Hetzner vs. Contabo: plans, billing and locations compared

Two VPS providers headquartered in Germany, compared side by side: Hetzner in Gunzenhausen (per Hetzner's website, as of Nov 8, 2026), Contabo in Munich (per Contabo's website, as of Nov 8, 2026). Both run data centers in Germany plus locations outside Europe. Which one fits depends on whether RAM per euro, the billing model or automation matters more to you. This comparison covers plans, billing and typical use cases. We also introduce two more providers, IONOS and Strato.

Live data: Current starting prices per RAM class, price per GB of RAM and Trustpilot scores for both providers are shown side by side in the Contabo vs. Hetzner comparison.

TL;DR - Quick answer

Hetzner Cloud bills per started hour and offers a REST API, a CLI and integrations for Terraform (per Hetzner's website, as of Nov 8, 2026). Contabo has plans up to 96 GB of RAM and a minimum term of one month (per Contabo's website, as of Nov 8, 2026). Which provider is cheaper in your RAM class changes with prices; the provider comparison shows it with live data. Sources are below.

Price comparison

Current prices for both providers are in the Contabo vs. Hetzner comparison; all VPS plans sorted by price are in the VPS comparison. Both pages show the date of the prices.

Hetzner Cloud bills per started hour, up to the monthly price cap (per Hetzner's documentation, as of Nov 8, 2026). Contabo has a minimum term of one month; with monthly terms, new Cloud VPS 4 orders carry a one-time setup fee, longer terms do not (per Contabo's website, as of Nov 8, 2026). Prices on RackDiff come from scrapes updated twice a day and include VAT; fees and term conditions can differ, see the methodology.

Hetzner Cloud in detail

Hetzner Cloud offers shared vCPU plans (CX with Intel or AMD, CAX with Ampere, CPX with AMD) and plans with dedicated vCPUs (CCX), all with NVMe storage (per Hetzner's website, as of Nov 8, 2026). Cloud locations are Falkenstein, Nuremberg and Helsinki plus Hillsboro (Oregon), Ashburn (Virginia) and Singapore (per Hetzner's website, as of Nov 8, 2026). For an audience in Germany, a German location is the obvious choice; measure latency yourself. Data stays on your server and you choose the location; if you process other people's data, you remain responsible for GDPR obligations, usually with a data processing agreement with the host. More on Hetzner.

The CX series at a glance

The Cost-Optimized plans of the CX line (shared vCPU) start with the CX23: 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM and 40 GB NVMe; the CX33 has 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM and 80 GB NVMe (per Hetzner's website, as of Nov 8, 2026). Current prices and variants are on the Hetzner page.

For dedicated resources there are the CCX plans with dedicated vCPUs on AMD processors and NVMe storage; Hetzner describes them as "unshared resources" (per Hetzner's website, as of Nov 8, 2026). Per Hetzner's documentation, they target CPU-intensive applications.

Strengths

• API and CLI: Hetzner offers a REST API, a CLI tool and integrations for Terraform, Ansible and Kubernetes (per Hetzner's website, as of Nov 8, 2026).
• Hourly billing: Billing runs per started hour until you delete the server; a server that is switched off is still billed (per Hetzner's documentation, as of Nov 8, 2026). That suits short-lived CI runners or staging setups you delete after use.
• Network features: private networks, firewalls and load balancers (per Hetzner's website) plus Floating IPs (per Hetzner's documentation, as of Nov 8, 2026).

Weaknesses

• How much RAM you get per euro changes with prices; the current value per RAM class is in the provider comparison.
• Backups are optional and cost extra: once enabled, Hetzner creates them daily, with seven backup slots per server; you create snapshots manually (per Hetzner's documentation, as of Nov 8, 2026).

Typical Hetzner projects

• CI/CD pipelines: GitLab Runner or GitHub Actions self-hosted runners on a shared vCPU plan.
• Kubernetes clusters: with Terraform and kubeadm or k3s.
• SaaS backends: API servers with PostgreSQL, Redis and Node.js.
• Development and staging environments: spin up, check, delete.

Contabo VPS in detail

Contabo was founded in Munich in 2003 (per Contabo's website, as of Nov 8, 2026) and lists 11 data centers in 9 regions, including Germany, the UK, the US, Singapore, Japan, India and Australia (per Contabo's website, as of Nov 8, 2026). More on Contabo.

The VPS plans at a glance

Contabo calls its plans Cloud VPS 4 to Cloud VPS 18, from 4 vCPU and 8 GB RAM to 18 vCPU and 96 GB RAM (per Contabo's website, as of Nov 8, 2026). Plan names, resources and prices change regularly; RackDiff treats the live scraped data as authoritative. Check the Contabo page or the VPS comparison before you decide.

There are also Storage VPS plans with 300 GB to 1.4 TB SSD (per Contabo's website) and an S3-compatible Object Storage (per Contabo's website, as of Nov 8, 2026). These suit archives, backup servers or media hosting when capacity matters more than CPU or I/O performance.

Strengths

• RAM classes: from 8 GB (Cloud VPS 4) to 96 GB (Cloud VPS 18) (per Contabo's website, as of Nov 8, 2026), e.g. for Java applications, caches and several self-hosted services on one server.
• Storage: From Cloud VPS 6 you choose between more SSD or less NVMe storage; Object Storage is available on top (per Contabo's website, as of Nov 8, 2026).
• API: Contabo offers an API and a CLI, Terraform-compatible by its own account, plus Cloud-Init (per Contabo's website, as of Nov 8, 2026).
• Regions: Serving users outside Europe? Contabo offers regions in the Americas, Asia and Australia (per Contabo's website, as of Nov 8, 2026).

Weaknesses

• According to Contabo, the Cloud VPS plans run on "proven infrastructure across several CPU generations"; Contabo names AMD EPYC for its Performance VPS line (per Contabo's website, as of Nov 8, 2026).
• With monthly terms, new Cloud VPS 4 orders carry a setup fee (see price comparison).

Typical Contabo projects

• Minecraft servers with mods: Large modpacks need a lot of RAM; matching RAM classes are in the VPS comparison.
• Archives and media storage: Nextcloud, Immich or Seafile with large storage needs.
• Self-hosting stacks: n8n, Vaultwarden, Paperless and co. side by side on one server. Each service documents its RAM needs; add them up before choosing a plan.
• Java application servers: Java needs a lot of RAM.

What matters for performance

RackDiff does not measure performance. The notes here are general explanations; current offer data is in the provider comparison.

Why disk I/O matters

NVMe storage can have an edge over SATA SSDs for many small reads and writes. Both providers sell NVMe plans. You notice it with:

• Databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB): Many queries read from disk. Faster I/O means shorter response times.
• Docker container starts: Images load from disk.
• Build processes: Compiling, npm install, pip install. All of it reads and writes to disk.
• Log aggregation: Tools like Loki or Elasticsearch write continuously.

If your project mainly needs RAM (for example a Minecraft server or a Redis cache), disk I/O matters less. Then the price per GB of RAM counts, which the provider comparison shows live.

Why CPU speed matters

High single-core performance helps above all with:

• PHP/WordPress: A PHP request runs in one thread. Faster cores cut response time.
• Node.js: The event loop also runs in one thread.
• SSL/TLS handshakes: Encryption needs CPU.
• Cron jobs and batch processing: Each individual job runs faster.

For multi-core workloads (video encoding, parallel builds), the number of vCPUs counts more than per-core speed.

Alternatives: IONOS and Strato

Two more providers are IONOS and Strato. IONOS lets you choose a VPS location in the EU, the US or the UK, Strato in Germany, Spain or France (per IONOS's and Strato's websites, as of Nov 8, 2026).

IONOS

IONOS SE is based in Montabaur (per IONOS's legal notice, as of Nov 8, 2026). More on IONOS.

What IONOS lists:

• Support: around the clock by phone, chat or email, plus a personal advisor (per IONOS's website, as of Nov 8, 2026).
• Add-ons: Plesk Obsidian and backups can be booked at extra cost (per IONOS's website, as of Nov 8, 2026).
• Setup fee: Each plan has a setup fee (per IONOS's website, as of Nov 8, 2026).

Fits: freelancers and agencies with WordPress or Shopware projects and small businesses that want phone support.

See all IONOS offers

Strato

Strato was founded in Berlin in 1997 and belongs to IONOS Group SE (per Strato's website); its data centers are certified to DIN ISO 27001 (per Strato's website, as of Nov 8, 2026). More on Strato.

What Strato lists:

• Term: monthly or 12 months; monthly terms carry a setup fee, and promotional prices sometimes apply only to the first three months (per Strato's website, as of Nov 8, 2026).
• Support: by phone, chat or email (per Strato's website, as of Nov 8, 2026).
• SSL: One SSL certificate is included (per Strato's website, as of Nov 8, 2026).

Note: Backups are not included (per Strato's website, as of Nov 8, 2026).

Fits: clubs, trade businesses and small agencies that want phone support.

See all Strato offers

Which provider fits which project?

Choose Hetzner if you...

• use an API and infrastructure as code (Terraform, Ansible)
• want hourly billing for short-lived servers
• need dedicated vCPUs (CCX) for CPU-heavy services
• want NVMe storage in every cloud plan
• Examples: GitLab runners, SaaS backend with PostgreSQL, Kubernetes cluster, staging environments

Choose Contabo if you...

• need a lot of RAM (Minecraft with mods, Java applications, Redis)
• want a lot of RAM on a fixed monthly budget
• store lots of data (Nextcloud, Immich, backups)
• need regions in India, Japan or Australia
• Examples: Minecraft with large modpacks, Nextcloud, archive server

Choose IONOS if you...

• need phone support around the clock
• want to host WordPress or Shopware
• want Plesk as your panel
• Examples: WordPress hosting for an agency, Shopware store, first self-hosting with Plesk

Choose Strato if you...

• want phone support
• want monthly or 12-month terms
• run a club or a small business
• Examples: club website, trade business website, small business site

Migrating between providers

Moving from Hetzner to Contabo (or the other way round) takes manual work. You plan a migration between providers yourself.

Preparation

1. Inventory: List every service, database and configuration file running on the old server.
2. Create a backup: Make a full backup of all data. For Docker setups, exporting the volumes and the docker-compose.yml is often enough.
3. Lower the DNS TTL: Set the TTL of your DNS records to 300 seconds 24 hours before the move. Changes then propagate faster.

Steps

1. Set up the new server: Install the OS, add SSH keys, configure the firewall.
2. Transfer data: Copy files with rsync or scp. For databases, use pg_dump (PostgreSQL) or mysqldump (MySQL).
3. Start and check services: Start all services on the new server and check that everything works.
4. Switch DNS: Point the A records to the new IP.
5. Keep the old server: Leave the old server running for another 48 hours until DNS has propagated everywhere.

Tips

• Docker simplifies migration: With Docker Compose you mostly copy the Compose file and the volumes.
• Check the database migration: Import the dump on the new server and run a few queries to confirm all data arrived intact.
• SSL certificates: Let's Encrypt certificates are reissued automatically if you use Certbot or Traefik. Copy manual certificates across.

Conclusion

Hetzner fits technical projects with automation (API, CLI, Terraform) and hourly billing.

Contabo fits when a lot of RAM or storage comes first, for example for modpacks, archives or several self-hosted services.

IONOS fits beginners and agencies looking for phone support and Plesk.

Strato fits clubs and small businesses that want phone support.

Data stays on your server and you choose the location; if you process other people's data, you remain responsible for GDPR obligations, usually with a data processing agreement with the host. The choice depends on what your project needs: automation, RAM, support or term.