5. Omnis Network Hosting Review

Posted on March 20, 2008
Filed Under business web hosting, cheap web host, Omnis Network Web Hosting, cheap web hosting, webhosting reviews, web hosting, web hosting company, web hosting review, web host |

You will notice that as these reviews approach the top of the list, the issues I have with the different hosts begin to become more minor in nature. That’s to be expected. I had hundreds of sites that were checked out and evaluated that didn’t make this Top Ten List, so its only reasonable to assume that the differences in the top 5 would be small.

Click the following to go directly to the Omnis Network Hosting web site.

Omnis Network only offers two hosting packages, but they do offer a good package at a really decent price. They give you 1,700 GB of space and 17,000 GB of data transfer for only $5.95 a month. For $7.95 a month you can get Windows hosting, which gives you the option of using ASP programming. Unless you’re already tied into doing your site with ASP or .NET programming, as I’ve said before, I would stick with Unix hosting, and I’ll review their Unix hosting package here. They do give you a free domain name with your hosting the first year, but charge $7.95 for it every year after that. The cost for an additional domain name is promoted on their web site as $6.95, but thats only if you buy over 200 domains at a time.

Thats my main problem with Omnis. Everything on their website seems designed to promote their pricing, while all of the “details” are hidden in small print at the bottom of the page. The hosting page alone has five (5) separate asterisked disclaimers at the bottom! For instance, the $5.95 per month rate only applies if you sign up for 2 years of web hosting (it’s $6.95 a month for a standard one year contract and $8.95 for Windows hosting), and their “free” site builder only allows you to build three pages before you have to pay for an upgrade. The fact that they put these and other facts in a small note at the end of the page in a very small typeface makes me feel like they are hiding more than they’re telling me. Additional domain names are very reasonably priced at $7.95 a year, for up to 50 additional names.

Omnis does have a great 99.9% uptime guarantee, and a good 30 day money back guarantee. They have all of the basic scripts you’ll need accessible for one click install through your control panel. They also offer a good assortment of PPC bonuses for newbies through Google, Yahoo! and MSN. They allow you to host unlimited domains and sub-domains on one account, and have a custom control panel that allows you to administer your multiple domains from one interface, which is a big plus in my book.

Their support, however, leaves something to be desired. Ticket support is only available between 6 AM - 6 PM M-F, and 6 AM-2:30 PM on Saturday. Live phone support is available 6 AM - 6 PM M-F (all Pacific time). There is no mention of any live chat support. To make the very top of this list, some kind of support has to be available 24/7, and an alternate means of support should be available most of the business day. Their online help and FAQ section is more a collection of articles than an organized help section, and there were no video tutorials to assist with common tasks, although the database of articles is searchable. Here are the basics for Omnis Network’s only Unix hosting program;

• Free domain name with hosting for first year, $7.95 a year after that
• Unlimited domains hosted, up to 1,700 GB space limit
• 1,700 GB of web space
• 17,000 GB of data transfer a month
• Ticket and phone support during limited times
• 99.9% uptime guarantee (very good!)
• Online help article and FAQ database
• 30 day money back guarantee
• Unlimited email accounts, up to 1,700 GB combined space limit
• Unlimited MySQL databases, up to 1,700 GB space limit
• Limited use of a free Site Builder (3 pages will not be sufficient for most business or e-commerce websites)
• Most common scripts (blogs, Joomla, Drupal, forums, etc.) included
• E-commerce shopping carts included
• Cost - $83.40 first year, $91.35 per year each succeeding year, paid per year

Omnis Network is a good solid hosting package at a decent price. My main problem with them is the lack of 24/7 support of any kind. If you’d like to explore what they have to offer, you can click on this link and go to Omnis Network Hosting. The best is yet to come, so keep reading to find out what my top picks for web hosts are.

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