These are two excellent, well-established web Hosting providers. Both InMotion and Bluehost offer great Shared, VPS, and Dedicated hosting. Of the two, InMotion currently is the better choice for business hosting with outstanding features that are critical for business websites. Meanwhile, Bluehost is better suited for bloggers and beginning WordPress users.
Both of these web hosts offer you the cPanel interface. Bluehost and InMotion both customize their cPanel somewhat. These two web hosts also provide excellent, easy to use account control panels that give you quick access to all of your hosting functions. InMotion’s Account Management Panel (AMP) is one of my favorite interfaces. And, Bluehost provides a customize WordPress dashboard that is very helpful to WordPress users that are just starting out.
Video: InMotion vs Bluehost
Check out our video for a quick overview of InMotion vs Bluehost.
InMotion vs Bluehost: Website Builders
With Inmotion Hosting, you get the BoldGrid WordPress website builder which is great for speeding up and simplifying the website creation process for great looking WordPress sites. BoldGrid was originally developed by InMotion, so they are definitely the best official BoldGrid host you can choose.
Bluehost provides cPanel hosting features which include the software applications in your control panel. As Bluehost doesn’t offer their own custom site builder and since InMotion also includes cPanel applications, as well as BoldGrid, InMotion is the winner in this category.
InMotion vs Bluehost: WordPress
Both InMotion and Bluehost offer quality WordPress hosting. As mentioned above, InMotion also includes BoldGrid for easily creating WordPress sites. InMotion’s Business Hosting plans allow you to host multiple WordPress sites at an affordable price. Meanwhile, Bluehost is on the WordPress.org recommendation list. And as I mentioned, they include a customized WordPress dashboard that helps guide new website owners in creating their website.
| InMotion | Bluehost | |
|---|---|---|
| Preinstallation | ||
| Auto Updates | ||
| Auto Data Backups | ||
| On Demand Backup and Restore | ||
| Website Staging | ||
| Optimized Caching | ||
| WordPress Security | ||
| Managed WordPress Available? |
It’s really a very close call when it comes to WordPress with InMotion and Bluehost. Both of these web hosts provide impressive WordPress hosting with their shared hosting plans. InMotion and Bluehost both provide pre-installation of WordPress so you can get up and running with your website quickly. If you prefer to work more with a website builder type of interface, then InMotion with BoldGrid would be the better choice. BoldGrid includes some great functionality for your website such as automatic backup, automatic plugin updates, etc. However, if you prefer to work more directly in the WordPress dashboard interface, then Bluehost is the better option for you. Along with their custom WordPress dashboard, you also get features like automatic plugin updates and website staging.
While InMotion Hosting and Bluehost are both winners in the WordPress category, I would give a slight edge to InMotion based on the website speed and performance provided with their Max Speed Zone Technology. However, Bluehost does include full website staging while InMotion currently only includes it via the BoldGrid website builder.
InMotion and Bluehost now also offer Managed or Optimized WordPress Hosting plans. Again, both of these WordPress hosting solutions are excellent and provide improved performance over the respective shared hosting options. Because InMotion’s Managed WordPress hosting plans provide better value, I would again give the edge to InMotion over Bluehost here.
InMotion vs Bluehost: Security
| Free SSL | ||
| DDoS Protection | ||
| Brute Force Defense | ||
| Virus Scanning | ||
| Hack Protection | ||
| 24/7 Security Monitoring | ||
| Web Hosting Firewall | ||
| Patchman Security Tool | ||
| Two-Factor Authentication | ||
| Hosting Account Isolation | ||
| SPAM Protection |
InMotion vs Bluehost: Support
| Ticket Support | ||
| Email Support | ||
| Phone Support | ||
| Live Chat | ||
| Free Website Migration | ||
| Priority Support Available |
InMotion vs Bluehost: Development
| PHP Support | 7.4 | 7.4 |
| Unlimited Databases | Pro Plan Only | |
| MySQL Databases | 10.2.26-MariaDB | 5.6.41-84.1 |
| PostgreSQL Databases | ||
| Node.js | ||
| SSH Access | ||
| Apache | 2.4.41 | 2.4.39 |
| Git | ||
| Python | ||
| FTP/SFTP | ||
| WP-CLI |
InMotion vs Bluehost: eCommerce
When it comes to eCommerce websites, it’s a pretty close call. InMotion and Bluehost both provide free SSL certificates with their hosting plans. And, you get one-click shopping cart installs via cPanel. Because of some of the other factors mentioned previously (BoldGrid, Max Speed Zones, excellent support), we would give the edge to InMotion Hosting.
InMotion vs Bluehost: Differences
Advantages of InMotion Hosting over Bluehost:
- Max Speed Zone Technology
- BoldGrid Website Builder for WordPress
- Choice of Data Center Location
- Free Domain
- Free Private SSL
- Preinstallation of WordPress, Joomla, or PrestaShop
- Full 90 Day Money Back Guarantee
Advantages of Bluehost over InMotion Hosting:
- WordPress.org Recommended
- Customized WordPress Dashboard
- Customized cPanel Interface
- Guided WordPress Website Creation
InMotion vs Bluehost Details
| Category | InMotion | Bluehost | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data Centers | InMotion has data centers on both U.S. coasts. | ||
| Server Hardware | Business Class Hardware with Free Solid State Drives (SSDs) | ||
| Network | With InMotion you get their Max Speed Zone Technology. | ||
| Account Sign Up/Provision | WordPress, Joomla, or PrestaShop Pre-Installed | ||
| Control Panel | Bluehost provides a nice customized cPanel. | ||
| Speed and Performance | See Results Below | ||
| Security | Free SSL, Hack Protection, and DDoS Mitigation | ||
| Data Backup | InMotion provides free daily backups and will restore your data for free once every 4 months. | ||
| Developer Tools | InMotion is currently supporting PHP 7.4 | ||
| WordPress | InMotion will pre-install WordPress for you. You also get the BoldGrid WordPress website builder. | ||
| Website Applications | InMotion provides 400+ applications via cPanel as well as BoldGrid. | ||
| Advertising Credits | $250 Total (Google, Bing, Yahoo) | ||
| Customer Support Response Time | Normally around 4 sec. | ||
| Customer Support Issue Resolution | |||
| Money Back Guarantee | Full 90 Day Money Back Guarantee | ||
| Price/Value | $2.95 mo. – $14.99 mo. |
Website Speed Comparison
As a customer of both InMotion Hosting and Bluehost, I can say from personal experience that both provide excellent website speed. However, we also did some direct testing between websites hosted by both InMotion and Bluehost. As you can see below, InMotion Hosting speed and page loading results were better than Bluehost. InMotion’s Max Speed Zone data network gives them an advantage when it comes to performance and speed.
Customer Support Response Times
As for customer support, both hosting companies have been very helpful and courteous when I’ve contacted them. InMotion Hosting and Bluehost both provide very fast response times via live chat support. In the past, InMotion was far superior when it came to response times. However, with their recent improvements, Bluehost now has one of the fastest responding live chat support teams. Issue resolution is also excellent with both InMotion and Bluehost. This category is almost a tie. But since InMotion also provides support via Skype, and because they’ve had a longer track record of outstanding customer support, we’ll give them a slight edge.
VPS Hosting: InMotion vs Bluehost
InMotion Hosting and Bluehost both also offer impressive VPS hosting plans. Here again, we would put InMotion ahead of Bluehost. Website speed was better overall at InMotion. And, with InMotion’s VPS, you get their high availability hosting powered by the cloud. We also really like the snapshot server backup capability that you get with InMotion Hosting.
InMotion Hosting
Started Business: 2001
BBB Rating: A+
Data Center Locations: Los Angeles, CA and Ashburn, VA
Price: $2.49 mo. – $12.99 mo.
Unlimited Bandwidth: Yes
Unlimited Storage: No
Unlimited Email: Yes (Power Plan)
Host Multiple Domains: Yes
Hosting Interface: cPanel
Server Uptime: 99.99%
Full Refund Period: 90 Days
Dedicated Hosting Available: Yes
Free Extras:
Solid State Drives (SSDs)
Free SSL Certificates
Free Website Transfers
Safe Application Rollback
$75 – $100 Google Adwords Credit
Premium Website Builder
Advantages of Choosing InMotion:
- InMotion utilizes their Max Speed Zones for faster performance.
- cPanel interface with easy 1 click software installs using Softaculous.
- They offer phone, email, and chat support.
- You get a separate Account Management Panel for your account and billing issues.
- Fast live chat customer support responses.
- You get over 400 applications to use for your websites.
- Secure Remote Server Access via Command Line (SSH)
- Pre-Installation of WordPress, Joomla, or PrestaShop
- Free Sectigo SSL
- BoldGrid Website Builder
- Malware Protection
- WP-CLI Available for Use with SSH
- Choice of MySQL or PostgreSQL Databases
- Google Apps Integration Made Easier
- 90 Day Money Back Guarantee
Click here for more details on InMotion Hosting
Bluehost
Started Business: 1996
BBB Rating: A
Data Center Location: Provo, UT
Price: Price: $2.95 mo. – $14.99 mo.
Unlimited Bandwidth: Yes
Unlimited Storage: Yes
Unlimited Email: Yes
Host Multiple Domains: Yes
Hosting Interface: cPanel
Server Uptime: N/A
Full Refund Period: 30 Days
Dedicated Hosting Available: Yes
Free Extras:
Free Let’s Encrypt SSL
SiteLock CDN
$200 Marketing Offers (Except Basic Plan)
Advantages of Choosing Bluehost:
- Automatic Installation of WordPress
- User Friendly Guided WordPress Site Creation
- Customized WordPress Dashboard Interface
- Performance Caching
- Automatic WordPress Plugin and Theme Updates
- Responsive Customer Support via Phone, Email, and Live Chat
- Fast Website Provisioning
Click here to see more details on Bluehost
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Recommendation
Personally, I’ve had great success with both of these companies. If you’re looking for hosting for a business site, then InMotion is probably the better choice. Their business class hardware and business hosting features put them on top. Both InMotion and Bluehost are excellent choices for cPanel web hosting—especially WordPress. As noted above, both web hosts have certain advantages for selecting their WordPress hosting.
While it’s close, overall in most cases, the winner in this comparison is InMotion Hosting based on the combination of their features, website performance, and customer support. See our review ratings for InMotion Hosting below.
The post InMotion vs. Bluehost (December 2020) - "What's the Real Story?" first appeared on Web Hosting Cat.
