LunarPages Web Host Review

LunarPages is the preferred host for the the Secure Surfing Organization. On a long term plan, close to everything you could want is included for $4.95 per month.

There are no gotchyas that are hiding in the majority of other hosting providers’ plans. We do not like being surprised to discover, for example, that we cannot use a large number of WordPress tools and third-party web software because the service does not allow for something called “passthru” functionality.

We did get that surprise on our ServerFly account, but not on LunarPages.

Note there is one caution with LunarPages and that is the domain name registration. They promote receiving a free domain name, but only for the first year. After that their prices are really not all competitive and you could end up paying two or three times the competitive cost to renew.

So register your domain name through a service like Walking Dolphins or a dedicated registrar.

The rest of the package is pretty much exactly what they claim. We were able to install multiple web sites without difficulty or complaint; a standalone forum package; use the ftp to store critical documents for emergency backup; create multiple working email accounts and so on.

LunarPages just works and works well.

LunarPages provides excellent service.  We tried to confuse them with our questions but the support staff never showed impatience or frustration. They just worked us through the problem and genuinely helped. Very impressed.

Here are the basics of the LunarPages Basic Plan (as of date of publication):

Cost per month†  –> $4.95

Storage –> Unlimited
Bandwidth per Month –> Unlimited
MySQL Databases –> Unlimited
Free Domain Name* –> Included (ONLY FIRST YEAR — then as much as $19.95)

Add-on Domains –> Unlimited
Sub Domains –> Unlimited
Parked Domains –> Unlimited
CGI-BIN –> Included
FTP Accounts –> Unlimited
Online User Statistics –> Included
Apache 2 –> Available

Ruby on Rails Support –> Included
PHP Support –> Included
PERL Support –> Included
PYTHON Support –> Included

SSI – Server Side Includes –> Included
Microsoft® FrontPage® Extensions –> Included
Dreamweaver Compatible –> Included