InMotion Hosting vs NameCheap – Our Surprising Results [2024]

This InMotion Hosting vs NameCheap battle has revealed some similarities, several differences, and some interesting issues between these two reputable hosts.

NameCheap may offer cheaper shared hosting than InMotion Hosting, but I was surprised to find that InMotion Hosting offers more premium features and cheaper WordPress hosting than NameCheap.

In my mission to make a fair evaluation between InMotion Hosting and NameCheap, I put them against each other across five different categories. NameCheap did prove to deliver faster speeds than InMotion Hosting, but InMotion Hosting defeated NameCheap in three out of five categories, making it the winner of this comparison.

But, if you really want to get your money’s worth, you won’t be disappointed with a more powerful host like Hostinger.

Click here to get InMotion Hosting’s best deals, or read on to see how each service performed.

Plans and Pricing

Both Are Affordable, but You Get Lower Prices for Shared Hosting with NameCheap

InMotion Hosting and NameCheap offer the standard selection of hosting solutions for small to medium-sized websites and businesses. They both let you choose from shared hosting, WordPress hosting, VPS, reseller, and dedicated servers. But, how do they differ?

With InMotion Hosting for shared hosting, you can pick from four packages. NameCheap offers just three shared hosting plans – but its prices are lower and slightly better value for money compared to InMotion Hosting.

For unmanaged VPS hosting, InMotion Hosting is cheaper than NameCheap

Both InMotion Hosting and NameCheap offer attractive introductory discounts with their hosting plans. However, not only does NameCheap offer better discounted rates, most of its plans also renew at a remarkably cheaper cost. InMotion Hosting’s most expensive shared hosting plan (Pro) costs about three times more than NameCheap’s Stellar Business plan when you renew.

With InMotion Hosting for shared hosting, you can choose to be billed annually, biennially, or triennially. Monthly billing is only available with the highest plan, Pro. NameCheap only offers annual or biennial billing with its shared hosting plans. To get the best deals with either InMotion Hosting or NameCheap, you’ll need to sign up for the longest subscription terms, triennial with InMotion Hosting and biennial with NameCheap.

InMotion Hosting offers a 90-day money-back guarantee, three times as long as NameCheap’s 30-day money-back guarantee.

Namecheap offers cheaper shared hosting plans than InMotion Hosting and its packages renew at a lower cost, so in this round it comes out on top. Nevertheless, Hostinger offers cheaper prices and unbeatable discounts compared to InMotion Hosting and NameCheap.

Features

InMotion Hosting Offers More Value-Added Features with Its Plans

Both InMotion Hosting and NameCheap offer a very good selection of value-added features and freebies with their plans – but InMotion Hosting just manages to get ahead.

With InMotion Hosting, all shared (except for the entry package) and WordPress hosting plans come with a free domain (.com, .biz, .org, .us, and .info) for the first year of your subscription. You also get free website migration (with zero downtime) – but this is limited to a maximum size of 10GB.

All shared hosting plans also come with a free SSL certificate, cPanel control panel, Softaculous one-click installer (400+ applications), WP-CLI, Spam Experts, and free BoldGrid website builder. If you choose WordPress hosting, you’ll get free site staging to make edits on a live copy of your website, free CDN, free JetPack, and automated backups.

NameCheap does give you a free domain name – but you’re limited to the .website extension. It does throw in domain privacy protection, though. NameCheap will also migrate your website for free regardless of its size.

NameCheap offers an AutoBackup tool via cPanel for free with the premium packages (Stellar Plus and Stellar Business) only. Otherwise, internal backups are performed twice a week with all plans, but NameCheap doesn’t guarantee these and advises you to make your own backups!

Use the following table to further compare InMotion Hosting and NameCheap:

Overall, InMotion Hosting offers more features with its shared and WordPress hosting plans as opposed to NameCheap’s standard features – so InMotion Hosting wins this round.

Performance

NameCheap has Faster Page Loading Speeds

If your website visitors are outside of the US, InMotion Hosting probably isn’t the host for you. It only has data centers in the US, while NameCheap has one data center in the US and another in Europe (the Netherlands).

Both hosts use SSD storage, which should, in theory, result in decent performance. SSD storage is much faster than the traditional HDD storage which reflects directly on the website’s loading speed, stability, and overall performance.

Both hosts include a free CDN, but only with specific plans, and both have a 99.9% uptime guarantee. In our tests, both InMotion Hosting and NameCheap showed fairly consistent uptime of over 99.9% – although InMotion Hosting’s overall uptime score was better than NameCheap’s.

InMotion Hosting’s page loading speeds in North America aren’t considered bad, but still not good enough to be labeled as reliable or promising. I can’t say the same about the rest of the locations around the world. See more performance details for InMotion Hosting in our expert review.

NameCheap showed promising page loading speeds in North America, Europe, and even parts of Asia. You can see the full details in our expert review.

While InMotion Hosting has a slightly better uptime, NameCheap’s much faster global page loading speeds puts it in the lead in the performance round.

Security

InMotion Hosting’s Security Features are More Advanced and More Reliable

When it comes to security, InMotion Hosting and NameCheap are pretty standard compared to more capable hosts like Hostinger.

Both InMotion Hosting and NameCheap secure all their servers with DDoS protection and 24/7/365 server monitoring.

With all its plans, InMotion Hosting offers hack protection, advanced policy firewall, and internal vulnerability patching application to secure your websites against malicious threats.

On the other hand, NameCheap’s standard security features include custom security notifications, custom password recovery, and dynamic support pin numbers which protect against unauthorized attempts to access your account.

NameCheap also includes Domain Lock and supports Two-Factor Authentication (2FA).

Both hosts offer a decent range of security features and take relatively strong measures to protect your account. However, InMotion Hosting’s more advanced security features and infrastructure outshine NameCheap, making it the winner of this round.

Support

InMotion Hosting Offers More Support Channels and are More Helpful

The websites of both InMotion Hosting and NameCheap enjoy extensive Knowledge Base sections with articles and tutorials covering most major topics. The Knowledge Base sections of both hosts are highly organized making it easy to reach the required information.

InMotion Hosting’s U.S.-based support is available 24/7 through live chat, phone, email, and support ticket. I went for the live chat and even though it took a little time to get connected to an agent, I received all the support I needed. The agent was knowledgeable, professional, polite, and overall very helpful.

NameCheap’s support is also available 24/7, but only through live chat and support ticket. Like with InMotion Hosting, I went for the live chat. Even though I was connected to an agent here faster than InMotion Hosting, there were clear knowledge gaps and the agent wasn’t as helpful. Not all my questions were answered correctly.

InMotion Hosting has more support channels than NameCheap and, even though the response time needs slight improvement, at the end of the day I got the help I needed. InMotion Hosting is a clear winner in the support round.

InMotion Hosting Beats NameCheap – But Is It Right For You?

You can observe that InMotion Hosting and NameCheap engaged in a closely contested match. Both hosts provide nearly identical hosting solutions and encompass all the essential features necessary for running a small or moderately active website.

InMotion Hosting offers more valuable features with its plans than NameCheap – even though it’s more expensive. It also provides slightly better security and more reliable customer support. That’s why it won this comparison and managed to snatch a spot in this expert list of the best web hosting services.

What do I recommend? InMotion Hosting is a great choice, but if you have a smaller budget, it may not be right for you. A great alternative is Hostinger – which gives you access to premium quality hosting and blazing fast speeds at incredibly low prices. If you want to reach audiences in remote places such as Asia and Australia, FastComet is a very good option.

Comparison Table

FAQ Section

Does InMotion Hosting Offer WordPress hosting?

Yes. InMotion Hosting offers four WordPress hosting packages on shared servers and four plans on VPS servers. You get a free domain name with the shared WordPress hosting plans, but all plans come with free SSL and SSD storage (up to 260 GB). InMotion Hosting isn’t quite right for you? Check out our round up of the best managed WordPress hosting services.

Does InMotion Hosting use cPanel?

Yes, but with certain packages only. InMotion Hosting includes cPanel free of charge with all plans with the exception of bare metal VPS and dedicated servers. InMotion Hosting’s VPS plans have cPanel licenses that come at an extra monthly charge, if you have more than 5 cPanels. Looking for cPanel alternatives? Take a look at these top cPanel alternatives.

Does InMotion Hosting use SSD?

Yes. InMotion Hosting offers SSD storage with all its hosting services including VPS and dedicated server plans. If you want more SSD storage or if InMotion Hosting doesn’t meet your budget needs, explore these cheap and reliable SSD hosting services.

Is InMotion Hosting Cheap?

With the introductory discounts, InMotion Hosting’s prices for shared hosting are reasonably priced, but they aren’t as cheap as more reliable hosts like Hostinger or InterServer. InMotion Hosting Hosintg’s package renewal fees, on the other hand, may be a bit expensive for those on a tight budget. You can find some great discounts on our coupon page, however.