If you need a VPS server you are certainly expecting more traffic to your website than you would if you were on a shared plan. Some web hosting companies only offer shared web hosting plans. Thankfully, both InMotion Hosting and HostGator offer VPS plans. Two big companies offer two reasonably priced virtual private server (VPS) plans. You do have more options other than InMotion Hosting and HostGator, but in this article, I want to show you how they stack up side by side.
HostGator was founded in October of 2002 by Brent Oxley. They have hundreds of full-time employees. They have over 400,000 clients located around the world. They have become very well-known in the web development field over the years. For ten years they ran under Brent Oxley, but in 2012 Brent sold the company to EIG (Endurance International Group). Over the years people have been asking is HostGator good? I have gotten lots of feedback on them as my reviews show.
InMotion Hosting was founded in 2001 by Sunil Saxena and Todd Robinson. They also have hundreds of full-time employees. They have over 24,000 clients located around the world. Over the last five years, InMotion Hosting has been gaining more and more traction. Over the years a lot of people have signed up with them and have left feedback on them. My InMotion Hosting reviews have shown what lots of webmasters have said about them.
HostGator vs. InMotion Hosting VPS Plans
InMotion Hosting offers three different VPS plans. The prices and details are down below:
HostGator offers five different VPS plans. The prices and details are down below:
Both InMotion Hosting and HostGator are close, in terms of price. I am going to compare two popular plans; one from InMotion Hosting and the other from HostGator. For InMotion Hosting I will be using the VPS-1000s plan for an example and for HostGator I will be evaluating the Snappy 1000 plan.
Here are the prices break down:
Comparing Hardware
RAM: | 4 GB | 1 GB |
Storage: |
60 GB (SSD) | 60 GB |
Bandwidth: |
2 TB | 1 TB |
IP Addresses: |
2 | 2 |
So, as you can clearly see InMotion Hosting gives you four times as much of RAM, the storage is identical, InMotion Hosting offers twice as much bandwidth per month, and they both offer 2 IP addresses.
At a glance, it does appear that HostGator is cheaper, but once you start going through their hardware you’re actually getting a lot less RAM and bandwidth per month.
Reputation
A companies reputation is a key point on deciding which one you want to use. HostGator was founded in 2002, and InMotion Hosting was founded in 2002. They are pretty much even regarding existence. I used to recommend HostGator to people, but ever since they were bought out by EIG, I stopped, recommending them. However, I have done some research with the Better Business Bureau and my reviews at tbwhs.com to see how they stack up. Please view the chart down below:
BBB Rating: |
A+ | A+ |
Complaints: |
53 | 258 |
Ratio: |
1:452 | 1:50,387 |
Tbwhs.com Rating: |
5 | 2.7 |
User Rating: |
4.5 | 2.5 |
Performance & Servers
I have used both HostGator and InMotion Hosting VPS servers over the years, and it’s been a completely different experience. InMotion Hosting allows you to pick where you want your server to be located. With HostGator, you don’t get the option to pick where you want your servers to be located. With InMotion Hosting you can choose from their two locations; California or Virginia. With HostGator, your server is going to be on 1 of their 23 locations.
Uptime
Both InMotion Hosting and HostGator promise their customers great uptime. However, my results are quite different. InMotion Hosting has excellent uptime. I’ve monitored them for six months and had 99.93% uptime. HostGator, on the other hand, has very unstable uptime, despite their guarantee. I have written an article on HostGator uptime here.
SSD
SSD hosting has been very popular in the web hosting field for three years now. More and more companies are using SSD drives because they are much faster and the stability of them is a lot better. Honestly, I think having SSD hosting is a must for anyone that needs a VPS server. InMotion Hosting uses SSD drives for all of their VPS plans. HostGator does not use SSD drives.
I found a good article at shivarweb.com that showed InMotion Hosting vs HostGator and there TTFB (time to first byte) statistics. This proves that InMotion Hosting is actually faster than HostGator.
Customer Support
Both HostGator and InMotion Hosting have locally based customer support if you live in the United States. Therefore, you can be assured that you are not talking to an agent in India or the Philippines (like 1and1) does. HostGator has branches in other parts of the world like India and their techs handle their clients there. InMotion Hosting, on the other hand, does not have different branches around the globe.
Both companies do have a live chat, support tickets, email support, and 24/7 telephone support. From my experience, InMotion Hosting has a much more quality based support staff. Whenever I log in to live chat it takes under 1 minute to connect, email support and tickets get answered in 4 to 8 hours, and telephone support only takes about 2 minutes to respond.
HostGator, on the other hand, doesn’t always have the fastest live chat support. I wrote an article on how slow their live chat support is. There have been multiple reports of them taking an excessive amount of time answering support tickets, and longer waits on the telephone. HostGator can be spotty when you have problems and need to reach out to them.
HostGator has actually blocked my Twitter account from viewing their tweets. I have spoken with a number of times on Twitter and if that is how they choose to handle content they might not like about their company; that is fine with me. HostGator has also told me a number of times that they have been going through a growing pain since the EIG acquisition in 2012, but it’s 2016 and they are still having problems as far as I am concerned.
Final Thoughts
I have said this for three years now and stood by it; InMotion Hosting is hands down the better host for VPS servers. At a glance HostGator is cheaper, but as this InMotion Hosting vs. HostGator comparison shows cheaper isn’t always better. In fact, paying just a little more will get you more hardware and better support. InMotion Hosting is a much smaller company, but the quality is much better. I have used InMotion Hosting for 7+ years and have had very minimal problems with them. HostGator, on the other hand, has been nothing but trouble.
Shawn says
I can’t really speak much about InMotion because I don’t have any experience with them, but as far as Hostgator is concerned this seems to be spot on. Their support is taking about 15 minutes to load, we constantly have lots of downtime, EIG has really flushed them down the toilet, and to be frank with you I stopped using them 2 years ago.
I didn’t have a VPS server with them, but I did have a dedicated server. It was a nightmare to get away from them though. Seriously, 4 support tickets, wasted 3 hours on live chat, and after 2 long weeks I was finally done with them.
I do have clients that still haven’t woke up and smelled the roses and migrated away from them yet. But, I moved to SiteGround 2 years ago and haven’t had any problems at all.
Garen says
Thanks for sharing. SiteGround is much better than Hostgator. You’ll be happier with them 🙂
Sherry B says
Very interesting post! I haven’t heard of InMotion until reading this and it’s great to know what they offer.
I’ve never tried either one of these hosting companies myself, but it sounds like InMotion has the better deal when compared to Hostgator. Sometimes what appears cheaper and of the same value at first glance isn’t always what you get though…as you’ve shown here.
I wonder how many people just see the prices and don’t realize they’d get more for their money from using InMotion instead for their VPS hosting plans? It pays to check things out thoroughly first, in my opinion.
Thanks for sharing such a thorough and helpful review!
Best wishes!
Garen says
I am guessing a lot of people fall into the trap of just looking for the cheapest host they can find without comparing the two host hardware specifications.
Emily Giguere says
hi Garen
So reading this, I have to say that I would be leaning toward Inmotion. But first off, why would someone want a virtual private server rather than a shared one? Just curious as I just changed my hosting site and I am using a shared server. In which conditions should one choose a private one? That being said, though Inmotion is a tad more expensive, you get a lot more for your bucks than Hostgator according to your table. And customer service is quick! Which is a big plus as when you are stuck you want an answer now not 24 hours later!
Lynne Huysamen says
Hi Garen
That’s very interesting, I hadn’t heard of InMotion before reading your comparison here. I have heard of Hostgator and I thought they had a very good reputation. I see though that they have 258 complaints at the BBB. This seems a little high?
Great comparison here and thank you for showing me what to look for when comparing hosting companies. I truly thought it was a matter of just price and service received, now I know that there is a lot more to check to see whether you are getting value for money.
Garen says
The complaints are kind of high, but what is odd is all you have to do is monitor their Twitter, and you’ll see that people are complaining about downtime, lack of support, etc.
They were once a great host, but not so much anymore. Spending the little extra money is certainly worth the hassle.
Jason says
All through the years I have seen several not so good reviews on Hostgator. I always hear people talk about how horrible the customer service is. Reading your review really does give me a better understanding of how they really are.
They even blocked you from viewing their tweets; that is rather unprofessional and childish in my opinion.
With the takeover by Hostgator by EIG, I can see clearly that they are not a professional company. I can totally see why you decided not to recommend them any longer.
I am always a firm believer that cheap things are low quality and I have experienced it along the way; in the past I used to opt in for cheaper things but as I grow more mature, I realize that I just have to pay good money for the best possible service or product.
Judging by your comparison of these two hosting companies, I see clearly that InMotion is by far a more superior quality product. I really appreciate your honest and thorough comparison between the two.
Thanks again Garen. You have once again recommended only the very best here.
Best,
Jason.
Garen says
Yep blocked me from viewing their Twitter. Funny thing is I have a $49.95 credit with them, but will not use them again. They should really pay attention to what people say about them rather than just ignore it. It’s how smaller problems become much bigger ones.
Marc Parsons says
Hey Garen
Thanks for the awesome inmotion vs hostgator comparison!
Always thought Hostgator was ok as a result of the pricing, but now that I have the bigger picture, it is clear that they are all about marketing and forgot about service and support somewhere a long the line.
It is also clear from your review that Inmotion offers far better quality of service and you get way more for your buck! I mean, 4 X the RAM and Double the Bandwidth for a 10% increase in price… I’d be stupid not to go with Inmotion!
Thanks for the awesome info.
I am looking forward to trying out Inmotion now!
Cheers,
Marc Parsons
Garen says
Yeah, a lot of people don’t really realize the RAM they are getting with their VPS servers. 1 GB on a VPS server is pretty low in today’s day in age. I can’t believe they are still offering that. A lot of other companies are so much more competitive with the hardware they offer.
Garen says
VPS servers support more RAM, CPU usage, and your not sharing your website with hundreds of other sites shared on the same server. Typically, a shared plan is sharing 1 server with 500+ sites. If one of the websites starts getting lots of traffic, this affects the rest of the sites on that server.
Generally, shared plans are good for websites that get 150 to 200 unique visits per day. It’s unrealistic to think that a shared server can support a massive site that gets thousands of daily visits.
You might find this post helpful on what to do if your shared hosting account gets suspended:
https://tbwhs.com/blog/what-to-do-if-hosting-account-gets-suspended/