Upperhost is an independent business web hosting review web site. We rate hosting companies based on past user feedbacks, lab benchmark testing, and our usage with each website hosting company. If you would like to submit your company for review, please select the submit button located on top of this page.

Performance 10 Reliability 9 Customer Relations   8 Features 7 Control Panel 7 88%

Introduction

Lunarpages has an interesting past – which coincidentally makes them one of the top business web hosting players that has not only been around for a long, long time by Internet standards – the folks who founded the company and still manage it have some depth of experience in hosting that few of their competitors can claim.  This results in a trim, well-run operation that has its act together and can focus on delivering on their commitments to customers.  Lunarpages was at one point in time the web hosting division of Add2Net, Inc.; the ambitious folks working as the management staff and technical support team split this division out to become Lunarpages.

This splinter has grown into a mighty Oak as they say – as we mentioned they have real staying power; they have been around for over five years.  Lunarpages has wowed the Internet Web hosting provider industry with their superior data center and award winning customer service and support.  So it makes sense that they have wowed their customers with their rock bottom prices as well – prices that they continue to be able to offer without lowering their standards for services, or limiting the range of products and services that they offer.  You can really see the benefit of the experience that went into founding the company showing through and you as the customer get the advantage of all of this!

Data Center

Moving on to the data center; this is another area where previous experience in hosting has paid off for Lunarpages.  They use top-flight Dell servers, beefed up to the point where few of their competitors can compare.  Remember that Internet Web hosting providers have their largest investments up-front when they start the company and set-up their facilities.  The investment that Lunarpages made – which we imagine was substantial – is paying off for them and their customers in terms of the sheer size of the hosting packages they are able to make available at a really low price.  For example, for $7.95 per month you get 300 MB of space and 20GB of data transfer.  They also offer larger packages (in the neighborhood of $22.95), in fact you can get double this basic offering – but for most folks that this overkill.

Customer Relations

Their customer support gets high marks with phone and email access.  One thing we noticed was how quickly accounts get set-up.  Let’s face it; once you select your Internet Web hosting provider, you are ready to get on with it.  It is nice to have a company be able to move quickly in order to comply.

Control Panel

Lunarpages currently utilizes the latest version of the CPanel 5 control panel. The features are pretty much the same to other CPanel, such as mailbox modification, password changes, ftp login modifications, statistical information, and so on. CPanel doesn’t offer any web-building tool, but for web hosting administration it offers the user an easy and intuitive interface along with powerfully packed features.

Just as a side note, be sure you calculate how much space and data transfer you will actually need before you sign up with anyone.  Bump that number up by a factor to account for your business growing, but so many people buy much more than they need and it is just a waste of money.  The entire point of your Web-based business is to make money – so starting out by wasting it isn’t an auspicious start at all.  Word up.

Conclusion

OK.  Lunarpages also gives you toll free support, which is unlimited.  While we are on the subject, if you are just venturing into this arena, finding a provider that is this generous on their support a) is really tough to do and b) is a really great idea for a novice.

And they have Linux!  Yummy!

In terms of performance, again they are a tough competitor who means business and they back their promises.  They are connected to premium Tier-1 backbone providers, Genuity, cable and wireless which all translate into making your Web page a screaming mimi.  Mind you that this is part of the package, it is not a hidden extra that you will be charges extra for.  Very sweet.

The only minor drawback we found was the control panel.  It is OK for Web hosting administration but does not offer a Web-building tool.  We didn’t think this was major issue because there are so many software packages out there to pick from that are a Web-builder’s dream.  On the Web hosting administration side, though, their control panel was intuitive, easy to use and powerful.  We like.

Lunarpages is a good choice – high marks for toll-free support and they stand behind what they promise.  That works for us!

Official Lunarpages Web Hosting Review