(Image credit: Future)

VPS hosting is typically expected to come in two flavors: managed, and unmanaged. But there is increasingly a third tier, a midway point between the two. Both InMotion Hosting and Liquid Web offer a “relaxed” managed VPS hosting tier of plans, so we looked at each provider to see how these plans differ, and help you make the right choice.

In brief, a relaxed, part-managed VPS gives you the hosting package with everything set up, ready for you to install WordPress or upload your own web software. Maintenance (backups, updates, etc.) is all on you, and if you need support from the host, you have the choice of working it out for yourself, getting guided help… or paying for support.

Infrastructure

Liquid Web’s servers run with at least Intel(R) Xeon(R) Gold 6426Y 2 @ 2500.000 MHz CPU, and are labeled as using standard SSD drives. Meanwhile, InMotion Hosting’s servers have a minimum Intel(R) Xeon(R) Gold 5118 @ 2.30GHz, but use NVMe SSD drives.

Both hosts offer VPS servers hosted within their own data centers. This is important to note as it qualifies them as genuine VPS hosts, rather than cloud VPS (where data is stored in the cloud via AWS, Google Cloud, etc.).

InMotion Hosting offers hosting in North America (Los Angeles, CA on the West Coast, Ashburn, VA on the East Coast), in the EU (Amsterdam, Netherlands), and in Asia (Singapore).

Liquid Web’s data centers are located in North America (Lansing and Southfield, MI, for “central” locations, Phoenix AZ and San Jose CA for West Coast, and Ashburn VA on the East Coast), Europe (London and West Sussex, UK and Amsterdam, Netherlands) and it has a data center in Australia to cover the Asia-Pacific market. Its servers are based on Intel Xeon Gold 6426Y CPUs, and standard SSDs are employed on its VPS plans.

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Selecting management level of a VPS (Image credit: Screenshot: Liquid Web)

Plans

InMotion Hosting offers three tiers of VPS plans: Starter, Custom, and Premier Care, and each has its own range of VPS specifications. The plans have come limited configuration options before you need to think about add-ons. You have the option of a PHP-focused configuration, WordPress-focused, or a standard config. You can also specify the data center location.

You can also find shared hosting and dedicated server hosting with InMotion Hosting, which should cover all budgets.

If you’re looking at Liquid Web, it has a server configuration tool that lets you select from various hardware specifications. You can also use this to build a custom plan using self-managed, core managed ($21/mo), or fully managed ($39/mo) options. Otherwise, you’re looking at four managed VPS options.

As well as the expected shared hosting alternatives, Liquid Web also has dedicated hosting plans and even GPU hosting for AI workloads.

Pricing

With InMotion Hosting’s Premier plan, you can expect to pay between $80.49/month and $110.49/month depending on hardware choice. The Custom plan is $14.99/month to $44.99/month, while Starter is just $4.99/month (these prices represent long-term deals with discounts, and a 90-day money-back guarantee is offered). All plans include launch assist, which sets up your VPS for you – a key reason for selecting managed hosting.

Meanwhile, Liquid Web has four managed VPS plans, ranging from $5/month for the most basic to $45/month for the top tier 16GB RAM option (this is with a two-month discount, and usually costs $90/month).

The hardware on offer with InMotion Hosting covers more possibilities than Liquid Web; InMotion Hosting tops out at 16 vCPU/32GB RAM/460GB NVMe storage on both the Premier Care ($110.49/month) and Custom plans ($44.99/month), whereas Liquid Web’s biggest VPS plan is 6 vCPU/16GB RAM, and 440GB SSD ($45/month).

Similarly, whereas the InMotion Starter has 2 vCPU cores/4GB RAM, and 50GB NVMe SSD, Liquid Web’s most basic plan doesn’t match this. Instead, its $8.50/month 4GB plan is closer, with a 2-core vCPU and 80GB SSD.

Based on this, InMotion offers a more cost-effective hardware specification.

Features

Liquid Web AI Sitebuilder tool (Image credit: Screenshot: Liquid Web)

Liquid Web

Selecting between Linux-based operating systems (AlmaLinux 9 is the default) and Windows Server 2025 Standard Edition has no additional cost, but if you need a server admin interface, you’ll need cPanel (an extra $31/mo), Plesk ($26/mo) or Interworx, (Liquid Web’s own too, for $11/mo). Additional IP addresses cam also be added at $6/mo per address. Backups are free if stored in the Liquid Web cloud, or you can pay $17/mo for Acronis. Paid add-ons for Advanced DDoS and ThreatDown antimalware protection are also available.

InMotion Hosting

With Inmotion Hosting’s VPS plan, you get free cPanel admin (valued at $25.50/mo) with its Premier Care plans, and all VPS plans have Launch Assist (free onboarding and server setup, worth $199), which means you don’t have to install the hosting environment. The Premier Care plan also gives you Monarx Security, 300GB backup storage, and priority support, all for an additional $40/mo.

For the lower-end VPS plans from Inmotion Hosting, a backup manager adds $2.99 to your monthly bill, while the cPanel alternative Control Web Panel is $5/mo (cPanel is $25.50/mo, with a minimum of 5 licenses). Email can also be added for $3/mo.

While both hosts offer cPanel and AI-based site-building tools, the experience couldn’t be more different. In each case, Liquid Web made everything easy with its slick user interface and more accommodating hosting environment.

Conversely, InMotion Hosting’s VPS management back-end limited what should be a straightforward cPanel set up. Meanwhile, importing a pre-built WordPress backup with WooCommerce resulted in confused credentials and database names. Liquid Web handled this import with no problems.

AI sitebuilder tool on Inmotion Hosting VPS (Image credit: Screenshot: Inmotion Hosting)

Performance comparison

WordPress benchmarks

This free plugin for WordPress scores the server environment on CPU, RAM, file transfers, database, and network speed.

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Row 0 - Cell 0	Liquid Web	InMotion Hosting
CPU & Memory	Row 1 - Cell 1	Row 1 - Cell 2
Operations with large text data	5.86	4.9
Random binary data operations	8.26	6.38
Recursive mathematical calculations	6.5	4.07
Iterative mathematical calculations	9.6	6.01
Filesystem	Row 6 - Cell 1	Row 6 - Cell 2
Filesystem write ability	9.43	8.23
Local file copy and access speed	9.66	8.45
Small file IO test	10	9.92
Database	Row 10 - Cell 1	Row 10 - Cell 2
Importing large amount of data to database	7.77	7.12
Simple queries on single table	9.72	9.18
Complex database queries on multiple tables	9.64	3.14
Object cache	Row 14 - Cell 1	Row 14 - Cell 2
Persistent object cache enabled	0	0
Network	Row 16 - Cell 1	Row 16 - Cell 2
Network download speed test	9.53	10
Server score	8.1	6.1

Support

As mentioned, InMotion Hosting’s Premier Care plan is the full managed VPS option, with backup storage, enhanced Monarx security, and priority support. This means 24/7 access to the best technicians for fast error resolution. With Custom and Starter, you’re limited to the standard support queue. I found this to be adequate for the purposes of running a WordPress-based store, however, with queries quickly address.

Interactions with the Liquid Web support team were reassuring. Both the sales and billing agents and the support team offered confident responses, and the switch from AI-based response to speaking to a human occurred relatively early in the exchanges. In terms of knowledge, the tech staff I chatted with was able to handle my query about running multiple PHP versions on the VPS.

Verdict

Determining which is the best host isn’t always straightforward, but thanks to a clear difference in the benchmarking scores, Liquid Web’s VPS offerings offer a marked improvement over InMotion Hosting. Server management is easy, it’s clear, and it is intuitive. Conversely, InMotion Hosting sports a user interface that looks around a decade out of date, which conspires with poor functionality to make management clunky and painful.

Meanwhile, Liquid Web is a pleasure to use, setting up a site with the AI tool is effortless, as is installing WordPress. Disregarding Liquid Web’s discounts means that the pricing is definitely in InMotion Hosting’s favor, but the fact is that you feel like you’re getting more with Liquid Web, as the experience is better at all stages.

Christian Cawley has extensive experience as a writer and editor in consumer electronics, IT and entertainment media. He has contributed to TechRadar since 2017 and has been published in Computer Weekly, Linux Format, ComputerActive, and other publications. Formerly the editor responsible for Linux, Security, Programming, and DIY at MakeUseOf.com, Christian previously worked as a desktop and software support specialist in the public and private sectors.

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