InMotion vs. 1&1 (2024)

PJ Fancher

By: PJ Fancher

PJ Fancher

PJ Fancher, Contributing Expert

PJ is a professional web developer with more than 20 years of experience. His background began with writing small web applications using Perl, PHP, and MySQL in 1998. He has well-rounded experience with all aspects of web development, from server and database configuration to scripting, styling, design, and SEO.

Lillian Castro

Editor: Lillian Castro

Lillian Castro

Lillian Castro, Senior Editor

Lillian brings more than 30 years of editing and journalism experience to our team. She has written and edited for major news organizations, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the New York Times, and she previously served as an adjunct instructor at the University of Florida. Today, she edits HostingAdvice content for clarity, accuracy, and reader engagement.

Cristian Lopez

Reviewer: Cristian Lopez

Cristian Lopez

Cristian Lopez, Contributing Expert

Cristian Lopez uses his Business Marketing background from the University of Illinois at Chicago to create comfortable environments for customers, clients, and colleagues to share their thoughts and ideas openly. From interviewing tech leaders to conducting UX market research projects, Cristian knows the importance of storytelling — a key variable for innovation and inspiration. His goal at HostingAdvice is to wow readers on the ever-evolving nature of the tech industry and bring his audience the most reliable and exciting content on all things hosting.

Sean Garrity PJ Fancher Hosting Expert
“We tested InMotion & 1&1 IONOS — The winner is InMotion!”

These catch-all web hosts deliver an impressive breadth of services, such as website builders, domains, and shared, VPS, dedicated server, and WordPress hosting. InMotion and 1&1 may be equally matched in terms of services offered but have key differences in price, disk space, and speed. Determining the best hosting provider isn’t as straightforward as it seems, but we’ve broken down each host’s features, services, and price points to determine which is the better bet for your website.

Overall Rating
4.9/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit InMotion »
Overall Rating
4.9/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit 1&1 IONOS »

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Overall Hosting Comparison

Best Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

Offering a wider range of services than most — including shared, dedicated, VPS, and even WordPress-specific plans — InMotion Hosting features a great combination of industry-leading hardware, always-there support, and mass scalability for all hosting needs.

InMotion Hosting has ultra-modern SSD drives on its shared plans, which give an added speed boost to your site. If a little extra speed is worth a few dollars more a month, then InMotion is a good choice for you. 

The company's customer service and reputation are excellent in the shared space, though InMotion tends to be a bit higher priced than some competitors.

In testing InMotion servers and account backends ourselves, there are a few things InMotion does that we especially appreciate.

First and foremost, we like to see free and automated backups included with each plan, as data security is vitally important.

The company also offers zero-downtime site transfers, which makes switching to InMotion or between its hosting plans a breeze.

Finally, multiple datacenters and the ability to choose which will house your site appeals to speed freaks like us.

Regardless of your hosting needs, InMotion seems to have your bases covered. If you value great hardware and support, all at a reasonable price, we highly recommend InMotion as your next host.

  • FREE SSD drives included with all hosting plans
  • Zero-downtime website transfers and migrations
  • FREE backups, SSL, and DDoS protection
  • Choice of East Coast or West Coast datacenter
  • Multi-language support for PHP, Ruby, and Perl
  • Get started on InMotion now.
Money Back Guarantee
90 days
Disk Space
100 GB SSD - Unlimited
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

Best Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

Born in 1988 — at least a decade before many competitors — 1&1 IONOS has maintained its dedication to making technology easy to understand and use.

The company got its start in Europe but has since expanded to serve more than 8 million global customers and host more than 12 million domain names.

Part of the United Internet Group, 1&1 IONOS relaunched in 2018 after merging with the successful ProfitBricks cloud infrastructure service.

The end result is a web hosting company that's perfectly poised to serve everyone from first-time site owners and small businesses to rapidly scaling corporations in need of powerful virtual and dedicated server options.

Web hosting beginners will especially appreciate the company's dedication to a comprehensive user experience. In addition to affordable shared and WordPress hosting, 1&1 IONOS customers can quickly deploy the company's custom drag-and-drop site builder or eCommerce store creator.

Marketing tools abound to grow your presence, including for a local business listing on online directories, Google Adwords management, email marketing, and search engine optimization.

More experienced customers will find a comfortable hosting home in the various 1&1 IONOS cloud solutions. In addition to somewhat-more-obscure services like S3 object storage, Kubernetes-as-a-Service, or specialized cloud app configurations, the company offers the cloud in managed or unmanaged varieties, plus enterprise-grade Platform-as-a-Service and Infrastructure-as-a-Service options.

Whichever level of hosting you choose, 1&1 IONOS provides you with a personal consultant — a central point of contact available directly by phone, email, or chat who understands your needs. Be sure to consider 1&1 IONOS for your hosting needs.

  • FREE domain and SSL, plus daily backups
  • Drag-and-drop site builder and starter kit
  • Gain exposure with $100-worth of ad credits
  • Packages cater to businesses & personal use
  • FREE custom SEO and marketing tools
  • Get started on 1&1 IONOS now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
10 GB - Unlimited
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

Cheap Hosting Comparison

Cheap Rating

★★★★★ 4.7/5.0

#6 out of 10 in Cheap Hosting reviews

InMotion Hosting offers an excellent business-class shared hosting plan — with a price tag lower than several other budget hosts.

For the IT crowd in the audience, you’ll appreciate SSH access, as well as support for PHP, Ruby, Perl, Python, WP-CLI, and other popular languages.

You’ll also appreciate the 20-times faster speed, which comes from all-SSD storage and your choice of datacenter locations.

You needn’t worry about data security, as InMotion plans include automatic data backups.

For the rest of us, we can appreciate the convenience of the free website transfers and 24/7 US-based support.

A free domain registration and WordPress website builder with eCommerce support are also appealing.

The overall package and business-class hardware make InMotion’s shared hosting a great choice for businesses or those looking for a little higher-end hardware.

And, as one of the few remaining independently owned hosting providers left on the market, InMotion has taken every effort to remain cost-competitive.

  • FREE BoldGrid site builder and templates
  • FREE website, domain, and cPanel migrations
  • SSD storage makes your site load up to 20x faster
  • Security suite includes SSL and hack protection
  • Unlimited bandwidth and email accounts
  • Get started on InMotion now.
Money Back Guarantee
90 days
Disk Space
100 GB SSD - Unlimited SSD
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

Cheap Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

#3 out of 10 in Cheap Hosting reviews

If budget is the main factor on your mind when searching for your next web host, search no more.

1&1 IONOS has an impressive range of robust web hosting and website building packages for what may be the best price we've ever seen in the world of hosting.

Even better, there are no hidden fees or upsells at checkout — finally, a place in the web hosting world where "what you see is what you get" doesn't apply to just site builders.

All 1&1 IONOS plans come with a free domain name registration, or existing site transfer, with permissions to use (essentially) as much storage space and databases as you need.

While some hosting shoppers may view the lack of "truly" unlimited features to be a knock on 1&1 IONOS, we actually prefer that the host is upfront about exactly what resources are available — and, trust us, you'll have plenty of resources to work with.

Starting a 1&1 IONOS website from scratch is simple. With the 1&1 IONOS MyWebsite Builder and eCommerce store creator, you can easily choose a template, drag and drop various elements of your site, and customize it to your brand or personal preference.

For a bit more control, the company gives you more than 70 cloud applications that can be installed with just one click. For cost-conscious customers, whether you're looking for a website builder, WordPress host, or a place to launch your online store, you can't go wrong with one of the 1&1 IONOS budget-friendly plans.

The company includes all of the web hosting essentials and makes it simple to upgrade at any time, with expert support available to help at every step along the way.

  • $1/month for 12 months
  • No hidden fees, pay just $12 at checkout
  • Easy setup and 24/7 expert support
  • FREE domain or transfer, plus FREE SSL certificate
  • Unlimited storage and databases with most plans
  • Get started on 1&1 IONOS now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
10 GB - Unlimited
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

Dedicated Hosting Comparison

Dedicated Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

#4 out of 8 in Dedicated Hosting reviews

InMotion Hosting offers amazingly fast and reliable dedicated hosting on market-leading hardware — making it an easy choice for anyone seeking a premium dedicated server host.

From free SSDs to a fanatical support team, InMotion has all the bases covered for both small-scale and large-scale operations.

Unlike some hosts, InMotion gives SSH and root access to its servers. Each plan comes in bare metal or fully managed flavors. The latter includes two to four hours of dedicated time with a system administrator, which is an excellent help in getting your site configured to meet your needs.

Managed servers also come set up with free cPanel and WHM for easy management, while unmanaged server operators can choose among CentOS, Debian, or Ubuntu operating systems.

Plenty of CPU power, RAM, and storage come with each plan, as well as lots of dedicated IP addresses.

Perhaps our favorite feature of InMotion is the company's zero-downtime, rebootless kernel updates, which are partially the reason for InMotion's superb 99.999% uptime.

InMotion has a 30-day money-back guarantee on their dedicated plans, which is fairly rare and just another reason you can’t go wrong selecting the company as your dedicated host.

  • Bare-metal or managed servers available
  • 1-on-1 time with a server administrator
  • 99.99% uptime via Smart Routing™ technology
  • Tier 1 network with redundant bandwidth
  • SSH root access and DDoS protection on all servers
  • Upgrade for cPanel, migration, and auto backups
  • Get started on InMotion now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
1 TB SSD - 3.2 TB SSD
Domain Name
New or Transfer

Dedicated Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

#3 out of 8 in Dedicated Hosting reviews

If you need blazing-fast speed, optimum uptime, top-notch flexibility, and full control over the fate of your website the dedicated servers from 1&1 IONOS have you covered.

The company offers an assortment of entry-level, performance-focused, and business-class server options. 1&1 IONOS currently operates more than 90,000 servers within 10 geo-redundant datacenters, and the hardware features top-notch Intel Atom and Xeon processors.

The company's hands-on approach to perfecting datacenters ensures high levels of uptime and supremely reliable server networks, boasting up to 1 Gbit/s connectivity, unlimited traffic, and HTTP/2 support.

Although experienced dedicated server customers might prefer a large cloud environment with root access enabled, rookies and busy entrepreneurs who would prefer to spend their time elsewhere will appreciate the intuitive 1&1 IONOS control panel included with each machine; no server admin is required, meaning you can focus on your projects instead of monotonous maintenance.

Users can monitor their dedicated server performance through a web browser, but we also love how 1&1 IONOS offers mobile access to the control panel via apps for both iOS and Android.

Unlike many other dedicated server providers, 1&1 IONOS gives customers per-minute billing options.

Offering a wealth of dedicated server options to meet any budget or performance needs, 1&1 IONOS customers benefit from easy system management, and top-notch security, and personalized support — basically everything you can hope to get from a dedicated server provider.

  • Explore server deals to find the best rates
  • High powered modern AMD and Intel processors
  • Unlimited traffic and 1 Gbit/s network connectivity
  • 8-minute deployment with full API control
  • Auto backups, DDoS protection, and RAID-1 storage
  • Get started on 1&1 IONOS now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
480 GB SSD - 2 TB HDD
Domain Name
New or Transfer

VPS Hosting Comparison

VPS Rating

★★★★★ 4.6/5.0

#9 out of 9 in VPS Hosting reviews

Boasting market-leading VPS hardware, slick management software, and free SSD drives and backups, InMotion Hosting competes to win when it comes to managed VPS hosting packages.

The host initiates its VPS customer relationship with free website migrations and up to two hours of launch assistance from an experienced sysadmin.

Customers then enjoy highly available servers, seamless scalability options, and premium support — at a fair price.

Enjoy SSD storage arranged in a RAID-6 array, DDoS attack prevention powered by Corero, and routine server snapshots and rollback options.

Performance and security are clearly priorities for this hosting company. When it comes to bandwidth, disk space, and other usage allowances, we found these VPS packages to be competitive with other industry leaders.

All plans run on the CentOS Linux operating system and feature a license for cPanel and WHM, making it super easy to resell some unused server resources, too.

Ultimately, InMotion Hosting's reputation for uptime is second to none.

With a solid track record as a large-scale host, the company's sweet spot is found in its virtual, cloud, and dedicated server offerings. Should you get stuck, the support team is available 24/7.

Based on our experience, we'd highly recommend InMotion to those seeking flexible/easily configurable and cost-competitive virtual private servers backed by equally available support.

  • HostingAdvice readers get 78% off the first term
  • FREE site migrations and 2 hours of Launch Assist
  • 2 - 3 dedicated IP address options
  • FREE cPanel/WHM licenses included
  • Highly available servers with real-time redundancy
  • Get started on InMotion now.
Money Back Guarantee
90 days
Disk Space
90 GB SSD - 360 GB SSD
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

VPS Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

#3 out of 9 in VPS Hosting reviews

For an all-star player in the game of web hosting flexibility, look no further than the low-cost options from 1&1 IONOS.

The company's vServers are a powerful VPS option that includes dedicated resources and unlimited traffic. Customers will receive generous allotments of memory, computing cores, and high-speed SSD storage for rates much lower than many competitors.

We appreciate the company's flexibility in offering a wide range of Linux and Windows operating systems, along with the root access to completely control applications and other configurations. Users can use the Plesk Onyx control panel to manage server operations securely and efficiently.

The 1&1 IONOS VPS network is powered by VMware virtualization and redundant SAN storage, backed by Intel Xeon E5 processors and SSDs.

For those looking for other virtualized hosting options, 1&1 IONOS boasts numerous managed and unmanaged cloud services. Ranging from object storage to container orchestration, we especially appreciate the pre-configured environments that are optimized to specific application performance needs.

Want your WordPress or Magento site to fly? Look into 1&1 IONOS cloud hosting. Experienced developers comfortable with root access will enjoy hourly-billed IONOS Cloud environments, while cloud hosting newbies will prefer the managed, Platform-as-a-Service option.

Large companies can build customized, future-proofed environments via the 1&1 IONOS Infrastructure-as-a-Service package. No matter your selection, 1&1 IONOS smooths the on-ramp for cloud services adoption, promising that servers will launch in just 55 seconds.

In addition to the ridiculously low introductory prices, keep an eye out for additional discounts for your first month that enable you to sample upgraded tools without a long-term commitment.

  • Affordable VPS hosting with no hidden fees
  • Try it FREE via 30-day money-back guarantee
  • Full root access and API
  • 10GB to 240GB SSD, Linux or Windows
  • No throttling or traffic restrictions, ever
  • Get started on 1&1 IONOS now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
10 GB NVMe - 640 GB NVMe
Domain Name
New or Transfer

WordPress Hosting Comparison

WordPress Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

#6 out of 9 in WordPress Hosting reviews

InMotion Hosting, long known for affordable and high-performance shared hosting options, entered the WordPress space with a solid option built upon the company's reputation for great support and reliability.

Build on an all-SSD infrastructure, InMotion's inherently quick speeds make the infrastructure a perfect fit for delivering rapid WordPress page loads.

Options like integrated staging help take full advantage of the nice, modern hardware, and ample server caching tools are a good perk.

The choice of datacenters (East or West) is nice, as well, as it allows you to target your local audience with better load times.

InMotion offers four levels to its WordPress hosting offerings, which allows you to tailor the hosting to your needs or budget.

For those needing ecommerce support, the company's middle or top offerings have you covered, while all three include InMotion's drag-and-drop BoldGrid page editor.

Each hosting package InMotion offers comes with a free domain, unlimited disk space, unlimited emails, and free data backups for data security.

If you need it, each plan also has support for PHP, Ruby, Perl, and Python, and includes SSH access.

InMotion Hosting has made a name for itself on support and reliability. While not the cheapest of the budget WordPress hosts, the packages offered are solid in performance and feature sets.

  • Up to 12x faster WordPress hosting
  • FREE SSL certificate and SSD storage
  • Automatic WordPress plugin, theme, and core updates
  • Features a FREE drag-and-drop WP page editor
  • Premium themes and plugin subscriptions
  • Get started on InMotion now.
Money Back Guarantee
90 days
Disk Space
100 GB - Unlimited SSD
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

WordPress Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

You're not alone if you're looking for fine-tuned optimizations and security enhancements specifically tailored around WordPress.

Hundreds of hosts are clamoring to offer the best services for the world's most popular content management system, and 1&1 IONOS is among the select group leading the way.

The company offers all the essentials you would expect from a provider that emphasizes shared hosting simplicity, while still including the features that particularly resonate with more technical WordPress users.

First, a setup assistant gets you started with just a few clicks, offering countless options to customize and grow your WordPress site through theme and plugin suggestions.

From there, the company's powerful infrastructure — boasting NGINX web server, SSD storage, modern PHP, and 2GB of guaranteed memory — delivers your site with speed.

1&1 IONOS secures WordPress sites by automatically updating the CMS for you, along with providing DDoS protection and optional SiteLock security.

The managed platform takes care of all tedious management tasks, and site owners will appreciate the personal consultant that is on standby to answer any WordPress questions via phone, email, or chat.

All in all, starting and sustaining a WordPress site with 1&1 IONOS couldn't be easier. From a free domain and simple startup to the company's robust support systems, the company offers everything you need to launch a WordPress website with ease.

  • Just $1/month for 12 months
  • Free domain registration and up to 500 email accounts
  • Setup wizard helps with installation, suggests themes, and installs plugins
  • FREE automatic WP updates and DDoS protection
  • SSD drives, NGINX, and guaranteed RAM for page load speed
  • Get started on 1&1 IONOS now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
25 GB SSD - 75 GB SSD
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

Site Builder Hosting Comparison

Website Builder Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

If you're aiming to build a dynamic, user-oriented website — an active blog, a photo gallery, an ecommerce store — check out InMotion Hosting.

The InMotion team is extremely knowledgeable in the hosting industry, and they're attuned to the ever-evolving needs of the end-user — from the ultra-novice to the über-experienced.

Evidence of the team's attention to user needs can be found in BoldGrid. The proprietary website builder platform was received so well by the market that InMotion decided to spin the web builder off into its own company.

BoldGrid functions on top of WordPress, bringing intuitiveness and ease of use to a content management environment notorious for bringing beginners frustration.

With hundreds of templates and a nice WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, getting started with a new site is a fairly quick and easy process. You can play around with the plethora of site templates, preview the site that could soon be yours, and get a feel for which look most closely matches your intended design or brand.

BoldGrid comes free on all of InMotion's shared hosting packages, which come with all the essential hosting goodies and some of the best support money can buy.

Each plan offers powerful hardware, a free domain name, and free data backups — that last one being an extremely valuable feature.

InMotion does have lengthy signup periods for their best deals, but they offer a 90-day money-back guarantee to help you feel confident that they are the right host for you.

  • FREE site builder comes with all WordPress plans
  • FREE domain with tons of options to customize and scale
  • 200+ easy-to-edit blog, gallery, and ecommerce themes
  • Customizable templates come with industry-specific starter content
  • Easy SEO tools and mobile-friendly designs
  • Get started on InMotion now.
Money Back Guarantee
90 days
Disk Space
100 GB SSD - Unlimited SSD
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

Website Builder Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

#2 out of 9 in Website Builder Hosting reviews

If you're in need of a one-stop shop for designing and launching a website, you should be pleased to hear that 1&1 IONOS offers its own custom website building tools for both desktop and mobile devices.

In addition to a free domain and email address, along with unlimited storage space, the 1&1 IONOS MyWebsite platform includes all the essentials for starting a site from scratch.

With MyWebsite packages, you can quickly and easily create a custom website — without any coding or programming knowledge.

As if the low introductory rate wasn't impressive enough, 1&1 IONOS MyWebsite packages come with a free 30-day trial period so you can be certain that this easy-to-use solution is the right one for you.

The company's drag-and-drop site editor features tons of high-quality, customizable templates. Your site will automatically be optimized for smartphones and tablets, and 1&1 IONOS offers apps to integrate interactive, professional elements into your site, including photo galleries, online scheduling, customer reviews, social media widgets, and maps.

For those who are more pressed for time, you can quickly spin up a one-page website or employ 1&1 IONOS design experts to create up to five custom pages with images and SEO-optimized text.

Somewhat interestingly, 1&1 IONOS redirects customers to a separate website builder if they're looking to sell products online. The company's eCommerce builder easily integrates with Amazon, eBay, and Google, covering a wide range of integrated payment and shipping methods.

That being said, we are quite enamored with the comprehensive features included in these plans.

  • No coding skills necessary with MyWebsite Creator
  • Free domain name or transfer your existing site
  • FREE social media and marketing widgets
  • Pro templates with pre-filled text and images
  • Multilingual support and tools for SEO
  • Get started on 1&1 IONOS now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
10 GB - Unlimited
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)
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InMotion vs. 1&1 IONOS - Our Conclusion

Sean Garrity PJ Fancher Hosting Expert
“We tested InMotion & 1&1 IONOS — The winner is InMotion!”

This was a tough comparison, but we have our winner. Though both hosts have comparable offerings at first glance, each host delivers unique features in each plan. InMotion’s BoldGrid website builder impresses with its intuitive, drag-and-drop platform to create fully functional sites. But it’s tough to beat 1&1’s low monthly cost. Even though we’ve named our top pick, you might find that your personal preferences warrant a second look. Check out our full reviews of each provider before you make a choice.

Overall Rating
4.9/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit InMotion »
Overall Rating
4.8/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit 1&1 IONOS »

About The Author

PJ Fancher is a professional web developer with more than 20 years of experience. His background began with writing small web applications using Perl, PHP, and MySQL in 1998. He has well-rounded experience with all aspects of web development, from server and database configuration to scripting, styling, design, and SEO. Today he brings his passion for web development to the team at Digital Brands Inc., helping to develop unique, high-quality, highly-optimized websites. He is ready to share his extensive knowledge and experience with the world of web hosting.
Sean Garrity