Introduction

There are a lot of similarities between A2 Hosting and InMotion Hosting, which can make choosing between the two a challenge. Each web hosting provider prides itself on lightning-fast speeds and are dedicated to hardware and SSD drives. That’s why we are breaking down each company on a point-by-point basis, so you can see which one best fits your website building needs.

A2 Hosting is based in Michigan and takes its alliterative name from the city of Ann Arbor. After starting in a tiny office in 2001, CEO Bryan Muthig has grown the company into one of the most reliable independent hosting services in the world. Currently, they offer shared web hosting and domain services as well as VPS, reseller, and dedicated server solutions.

As if there weren’t enough similarities already, InMotion Hosting also started in 2001 and has remained independently owned and operated. The company has offices in Virginia and Southern California, ranking 20th in the industry market share index. Today, they offer web hosting solutions in addition to web design. As mentioned in our web hosting reviews, they’re really good at business web hosting.

A great website starts with an amazing web host. They will provide you with the services, products, and resources you need to create a successful website, whether that is a personal blog or company site. We have evaluated A2 Hosting and InMotion Hosting on four factors, including pricing, support, performance/speed, and ease of use.

A2 Hosting vs InMotion Hosting: Pricing

Those that use A2 Hosting can select from their Lite, Swift, and Turbo web hosting plans. The Lite plan goes for $3.92 per month when purchased as part of an annual subscription. The Swift and Turbo plans go for $4.90 and $9.31 per month, respectively.

The Lite plan, as its name suggests, is relatively sparse. It comes with a single website, unlimited storage and transfers, free site migration, SSD, and SSL certificate. The Swift and Turbo plans upgrade these features with unlimited websites and databases, with the latter featuring Turbo, which makes web page speeds twenty times faster.

InMotion Hosting also follows the Rule of Three with its Launch, Power, and Pro plans. Launch starts at $3.99 per month, Power is $5.99, and Pro is $13.99. Like A2 Hosting, for users to take advantage of these prices, they must buy a multi-year subscription as opposed to a single year, which costs $4.99, $6.99, and $14.99 per month, respectively.

The Launch plan comes with two support websites, a free domain, free SSL, unlimited email and disk space, and MySQL and PostgreSQL databases. The Power and Pro plans expand these offerings with most databases, support websites, parked domains, and customer support. Each plan also comes with a 90-day money-back guarantee.

A2 Hosting vs InMotion Hosting: Support

A2 Hosting has earned a reputation for reliable customer support in an industry that is not known for this quality. In addition to hundreds of articles on their website, customers can get in touch with A2 Hosting representatives via chat, phone, or ticket-based support. They will even help you perform a site migration for free.

Don’t take our word for it, though. Customer reviews for A2 Hosting shine the same positive light on the company.

One of the ways InMotion Hosting has tried to differentiate itself from the competition is through technical support. As a self-proclaimed leader in web hosting customer support, they offer knowledgeable and friendly representatives to assist people with any questions or problems. They also provide free site transfers and data backups, though restrictions apply. It is no surprise that people generally had positive things to say about the caliber of InMotion Hosting’s technical support.

A2 Hosting vs InMotion Hosting: Speed

If you know one thing about A2 Hosting, it is probably that the company boasts whiplash-inducing speeds. Their average page load rate comes in a blistering 336ms, which is top-notch in this industry. This pace means visitors can spend more time looking at content, and less time waiting around for the pages to load.

A2 Hosting’s uptime rate of 99.92%, though, is rather ordinary. As a point of reference, this uptime translates to roughly eight minutes of downtime per week. It’s also ponderous that A2 Hosting has had much stronger uptime rates in the past. On top of that, A2 Hosting has data centers on almost every continent, so it doesn’t matter if you’re looking for web hosting services for Canada, Australia, the UK, or even Singapore, A2 Hosting has you covered.

While InMotion Hosting offers faster server speeds, it is still not in the same league as A2 Hosting. Visitors can expect an average load time of 855ms. This pace puts them at four percent faster than the industry average.

Despite falling behind in speed, InMotion Hosting comes through with better uptime rates. They offer an average of 99.95%, which is in the middle of the pack for the industry. In 2018, InMotion Hosting posted eight months with uptimes at, or better than, 99.95%.

A2 Hosting vs InMotion Hosting: Ease of Use

Having a user-friendly website is not a factor that solely affects beginners. Regardless of your expertise in website development, it is essential to have an intuitive interface with easy to navigate features. The fact that both these companies use cPanel, for instance, is promising.

A2 Hosting allows users to work with all the large content management system. That includes installations for WordPress, OpenCart, Magento, Drupal, and Joomla. They also provide a website builder aptly named SiteBuilder where you can create a site without needing to know HTML.

InMotion Hosting offers users a buffet of more than 300 applications, in addition to the well-known content management systems. They also have plug-ins like Sucuri, which minimize the risk of spam and virus. InMotion Hosting is even one of the few web hosting providers with active partnerships with e-commerce hosting services, which can make your online experience a lot easier.

Conclusion – A2 Hosting Wins

On a different day, we might say that the race between A2 Hosting and InMotion Hosting is too close to call. We are here to make tough decisions, though, so our winner in this head-to-head match is A2 Hosting. Again, let us emphasize how close it was.

A2 Hosting is most recognizable for its page loading speeds, but it also provides robust customer support, free site migrations, and simple to use site building tools. While their uptime is not excellent, A2 Hosting offers more than its competitors for the same price. There are scenarios, though, where InMotion may be for you, especially if you want free data backups and e-commerce support.