InMotion Hosting vs Liquid Web
InMotion Hosting and Liquid Web compared on measured uptime, response time, pricing and features from our own tests. They tie on overall score.
By Jennifer T. · Updated
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Verdict
7.7 out of 10
Employee-owned US host since 2001 with a 90-day refund, generous disks and US-based support; backups are a paid add-on
7.7 out of 10
Lansing's managed host since 1997: WordPress plans from $9 with Cloudflare edge CDN and a 100% network SLA, no refunds
Both hosts score 7.7 overall.
How do the scores compare?
InMotion Hosting leads on 3 sub-scores, Liquid Web on 2. Higher is better.
| InMotion Hosting | Liquid Web | |
|---|---|---|
| Performance | 8.0 (better) | 7.5 |
| Uptime | 8.5 (better) | 8.0 |
| Support | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| Features | 6.5 | 8.5 (better) |
| Value | 6.5 | 7.0 (better) |
| Ease of use | 8.0 (better) | 7.5 |
Which one is faster and more reliable?
| InMotion Hosting | Liquid Web | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 7.7 | 7.7 |
| Uptime (published)Kripesh Adwani 365 d vs HostingStep 365 d; methods differ | 99.97% | 99.99% (better) |
Which one costs less?
On renewal, Liquid Web is cheaper ($9.00/mo vs $14.99/mo). Intro prices need the listed term.
| InMotion Hosting | Liquid Web | |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest plan | Launch | Essentials WordPress |
| Intro price | $4.99/mo (better) | $9.00/mo |
| Renewal price | $14.99/mo | $9.00/mo (better) |
| Required term | 12 months | 1 months (better) |
| Websites | 2 | 1 |
| Storage | 100 GB | 15 GB |
| Money back | 30 days, prorated to day 90 (better) | 0 days |
What does each include?
| InMotion Hosting | Liquid Web | |
|---|---|---|
| Free domain | Included with the plan (the page shows the domain's value) | No |
| Free SSL | Yes | Free SSL certificates on the WordPress plans |
| Backups | No | Daily backups kept 7, 14 or 30 days by tier; Acronis backup storage on managed VPS |
| Free migration | Website migration handled by InMotion's team | A self-serve migration tool and migration by a person on every WordPress plan |
| Developer stack | Python, Node.js, Ruby and Git on every plan; SSH | Not stated |
| Security | Malware and DDoS protection, web application firewall | DDoS protection, WAF, Kadence Security Pro and daily malware scans on every plan; Patchstack virtual patching on Elite |
| Free cPanel email accounts; professional email with a 1-month trial | Not stated | |
| Uptime guarantee | 99.99% on Power and Pro, with credits described in InMotion's own blog; no guarantee line on Launch | 100% network uptime in the SLA with credits up to the monthly charge, claimed within days of an outage; the managed VPS page states 99.9% server uptime |
| Choice of data center | Los Angeles, Ashburn or Amsterdam; Singapore announced | Not stated |
| Phone support | Power and Pro; Launch is live chat | 24/7 by phone, chat and ticket |
| Windows hosting | No | On VPS and dedicated servers |
| Free CDN | Not stated | Edge CDN powered by Cloudflare on every WordPress plan; CDN overage is usage-billed |
| Caching | Not stated | Object Cache Pro on every WordPress plan |
| Staging | Not stated | Staging sites with visual comparison on Pro and Elite; not on Essentials |
| Resource limits | Not stated | WordPress plans are sized by visitors (50,000 a month on the entry tiers), shared storage and bandwidth; managed VPS plans state vCPU, RAM, SSD and bandwidth |
| Data center choice | Not stated | Lansing, Phoenix, Ashburn and Amsterdam, selected on the purchase screen where a plan offers it |
| Managed VPS | Not stated | Fully managed from $72 a month for 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 80 GB SSD and 3 TB; cPanel, InterWorx or Plesk; Windows available |
Company facts
| InMotion Hosting | Liquid Web | |
|---|---|---|
| Control panel | cPanel with InMotion's Account Management Panel | Liquid Web's own platform for WordPress plans; cPanel, InterWorx or Plesk on VPS |
| Data centers | 4 | 4 |
| Support channels | chat, ticket, phone, email, knowledge-base | chat, phone, ticket, knowledge-base |
| Founded | 2001 | 1997 |