I get asked this on a fairly regular basis, often by people new to the domain and hosting scene. I’ve got a lot of domains at GoDaddy that I’ve purchased over the years, but for most new domain purchases I’ve found omnis.com, and I’ve been very happy with them so far (just over a year). (yes, that’s an affiliate link, so I’ll make a bit o’ cash if you click that and purchase something from them).
I don’t recommend their hosting plan, nor godaddy’s, nor anyone else’s for that matter. I’ve managed my own dedicated servers for 10 years, and would have a hard time recommending any shared hosting plan for anyone, mostly because of the restrictions of freedoms I’ve found. Many people may not need it, but I do, so I can’t specifically tell you to use omnis.com for domain *hosting*. However, purchasing domains through them and pointing the name servers anywhere else (which they let you do easily) is fine (and what I do). To be fair, I’ve not tried their hosting plan, so I can’t comment on it, which is why I don’t recommend it.
Why do I like omnis? Price. GoDaddy has lower initial pricing, assuming you can find a coupon code (and they’re all over the place if you look for them). This can often get a .com domain name down to $7 from GoDaddy for the initial registration period. Yes, if you buy 5 years up front, you’ll get the $7 price for 5 years. However, most people don’t do that (I don’t – I try too many domain names every year). So, purchasing for one year at GoDaddy is $7 (with coupon) and $8.95 from omnis.com. Almost a $2 difference! However, come renewal time, GoDaddy has steadily gone *up* for me year after year, and omnis.com hasn’t (so far). Renewing that $7 .com for me at GoDaddy jumps to $10.69 plus some ICANN fee. So, for 2 years, I’m at almost $18 with GoDaddy, and pretty much the same at omnis.com. Following year, I’ll be saving money.
Is is worth it to try to save money on a 2-3 year time horizon? Strictly by the numbers, no. However, I’ve felt GoDaddy has become a bait/switch operation with respect to the higher domain name renewal fees. Coupons or special deals might help in some cases, but I’d prefer to give my domain business to someone who doesn’t bait/switch or need to rely on massive promotions. Yes, omnis are smaller, and yes, I might have problems with them at some point, but I haven’t in over a year, I don’t get upsold a huge amount of junk trying to check out, and the support I’ve had for the few questions I’ve sent in has been reasonable (typically answered by a human via email within a few hours max).
So, if you’re looking to help support a smaller domain registrar with decent service and decent prices, give omnis.com a spin.
