Contabo review (2026): is it worth $5.28 a month?
Low-priced VPS and dedicated servers from a German host
Black Friday: is there a Contabo sale?
Contabo report card
Weak · out of 4.0 · graded Nov 12, 2026
Best for cheap servers with lots of RAM
Contabo rents VPS and dedicated servers with a lot of RAM and disk for the price. The lowest rate needs a 24-month commitment, there's a setup fee on monthly contracts, and you look after the server yourself.
Who Contabo is for
- Fits if you want a lot of RAM and storage for little and can manage a server
- Works for staging boxes, CI runners and hobby servers
Who Contabo is not for
- Skip it if you can't look after a Linux server, as support covers the VPS only
- Not for you if you won't commit: the lowest price is for 24 months
- Watch out: a one-time setup fee applies on monthly Cloud VPS 4 orders
- Watch out: outgoing traffic is unlimited only under fair use, and heavy servers can be throttled
- Watch out: the price after the term isn't shown
Why Contabo gets a 1.6
Five grades, each with its reason. The GPA is their average: an A is 4 points, an F is none.
- BValue for money$5.28 a month excl. VAT on a 24-month term for 4 vCPU, 8GB RAM and 100GB, at the edge of the cheaper quarter ($5.28). Terms differ and the price after the term isn't shown.
- FFree plan and trialNo free plan and no trial on record; every plan is paid from the first day.
- CFeaturesVPS sizes from 4 to 18 vCPU, snapshots, Plesk and cPanel options, many locations. The gap: it's a bare server, and Contabo supports the VPS, not the software on it.
- DEase of useNo rating on record. An unmanaged VPS means installing, patching and troubleshooting it yourself.
- CPlatforms and integrationsWeb panel only, with no integrations listed.
What these grades rest on. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Contabo's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. The pricing page showed no figures to our page reader, so the prices stand on the listing. How we review and grade.
Make Contabo? Put this grade on your site
Paste this where you want the badge. It links here and follows the grade if it changes. About badges
<a href="https://toolgpa.com/tools/contabo#review"><img src="https://toolgpa.com/badge/contabo.svg" alt="Contabo: 1.6 GPA on ToolGPA" width="196" height="56"></a>Where Contabo stands among web hosts
Contabo's GPA of 1.6 is higher than 1 of the 54 other web hosts we grade, and level with 7.
It stands best on value for money (B, above 27 of 54) and worst on free plan and trial (F, above 0).
Its paid plans start at $5.28 a month, against a middle price of $9 for the category: 23 of the 52 others that charge start lower.
On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 1.7 out of 4. 23 tools score higher and cost less.
Each grade against the category
Every bar is all 55 web hosts we grade, cut by the letter each got. Contabo’s own letter is outlined.
- BValue for moneyAbove 27 of 54, level with 16
- FFree plan and trialAbove 0 of 54, level with 35
- CFeaturesAbove 0 of 54, level with 28
- DEase of useAbove 0 of 54, level with 8
- CPlatforms and integrationsAbove 0 of 54, level with 23
Price against what you get
Each dot is one of 53 web hosts. Further left costs less, and higher up scores better on features, ease of use and platforms. Point at a dot to see which tool it is.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Keep Contabo, or make your own?
You could make this
What Contabo does at its core is plain work, and that is the kind of thing an AI app builder makes well.
You would give up 2 things, listed below, and little else. It costs $63.36 a year. An AI app builder starts at about $20 a month on our listings, and you only need it while you build.
What you could make
- It runs in a browser, which is where something home-made would run too.
What you could not
- An API that other software can build on.
- AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself.
What this rests on. Contabo’s listing: what it does, where it runs, what it plugs into and what it costs. It is a judgement about the kind of software this is. We have not built a replacement for it, and making your own means looking after it too. How we decide, and every tool’s verdict.
What is Contabo?
Contabo, founded in Munich in 2003, rents Cloud VPS plans with unlimited traffic, plus Performance, Storage, Windows and GPU VPS variants and dedicated servers. The entry Cloud VPS 4 gives 4 vCPU cores and 8GB RAM from $5.28 a month excluding VAT on a 24-month subscription.
Worth knowing
- The price shown is the monthly rate on a 24-month subscription; the page does not show the price after the term or a plain monthly price.
- A one-time setup fee applies to new Cloud VPS 4 orders on monthly contracts.
- Outgoing traffic is unlimited under a fair usage policy, and Contabo may throttle servers with very high or disruptive usage.
- Contabo supports the VPS itself, not the software installed on it; maintenance and troubleshooting are the user's job.
Key features
- Cloud VPS range
- Six Cloud VPS sizes from 4 to 18 vCPU cores and 8GB to 96GB RAM, each with unlimited, unmetered incoming traffic and fair-usage outgoing traffic.
- Other VPS lines
- Performance VPS on AMD EPYC CPUs with NVMe storage, Max Performance, Storage VPS, Windows VPS and GPU VPS are sold alongside.
- Plesk and cPanel VPS
- Plesk and cPanel VPS plans are listed, and Plesk is free for the first month on Cloud VPS, Cloud VDS, Storage VPS and dedicated servers.
- Longer terms for lower prices
- Prices shown are the effective monthly rate for a 24-month subscription, and no setup fee applies on longer contracts.
- Snapshots and storage extension
- Each Cloud VPS includes snapshots, and Core VPS plans can double their storage through Storage Extension.
- Many locations
- The product page describes hosting across the EU, US, UK, Australia and Asia.
Contabo pricing
As of Nov 12, 2026, Contabo is a paid product, starting at $5.28 per month excl. VAT, 24-month subscription (Cloud VPS 4).
- Starts at
- $5.28 per month excl. VAT, 24-month subscription (Cloud VPS 4)
- Free plan
- None
- Free trial
- None listed
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud VPS 4 | $5.28per month excl. VAT, 24-month term; $6.60 incl. tax | 4 vCPU cores, 8GB RAM, 100GB SSD, 1 snapshot, 200 Mbit/s port and unlimited traffic. A setup fee applies on monthly contracts. |
| Cloud VPS 6 | $7.20per month excl. VAT, 24-month term; $9.00 incl. tax | 6 vCPU cores, 12GB RAM, 200GB SSD or 100GB NVMe, 2 snapshots, 300 Mbit/s port and unlimited traffic. |
| Cloud VPS 8 | $13.44per month excl. VAT, 24-month term; $16.80 incl. tax | 8 vCPU cores, 24GB RAM, 300GB SSD or 150GB NVMe, 3 snapshots, 600 Mbit/s port and unlimited traffic. |
| Cloud VPS 12 | $24.00per month excl. VAT, 24-month term; $30.00 incl. tax | 12 vCPU cores, 48GB RAM, 400GB SSD or 200GB NVMe, 3 snapshots, 800 Mbit/s port and unlimited traffic. |
| Cloud VPS 16 | $35.60per month excl. VAT, 24-month term; $44.50 incl. tax | 16 vCPU cores, 64GB RAM, 500GB SSD or 250GB NVMe, 3 snapshots, 1 Gbit/s port and unlimited traffic. |
| Cloud VPS 18 | $47.04per month excl. VAT, 24-month term; $58.80 incl. tax | 18 vCPU cores, 96GB RAM, 600GB SSD or 300GB NVMe, 3 snapshots, 1 Gbit/s port and unlimited traffic. |
Read from contabo.com on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Contabo before you buy.
Contabo alternatives
- Contabo vs Hetzner
From €1.60/mo
- Contabo vs OVHcloud
From $4.54/mo
- Contabo vs Vultr
From $2.50/mo
- Contabo vs DigitalOcean
Free plan · from $4/mo
- Contabo vs Akamai Linode
From $5/mo
Common questions
Does Contabo have an Android app?
No Android app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 12, 2026. Contabo is listed for Web.
Does Contabo have an iPhone app?
No iPhone app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 12, 2026. Contabo is listed for Web.
Is Contabo open source?
Contabo is not described as open source on its own site, as read on Nov 12, 2026.
Does Contabo have an API?
Yes. Contabo offers a public API, according to its own site.
Sources for this page
The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026.