A2 Hosting vs InMotion Hosting – Only One Winner in 2020

The best thing about this A2 Hosting vs InMotion Hosting comparison is that you can’t go wrong with either. Both services boast robust infrastructures, SSD powered hosting, and a wide range of features at affordable prices. So, it all comes down to the little details that make one host slightly better than the other and the host that suits your needs.

For example, InMotion Hosting offers a free domain name with its annual plans, but A2 Hosting doesn’t. But unlike InMotion Hosting, you can cancel your contract and get a pro-rata refund at any time with A2 Hosting.

To fairly compare A2 Hosting and InMotion Hosting, I tested both web hosting providers in terms of pricing, features, performance, security, and support. I was impressed by both hosts, but A2 Hosting has an overall slight edge over InMotion Hosting. Click here to see A2 Hosting’s best deals, or read on to see why A2 Hosting wins this tough comparison.

1. Plans and Pricing

Both Hosts Offer Affordable Shared Hosting, but InMotion Is a Bit Cheaper

There’s no doubt that A2 Hosting and InMotion Hosting sell an array of reasonably-priced hosting solutions and attractive discounts with their annual subscriptions. However, there are some differences between their shared hosting offerings.

For starters, A2 Hosting offers four shared hosting plans at a cheaper discounted annual rate than InMotion Hosting, but InMotion’s packages renew at a cheaper cost than A2 Hosting.

Even though both services offer free site migration, InMotion will only migrate your website if it’s less than 5 GB. A2 Hosting offers free migration of cPanel accounts from other hosts, or for any type of website if you choose to upgrade to one of its higher-tier plans.

InMotion Hosting offers a free domain name with annual subscriptions, but A2 Hosting doesn’t. InMotion Hosting offers a 90-day money-back guarantee. On the other hand, A2 Hosting offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Plus, you can get out of your contract at any time and get a pro-rata refund (you’ll be only charged for your usage period).

That said, InMotion comes out as the  winner of the pricing round.

2. Features

A2 Hosting Offers More Optimized Managed WordPress Hosting Plans

A2 Hosting offers three SSD powered managed WordPress hosting plans – 1-Site, 3-Site, and Unlimited – with one to unlimited hosted websites, 10 GB to 40 GB disk space, free SSL, Plesk control panel, and unlimited bandwidth. A2 Hosting’s platform is built on Cloud Container Technology specifically designed to handle heavy WordPress sites.

All WordPress hosting plans are powered by A2 Hosting’s Turbo server which gives you 20X faster page loads. This host also offers some useful features for free, such as Cloudflare CDN, automatic backups, Jetpack Personal license, and single-click site staging to test and make edits on a copy of the live version of your website.

InMotion Hosting offers four managed WordPress Hosting plans – WP-1000S, WP-2000S, WP-3000S, WP-4000S. These plans offer you one to six hosted websites, 40 GB to 120 GB SSD storage, free SSL, and unlimited bandwidth.

InMotion Hosting offers the free Jetpack Image CDN, which is much more limited than Cloudflare CDN because it only acts as a CDN for your WordPress site’s images.

InMotion Hosting also offers the free version of Jetpack with its WP-1000S plan, but it’s a paid add-on with the rest of its WordPress Hosting plans.

See more differences between A2 Hosting and InMotion Hosting in the following comparison table:

The winner? A2 Hosting, because it offers more advanced and optimized WordPress hosting features and most of them are free.

3. Performance

A2 Hosting Can’t Beat InMotion Hosting’s Stunning Performance

Both A2 Hosting and InMotion Hosting promise a 99.9% uptime guarantee, but which one actually keeps their word? While A2 Hosting’s users reported some downtime in the past, InMotion Hosting has exceeded this uptime on several occasions and there are no reports of less.

A2 Hosting has a global network of servers (USA, Netherlands, and Singapore), but InMotion has servers in the US only.

Due to less downtime and faster page loading speeds, InMotion Hosting takes the lead when it comes to performance.

4. Security

A2 Hosting Has a Security Advantage Over InMotion Hosting

A2 Hosting and InMotion Hosting both offer free SSL certificates with their services. In addition, they both secure their servers and websites with 24/7 monitoring and DDoS protection.

InMotion additionally offers Hack Protection, Advanced Policy Firewall, and internal vulnerability patching application to secure your websites against malicious threats.

On the other hand, A2 Hosting provides a free security pack with all its plans. This includes KernelCare (daily, automatic, and rebootless Kernel updates), reinforced DDoS protection, Dual Web Hosting Firewall, Brute Force defense, HackScan, Auto-Heal hosting protection, Barracuda spam filtering, and virus scanning.

While A2 Hosting offers free automated regular backups with most of its plans, InMotion offers backups as a paid add-on. This is a huge plus for A2 Hosting customers.

The winner? Even though InMotion Hosting offers excellent security features, A2 Hosting’s free automated backups and free security pack make it a winner in this round.

5. Support

Even though both A2 Hosting and InMotion Hosting have informative websites, and each has its comprehensive knowledge base, A2 Hosting’s knowledge base is better organized, making it easier to find what you’re looking for.

A2 Hosting’s customer support is available 24/7 via live chat, phone, and support ticket. Despite some users reporting slow response times, when I contacted the live chat I received an almost instant response. Even with the support ticket I submitted, I received a reply within an hour, which isn’t bad at all.

On the other hand, InMotion Hosting has the same communication channels as A2 Hosting, and also email. However, when I contacted the live chat here, it took me a little bit longer to get through to an agent. As soon as I did, though, the agent was helpful and answered all my questions. The support ticket channel was equally helpful.  

Both vendors have reliable support, and even though InMotion has more communication channels than A2Hosting, A2 Hosting wins this round with its higher responsiveness in the live chat.

A2 Hosting Wins by a Thin Margin

It was definitely a challenging competition between A2 Hosting and InMotion Hosting. These two powerful providers do offer top-of-the-line hosting for beginners and pros alike. No wonder they’re both on our list of the best web hosting services. Nevertheless, A2 Hosting beat InMotion Hosting by a hair in three out of five categories.

If you’re on a small budget, then I suggest that you go for InMotion Hosting. However, if you have some room in your budget and want to enjoy more features, you’ll like A2 Hosting.

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