A Contabo alternative for bare metal, by the day
Contabo is cheaper than us for a small VPS, and we will not pretend otherwise. Where we win is bare metal: our dedicated servers start at $65 a month against Contabo's €109.65, we rent them by the day as well as by the month, and the price you see is the price in year three.
What's different
| Feature | Contabo | VPS Provider |
|---|---|---|
| Shortest billing period | 1 month | 1 day |
| Cheapest dedicated server | €109.65 a month for 12 Ryzen 9 7900 cores and 64 GB, out of stock on 7 November 2026 | $65 a month, or $10 a day, for 6 Ryzen 5 3600 cores and 64 GB |
| Cheapest dedicated server in stock | €359.10 a month, 32 EPYC 9355P cores and 128 GB | $351 a month, or $56 a day, 48 EPYC 9454P cores and 128 GB ECC |
| How long the price lasts | Headline prices are "for the first 12 months" on dedicated servers and "for the first 24 months" on VPS | The price does not change while the rental runs |
| Cheapest VPS | €4.40 a month: 4 vCPU, 8 GB, 100 GB SSD, 200 Mbit/s port | $24.00 a month, or $3.84 a day, for the same 4 vCPU, 8 GB and 100 GB of NVMe |
| VPS sizes | Six fixed plans, from 4 to 18 vCPU | Any size: 1–32 vCPU, 1–128 GB RAM, 20–2000 GB NVMe |
| Network port | 200 Mbit/s on the entry VPS, 1 Gbit/s from Cloud VPS 16 up | 1 Gbit/s on every server and every VPS |
| Setup fee | None on dedicated servers; a one-time fee on new Cloud VPS 4 orders on monthly contracts | None, on every server and every period |
| Locations | Nine regions worldwide | Cyprus (EU) and Texas (US) |
Contabo prices, specifications, port speeds and stock as published on contabo.com/en/vps and contabo.com/en/dedicated-servers on 7 November 2026, excluding VAT. Contabo is a trademark of Contabo GmbH. VPS Provider is not affiliated with Contabo.
Where the two price lists actually cross
On virtual machines Contabo is far cheaper. Their Cloud VPS 4 gives you 4 vCPU, 8 GB of memory and 100 GB of storage for €4.40 a month; the same machine costs $24.00 a month here. If a small, cheap VPS is what you need, buy theirs.
On bare metal it reverses. The cheapest Contabo dedicated server is €109.65 a month, and on 7 November 2026 three of their four dedicated models were out of stock, including that one. Our entry server is $65 a month for six Ryzen 5 3600 cores with the same 64 GB of memory, and $10 if you only need it for a day. At the top, their in-stock 32-core EPYC 9355P is €359.10 a month against $351 for our 48-core EPYC 9454P with 128 GB of ECC memory.
When VPS Provider makes sense
You want bare metal, not a shared host
A whole machine with no neighbours, from $65 a month or $10 a day, instead of €109.65 a month for Contabo's cheapest dedicated server.
You need it for days, not months
A migration, a load test, a render, a conference demo. Contabo's shortest rental is a month. Ours is a day, at 16% of the monthly price.
A size that is not on anyone's menu
Contabo sells six VPS plans. Here you set the vCPUs, the gigabytes of memory and the gigabytes of NVMe one at a time, and the price follows.
Where Contabo is the better choice
A fair comparison says both sides. Choose Contabo when one of these matters more to you.
Cheap virtual machines
€4.40 a month for 4 vCPU and 8 GB is less than anything we can sell at that size. For a small VPS on a tight budget, Contabo is the better buy.
Nine regions
Contabo lists nine regions across Europe, the Americas and Asia. We have two rooms, in Cyprus and in Texas. If your users are in Singapore or Sydney, that gap is real.
Windows, panels and very large memory
Contabo sells Windows, cPanel and Plesk, and their dedicated servers go up to 1152 GB of memory. We install Linux only: Ubuntu, Debian, Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux.
Questions
Is VPS Provider cheaper than Contabo?
On dedicated servers, yes: ours start at $65 a month against €109.65 for Contabo's cheapest, and we also rent by the day. On virtual machines, no: Contabo's Cloud VPS 4 is €4.40 a month for 4 vCPU and 8 GB, and the same machine costs $24.00 a month here.
Does Contabo charge a setup fee?
Not on dedicated servers. On virtual machines a one-time setup fee applies to new Cloud VPS 4 orders on monthly contracts, as stated on their VPS page on 7 November 2026. We never charge a setup fee, on any server or any billing period.
Do Contabo prices go up after the first year?
Their headline prices are shown as "for the first 12 months" on dedicated servers and "for the first 24 months" on VPS, so check what the renewal price will be before you commit. Our price does not change while the rental runs.
Can I rent a dedicated server for a week?
Here, yes: a week costs 49.6% of the monthly price, so a week on the Ryzen 5 3600 is $32 and a single day is $10, with no setup fee. Contabo's shortest billing period is a month. See the full price list.
How do you compare with Hetzner and OVHcloud?
Our monthly prices are the Hetzner list price for the same hardware, without Hetzner's setup fee. See the Hetzner comparison or the OVHcloud comparison.