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Cloudways vs InMotion Hosting has a detail that changes how to read the price. After its three-year promotion, InMotion Launch renews at $13.99 a month. Cloudways charges a flat $14.00. So once both are at their regular rate, hosting alone costs the same to within a cent. On hosting, the difference lives in InMotion’s first three years; email widens it. The rest of the choice is about what each includes: a phone line, email and 90 days to decide on one side, measured uptime and billing by the hour on the other. The same InMotion figures against Kinsta are in our Kinsta and InMotion comparison.
Cloudways vs InMotion Hosting: The Short Answer
Cloudways, at 4.1 against 3.8 in our reviews, for a site where measured uptime and control matter. InMotion is the better buy for a small business that wants a person on the phone, email in the same account and a long refund window, and it costs far less for the first three years.
Head to Head
| Criterion | Cloudways | InMotion Launch |
|---|---|---|
| Product | Managed cloud server | Shared hosting with cPanel |
| Price | $14.00/mo flat | $4.99/mo for 36 months |
| Renewal | $14.00 | $13.99, one cent less |
| 36 months | $504.00 | $179.64 |
| Uptime, named | 99.996% to 99.999% | Not from a named project |
| Load test | 288 ms at 1.7% errors | Not from a named project |
| Support | Chat and tickets; phone as a paid add-on | Phone, chat and tickets, US staff |
| Refund window | Billing stops when you stop | 90 days on 6-month terms |
| Not included | Unlimited on Launch | |
| Billing | Hourly, no contract | Prepaid; no monthly on shared |
| Owner | DigitalOcean, 2022 | Independent since 2001 |
| Our score | 4.1 | 3.8 |
The Same Price, Once the Promotion Ends
InMotion Launch opens at $4.99 on a three-year term and renews at $13.99, which is 2.8× over 36 months. Cloudways charges $14.00 from the first month with no promotional term. For three years InMotion is far cheaper: $179.64 against $504.00.
From month 37 the two monthly figures sit a cent apart. InMotion keeps its three-year lead in the running total, which over five years leaves Launch at about 61% of the Cloudways figure. But nothing after the promotion separates them on price, so a buyer staying for years is choosing on features, not on the monthly bill.
⚠️ InMotion Core is cheaper still, at $3.19 renewing to $10.99, with one site, ten mailboxes and SSD storage. Launch is the fairer match for a business. Both InMotion renewals rise on shorter terms, up to $14.49 for Core. Our page on hosting renewal prices lists both tiers.
| Host and plan | Intro → Renewal | Multiplier |
|---|---|---|
| IONOS Plus | $1.00 → $14.00 | 14.0× over 12 months |
| SiteGround StartUp | $2.99 → $17.99 | 6.0× over 12 months |
| SiteGround GrowBig | $4.99 → $29.99 | 6.0× over 12 months |
| SiteGround GoGeek | $7.99 → $44.99 | 5.6× over 12 months |
| ChemiCloud Starter | $2.49 → not published | Renewal shown at checkout only |
| Scala Hosting Mini | $2.95 → $11.95 | 4.1× over 12 months |
| DreamHost Launch, annual | $2.89 → $10.99 | 3.8× over 12 months |
| Hostinger Premium | $2.99 → $10.99 | 3.7× over 48 months |
| Bluehost Starter | $3.99 → $11.99 | 3.0× over 12 months |
| A2 Hosting Turbo Boost | $6.99 → $20.99 | 3.0× over 12 months |
| HostGator Hatchling | $3.75 → $10.99 | 2.9× over 36 months |
| GoDaddy Economy | $5.99 → $15.32 | 2.6× over 36 months |
| Bluehost Starter | $3.99 → $9.99 | 2.5× over 36 months |
| Namecheap Stellar | $1.98 → $4.88 | 2.5× over 12 or 24 months |
| Namecheap Stellar Plus | $2.98 → $6.88 | 2.3× over 12 or 24 months |
| Namecheap Stellar Business | $4.98 → $9.88 | 2.0× over 12 or 24 months |
| DreamHost Launch, 4-year | $2.89 → $7.99 | 2.8× over 48 months |
| DreamHost, eligible US nonprofits | One shared plan free for the account's life | 501(c)(3) or (c)(19); help article, checked 10 Jun 2026 by a nonprofit directory |
| Bluehost Business | $6.99 → $13.99 | 2.0× over 36 months |
| Bluehost Starter, second reading | $1.99 → $8.99 | Hostingstep, July 2026; conflicts with Bluehost's help page |
| Hostwinds Basic | $4.54 → $6.99 | 1.5× over 12 months |
| WP Engine Startup | $27.00 → $35.00 | 1.3× over 12 months |
| Rocket.net Starter | $25.00 → $30.00 | 1.2× over 12 months |
| InterServer Standard | $2.50 flat | 1.0×, price lock |
| Cloudways, from | $14.00 flat | no promotional term |
| Kinsta Starter | $35.00 flat | no promotional term |
| Liquid Web managed VPS, annual billing | $33.00, no promotional term | No increase described on annual billing |
| Liquid Web managed VPS, monthly billing | $36.00 → $72.00 reported | 2.0× over one month; one pricing guide, disputed |
| GreenGeeks Lite | $2.95 → $13.95 | 4.7× after one term; renewal was $12.95 before 2026 |
| ChemiCloud Starter, third-party figures | $9.95, $11.95 or $12.95 quoted | Sources disagree; 4.0× to 5.2× over 36 months |
| SiteGround StartUp, by term | $2.99 → $14.99, $17.99 or $24.99 | 5.0× over 24 months, 6.0× over 12, 8.4× month to month |
| ChemiCloud Kickstart, reseller | $8.99 → $29.95 | Term not stated in the source we read |
| InterServer reseller | $19.95, price locked | No increase described in sources |
| GreenGeeks reseller | $19.95 with WHMCS included | Promotional rate; renewal not published |
| Hostwinds white-label reseller | $10.00 with WHMCS included | Plain reseller plan excludes WHMCS |
| InMotion Core, 36-month term | $3.19 → $10.99 | 3.4× over 36 months; TechRadar, 2026 |
| InMotion Launch, 36-month term | $4.99 → $13.99 | 2.8× over 36 months; TechRadar and plan cards, 2026 |
| InMotion Core, by term | Renews at $10.99, $11.99 or $14.49 | Longest term lowest; one review, May 2026 |
The Evidence Favors Cloudways
We run no tests, so the Cloudways figures belong to Hostingstep. It held uptime between 99.996% and 99.999% across five plans from October 2025 to May 2026. Its weakest published result is a load test on its Vultr High Frequency plan, at 288 ms with a 1.7% error rate.
InMotion has no equivalent from a named project in our tables. The response and uptime ranges we hold for it come from sources we could not attribute to a single publication, so we set them aside. That is an evidence gap rather than a verdict, and it is part of why the scores differ. Our guide to reading an uptime report explains why we do not fill the gap.
What InMotion Includes
InMotion answers phone, chat and tickets around the clock from staff in the United States, and reviews consistently name that as the reason to choose it. Launch includes unlimited email accounts and NVMe storage, and the account runs standard cPanel, so every tutorial matches the screen.
It refunds for 90 days on shared plans bought for six months or longer, three times the usual window. Shared plans have no monthly billing, so the long refund and a short commitment cannot both apply. Our InMotion review covers the tiers.
What Cloudways Includes, and Leaves Out
Cloudways runs a managed server on the cloud provider you choose. SSH, WP-CLI, Git deployment, staging and PHP version selection ship on every tier, and it runs any PHP application. Billing is by the hour, so stopping the server stops the bill.
It leaves out what InMotion includes. There is no cPanel and no email; mailboxes come through Rackspace at about a dollar each per month. Phone support is a paid add-on. For a developer those are small costs, as our list of hosting for developers explains; for a small business they add up.
Email, Priced In
A small business rarely runs on one mailbox. At InMotion Launch, unlimited accounts sit in the same cPanel as the site. At Cloudways, each mailbox through Rackspace adds about a dollar a month, so five staff addresses take the monthly bill to roughly nineteen dollars.
That shifts the comparison after the promotion. With email included, InMotion is no longer level with Cloudways at renewal; it is cheaper by the cost of the mailboxes. Our guide to setting up email on your domain covers the records either way.
Panels and Everyday Use
InMotion runs standard cPanel, with the statistics column that shows your real limits and the tools every tutorial describes. Our guide to understanding cPanel is a fair map of what you would see.
Cloudways runs its own console, organized around servers and applications. It is clear once learned and feels closer to infrastructure than to a hosting account. An owner who has never managed a server will find the first week at Cloudways steeper than at InMotion.
Commitment and Leaving
InMotion’s best rate needs 36 months paid up front, and its 90-day window covers the start of that term. Cloudways asks for no commitment at all. A project with an uncertain future suits Cloudways; a business site you will keep suits the prepayment.
Leaving works differently too. InMotion runs cPanel, so an account exports in a standard format. Cloudways has its own console, so moving away means moving the site. Our guide to migrating web hosting covers both.
Support, Compared Closely
InMotion’s phone line is included on every shared plan and staffed in the United States. For an owner who wants to talk a problem through, that is the single biggest difference between these hosts, and reviews of InMotion return to it consistently.
Cloudways answers chat and tickets around the clock, and a written thread suits many technical users better than a call. Its phone support exists but costs extra. Neither host publishes a measured response time, so this is a difference of channel rather than of proven speed.
What Ninety Days Buys
A migration is when a refund window matters most. Moving an existing business site takes days, and living with the new host through a normal month takes weeks. InMotion’s 90 days on a six-month or longer term covers all of that with time to spare.
Cloudways solves the same worry differently: there is nothing to refund, because you can stop the server at any time. Both approaches protect the buyer. The difference is whether you prefer a long window on a prepayment, or no prepayment at all.
Which Business Belongs Where
A small business with a few staff mailboxes. InMotion Launch, for email in the account and a phone line when something breaks.
A store, a membership site or an application. Cloudways, for measured uptime and capacity you can resize. Our list of hosting for ecommerce covers the store case.
An owner who wants time to decide. InMotion, with 90 days on a six-month or longer term.
A developer or an agency. Cloudways, for SSH, Git and billing by the hour.
Which Result Matters for Your Site
For a brochure site or a blog behind a page cache, most visitors receive a stored copy, and the server rarely meets a crowd. The evidence gap on InMotion matters less there than the phone line and the price.
For a store or a site with launches, carts and logins bypass the cache. There, the only named load and uptime record in this comparison belongs to Cloudways. Our roundup of hosting for high traffic ranks hosts by that result.
The Five-Year View
Over five years, InMotion Launch totals about 61% of the Cloudways figure, because its first three years are so much cheaper. After month 36 the two charge almost the same each month, so the gap stops growing and simply stays. Count Cloudways’ email add-on and the gap widens a little every month instead.
Moving From InMotion to Cloudways
The common path runs from shared hosting to a cloud server when a site outgrows its plan. Cloudways provides a migration plugin for WordPress, and the domain can stay at its registrar and point at the new server, as our guide to pointing a domain to a new host explains.
Move email first, because Cloudways will not host it. Our guide to moving from shared to VPS lists the signals that the move is due.
Who Owns Them
DigitalOcean acquired Cloudways in 2022 and sells the cloud underneath many of its servers. InMotion was founded in 2001 and describes itself as independent and never acquired.
For a buyer prepaying three years, InMotion’s unchanged ownership is a point in its favor, because renewal policy tends to change with owners. Cloudways’ price is set by a company that also sells the infrastructure underneath it.
Where Each One Is Weakest
InMotion is weakest on evidence. No named project measures it in our tables, so its speed and uptime rest on reputation. Its shared plans also cannot be bought monthly.
Cloudways is weakest on what it leaves out: no email, no cPanel, and phone support only as an add-on. Its weakest load result showed a 1.7% error rate on one cloud. Our Cloudways review covers each cloud.
Winners by Category
First three years: InMotion, at $179.64 against $504.00 on Launch.
After the promotion: level on hosting, a cent apart; email is extra at Cloudways.
Named uptime: Cloudways.
Phone support: InMotion, included.
Email: InMotion, unlimited on Launch.
Refund window: InMotion, at 90 days.
Billing flexibility: Cloudways, hourly.
How We Research
We run no tests. Cloudways figures come from Hostingstep’s 2026 benchmarks with their windows. InMotion renewals come from TechRadar and the plan cards described in reviews this year, read on 20 September 2026. Figures we could not attribute to a named publication are set aside.
The criteria behind our scores are on our about page. For InMotion against a shared rival, see our comparison of Bluehost against InMotion; Bluehost belongs to Newfold Digital.
Cloudways vs InMotion FAQ
InMotion for the first three years: Launch costs $179.64 across 36 months against $504.00 at Cloudways. After that, Launch renews at $13.99 against Cloudways’ $14.00, so hosting alone is level to within a cent; email is extra at Cloudways.
InMotion, from US staff around the clock alongside chat and tickets. Cloudways answers chat and tickets and sells phone support as an add-on. Neither publishes a measured response time.
Cloudways has the named record: 99.996% to 99.999% uptime across five plans. InMotion has no measurement from a named project in our tables, so a fair comparison on reliability is not possible yet.
No. Mailboxes come through Rackspace at about a dollar each per month. InMotion Launch includes unlimited email accounts in the same cPanel account.
90 days on shared and WordPress plans bought for six months or longer, and 30 days on monthly, VPS and reseller plans. Cloudways has no refund window in the usual sense, because billing stops when you stop the server.
The Verdict
Cloudways takes this on score, at 4.1 against 3.8, because its uptime is measured and its billing fits projects of any length. For a store or a busy application, that is the deciding difference.
For a small business, InMotion is the more complete package: a person on the phone, email in the account and three months to decide, for far less in the first three years and the same price afterward. Our page on what web hosting costs runs both totals further.