Overview:

LunarPages has always been one of the giants in the world of web hosting. Known for being one of the older, more established companies, they have expanded since 2000 to include and facilitate more and more hosting varieties. (Shared hosting, windows hosting, dedicated servers, reseller servers, and VPS) Both of Lunar Page’s data centers and their call center are located within the US. With over 100,000 satisfied customers and 100 staff personnel, they certainly maintain their position as an industry leader while still offering low cost hosting solutions.

As many lunarpages review scores around the web goto show – this is one of the oldest running and stable companies around. They host hundreds of thousands of sites and service professionally an equal amount of satisfied customers each year. If you are looking for affordable, reliable, and great web hosting for your domains and websites, lunarpages web hosting delivers with the best of them!

Features and Prices:

Figure 2: The layout of what the Disk Usage section looks like. This section clearly shows many details on how the disk space purchased is being used. Figure 3: The Backup section allows a user to upload a backup unto the server in case of file corruption or sabotage.

All of Lunar Page’s plans come with a 30 day money back guarantee and 24/7 online and phone support. Lunar Page’s “Basic Hosting Plan” is very impressive and comes with an abundance of tools and options that will fill the need of virtually any small business or personal site. They offer 350GB of hard drive space along with 3,500GB of bandwidth. (note this is on their cheapest plan) The numbers alone there are impressive, most hosts can’t even hold a candle to space and bandwidth like that. The plan also comes with 10 add-on domains, unlimited parked domains and unlimited sub domains. Unlimited FTP accounts and unlimited MySQL databases are also part of the plan. Email isn’t a problem either, with their unlimited email accounts, email forwarding, and email auto responders, a mailing list is also included to help organize and send emails. The plan is e-commerce ready with a variety of shopping carts and password protected directories as well as encryptions. If media is your thing, the package includes that as well. Your site will support streaming Video, streaming audio, Real media, Flash, Shockwave, and MIDI. Lunar Pages also offers larger packages to suit any client, but their starter package is by far more than enough for most users out there.
Their control panel is user friendly and after about an hour of playing around with it becomes virtually second nature to use. Lunar pages offers a ton of easy to install scripts to help build and add to your site. Popular scripts such as Fantastico and Wiki are included. They also currently have a promotion where if you sign up for a 12 month plan or more, you can receive Coffee Cup software (a $700 value) free.

Figure 4: The FrontPage Extensions section of the control panel allows users to add, remove, or update Microsoft FrontPage Extensions as needed as their websites continue to grow and develop. Figure 5: In the FTP Manager section of the control panel, users can do many things to alter the creation, edition, or deletion of FTP accounts and access.

Their pricing is super competitive, and you will be hard pressed to find better deals. The pricing for their basic plan is shown below

  1. 24 months – $6.95 per month, Free Coffee Cup software
  2. 12 months – the price goes up by $1 to $7.95 per month, Free Coffee Cup software
  3. 6 months – $8.95 per month, no Coffee Cup software
  4. 3 months – $9.95 per month, no Coffee Cup software

They also offer business, VPS, reseller, and dedicated hosting, starting at the following prices.

  1. Business hosting starting at $21.95 per month
  2. VPS hosting starting at $39.95 per month
  3. Reseller hosting starting at $5.00 per month
  4. Dedicated hosting starting at $99.00 per month
Figure 6: The Image Manager section of the control panel allows users with option of resizing images, converting images to different formats, or designating thumbnails; all important aspects of an interactive website that pulls in customers. Figure 7: This is what the Addon Scripts section of the control panel looks like, and here users can install scripts to improve their website, such as shopping carts and PHP scripts.

Service and Support:

Lunar Pages offers various forms of 24/7 support. They offer a lot of resources right on their site, such as an online community where users discuss issues and ideas, email ticket system, a knowledge base, a glossary, an in depth FAQ page, and an online tutorial section. They also offer a tech line which is also accessible 24/7 and a copy of the control panel manual is also available.
I’ve called them on 3 separate occasions and their staff has always been skilled, professional, and courteous. My first 2 calls were answered in less than a minute, and my 3rd call took about 15 minutes. Since the first 2 experiences had been phenomenal, I will give them the benefit of the doubt on that 3rd call. I also like the fact that you speak to an actual technician and not a machine which simply gives out automated responses which may or may not help.

Reliability wise, their servers are rock solid and I have no complaints in that respect.

Figure 8: The Web/FTP Stats section of the control panel allow users to view some interesting stats about their website, such as, error logs, bandwidth info, the latest 300 visitors, and much more! The using this useful information, users can update their website in order to maximize profits! Figure 9: In the Webmail section of the control panel, users can choose to access one of three webmail programs to access.

Conclusions:

  • Pros – 350GB of storage and 3,500GB of bandwidth is almost absurd, free Coffee Cup software with long term plans, ton of features many of which are unlimited, 24/7 professional customer support, established company which has been around the proverbial block. They are the proprietors of their own servers, you are don’t need to wonder if you are buying from a reseller. Incredibly server stability and reliability, low price for unbelievable value.
  • Cons – that one call took a while to get answered, Coffee Cup software not available if you don’t sign for 12 months or more. 3 month is minimum commitment. Without long term plan price goes up by $3 on basic plan
  • Other Thoughts – I’d give them a 4/5 if you are looking for short term hosting (i.e. less than 3 months) great service, but the price goes up considerably. If you are planning to stay with Lunar Pages for 12 months +, then bump that up to a 5/5 due to their incredible service and offers. In any case, Lunar Pages is an excellent choice for anyone and everyone looking for a webhost.