tsoHost vs Heart Internet – Close Match, but Only One Winner [2024]

There are many similarities between tsoHost and Heart Internet, two UK-based hosts – but there are also some important differences. If you’re budget-conscious, you should know that Heart Internet charges setup fees with some of its plans and doesn’t offer many freebies as tsoHost.

I tested tsoHost and Heart Internet in terms of pricing, performance, security features, and the efficiency of their customer support, in order to make a fair comparison. Based on these test results, I found that tsoHost is an overall better option than Heart Internet.

Click here to see tsoHost’s best deals1, or read on to see how each host performed in this extensive comparison.

1. Plans and Pricing

Both Hosts Are Affordable, but tsoHost Offers Better Value for Your Money

tsoHost and Heart Internet offer pretty much the same hosting services, from shared hosting to VPS and dedicated servers. They also offer similar features and resource allocations, but which host offers better value for your money?

tsoHost appears to offer slightly higher web hosting prices than Heart Internet. However, unlike Heart Internet, tsoHost doesn’t charge setup fees and offers a free domain name with annual subscriptions, along with a free SSL certificate with higher-tier plans (50% off for the first year with lower-value plans).

Both tsoHost and Heart Internet offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. tsoHost offers free website migration, whereas Heart Internet offers site migration with its VPS services.

The winner here is tsoHost. Even though tsoHost and Heart Internet aren’t the cheapest web hosting services, tsoHost offers more freebies with its web hosting packages than Heart Internet.

2. Features

Heart Internet Offers More Storage and RAM with Its Managed VPS Plans

Heart Internet’s five managed VPS hosting packages give you 50 GB to 200 GB SSD disk space, 2 to 8 vCPUs, and 2 GB to 16 GB RAM. You also get the Plesk Obsidian control panel, a free SSL certificate, automatic updates, free site migration, and a WordPress Toolkit to get full control over your WordPress sites on your server.

tsoHost’s five managed VPS plans for Linux come with 20 GB to 160 GB SSD disk space, 768 MB to 8 GB RAM, and from 1 to 8 Xeon Core CPUs. You also get cPanel, free migration for 3 websites and 1 e-commerce migration, and automatic daily backups. You can pay an extra fee to get an SSL certificate.

Check out more differences between tsoHost and Heart Internet in the following comparison table:

Both hosts offer solid VPS solutions with similar feature sets. However, Heart Internet wins this round for providing more SSD storage, more RAM, and a free SSL certificate with its VPS hosting.

3. Performance

tsoHost has Slower Loading Speeds, but Higher Uptime

The performance of any hosting service is measured based on two main factors – uptime and page loading speeds.

tsoHost has a 99.9% uptime guarantee. When I used Uptime Robot to test it, it scored a 99.94% uptime over 30 days, exceeding its own promise.

I also tested tsoHost’s performance on GTmetrix, but it scored a D at 68%, which is quite surprising considering that it has data centers in the UK, Belgium, North America, and Asia.

Learn more about what went wrong in our full tsoHost review.

Using Sucuri to test tsoHost’s page loading speeds, it scored a B which is slightly better than its score on GT Metrix, but still slower than many hosting services.

I performed the same tests on Heart Internet. Although Heart Internet promises a 99.99% uptime guarantee (with most of its services), it scored a disappointing 99.62% over the course of 30 days on Uptime Robot. That’s even below the industry standard (99.9%).

Similar to tsoHost, Heart Internet scored a D on GTmetrix’s performance test, but at 67% (a bit lower than tsoHost).

Despite having only one data center in the UK, Heart Internet scored an impressive A in Sucuri’s page loading speed test.

Find out more about these performance tests in our expert Heart Internet review.

The winner here is tsoHost. Even though Heart Internet showed faster page loading speeds than tsoHost, the fact that tsoHost has higher uptime alone makes it a better performer than Heart Internet, as you won’t experience as much downtime as you would with Heart Internet.

4. Security

It’s Almost a Tie, but tsoHost Wins by a Thin Margin

As previously mentioned, tsoHost provides free SSL certificates with its higher-tier web hosting plans and offers them at half-price with its lower-tier plans. Heart Internet doesn’t offer free SSL certificates except with its managed VPS hosting plans.

Both vendors secure their networks with high-end firewalls to protect the websites hosted against any external threats such as DDoS and Brute-Force attacks. In addition, they provide antivirus and anti-spam to secure the email accounts hosted on their servers to secure incoming and outgoing mail.

tsoHost and Heart Internet additionally sell a wide range of optional security add-ons that you can purchase separately with your packages.

tsoHost wins the security round by a hair. Even though both providers have limited default security measures, tsoHost offers free SSL certificates with more services than Heart Internet.

5. Support

It’s Easier to Get Help from Heart Internet

Both tsoHost and Heart Internet have user-friendly websites and extensive knowledge base sections.

You can contact tsoHost’s customer support team through live chat and phone (both are available from 7 am until midnight, UK time), or ticket support (available 24/7). You can only submit a ticket if you have an account already.

I conducted tests on both the live chat and the ticket system. While the responsiveness of the support ticket channel fell short of my expectations, I found both channels to be highly beneficial. The responses I received were both precise and comprehensive, leaving no need for additional inquiries.

Heart Internet’s support, on the other hand, is available through live chat, phone, email, and support ticket. Unlike tsoHost, all channels are available 24/7. However, it can be a little tricky to find the live chat link as you have to start going through the subscription process for it to appear. Heart Internet’s support is more responsive than tsoHost, but equally helpful.

Both vendors offer good customer support, but Heart Internet wins for providing 24/7 support and quicker responses.

tsoHost Has a Slight Advantage over Heart Internet

It was tough to decide between tsoHost and Heart Internet. These two hosting providers fall on the same level with their hosting offerings. tsoHost provides better value for your money and you get more freebies with its higher-value packages. It also offers better performance, and more security features.

On the other hand, Heart Internet offers more storage space, slightly faster loading speeds, and more responsive support, but you don’t get as many free extras (except if you sign up for VPS).

Even though tsoHost wins this comparison, you might find Heart Internet more suitable for your hosting needs. Neither one is right for you? Discover better hosting options in this list of the best web hosting services.

FAQ

Does tsoHost Use SSD?

Not with all hosting plans. tsoHost only offers SSD storage with its Linux VPS plans and some of its dedicated server plans for Linux. The Linux VPS plans come with 20 GB to 160 GB SSD storage. tsoHost not quite right for you? Check out these cheap and fast SSD hosting services.

Does Heart Internet Offer WordPress hosting?

Yes. Heart Internet offers two WordPress hosting plans – Home Pro and Business Pro. With Heart Internet WordPress hosting, you can host from one to three websites and get from 100 GB to unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, and from 2 GB to 5 GB mailbox storage. Need more options? See this list of the best managed WordPress hosting services.

Does tsoHost offer a free domain?

Yes. tsoHost offers a free domain with all its shared and WordPress hosting packages provided that you sign up for an annual subscription. You can transfer your website for free or choose from these endings:  .be / .biz / .uk /.co.uk / .com / .info / .ltd.uk / .me / .me.uk / .net / .org / .org.uk / .link, or .website.

Don’t miss our ultimate guide to choosing a domain name.

Does Heart Internet use cPanel?

Yes. Heart Internet used to offer cPanel with its dedicated server plans only, but it’s now included with its web hosting plans as well. It also offers eXtend control panel with its Windows web hosting plans.