Hetzner vs Contabo
Hetzner and Contabo are both German-founded budget infrastructure providers. Contabo lists Cloud VPS plans from EUR 5.50 a month on a 24-month term (4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 100 GB SSD) with unlimited traffic under a fair usage policy and 11 data centres in 9 regions. Hetzner Cloud bills hourly or monthly, lists locations in Germany, Finland, the USA and Singapore, and holds ISO/IEC 27001.
Choose Hetzner if
you want hourly billing, a REST API and CLI, Terraform and Kubernetes integrations, private networks and firewalls, and certifications such as ISO/IEC 27001 and BSI C5.
Read the Hetzner reviewChoose Contabo if
you want the most vCPU, RAM and storage for the money on a long term, many global locations, and unlimited traffic under a fair usage policy.
Read the Contabo reviewHetzner and Contabo side by side
| Hetzner | Contabo | |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Hetzner Online GmbH | Contabo GmbH |
| Headquarters | Gunzenhausen, Germany | Munich, Germany |
| Founded | 1997 | 2003 |
| Jurisdiction | EU (Germany) | EU (Germany) |
| Where the data sits | Germany (Falkenstein, Nuremberg) and Finland (Helsinki), plus Oregon, Virginia and Singapore | 12 locations including Germany, UK, US, Singapore |
| Pricing | From about €4.51/month (Cloud VPS) | From about €4.50/month (VPS) |
| Entry-level list price (vendor site, checked 8 October 2026) | Cloud prices not rendered on the pages checked; hourly or monthly billing | Cloud VPS 4 EUR 5.50, VPS 6 EUR 7.50, VPS 8 EUR 14, VPS 12 EUR 25, VPS 16 EUR 37, VPS 18 EUR 49 per month on 24-month terms |
| Free tier or trial | No trial; pay by the hour | No trial |
| Certifications and checks | ISO 27001 | Not stated in our data |
| Source code | Closed source | Closed source |
| Usually replaces | AWS, DigitalOcean | AWS, DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr |
| Position in our Cloud Computing guide | #2 of 13 | #11 of 13 |
Both are listed in our European Cloud Computing guide. The table is built from the same directory data as those entries, except the list price, which is quoted from each vendor's own pricing page (see Sources below); how we check it is described in the editorial process.
Where Hetzner and Contabo differ
Across the five points below, Hetzner has the edge on 3 points, Contabo on 1 point and one is a tie. A count like that is a summary, not a verdict: the point that matters to you may be the one the other product wins.
Entry price
Contabo lists Cloud VPS 4 at EUR 5.50 a month on a 24-month term with 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM and 100 GB SSD. Hetzner's cloud pages describe pricing as cost-optimized and low but did not show EUR amounts when checked, so the two cannot be compared on price here. Contabo is the only one with a quotable figure.
Edge: Hetzner
Billing flexibility
Hetzner says billing is hourly or monthly. Contabo lists a 1-month minimum initial term, with the quoted prices applying to 24-month terms.
Edge: Hetzner
Locations
Contabo lists 11 data centres across 9 regions (EU, UK, US, Singapore, Japan, India, Australia). Hetzner lists Falkenstein and Nuremberg in Germany, Helsinki in Finland, Oregon and Virginia in the USA and Singapore.
Edge: Contabo
Tooling and certifications
Hetzner lists a REST API and CLI, Terraform and Kubernetes integrations, private networks, firewalls, a 99.9% uptime SLA and ISO/IEC 27001 and BSI C5. Contabo lists a free firewall and DDoS protection and a 99.9% uptime SLA; we saw no certifications on the pages checked.
Edge: Hetzner
Traffic
Contabo says unlimited traffic is included, subject to fair usage. Hetzner says it offers generous included traffic and low prices for additional transfer, without a figure on the pages checked.
No clear winner on this point.
When neither Hetzner nor Contabo fits
If you want another European provider, see our Hetzner vs Scaleway page. We did not re-verify its details for this page.
Hetzner vs Contabo: questions
Contabo lists Cloud VPS 4 at EUR 5.50 a month on a 24-month term. Hetzner's EUR prices did not render, so we cannot confirm.
Contabo GmbH is based in Munich, Germany, founded in 2003 according to its about page.
Yes, its cloud page lists hourly and monthly billing.
Contabo says unlimited traffic under fair usage. Hetzner says generous included traffic; the amounts were not shown.
Sources
Facts, prices and plan details on this page were checked on the vendors' own websites on . Prices and plans change; the vendor's current page is authoritative.
- Hetzner Cloud: Server tiers, hourly and monthly billing, locations, API, ISO/IEC 27001, BSI C5, SLA (checked 8 October 2026)
- Contabo VPS: Plan prices and specs, unlimited traffic, locations, billing terms (checked 8 October 2026)
- Contabo about us: Munich headquarters, founded 2003 (checked 8 October 2026)