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SiteGround vs InMotion Hosting could not be settled earlier this year, because InMotion did not show what its plans renew at. It does now, and the answer is not close. On three-year terms InMotion Core opens at $3.19 and renews at $10.99, so 36 months cost $114.84. SiteGround StartUp costs $251.64 across 36 months on its best term and renews at $14.99. InMotion is cheaper at every stage, and it refunds for 90 days rather than 30. SiteGround answers with a measured record and built-in tooling that InMotion does not match. The same InMotion figures against a Cloudways server are in our Cloudways and InMotion comparison.
SiteGround vs InMotion Hosting: The Short Answer
InMotion, for most small sites. It costs less at every stage we can price, gives three months to change your mind, and answers the phone from US staff. SiteGround scores a tenth higher in our reviews, at 3.9 against 3.8, on a complete benchmark record and staging from its GrowBig tier.
Head to Head
| Criterion | SiteGround StartUp | InMotion Core |
|---|---|---|
| Intro rate | $2.99/mo | $3.19/mo, 36-month term |
| Renewal, best term | $14.99 on 24 months | $10.99 on 36 months |
| Renewal, annual term | $17.99/mo | $11.99/mo |
| 36 months, best term | $251.64 | $114.84 |
| Refund window | 30 days | 90 days on 6-month terms |
| Measured record | 632 ms, 99.96%, load 170 ms | No named measurement in our table |
| Staging | From GrowBig | Not on Core |
| Support | Phone, chat and tickets, 24/7 | Phone, chat and tickets, 24/7, US staff |
| Owner | Private since 2004, Sofia | Independent since 2001 |
| Our score | 3.9 | 3.8 |
Why This Page Was Rewritten
Until this summer, InMotion showed its introductory prices and described the renewal only as an increase. We published this comparison without a verdict rather than estimate the missing figure. InMotion’s shared plans now carry separate intro and renewal figures on the plan cards, and TechRadar lists them on a three-year term: Core $3.19 to $10.99, Launch $4.99 to $13.99. The same InMotion figures against Kinsta are in our Kinsta and InMotion comparison.
So the comparison can be finished, and we have rewritten it rather than patch a page built around a gap that no longer exists. Our comparison of Bluehost against InMotion was the first to use the new figures; Bluehost is a Newfold Digital brand.
Cheaper at Every Stage
InMotion Core bills 36 months at $3.19, which is $114.84, and renews at $10.99. SiteGround StartUp bills 24 months at $2.99 and then 12 at $14.99, which is $251.64. From month 37 InMotion charges $10.99 against $14.99, so the gap keeps widening after the first three years.
Annual terms keep the order. SiteGround renews at $17.99 on a 12-month term, and InMotion Core at $11.99. The step up is 3.4× over 36 months at InMotion and 5.0× over 24 months at SiteGround. Our page on hosting renewal prices puts both beside the field.
⚠️ InMotion Core is the plan with one site, ten mailboxes and SSD storage. Launch adds NVMe storage and a second site at $4.99 renewing to $13.99, and 36 months come to $179.64 — still less than SiteGround StartUp on its best term.
Over a longer stretch the order does not change either. Both hosts renew at a flat rate once the promotion ends, and InMotion’s is four dollars a month lower on the best terms, so every year after the third adds to its lead. A site kept for five years pays noticeably less at InMotion, and nothing in the published terms closes that gap.
| 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 Measured Record Belongs to SiteGround
We run no tests, so these figures belong to Hostingstep. SiteGround records 632 ms to first byte, ranking 22nd of 34 hosts, and 99.96% uptime across 2025 from 44 outages. It served the load test at 170 ms with no errors and scores 8.4 of 10 on hardware.
InMotion has no equivalent from a named project in our table. 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 most of why the scores sit a tenth apart.
⚠️ SiteGround’s record has a trend worth seeing: its outage count rose from 18 in 2024 to 44 in 2025 while the percentage held. Our guide to reading an uptime report explains why the count matters.
Refunds: Ninety Days Against Thirty
InMotion refunds for 90 days on shared and WordPress plans bought on terms of six months or longer, and 30 days on monthly, VPS and reseller plans. SiteGround refunds for 30 days on shared plans and 14 on cloud, and it also refunds a renewal canceled within 30 days of the payment, which is uncommon.
For a buyer paying three years in advance, InMotion’s window is the more useful: long enough to move a real site, run it through a busy month and decide. Our guide to canceling hosting and getting a refund covers the order that keeps the domain safe.
Tooling and Growth
SiteGround runs its own panel, Site Tools, built around WordPress. Staging and Git arrive on GrowBig, which renews at $29.99 over 12 months, and GoGeek adds white-label client access at $44.99. For someone who wants those tools without running a server, that is a coherent path.
InMotion runs standard cPanel, so every tutorial matches the screen and accounts export cleanly. Its tiers add sites, storage and mailboxes rather than developer tooling. For a business site that needs email and room to grow, that is the more practical ladder. Our guide to setting up a staging site covers the free route on either host.
Support and Everyday Use
Both answer the phone around the clock, and both add chat and tickets. InMotion staffs support in the United States, which reviews consistently name as its main strength. Neither publishes a measured response time, and no controlled test of hosting support exists in the sources we found.
The practical difference is who you reach first. At InMotion it is a US-based agent by phone; at SiteGround it is a support team that also answers by phone around the clock. For most buyers the channel matters more than the location, and here both offer it.
InMotion Core limits you to one site and ten email accounts, which a small business can outgrow quickly; Launch removes both limits. Our guide to setting up email on your domain covers the rest.
Who Owns Them
SiteGround Hosting Ltd has been private since it was founded in Sofia in 2004. InMotion was founded in 2001 and describes itself as independent and never acquired. Neither belongs to a larger hosting group, which is increasingly rare among hosts this size.
That matters because renewal policy tends to follow the owner, and both companies have kept theirs for two decades. The pattern of consolidation we traced in who owns Bluehost does not apply to either.
Which Plans to Compare
StartUp and Core are the entry plans, and both are narrow: one site each, with Core also limited to ten mailboxes and SSD storage. A fairer pairing for a small business is InMotion Launch against SiteGround GrowBig, because both add sites and the features people usually upgrade for.
That pairing makes the price gap wider rather than narrower. Launch renews at $13.99 on a three-year term, while GrowBig renews at $29.99 over 12 months. So a buyer who expects to outgrow the entry plan saves more at InMotion, not less. Our guide to choosing a hosting plan covers when an upgrade pays for itself.
The Term Moves Both Prices
Both hosts reward the long commitment. SiteGround renews StartUp at $14.99 on 24 months, $17.99 on 12 and $24.99 month to month. InMotion renews Core at $10.99 on 36 months, $11.99 on a shorter term and up to $14.49 on the shortest. Read the renewal beside the term you are buying, not beside the headline.
⚠️ InMotion has no monthly billing on shared plans, and its 90-day window needs a term of six months or longer. So the long refund and a short commitment cannot both apply. At SiteGround, monthly plans are reported as excluded from the refund. Either way, the cheapest honest test is a short term you can leave, which our list of hosting for beginners weighs.
Where Each One Is Weakest
InMotion is weakest on evidence and on its entry tier. No named project measures it in our tables, and Core’s single site and ten mailboxes are tight for a business. Its renewal multiplier is also the steeper of the two on a percentage basis, at 3.4× over 36 months, even though the dollar figure is lower.
SiteGround is weakest on price and on its renewal structure. Three renewal rates for one plan invite misreading, and GrowBig at $29.99 makes the step to staging expensive. Its outage count also rose sharply last year. Our page on what web hosting costs puts both totals beside the field.
Winners by Category
Three-year price: InMotion, at $114.84 against $251.64. Renewal: InMotion, at $10.99 against $14.99 on best terms. Refund window: InMotion, at 90 days. Measured record: SiteGround, complete in the benchmarks. Tooling: SiteGround, with staging and Git from GrowBig. Portability: InMotion, on standard cPanel. Support: a draw, with phone at both.
When to Choose SiteGround Instead
Take SiteGround if you want a measured record before you pay, or staging and Git built into a shared plan. Its benchmark figures are uncomfortable in places and complete, and that completeness is worth something to a careful buyer. Our comparison of SiteGround against InMotion’s cheaper rival InterServer weighs the same trade.
Take InMotion for almost everything else. It costs less at every stage, refunds for longer, and its renewal is now on the plan card where a buyer can read it.
How We Research
We run no tests. SiteGround figures come from Hostingstep’s 2026 benchmarks with their windows. InMotion renewals come from TechRadar’s review 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 rather than quoted.
This page replaces an earlier version that could not reach a verdict because the InMotion renewal was missing. The criteria behind our scores are on our about page, and the full workings are in our InMotion review.
SiteGround vs InMotion Hosting FAQ
InMotion, at every stage we can price. On their best terms, 36 months cost $114.84 at InMotion Core against $251.64 at SiteGround StartUp, and InMotion renews at $10.99 against $14.99. Annual terms keep the same order.
Core renews at $10.99 on a three-year term and Launch at $13.99, according to TechRadar and the plan cards. Core renews higher on shorter terms, up to $14.49. Earlier this year the renewal was hard to find, which older reviews still reflect.
Only SiteGround has a named measured record in our tables: 632 ms to first byte, 99.96% uptime and a load test at 170 ms with no errors. InMotion has no figure from a named project, so we cannot compare them fairly on speed.
InMotion, at 90 days on shared and WordPress plans bought for six months or longer. SiteGround refunds for 30 days on shared plans, and it also refunds a renewal canceled within 30 days of payment.
Neither belongs to a hosting group. SiteGround has been private since 2004 in Sofia, and InMotion describes itself as independent since 2001. That continuity matters for renewal policy, which tends to follow the owner.
The Verdict
InMotion is the better buy for most small sites now that its renewal is visible. It costs less at every stage, refunds for three months, and runs on the panel every tutorial assumes. Our scores read 3.9 against 3.8 in SiteGround’s favor, because a measured record and built-in staging count, and both facts stand together.
SiteGround is the better host to verify, with a complete benchmark record and tooling on its higher tiers. Buy InMotion for price and time to decide, or SiteGround for evidence and staging. Our guide to migrating web hosting covers the move either way.