security features. A2 hosting offers most of these features for free including automatic backups which InMotion offers as an add-on.
As you can see, A2 hosting beats InMotion in many categories. But that’s not to say that InMotion is a bad host, it’s just not the better host. You can check our various comparative reviews for other hosts here.