Absolutely abysmal service. I was with them for 6 years, never had any reason to contact them, however when I needed access to SSH and php 8.2 on my server (basic feature any developer should expect in late 2024), this is where things got bad.
SSH "access" was granted after a 4 day wait, however I had no access to Composer or even the PHP command, rendering SSH access COMPLETELY useless for any competent PHP developer. The only thing I could do was remove files. What exactly is the point of this.
PHP 8.2 was enabled, however basic components had not been enabled such as the GD image library, meaning my site was still unusable. I was told that GD could not be installed on this PHP version as it would affect others on the same server... however GD is actually an extension which just need to be enabled, not installed. I was then told to switch my site to use Imagik instead of GD, but of course, this was not enabled on this PHP version either.
After wasting another 3 days (my website being down the whole time) I was told that to use composer and GD with PHP 8.2 I would need to move to a cPannel hosting package which would be discontinued in 2 months, at which point I would need to migrate BACK to the original package which would have been updated.
They offered this as a solution so obviously I assumed this would be done on my behalf, free of charge, however I was expected to pay for the replacement service and migrate everything myself... because THEIR system is out of date... absolutely disgusting.
After wasting over 2 weeks in total and having my website unusable the entire time, I decided to move away to a popular host located in Germany, where I was able to setup an account, upload my files, configure the DNS, setup my email accounts, access SSH, compile my website, upload my old files & database and have the domain transferred and live, by myself, in less than 90 minutes.
At this point I wanted to cancel my Heart hosting package, after much searching I found that I would need to raise a ticket to do this as there is no simple way to cancel your account. 2024 btw. I raised a ticket asking that my package be cancelled and the DNS/Nameservers be maintained when parking my domain. I got a response the next day telling me my nameservers. I asked them if my package had been cancelled... they said no. Are you actually serious at this point? So if I hadn't asked you would have continued to take my money even AFTER being told explicitly to cancel it. I am currently waiting for a response, because of course I have to wait another day for a response to my ticket, it's Heart Internet after all. SLOW, SLOW, SLOW seems to be the theme.
Aside from these issues, over the 6 years I was with Heart, my email was unavailable for an extended period of time on 4 separate occasions, I have been unable to send mail through their SMTP server many times, the control panel is slow, many of the features listed in the hosting manager simply do not function and I was unable to create additional email address and databases for the last 6 months.
I wanted to support British businesses but if this is the level of service on offer, I can't in good faith recommend Heart Internet.
