SiteGround vs InMotion Hosting: Find Your Top Pick

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4.5

out of 5

3.7

out of 5

Our research points to InMotion being the winner when comparing the hosting providers, with an overall score of 4.5 out of 5 — InMotion comes in third place overall out of every hosting provider we’ve tested.

That’s because InMotion offers some fantastic features, and also offers more types of hosting plans than SiteGround. Comparatively, SiteGround has an overall score of 3.7 out of 5, and it doesn’t offer VPS or dedicated plans, meaning you will find it challenging to expand your website.

SiteGround performed strongly when it came to WordPress hosting and market research, making it a reliable choice for your hosting. On the other hand, InMotion excelled across the board, with really standout hosting features.

InMotion is the best choice for photography websites as it offers plenty of storage room and good performance, whereas SiteGround is a reliable provider for small portfolio websites. For value for money, while SiteGround may start at and have cheaper prices, InMotion wins for the value of the service you get, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves…

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InMotion

SiteGround

Overall rating
4.5
Overall rating
3.7
Starting from

$3.49

Starting from

$2.99

Uptime

99.98%

Uptime

99.99%

Money-back guarantee

90 days

Money-back guarantee

30 days

Free domain
Free domain
Storage space

75GB – Unlimited

Storage space

10GB – 160GB

Free SSL certificate
Free SSL certificate
Visit InMotion Visit SiteGround

InMotion is better for a variety of different websites…

…InMotion is better overall than SiteGround, because it is best for photography websites and it offers more hosting types than SiteGround.

Go To InMotion Today!

SiteGround is a useful alternative for start up sellers…

…Because it is a little cheaper than InMotion, making it a great budget friendly alternative.

Go To SiteGround Today!

Need to know which hosting provider is the best option for your specific needs? Try this quiz for tailor made suggestions on the right host for you.

What kind of website(s) do you have?

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Quick Comparison Chart: SiteGround vs InMotion

Need a quick look at both providers’ features and perks? This comparison chart will guide you through the details, while giving you time to brew a coffee and get started.

InMotion SiteGround
Features, Performance, & Ease of Use
Winner: InMotion
InMotion has some excellent features that range from 99.98% uptime, unlimited bandwidth, free expert migration on its cheapest shared plan. But where it really outshines SiteGround is with its range of types of hosting (VPS and dedicated), and also much better performance. SiteGround offers some pretty great features, particularly in its shared plans and did well when we tested it for small businesses. Overall though, the features and particularly its performance weren't up to scratch — often getting the lowest performance scores! Plus, SiteGround doesn't have VPS or dedicated plans, making it hard for your website to expand.
Pricing & Value for Money
Winner: InMotion
InMotion's hosting plans pretty expensive, but compared to the value you get it's worth the extra spend. InMotion also offers a huge 90-day money-back guarantee on all plans after the Shared Pro plan. While SiteGround's introductory prices are cheap, they are not the most cheerful. Because you must be willing to have less quality performance from this host.
WordPress integration
Winner: InMotion
InMotion comes in second place (after Bluehost), for best WordPress host in our research! This is thanks to having the best help & support and features for WordPress hosting. SiteGround does have pretty good WordPress integration capabilities, coming in third place after Bluehost and InMotion. But where it fell short compared to the two top runners was in performance, features, and support.
Migration
Winner: InMotion
InMotion wins again, as it offers free expert migration even on its cheapest shared plan, which is fairly rare for the providers we've tested. With SiteGround you'll need to do the work yourself as it offers free manual migration. It also offers an expert service but you will need to spend $30 per site — which is why we gave InMotion this win.
Help and Support
Draw!
InMotion has great help and support options, including an awesome knowledge center, phone support, 24/7 live chat, community center, and email services. SiteGround offers phone support, a knowledge base, community center, 24/7 live chat support, but it doesn't provide help via email.
Are You Ready? InMotion SiteGround

InMotion’s free SSD storage and the appealing 90 day money-back guarantee is a great addition. SSD stands for Solid State Drive and is a faster, more reliable hard drive than traditional ones because it’s 100% electronic! You can read more about this in the features section later on.

InMotion offers much better performance than SiteGround, combining affordable prices with top quality features. You can compare the details later in this article for the full scoop.

inmotion logo

InMotion Wins This Head to Head

InMotion is better than SiteGround overall. They both offer backups, quality help and support, and good features — but in testing InMotion did it better.

Further Information

Features, Performance, & Ease of Use

inmotion logo
The Winner

InMotion has better performance than SiteGround

SiteGround has some of the worst performance we’ve tested, and InMotion has some great performance along with better features!
Visit InMotion

InMotion beats SiteGround for features. SiteGround puts up a great fight, actually getting better overall feature score of 4 out of 5. That compares to InMotion’s 3.9 out of 5, comes out ahead. But SiteGround actually loses this round when we factor in its poor performance scores and limited hosting types.

SiteGround offers unlimited parked domains, daily backups, and cheap offers making it fantastic for new startups. However, InMotion steals the win with its free domain name, unlimited disk space and allowing your website to expand with VPS and dedicated plans that SiteGround doesn’t offer.

In our testing, InMotion got the highest dedicated feature score of 4.8 out of 5, making it a great choice if you want a powerful server all to yourself.

For shared hosting InMotion scores 4.1 out of 5 for features and SiteGround inches ahead with 4.5 out of 5. However, when you compare both the shared performance scores, InMotion received a score of 3.4 out of 5 whereas SiteGround got the lowest shared performance score of 0.9 out of 5.

Meaning with SiteGround you’ll get good features but less storage, less bandwidth, and a slow server response time.

Server response time is how long it takes your server to load up your HTML from your website. Good server response time is somewhere around the 0.25 second mark, between 0.25 and 1 second is average, and anything above a second is considered slow. Although it doesn’t sound like much time, half a second loading time can be the difference in a great and a poor hosting provider.

Let’s delve into some of the key features these two providers offer on the cheapest shared plans, and break down why InMotion takes the cake in this round.

InMotion SiteGround
Free domain 1 parked Unlimited parked
Control panel cPanel Own service
Migrations Yes (Expert) Yes (Manual)
Free backups Yes (Custom schedule) Yes (Daily)
Storage 100GB 10GB
Uptime 99.98% 99.90%
Bandwidth Unlimited 10,000 visits

SiteGround has free daily backups of your site so you’re covered should anything go wrong (like accidentally deleting your homepage)! And with InMotion you get custom backup generation schedules.

InMotion has 99.98% uptime, and SiteGround falls behind with 99.90%. Uptime is how much time a server is actually up and running online. It’s always an important factor to look at because you want your site to be visible on the web as much as possible.

The free domain is usually the feature people are drawn to first and foremost. Both InMotion and SiteGround only offer parked domains which means it’s parked and ready for future use. InMotion only offers the one parked domain compared to SiteGround’s unlimited parked domains, meaning you can collect similar domain names to yours.

Both offer free migrations, but InMotion offers a free expertly migrated site, with no downtime! Which is a pretty awesome perk for keeping your website online through a migration. InMotion also offers a lot more storage and bandwidth than SiteGround, making it easier for you to gain high traffic and store plenty of files.

InMotion shared features with little icon graphics
InMotion’s Shared hosting comes with a great range of features. The key features are shown here, and include free SSD storage, a free domain, and a 90 day money back guarantee.

SiteGround has its own control panel, adding extra features to increase functionality and integrating it into the user area to make it as user-friendly for you as possible.

InMotion prides itself on being cPanel experts – it has also customized it to enhance performance and ease of use, and include it free with all hosting packages.

Which one you prefer depends entirely on personal taste – we think SiteGround’s is slightly better because of its focus on great user experience. Both are clear and simple to navigate, however, so either way you can be sure of a high quality and easy to use interface – win win!

Siteground Shared plan features listed with little green tick icons
SiteGround’s essential hosting features are included even on their Shared hosting plan, the lowest price level, and include a free website builder, auto daily backups, and 24/7 support.

Aside from the free domain, disk space is the major difference in our comparison table. Disk space is just how much data you can store on your web server.

SiteGround offers users 10GB on the StartUp plan, which is the most basic price tier. The disk space goes up to 20GB on the middle plan GrowBig, and reaches 40GB on the top GoGeek plan. If you don’t want to worry about having enough disk space, however, then InMotion offers loads of it – unlimited disk space, in fact.

inmotion logo

Get Better Features and Performance With InMotion

InMotion will keep your website performance running without worry.

Further Information

Which has Better WordPress Integration?

inmotion logo
The Winner

InMotion is better for WordPress!

While this was a close call, our research ranks InMotion as the better WordPress host, we can’t argue with its unlimited bandwidth, free SSL for life, and free domain.
Visit InMotion

Are you thinking about using WordPress to make your website? Maybe you already have? Then you’ll know what a major player it is – over 30% of the internet is powered by WordPress!

So it’s worth thinking about. You need a hosting provider which will champion your WordPress site. Otherwise it’d be like buying a tool box, only to open it up and find that none of the screwdrivers actually fit!

WordPress themselves have created a list of the top three hosting providers for, well, WordPress sites! But in case you can’t bear the suspense, here it is: SiteGround have ranked at number three as one of the “best and brightest of the hosting world”.

But in our testing, InMotion came out as the winner for WordPress hosting. While our ratings show InMotion to be better, SiteGround is still an excellent choice as proved by it’s endorsement by WordPress itself!

SiteGround WordPress tools listed with little green ticks
SiteGround’s wide range of WordPress features includes one-click installation, auto updates, and a free site transfer, making it easy for you to manage your site.

With one-click install, managed updates, and 24/7 expert support, as well as a range of other specialized features, managing your WordPress site with SiteGround is super easy. Plus, Siteground is serious about security and protects your WordPress site from hacks.

InMotion also has a very well-rounded WordPress hosting package, despite not making it to the WordPress list, we rated its WordPress hosting a 4.4 out of 5, placing it second after Bluehost. It comes with neat features like hack protection, free SSL, unlimited bandwidth, and a huge 90 day money-back guarantee.

SiteGround got a WordPress score of 4.3 out of 5, coming in third just after InMotion. Also, SiteGround has more server locations around the world, making it easier for visitors globally to access your site.

Although it doesn’t offer much storage compared to InMotion, still only 10GB. SiteGround did come ahead in value for money in WordPress with a value score of 3.6 out of 5, and its performance improves hugely compared to its shared plans.

inmotion logo

Get A WordPress Recommended Host!

InMotion offers plenty of storage and a huge 90 day money-back guarantee so you can try it risk free.

Want to find out more?

SiteGround & InMotion: Customer Support

inmotion logo
The Winner

InMotion just wins for help and support

They both offer a good range of support channels for you to make use of if you get stuck. But InMotion get’s extra points for having email support and support on more kinds of hosting plans.
Visit InMotion

We can all do with a little support now and then. Even when you don’t need it, it’s just nice to know it’s there. SiteGround and InMotion pride themselves on giving their customers the best possible service. So just how do they do this?

InMotion SiteGround
Knowledge Center Yes Yes
Live Chat Yes Yes
24/7 Live Chat Yes Yes
Phone Yes Yes
24/7 Phone No No
Email Yes No

On shared plans InMotion got a help and support score of 4.6 out of 5, compared to SiteGround that has a score of 3.8 out of 5. That’s because InMotion’s help and support is more intuitive and it offers email where SiteGround does not.

Overall for help and support InMotion got a 2.5 out of 5, and SiteGround also got a 2.5 out of 5, making them fairly evenly matched overall.

InMotion has a clear, easy to use, and extensive support center with helpful links to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and user guides and tutorials.

For example, there are product guides, email and website tutorials, education channels, community support, and even a YouTube channel with “how to” video guides.

If you can’t find your answer on the support base, you can also reach InMotion’s support staff via 24/7 live chat or phone. Every member of the support team must have at least 160 hours of internal training on specialist subjects in order to respond to your questions, so they’re sure to help you out!

InMotion support center with red FAQs and informaiton
InMotion’s Support Center includes helpful links, FAQs, how to guides, and tutorials - and that’s just the start!

SiteGround has a similar range of support features as InMotion. The SiteGround knowledge base is clean, simple, and easy to find your way around.

With a search bar at the top of the page you can simply search for an answer to your question, or browse through the links in the categories beneath it. Each section has a wide range of help articles so there is sure to be something to help solve your issue.

But if not, don’t worry! You can talk to a real person. On SiteGround’s support page there is a reply time given for each support channel.

24/7 live chat support has a quick enough response time, while you’ll get an instant reply via phone support. SiteGround’s contact center is deliberately overstaffed so you’re not kept waiting. If you prefer email communication though, SiteGround hasn’t got email support, so you’re better off with another provider.

SiteGround knowledge base with search bar
SiteGround’s knowledge base features a search bar and list of various categories, some of which include hosting related articles, cPanel FAQs, and a range of Application queries, plus more.
inmotion logo

Get Better Help With InMotion

InMotion will support your website through the tech issues and whatever else comes your way.

Pricing & Value for Money

inmotion logo
The Winner

InMotion is better value for money

While neither host is known for great value for money, InMotion takes the win due to the great performance, RAM, and storage space you get with the cheapest plans.
Visit InMotion

Good things come in small (price) packages! So how well do SiteGround and InMotion live up to this? Let’s have a look.

Monthly rates shown are the providers’ initial discount prices for yearly plans. These prices last for your first term only, then renew at the regular rate – it’s always worth checking these renewal prices before signing up. 

InMotion SiteGround
Shared Hosting $3.29 – $14.99 $2.99 – $7.99
Cloud Hosting N/A $100 – $400
WordPress Hosting $4.49 – $16.99 $2.99 – $7.99
WooCommerce Hosting $8.99 – $16.99 $2.99 – $7.99
VPS Hosting $24.99 – $59.99 N/A
Dedicated Hosting $89.99 – $259.99 N/A
Reseller Hosting Outsourced for $22.99 – $50.99 $4.99 – $100

While neither is the cheapest on the market, both still offer good features. Overall InMotion wins in value for money over SiteGround but, both are a little lack luster.

SiteGround is better than InMotion for WordPress hosting value for money, scoring 3.6 out of 5. InMotion scores 3.4 out of 5 for its pricing.

For shared hosting the two got the lowest value scores, both getting a score of 2.4 out of 5 — when compared to DreamHost’s top shared hosting value score of 4.4 out of 5, it’s clear that these two aren’t the best for value!

While most hosting providers have lots of add-ons at the checkout which can massively increase the total cost, both SiteGround and InMotion are refreshingly upfront with their pricing.

InMotion has various add-ons you can choose in checkout, but they’re automatically unselected, so they won’t get added to your total unless you choose them yourself.

SiteGround’s most basic plan is its Shared hosting package. You have three price options: the $6.99 a month StartUp plan, the $9.99 a month GrowBig plan, or the $14.99 a month GoGeek plan. The StartUp plan is aimed at an average sized blog, personal, or business website and has features to support this.

Until March 31st, SiteGround is celebrating its birthday by offering up to 86% off with prices starting at $1.99 per month!

Three squares with shared pricing plan information
SiteGround has three price plans for its Shared hosting package, with a range of features meaning there’s something for everyone.

These plans are the same for WordPress hosting too, and make it easy to move up through the different tiers.

InMotion’s basic plan is Shared Business hosting. Like SiteGround, it has three price plans ranging from Launch, the cheapest at $6.39 a month for a two year plan, through to the top plan Pro, at $14.71 a month for a two year plan. The middle plan, Power, is priced at $8.49 a month for a two year plan, and is considered the best for small businesses.

Like most hosting providers, SiteGround and InMotion have sales on throughout most of the year. This a great bonus for new customers and means you can get some great discounts when you sign up with them!

Just remember sale prices only apply to your first term. You will start paying full price when renewal time comes round, so make sure you look at the regular price as well to avoid any surprises.

When it comes to long-term cost and renewal prices, InMotion works out cheaper than SiteGround. For example, InMotion’s shared hosting renews at $7.99 per month, whereas SiteGround renews at $14.99 per month!

It’s worth mentioning Reseller hosting here as well. This is a type of hosting where you pay a hosting provider for space on their server, and then basically rent that space out to third parties. It’s a bit like renting a shop – you’re paying a landlord for the space, but other people are paying you for your services so that you make a profit.

SiteGround’s only Reseller plan starts at $14.99 a month, and renews at $39.99 a month. For that, you get 40GB web space and unmetered traffic.

Compare this with InMotion’s most basic Reseller plan, the catchy R-1000S. The one year plan comes in at $15.39 a month, but you pay the yearly total up front. There is a choice of extras and add-ons depending on your needs, and this will affect the total cost.

Some hosting packages, such as SiteGround’s Cloud hosting or InMotion’s Dedicated hosting, have more than the three basic price plans. This means you have loads of options and can choose the best one for you!

SiteGround offers a 30 day money back guarantee, so you can try it out without any financial fear. InMotion offers a staggering 90 day money back guarantee – that’s how confident they are that you’ll love their service!

inmotion logo

Get Better Value With InMotion!

Get a more well rounded provider for your money with InMotion, and get your website started today!

Find out more

Conclusion: Is InMotion Better Than SiteGround?

InMotion is the overall winner over SiteGround. It outperforms its competitor in all the areas that count – from hosting features to help and support, InMotion delivers an all-around stronger service. However, SiteGround has proven itself a reliable choice, with a great focus on security and great WordPress hosting.

SiteGround and InMotion have put up a pretty fierce battle, but it’s clear that InMotion wins in ever single category. This is mostly thanks to InMotion’s great perks like large storage and unlimited bandwidth.

But there must be a champion, and overall InMotion ranks higher than SiteGround in our research. It scores an overall glowing 4.5 out of 5, which knocks SiteGround’s 3.7 out of 5 out of the park.

InMotion really shines when it came to features, receiving great marks in our testing.

As ever, which provider you choose will depend on your own personal preference and what your site needs. If you want an officially recommended provider for your WordPress site, a way to save money on creating a small site, then SiteGround is your first choice.

If you want a host with VPS or dedicated hosting, plans and storage to expand your site or website visitor count, then InMotion is best. With its scalable price plans and extensive range of hosting options, your website will be in fantastic hands.

inmotion logo

Create A Winning Website With Our Winner

InMotion has everything you might need to get started and create a range of great websites, from portfolios to ecommerce sites.

InMotion vs SiteGround: FAQs

SiteGround is a legitimate hosting company, it’s particularly good for small websites or WordPress websites as WordPress themselves place them third best. In our research it didn’t come out as the very best overall, which was Bluehost, as it doesn’t offer VPS or dedicated plans.
Either one is wonderful for beginners, but it really depends what kind of website you’re planning to make. For ecommerce stores, medium sized websites with lots of files or plenty of traffic we’d recommend InMotion. For small websites, like portfolio websites or CV websites, we’d recommend SiteGround.
InMotion does use cPanel, where you can manage your website and any other websites you have.
Out of InMotion and SiteGround, the most popular is SiteGround. as in our market analysis people were more aware of SiteGround. But the most popular of all the hosting providers we tested was Bluehost as it had more hosting plans than SiteGround.

Website Builder Expert aims to provide you with honest data. That’s why we conduct our own research and obtain direct, personal insight. Analyses and graphics in this article are based on authentic sources cross-validated by our in-house experts. We take great care to ensure the information we publish is reliable and accurate. However, WBE takes no responsibility for any inaccuracy in information supplied to us by users, research participants, or other entities.

Please note the insight contained within this article is for general information purposes only. We’re glad to answer any questions you may have about this article and its supporting research. For further information, please contact Website Builder Expert directly via email at info@websitebuilderexpert.com.

Written by:
Lucy Carney is a Content Manager at Website Builder Expert, specializing in website building, ecommerce, and digital marketing. Previously working as a Writer and then Senior Writer on the brand, Lucy has 6 years of hands-on experience testing web building platforms including Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify. Lucy is passionate about using her knowledge to help small business owners build their online presence and achieve their goals. She’s reported on industry trends over the years, attended events such as the eCommerce Expo, and advised readers directly with over 400 comment replies on the site to date. Her work has also featured on other online publications such as the Shopify Partners Blog, Usability Geek, Serpstat, and Open Source, and has over 100 articles published on the Website Builder Expert blog.
Researched by:
natasha_willett
I love to understand human behavior and the cognitive biases that drive us to do what we do. For over nine years I have worked as a mixed method researcher – research using a mix of numerical data and personal experiences – across a range of sectors, from insurance and policy development to finally arriving at Website Builder Expert five years ago. Fascinated by consumer decision-making, I meticulously built our leading ranking methodology to explore where providers like Wix sit within a competitive industry and what value they truly bring to our audience.
As a member of the Market Research Society, I’m an advocate for high ethical, commercial, and methodological best practices. All of this combines to give you the most ethical recommendations based on real data.

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