Final verdict
Looking over DigitalOcean vs. InMotion Hosting, it’s clear why both hosts are so popular. They have both hosted millions of
websites that run on WordPress for decades, building up a loyal customer base.
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InMotion Hosting (Overall grade: 8.4)
provides an excellent balance of features, particularly for those new to web hosting or looking for a more user-friendly experience. The platform’s strengths lie in its superior support, reliability, and rich feature set, including integrated email hosting, an intuitive website builder, and robust performance plans optimized for high-traffic and multimedia websites. However, it does fall short in areas like the absence of clear uptime guarantees and some reported inconsistencies in customer support responsiveness. Despite this, InMotion’s variety of plans and more approachable control panel make it a fantastic choice for small businesses and individuals needing a straightforward hosting solution.
DigitalOcean (Overall grade: 8.3)
stands out with its developer-friendly environment, offering high customization and excellent performance, particularly suited for developers and web agencies. Its real-time monitoring features, expansive global data center presence, and scalable solutions make it ideal for those with technical expertise. On the downside, the lack of an integrated website builder and limited first-year free domain offerings may be a drawback for less tech-savvy users. Nonetheless, DigitalOcean shines with its transparent uptime guarantees, extensive security measures, and cost-effective pricing, making it an excellent choice for technically proficient users looking for robust hosting capabilities.
 Overall grade:8.3 |
 Overall grade:8.4 |
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|---|---|---|
| Uptime and Availability | 9.2 | 8.2 |
| Hosting Performance | 8.8 | 8.3 |
| Hosting Security | 9.1 | 8.7 |
| Price | 8.7 | 7.9 |
| Hosting Features | 6.9 | 8.2 |
| Ease Of Setup | 8.2 | 8.6 |
| User Management | 8.0 | 8.7 |
| Customer Support | 7.8 | 8.3 |
| User feedback | 4.6/5 | 3.9/5 |
Hosting types offered
Both platforms provide a variety of hosting types, each designed to meet the different needs of users.
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| Shared hosting | ||
| Cloud hosting | ||
| WordPress hosting | ||
| Ecommerce hosting | ||
| VPS hosting | ||
| Dedicated hosting |
Although both offer a variety of hosting plans tailored to different needs, in
certain cases, one platform may prove to be more suitable.
features for ecommerce needs.
Detailed comparison
Uptime and availability
Evaluates the average uptime statistics, uptime guarantee and overall availability of the hosting
provider
Score Components:
- Uptime percentage (30%): evaluates the uptime statistics in given period of time
- Uptime guarantee (20%): Assesses if the platform offers an uptime guarantee and
whether the actual uptime matches the promised guarantee. - General performance (25%): Evaluates how fast is the average response time and overall
it’s stability. - Responsiveness (10%): Adaptability to different devices and screen sizes.
- Availability (25%): Reflects the total downtime and number of outages.
9.2
8.2
🏆 Winner
DigitalOcean: Offers superior uptime and availability performance.
DigitalOcean stands out with real-time uptime and latency alerts, ensuring users are immediately informed of any issues. Its global monitoring system operates across four regions, checking endpoints every minute and allowing for latency customizations. The platform boasts a 99.99% uptime SLA backed by high-quality infrastructure and multiple data centers, ensuring low latency and high performance. DigitalOcean also offers free uptime checks, with additional automated monitoring options to keep critical services running smoothly.
InMotion Hosting offers a variety of hosting plans with varying uptime claims. While they have shown strong performance, such as a 100% uptime in 2022, there are limited explicit guarantees. Their managed WordPress hosting offers 99.99% uptime claims, but lacks detailed guarantees. Historical uptime data reflect strong performance, but the absence of a clear-cut guarantee contrasts with the more transparent offerings of DigitalOcean.
Hosting performance
Score Components:
- Hosting speed (30%): This includes SSD quality, Load times, PageSpeed score ranges,
additional information on website speed, built-in plugins for performance enhancement, available caching
methods, and CPU/RAM options - CDN (20%): Considers whether CDN is available or not, whether it’s free or paid, and
the quality of the CDN service - Available data centers (30%): Evaluates the number of data centers and their locations
globally. - Scalibility (20%): Looks at whether elastic scaling is available, the process required
to scale (manual upgrade vs. automatic scaling), the presence of dedicated servers, and the costs
associated with scaling.
8.8
8.3
🏆 Winner
DigitalOcean: For users who prioritize speed and advanced technological infrastructure, Sitrground is more suitable for high-demand websites that require reliable and fast global access.
DigitalOcean and InMotion Hosting both offer 99.99% uptime, but DigitalOcean stands out with 14 globally distributed data centers, compared to InMotion’s three locations. DigitalOcean’s use of SSD storage, Droplets, and advanced caching mechanisms contribute to excellent load times and flexible performance. It also provides a CDN for improved content delivery, which is crucial for content-heavy websites. InMotion Hosting, with its UltraStack Technology, offers up to 20x faster website speeds and NVMe SSD storage, promising quick page loads. Both providers offer robust security measures, including DDoS protection and SSL certificates, but DigitalOcean’s broader data center footprint and developer-friendly tools tip the scale in its favor.
Website Speed
DigitalOcean leverages SSD storage, caching mechanisms, and a CDN to ensure fast load times and reliable content delivery. Its Droplets offer customizable CPU and RAM options for tailored performance. InMotion Hosting also promises fast performance with UltraStack Technology and advanced caching, providing object caching for speed enhancements. While both hosts offer strong page speed performance, DigitalOcean’s broader data center reach and flexible scaling options make it an excellent choice for global accessibility.
Scalability
DigitalOcean excels in scalability with features like load balancing and horizontal scaling. You can easily upgrade through its Droplets without needing a plan change, allowing for seamless, elastic scaling. InMotion Hosting offers flexible plans that range from shared to dedicated hosting, but specifics on automatic scaling are not mentioned. Its highest-tier plans, like VPS and dedicated hosting, start at $14.99 and $35.00 per month respectively, which provide room for growth. While both offer dedicated server options, DigitalOcean’s focus on seamless scalability and customizable resources makes it very adaptable.
Hosting security
and regulatory requirements
Score Components:
- Technical security measures (40%): This includes encryption, firewalls, DDoS
protection, secure configurations, server monitoring, access control and availability of security addons
(e.g Sitelock security). - Operational security measures (30%): Encompasses data privacy, backups and data
redundancy. - Compliance and certifications (20%): Adherence to legal and regulatory requirements
(e.g., GDPR, HIPAA) and possession of certifications (e.g., ISO 27001, SOC 2). - Business and reliability (10%): Factors in the provider’s reputation, uptime
guarantees, and customer support.
9.1
8.7
🏆 Winner DigitalOcean: Offers an extensive array of security features, superior compliance certifications, and robust data protection measures.
Both DigitalOcean and InMotion Hosting have notable differences in their approaches to technical and operational
security, as well as in their compliance with regulations.
Technical security measures:
DigitalOcean offers a broad range of technical security measures including SSL certificates, multiple PHP versions, DDoS protection, firewalls, SSH access, two-factor authentication, automatic backups, data encryption, and a web application firewall. In contrast, InMotion Hosting provides free SSL certificates with all plans, supports PHP 7 and PHP 8, offers Corero’s DDoS protection, firewall software, SSH access, automatic backups, and malware detection. Both providers offer comprehensive technical security, but DigitalOcean’s range of security features is more versatile and extensive.
Operational security measures:
DigitalOcean offers operational security through Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) configurations, managed databases with encryption, and load balancers to ensure high availability. It has a robust DDoS protection mechanism and provides automated backups. InMotion Hosting offers similar operational security measures including malware protection, Modsec firewall, backup management, and spam protection tools. While InMotion provides solid operational security, DigitalOcean’s additional features like managed databases and VPC give it a slight edge.
Compliance and certifications:
DigitalOcean complies with GDPR and PCI-DSS, and holds certifications like SOC 2 Type II, SOC 3 Type II, ISO/IEC 27001:2013, CSA STAR Level 1, and APEC CBPR PRP. InMotion Hosting is GDPR compliant, provides guidance for PCI compliance, and adheres to various other data protection regulations like CCPA and DMCA. DigitalOcean has a more extensive range of compliance certifications making it more robust in meeting international regulatory standards.
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SSL certificate |
Provided |
Free with all plans |
Additional security features |
Firewalls, DDoS, SSH, Backups, Web Application Firewall |
Malware, Spam Protection |
PHP versions |
Multiple versions supported |
PHP 7 and PHP 8 |
GDPR compliance |
Yes |
Yes |
HIPAA compliance |
Not specified |
Not specified |
PCI compliance |
Yes |
Guidance provided |
Hosting features
Score Components:
- Domains (20%): Assesses the availability of a free domain, domain purchase options, and
pricing - Email (15%): Considers if the provider offers full email hosting, or is reselling
third-party service, and if the email is only transactional or not - Website builder (15%): Checks if website builder is available, and it’s user
friendliness and overall the level of customization allowed. - Staging environment (20%): Determines if a staging environment is available, allowing
for testing changes before going live. - FTP & SFTP accounts (10%): Evaluates if and how easily users can access FTP and
SFTP accounts - Git and SSH access (20%): Assess whether Git is integrated into the hosting service and
if SSH access is provided
6.9
8.2
🏆 Winner: InMotion Hosting: Offering a range of user-friendly features and higher support ratings.
DigitalOcean and InMotion Hosting both provide strong hosting solutions, but they cater to different user needs. DigitalOcean stands out for its robust security measures, such as DDoS protection, firewalls, and two-factor authentication. It offers various hosting types, including managed Kubernetes and VPS hosting, which make it ideal for developers looking for versatile, high-performance environments. However, DigitalOcean lacks an integrated website builder, which might be a limiting factor for users who aren’t comfortable with coding their sites from scratch.
On the other hand, InMotion Hosting offers a more user-friendly experience, featuring industry-standard cPanel for easier website management. Its Softaculous Application Installer simplifies installing web applications, and it includes a website builder suitable for beginners. Additionally, InMotion provides unlimited bandwidth, NVMe SSD storage for faster speeds, and free SSL certificates, which appeal to small business owners who need a simple, efficient setup without extra costs. Unlike DigitalOcean, InMotion also offers integrated email solutions and developer tools such as support for Python and Node.JS.
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| Free domain | No | Yes, for the first year |
| Free SSL | Yes | Yes |
| Email hosting | No | Yes |
| Website builder | No | Yes |
| Staging environment | No | Yes |
| FTP & SFTP accounts | Yes | Yes |
| Git and SSH access | Yes | Yes |
| Free backup | No | Yes |
| Money back guarantee | No | Yes, 90 days |
Both providers support a range of users from beginners to experts with user-friendly website builders and WordPress staging areas. However, in terms of developer tools, both DigitalOcean and InMotion Hosting offer robust options including SSH access, support for multiple programming languages, and Git for version control, thus appealing to developers looking for advanced capabilities.
Email services:
Email services at DigitalOcean do not include traditional email hosting. Instead, the company focuses on technical server management features without dedicated email facilities. Conversely, InMotion Hosting supports email creation and management, enabling users to create professional email addresses under their own domains. InMotion Hosting is also equipped to handle email campaigns and resells third-party services like Google Workspace, offering a broader range of functionalities suited for diverse business needs.
Price
Score Components:
- Plan value (40%): What each pricing tier offers.
- Transparency and clarity (30%): Clearness of pricing structures.
- Flexibility of plans (20%): Range of options to suit different budgets.
- Hidden costs (10%): Additional expenses not included in the plan.
8.7
7.9
🏆 Winner
DigitalOcean: Offering versatile and competitively priced hosting plans tailored for various needs, DigitalOcean stands out as a top choice for hosting solutions.
Evaluating the pricing of plans among various hosting providers can be complex due to their differing pricing and renewal strategies. Additionally, certain plans require annual commitments, which adds to the difficulty of making comparisons. The prices listed are based on monthly commitments; plans requiring annual commitments are indicated. Additionally, although some providers offer identical plans for WordPress and shared hosting, we have created separate tables for each to enhance clarity.
DigitalOcean’s plans start as low as $4/month, making it highly accessible for beginners. Their offerings include Secure Web Hosting, Website Hosting, VPS Hosting, WordPress Hosting, E-Commerce Hosting, and Content Hosting. InMotion Hosting offers a broader range of specialized plans, including Web Hosting, WordPress Hosting, VPS Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, Reseller Hosting, and Shared Hosting. While DigitalOcean offers strong competitive pricing particularly for beginners, InMotion Hosting provides extensive features for more advanced and varied needs, albeit at slightly higher prices.
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Basic Droplet $4/month
1-click WordPress installation, managed WordPress via Cloudways, free SSL certificate, automatic backups, DDoS protection. Value for price:8.8
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Starting $3.69/month
Free domain & SSL, free website builder, premium themes & plugins, advanced caching, unlimited email addresses, faster WordPress, migration tools. Value for price:8.3
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VPS hosting $4/month
Protections from cyber attacks, DDoS Protection, VPS hosting, two-factor authentication, SSH access, SSL Certificates, automatic backups. Value for price:8.5
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$12.99/month
Fast, secure, reliable, free domain & SSL, website builder, premium themes & plugins, advanced caching, unlimited email addresses. Value for price:7.8
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Website Hosting $4/month
Simple and reliable cloud hosting, 1-click apps for CMS, 99.99% uptime SLA, globally distributed data centers. Value for price:8.7
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Core $3.19/month
Free SSL, 2 websites, 100GB SSD, unlimited bandwidth, security suite, marketing tools. Value for price:8.0
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Premium Shared CPU Droplets $7/month
Enhanced memory performance, NVMe SSDs. Value for price:8.6
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N/A
Value for price:N/A
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Dedicated CPU Droplets $42/month
4GB memory, 25GB SSD, 4TB transfer. Value for price:8.4
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VPS hosting $14.99/month
High-availability servers, cPanel available, free website transfers (with a control panel), cloud powered reliability. Value for price:8.1
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Enterprise plans
Both DigitalOcean and InMotion Hosting present strong offerings for enterprises. DigitalOcean’s VPS hosting provides scalability and performance starting at $4/month for shared CPU droplets and going up to $131/month for memory and storage-optimized solutions. InMotion Dedicated Hosting plans, starting at $35/month, offer highly customizable and redundant infrastructure, ensuring minimal downtime and robust support catered for enterprise needs. DigitalOcean’s broader global presence and competitive pricing make it a compelling choice for businesses seeking cost-effective yet powerful solutions.
Ease of setup
platform.
Score Components:
- Site migration (25%): Assesses whether the provider offers tools for site migration,
either automated or manual, and whether these services are free or require a fee. - Admin panel usability (35%): Evaluates the type of admin panel provided, such as the
standard cPanel or a custom solution, focusing on its accessibility and user-friendliness for both
technical and non-technical users. - Setup features (20%): Examines the availability and ease of use of various setup
features, including FTP accounts, file managers, email account setup, PHPMyAdmin, and easy CDN
configuration. - Help center quality (20%): Measures the quality and accessibility of the provider’s
help center resources, including articles and tutorials.
8.2
8.6
🏆 Winner
InMotion Hosting: In terms of ease of use, InMotion Hosting stands out due to its flexible and affordable site migration options, intuitive custom admin panel, advanced setup features, and a highly praised help center.
InMotion Hosting employs a custom panel called cPanel, which is well-known for its user-friendly interface. This interface is designed to be more intuitive and streamlined, enhancing user experience with advanced tools and numerous tutorials, assisting both beginners and seasoned users. InMotion Hosting’s help center is known for its clear and detailed content, which is highly valued by its users.
DigitalOcean on the other hand, offers a dual interface that combines a custom dashboard with full cPanel access, catering to both beginners and technically advanced users. The platform includes a comprehensive help center filled with a wide variety of guides and tutorials, aimed at assisting users in managing and optimizing their websites effectively.
Both DigitalOcean and InMotion Hosting offer migration services for websites, but their approaches and costs differ. DigitalOcean provides free migration tools through its platform and Cloudways, which can transfer your website efficiently with minimal downtime. For more complex transfers, DigitalOcean also charges a fee, although users have the option to undertake manual migrations, which demand considerable technical expertise. On the other hand, InMotion Hosting offers both automated and manual migration options utilizing a cPanel backup for a smooth transition. For more complex transfers, InMotion’s Launch Assist service offers additional support, handling the migration process meticulously.
The platforms provide extensive knowledge bases filled with guides, how-to articles, and instructional content. DigitalOcean offers a wide range of resources alongside 24/7 chat and phone support. InMotion Hosting also boasts a detailed help center with an intuitive search function and around-the-clock support via live chat, phone, and ticketing, ensuring comprehensive user support.
User management
accessibility.
Score Components:
- Role customization (40%): Flexibility in creating and defining user roles and
permissions. - Ease of management (30%): User interface and tools for managing users.
- Access control (20%): Effectiveness of access control measures for different user
levels. - Scalability (10%): Ability to manage a growing number of users efficiently.
8.0
8.7
🏆 Winner: InMotion Hosting: Offering extensive WordPress user role management capabilities.
When comparing DigitalOcean and InMotion Hosting’s user management features, it becomes clear that both platforms provide distinct approaches to managing user roles and permissions. DigitalOcean emphasizes simplicity with three straightforward roles: Owner, Biller, and Member. Each role has clearly defined access levels, allowing for effective management of shared resources and billing information. In contrast, InMotion Hosting, through its integration with WordPress, enables the creation of an array of user roles—Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, and Subscriber. This variety allows for nuanced control over content creation and management, catering to the diverse needs of a WordPress-based website.
Regarding the user interfaces and tools provided for managing users, DigitalOcean offers a user-friendly interface featuring a membership table that displays each member’s role and status. Team owners have additional visibility into each user’s sign-in method, ensuring enhanced security. The “Invite Members” button simplifies the process of adding new team members. On the other hand, InMotion Hosting leverages the intuitive WordPress interface, allowing users to manage roles directly within their WordPress dashboard. Additionally, InMotion supports the User Role Editor plugin for more advanced role customization, which adds to the flexibility and control users have over their website’s administrative structure.
When assessing access control measures and the ability to manage a growing number of users, DigitalOcean provides a seamless experience with no limits on the number of members or roles. This scalability makes it an attractive choice for larger teams. The platform also ensures that all team members are aware of their respective roles and statuses, contributing to orderly team management. InMotion Hosting’s strength lies in its detailed role capabilities within WordPress, which can be managed using both the User Role Editor plugin and WP-CLI commands. This approach accommodates varying levels of user engagement and can support an expanding user base effectively.
DigitalOcean user roles table:
| Role | Description | Access highlights |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | Full control over team settings | Access to shared resources, billing information, and team settings. |
| Biller | Manages billing information | Access limited to billing information only, no access to shared resources or settings. |
| Member | Access to shared resources | Full access to shared resources, no access to billing information or team settings. |
Customer support
hosting provider.
Score Components:
- Support communication channels (30%): Measures the variety of customer support types
provided (live chat, chatbot, email, phone, etc.) - Availability (20%): Assesses the availability hours for each channel, including 24/7
support options. - Technical support quality (30%): Assesses whether the provider offers comprehensive
technical support, including hardware upgrades (e.g., HDD to SSD), software installations, and web
server configuration changes. - Enterprise support (20%): Checks if there are dedicated or priority support services
for enterprise-level customers.
7.8
8.3
🏆 Winner InMotion Hosting: Extensive customer service options, including 24/7 live chat and phone support, set InMotion Hosting apart.
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Phone support |
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Live chat support |
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Chatbot |
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Email/ticket support |
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Enterprise support (dedicated agent, priority support) |
DigitalOcean offers solid support through multiple channels such as email, online ticketing, and community forums. Their 24/7 ticketing system combined with a comprehensive documentation center ensures users can find assistance when needed. However, phone support is not available, and live chat is reserved for premium users, which might limit accessibility for some.
InMotion Hosting provides a more comprehensive support system, featuring 24/7 live chat, phone support, email support, and a robust knowledge base. Their U.S.-based customer service team and step-by-step education channels are highly praised, although some users have reported slow ticket response times. The availability of immediate, live human assistance makes it more user-friendly for those who prefer real-time support.
User feedback
DigitalOcean consistently garners praise for its simplicity, user-friendly interface, and transparent pricing, making it ideal for both beginners and experienced developers. Users appreciate the straightforward setup, reliable performance, and excellent customer support, highlighting features like one-click deployment and robust documentation. However, there are some minor criticisms, including a limited variety of server configurations compared to larger providers and occasional slow customer support response times. Despite these drawbacks, DigitalOcean is highly regarded for its cost-effectiveness, ease of use, and overall reliability, particularly for small to medium-sized businesses and startups.
InMotion Hosting receives mixed reviews from users, highlighting several strengths and weaknesses. Customers appreciate the variety of hosting plans, transparent pricing, robust uptime, and exceptional customer support. On the downside, some users experience slow servers on lower-tier plans and encounter long waiting times for customer support. Additionally, the platform’s user interface has received criticism for being somewhat difficult to navigate, and there are concerns about service outages and higher prices for premium features.
FAQ
Which hosting service offers better security features?
DigitalOcean offers a broad range of security measures including DDoS protection, firewalls, SSH access, and two-factor authentication, making it very robust. InMotion Hosting also provides strong security features like free SSL certificates with all plans, DDoS protection, firewall software, and malware detection. However, DigitalOcean’s extensive security features and compliance certifications give it a slight edge over InMotion Hosting.
Which platform offers better customer support?
InMotion Hosting offers a more comprehensive support system, featuring 24/7 live chat, phone support, email support, and a robust knowledge base. DigitalOcean provides solid support through email, online ticketing, and community forums but lacks phone support and live chat is reserved for premium users. Therefore, InMotion Hosting’s extensive customer service options make it the better choice for customer support.
Are both platforms suitable for beginners?
InMotion Hosting is particularly suitable for beginners due to its user-friendly control panel (cPanel), included website builder, and extensive support options. DigitalOcean offers flexible admin panel options and Cloudways for managed solutions, but it may lean slightly towards more experienced users. Thus, while both can serve beginners, InMotion is more user-friendly for those with less technical expertise.
Which hosting service offers more scalability options for growing websites?
DigitalOcean excels in scalability with features like load balancing and horizontal scaling, allowing seamless resource upgrades without needing a plan change. InMotion Hosting also offers flexible plans, ranging from shared to dedicated hosting, but lacks specifics on automatic scaling. DigitalOcean’s focus on seamless scalability and customizable resources makes it very adaptable for growing websites.
Which service is more suitable for hosting a high-traffic website?
InMotion Hosting is optimized for handling high-traffic websites with advanced caching and higher performance plans, making it suitable for this purpose. DigitalOcean also provides strong performance and scalability, but InMotion’s specific optimization for high traffic gives it the advantage. Therefore, InMotion Hosting would be the more suitable choice for hosting high-traffic websites.
The making of this blog
We followed a clear, step-by-step process to write and research this article.
