Providers / Contabo
Contabo
The most RAM and storage per euro, with visible corners cut.
contabo.com · Prices checked 2026-08-06
- Type
- Virtual server (VPS)
- Starting cost
- ≈€5.50/mo
- Free tier
- No
- Ease of use
- 2/5
Contabo sells more vCPU, RAM, and disk per euro than anyone else: the entry Cloud VPS 4 packs 4 vCPU and 8 GB RAM for €5.50 all-in. The trade is oversubscribed hardware, slow ticket-only support, and manual order verification that can delay provisioning by a day. Fine for cost-sensitive workloads; risky for latency-sensitive production.
Good to know
- 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.
Virtual server (VPS)
Contabo Cloud VPS
- Best for
- 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 after order verification clears; bring your own setup or use the one-click app installs.
- The tradeoff
- The lowest sticker price here, paid for with oversubscription, slow support, and slow provisioning.
Why pick it
- Unmatched specs per euro: 4 vCPU and 8 GB RAM for €5.50 all-in.
- Unlimited fair-use traffic and an included IPv4 on every plan.
- Snapshots and DDoS protection included at no extra cost.
- EU (German) company with data centers on four continents.
Why look elsewhere
- Oversubscribed nodes: advertised vCPUs behave like ceilings, not guarantees.
- Manual order verification means provisioning takes hours, sometimes a day.
- Ticket-only support with 24h+ response times and no live chat.
- Setup fees on short terms and non-EU surcharges muddy the headline price.
- No managed database, no hourly billing, no platform features at all.
Our ratings
What developers say
First-person reports from the past three years, drawn from public discussions and independent write-ups. These are individual experiences, not our ratings; open the original source for its workload and full context. Critical reports include a follow-up check so you can see whether the problem was fixed, partly addressed, remains current, or has no public resolution.
What people like 10 sources
An operator reports a great experience and a seamless Kubernetes migration from a smaller to a larger Contabo VPS.
Whatever you do, don't choose Contabo — positive operator replyA customer says their Contabo VPS has run for roughly seven to eight years without failure or downtime.
Whatever you do, don't choose Contabo — long-term customer replyA production user reports only one five-minute interruption in half a year and estimates about 99.9% uptime.
Whatever you do, don't choose Contabo — production replyAfter almost two years hosting personal services and build workloads, a customer reports no issues, fast support, good performance, and strong value.
Whatever you do, don't choose Contabo — self-hosting replyA long-term multi-server operator reports no downtime in UK locations, says the servers fit their price point, and continues to use Contabo as a first choice.
Whatever you do, don't choose Contabo — multi-server replyA customer reports more than three years of use without problems.
Whatever you do, don't choose Contabo — three-year replyA two-year Contabo customer reports no issues.
Whatever you do, don't choose Contabo — two-year replyA VPS customer reports four months of service without problems.
Whatever you do, don't choose Contabo — four-month replyA customer reports almost four years with no noteworthy service problem.
Whatever you do, don't choose Contabo — four-year replyA one-year Contabo customer reports no issues to date.
Whatever you do, don't choose Contabo — one-year replyCritical reports and follow-ups 10 sources
A VPS customer reports freezes and an extended outage that made the server unreliable.
What is going on with Contabo?A customer reports more than 16 hours of downtime without a useful support response and decides to migrate away.
Bad experience with ContaboA customer of roughly twelve years reports recurring outages, inaccurate status information, and ineffective support.
Contabo is a jokeA customer says disk partitions disappeared and Contabo acknowledged data loss, forcing recovery from the customer's own backup and a move elsewhere.
Contabo disaster — information for those considering itA dedicated-server customer reports an unexplained shutdown and difficulty getting timely support.
My Contabo server shut down without reasonA customer reports high latency, an unclear cancellation process, missing confirmation, and concern about refund handling.
Contabo cancellation and performance complaintA customer reports crashes, gateway errors, poor CPU performance, and six days of inadequate support responses.
Contabo VPS hosting — you are being deceivedAn operator reports multi-day downtime during a New York cooling incident and repeated support escalations without a dependable restoration estimate.
Contabo giving us absolute hellA cancellation-interface problem put a customer's server and data at risk and required escalation outside normal support channels.
Do not use Contabo for anything importantDuring a one-week trial, an evaluator reports instability, difficult recovery, failed VNC access, and cancellation under the 14-day refund policy.
Whatever you do, don't choose ContaboVirtual server (VPS)
Contabo Cloud VPS
What you'd realistically pay
| Project stage | Estimate | Based on |
|---|---|---|
| Just starting | ≈€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. |
| Steady 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. |
| Growing | ≈€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. |
Published prices
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud VPS 4 | €5.50/mo | 4 shared vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 100 GB SSD, 200 Mbit/s port with unlimited fair-use traffic. |
| Cloud VPS 8 | €14/mo | 8 shared vCPU, 24 GB RAM, 300 GB SSD, 600 Mbit/s port with unlimited fair-use traffic. |
| Cloud VPS 18 | €49/mo | 18 shared vCPU, 96 GB RAM, 600 GB SSD, 1 Gbit/s port with unlimited fair-use traffic. |
- 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.
Deploy workflow
| Deploy from Git push Connect a repository and every push deploys automatically. | No No deploy pipeline — bring your own CI or scripts. |
|---|---|
| Preview deploys Each branch or pull request gets its own temporary URL. | No Nothing built in. |
| Official CLI A maintained command-line tool for deploys and management. | Yes The cntb CLI and REST API manage instances and snapshots. |
| Instant rollbacks Revert to a previous deploy without rebuilding. | Partial Included snapshots restore machines; automatic backups cost extra. No deploy-level rollback. |
Platform
| Custom domains + HTTPS Bring your own domain with TLS certificates handled. | Yes Point DNS at the server; TLS is yours via certbot or a proxy. |
|---|---|
| Built-in CDN / edge network Static assets served from locations near your visitors. | No No CDN product — put Cloudflare in front if needed. |
| Serverless functions Run backend code without managing a server process. | No Not a VPS feature. |
| Docker containers Deploy your own container image. | Yes Docker one-click install or set it up yourself. |
| SSH / shell access Open a shell on the machine running your app. | Yes Full root SSH. |
| EU hosting region Run the app itself in a European data center. | Yes German data centers at the base price; other EU sites available. |
Runtime & operations
| Automatic scaling Capacity grows with traffic without manual resizing. | No Manual plan upgrades only. |
|---|---|
| Scale to zero Costs stop (or pause) when nobody is using the app. | No The contract bills until cancelled, powered off or not. |
| Scheduled jobs Run code on a schedule without an external trigger. | Yes Classic cron on the box. |
| Managed database A database the provider runs, backs up, and updates. | No No managed database product — self-host or go external. |
| Logs & metrics built in See what the app is doing without wiring up third parties. | Partial Basic usage graphs in the customer panel; everything else is yours. |
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