Compare / Hetzner Cloud vs Contabo Cloud VPS
Hetzner Cloud vs Contabo Cloud VPS
Pre-calculated from hand-checked data — Hetzner Cloud checked 2026-08-06, Contabo checked 2026-08-06.
The short version
Hetzner Cloud and Contabo Cloud VPS split our comparison — the right pick depends on what your project values.
Price Tie
Contabo Cloud VPS costs less while you're starting out, but Hetzner Cloud works out cheaper once traffic grows.
Ease Tie
Both take similar effort to get a first deploy live.
Features Tie
Feature coverage is even: each wins 0 of the 15 rows we track.
What developers say about this matchup
We couldn't find a substantive first-person discussion comparing this exact pair. We leave the section empty instead of filling it with vendor marketing or generic SEO comparisons.
At a glance
| Hetzner Cloud | Contabo Cloud VPS | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | European projects that need serious compute or move a lot of traffic. | Budget bulk compute — game servers, dev boxes, and side projects where raw specs per euro beat consistency. |
| How deploys work | You get root on a bare server: bring your own setup, or use one-click apps like Docker and WordPress. | You get root on a bare server after order verification clears; bring your own setup or use the one-click app installs. |
| The tradeoff | Self-managed like any VPS, and the bandwidth advantage mostly applies to EU locations. | The lowest sticker price here, paid for with oversubscription, slow support, and slow provisioning. |
| Free tier | None | None |
What you'd realistically pay
Hetzner Cloud Contabo Cloud VPS
| Project stage | Hetzner Cloud | Contabo Cloud VPS | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Just starting | ≈€5.99/mo CX23 (EU) — €5.49 + €0.50 IPv4. 2 shared vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB SSD, 20 TB traffic. Germany and Finland only. | ≈€5.50/mo Cloud VPS 4 — 4 shared vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 100 GB SSD, 200 Mbit/s unlimited traffic. €4.40/month on a 24-month term. | Contabo Cloud VPS |
| Steady traffic | ≈€8.99/mo CX33 (EU) — €8.49 + €0.50 IPv4. 4 shared vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 80 GB SSD, 20 TB traffic. | ≈€14/mo Cloud VPS 8 — 8 shared vCPU, 24 GB RAM, 300 GB SSD, 600 Mbit/s. €11.20/month on a 24-month term. | Hetzner Cloud |
| Growing | ≈€43.49/mo CCX13 (EU) — €42.99 + €0.50 IPv4. 2 dedicated vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 80 GB NVMe — move to dedicated CPUs when shared bursting stops being enough. | ≈€49/mo Cloud VPS 18 — 18 shared vCPU, 96 GB RAM, 600 GB SSD, 1 Gbit/s. €39.20/month on a 24-month term. | Hetzner Cloud |
Hetzner Cloud pricing notes
- Traffic overage costs €1/TB in the EU — most providers charge 10–100x that per GB.
- Billed hourly up to a monthly cap.
- The Arm-based CAX plans match CX specs at similar prices if the Intel CX line is out of stock.
Contabo Cloud VPS pricing notes
- Promo prices (about 20% off) require a 24-month term; list prices apply month to month.
- A one-time setup fee applies to entry plans on short terms since April 2026 — the exact amount shows at checkout.
- "Unlimited" traffic is fair-use: Contabo reserves the right to throttle disruptive usage.
Our ratings
Ease of use
Pricing clarity Hetzner Cloud
Free tier
Scaling Hetzner Cloud
Control
Feature by feature
Hetzner Cloud wins 0, Contabo Cloud VPS wins 0, with 15 even.
Deploy workflow
| Hetzner Cloud | Contabo Cloud VPS | |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy from Git push | No No deploy pipeline — bring your own CI or scripts. | No No deploy pipeline — bring your own CI or scripts. |
| Preview deploys | No Nothing built in. | No Nothing built in. |
| Official CLI | Yes hcloud CLI manages servers, networks, and snapshots. | Yes The cntb CLI and REST API manage instances and snapshots. |
| Instant rollbacks | Partial Snapshots and paid backups restore machines; no deploy-level rollback. | Partial Included snapshots restore machines; automatic backups cost extra. No deploy-level rollback. |
Platform
| Hetzner Cloud | Contabo Cloud VPS | |
|---|---|---|
| Custom domains + HTTPS | Yes Point DNS at the server; TLS is yours via certbot or a proxy. | Yes Point DNS at the server; TLS is yours via certbot or a proxy. |
| Built-in CDN / edge network | No No CDN product — put Cloudflare in front if needed. | No No CDN product — put Cloudflare in front if needed. |
| Serverless functions | No Not a VPS feature. | No Not a VPS feature. |
| Docker containers | Yes Docker CE one-click app or install it yourself. | Yes Docker one-click install or set it up yourself. |
| SSH / shell access | Yes Full root SSH. | Yes Full root SSH. |
| EU hosting region | Yes Germany and Finland are the home turf — this is where the value is. | Yes German data centers at the base price; other EU sites available. |
Runtime & operations
| Hetzner Cloud | Contabo Cloud VPS | |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic scaling | No Manual resizing or manual fleet management. | No Manual plan upgrades only. |
| Scale to zero | No Servers bill until deleted, even powered off. | No The contract bills until cancelled, powered off or not. |
| Scheduled jobs | Yes Classic cron on the box. | Yes Classic cron on the box. |
| Managed database | No No managed database product — self-host or go external. | No No managed database product — self-host or go external. |
| Logs & metrics built in | Partial Basic server graphs in the console; app-level monitoring is yours. | Partial Basic usage graphs in the customer panel; everything else is yours. |
Watch out for
Hetzner Cloud
- Hetzner raised prices on 15 June 2026: dedicated CCX and shared CPX plans roughly tripled, while the budget CX line rose about 35%.
- The cheap CX plans are sold in Germany and Finland only, in limited capacity — Hetzner sometimes pauses sales when stock runs out.
- US locations include only 1–2 TB of traffic versus 20 TB in the EU — the famous value is a European value.
- A public IPv4 address costs €0.50/month extra; only IPv6 is free.
- Servers bill until deleted, even while powered off.
Contabo
- Since 15 April 2026 entry plans on 1- or 6-month terms carry a one-time setup fee — it is waived only on 12-month-plus terms.
- New orders go through manual identity verification: provisioning can take hours to more than a day, not minutes.
- Shared hardware is heavily oversubscribed — CPU steal and variable disk I/O are common on busy nodes.
- Non-EU locations (US, UK, Asia, Australia) cost a monthly surcharge on top of list prices.
- Monthly billing only: the server bills as long as the contract runs, powered off or not.
Read the full reviews: Hetzner Cloud and Contabo. Or answer four questions to see what fits your project.