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VPS · by Contabo

Contabo Cloud VPS

German budget host selling large VPS plans, 4 vCPU and 8 GB RAM from about $5 a month, with unlimited traffic and DDoS protection.

Visit contabo.com ↗ Alternatives Paid EU region
Contabo Cloud VPS homepage
§1

Overview

Contabo is a German hosting company that has operated for over 20 years and sells some of the cheapest VPS plans per GB of RAM. Its Cloud VPS range starts with 4 vCPU cores, 8 GB RAM and 100 GB SSD, and climbs to 18 cores and 96 GB RAM.

Every plan includes unlimited inbound and outbound traffic under a fair-use policy, with a port speed tied to the plan (200 Mbit/s up to 1 Gbit/s), plus DDoS protection, a firewall, a dedicated IPv4 and IPv6, and snapshots. Automatic backups are an add-on. Contabo offers Core VPS for cost efficiency and Performance VPS with faster NVMe for heavier work.

The trade-off for the price is the platform: billing is monthly with discounts for longer terms rather than hourly, provisioning is slower than developer clouds, and the SSD and shared cores are tuned for value rather than consistent performance. Contabo works well for self-hosting, game servers and side projects, less well for production systems that need fast scaling.

§2

Pricing and plans

Plan Price What you get
Cloud VPS 4 $5.28/mo excl. VAT 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 100 GB SSD, 200 Mbit/s, unlimited traffic; price for the first 24 months
Cloud VPS 6 $7.20/mo excl. VAT 6 vCPU, 12 GB RAM, 200 GB SSD, 300 Mbit/s; price for the first 24 months
Cloud VPS 8 $13.44/mo excl. VAT 8 vCPU, 24 GB RAM, 300 GB SSD, 600 Mbit/s
Cloud VPS 12 $24.00/mo excl. VAT 12 vCPU, 48 GB RAM, 400 GB SSD, 800 Mbit/s
Cloud VPS 16 $35.60/mo excl. VAT 16 vCPU, 64 GB RAM, 500 GB SSD, 1 Gbit/s
Cloud VPS 18 $47.04/mo excl. VAT 18 vCPU, 96 GB RAM, 600 GB SSD, 1 Gbit/s

Prices are from contabo.com/en/vps in USD excluding VAT (the page also shows VAT-inclusive prices). The two smallest plans' prices are marked 'for the first 24 months', so the renewal price may differ. Contabo's page also advertises plans from €4.40/month in euros. Location surcharges and setup fees for short terms were not shown in the text we read. Auto Backup is a paid add-on; unlimited traffic is subject to fair use.

Source: contabo.com/en/vps/ · prices as published, excluding tax.

§3

What it does

High resources per dollar
4 vCPU and 8 GB RAM on the entry plan, up to 18 vCPU and 96 GB RAM.
Unlimited traffic
No transfer cap; port speed from 200 Mbit/s to 1 Gbit/s, fair usage applies.
DDoS protection and firewall
Always-on DDoS protection and a free firewall come with every plan.
Custom images
Deploy your own .iso or .qcow2 image through the web UI or API, with cloud-init support.
Storage extension
Core VPS plans can double storage capacity, up to 1.2 TB on the top plan.
One-click apps
Images for n8n, Nextcloud, WireGuard, GitLab, Docker, cPanel and Plesk.
§4

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • Among the lowest prices per vCPU and GB of RAM of any VPS provider.
  • Unlimited traffic on every plan.
  • Windows, custom images and control panels available.
  • Long-running company serving customers in 190 countries.

Limitations

  • Entry prices are marked as valid for the first 24 months, so check renewal pricing.
  • Port speed on the cheapest plan is only 200 Mbit/s.
  • Automatic backups cost extra.
  • Billing is monthly rather than hourly, which makes short-lived servers less cheap.
§5

Who it suits

Good for

  • Self-hosting apps like Nextcloud, n8n or mail servers
  • Game servers and hobby projects needing lots of RAM
  • Dev and CI environments on a tight budget

Look elsewhere if

  • Production apps needing hourly scaling and fast provisioning
  • Workloads that need consistent high disk and CPU performance
§6

Alternatives to Contabo Cloud VPS

Tool From Free option Stages
$5/mo Trial
$5/mo Paid
Hetzner Cloud Cloud VPS
€5.49/mo Paid
$4.54/mo Paid
$6.49/mo Paid
$4/mo Paid

All VPS and cloud servers →

§7

Questions

How much is Contabo's cheapest VPS?

Cloud VPS 4 with 4 vCPU cores, 8 GB RAM and 100 GB SSD is $5.28/month excluding VAT, a price shown for the first 24 months.

Does Contabo include unlimited traffic?

Yes, every Cloud VPS plan includes unlimited inbound and outbound traffic, with port speeds from 200 Mbit/s to 1 Gbit/s and a fair-usage policy.

Are backups included with Contabo VPS?

No, Auto Backup is a paid add-on; snapshots are included, with the number depending on the plan.

Why is Contabo so cheap?

It sells monthly plans on shared hardware tuned for value, with fewer platform services and slower provisioning than hourly developer clouds.

Sources read for this page