Contabo Alternatives (2026): Which VPS to Pick Depending on Why You Are Leaving

Affiliate disclosure - This article contains Contabo affiliate links. If you order a VPS via our links, we earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We have no partnership with Hostinger, netcup, DigitalOcean, Hetzner or OVH. Figures for Contabo, netcup and Hostinger were read on their official pages on 13 October 2026, figures for DigitalOcean on 14 October 2026. Prices change: confirm them before you order.

Short answer: pick the alternative that fixes the thing that bothers you. Hostinger if you want a traffic allowance in figures, weekly backups included and a 30-day money-back guarantee, accepting a renewal price well above the introductory one. DigitalOcean if you want to pay by the second, spin servers up and down, and choose among named cities. netcup if you want to choose a 1, 12 or 24-month term on a German host. Hetzner or OVH if you want an EU host running its own data centres. What you give up in every case is the amount of machine Contabo gives for the price.

Which alternative, for which reason

Why you are looking	The alternative to look at first	What it lists
You want traffic counted in figures, not "fair use"	Hostinger, or DigitalOcean	Hostinger KVM 1: 4 TB bandwidth. DigitalOcean: 500 GiB outbound on the 4 dollar Droplet, up to 5,000 GiB on the 48 dollar one
You want backups without setting them up	Hostinger	Free weekly backups and manual snapshots on its KVM plans
You want to pay only for the hours a server runs	DigitalOcean	Per-second billing, 60-second minimum, capped at the monthly price
You want to choose the contract length	netcup	1, 12 or 24 months on its VPS plan cards
You want a city close to your users	DigitalOcean	San Francisco, Richmond, New York, Kansas City, Atlanta, Toronto, Amsterdam, London, Frankfurt, Bangalore, Singapore, Sydney
You want an EU host with its own data centres	Hetzner, OVH	See our Contabo vs Hetzner vs OVH comparison

Sources: contabo.com/en/vps, netcup.com and hostinger.com/vps-hosting (13 October 2026), digitalocean.com/pricing/droplets and DigitalOcean's billing documentation (14 October 2026). We did not re-read Hetzner's and OVH's prices for this page, so we do not quote them here.

What you give up by leaving Contabo

On the plans we compared, none of the alternatives matches Contabo's resources at its price. Contabo listed Cloud VPS 4 at 5.50 euros a month for 4 vCPU, 8 GB of RAM and 100 GB of SSD. For the same 4 vCPU and 8 GiB, DigitalOcean listed 48 dollars a month. Hostinger's KVM 2 has 8 GB of RAM with 2 vCPU, at 8.99 dollars introductory and 14.99 dollars on renewal. netcup's entry VPS 500 G12.5 has 2 vCore and 4 GB from 8.26 euros including 19% VAT.

For a WireGuard server that stays on for months, that gap matters more than anything else on this page. For a short test, a server you rebuild often, or a need Contabo does not cover, it may not.

The alternatives one by one

Hostinger. Its KVM plans list a bandwidth allowance (4 TB on KVM 1, 8 TB on KVM 2), a 1 Gbps network speed, free weekly backups and a 30-day money-back guarantee. The catch is on the plan card itself: the introductory price renews at a higher rate, 11.99 dollars a month for KVM 1 and 14.99 dollars for KVM 2. Full figures in Contabo vs Hostinger.

DigitalOcean. Billed per second with a 60-second minimum, so a server you run for an afternoon costs an afternoon. The smallest Basic Droplet costs 4 dollars a month with 1 vCPU and 512 MiB of RAM and 500 GiB of outbound transfer. Automatic weekly backups are an option priced at 20% of the Droplet. Details in Contabo vs DigitalOcean.

netcup. A German host whose plan cards show prices including VAT and let you choose a 1, 12 or 24-month term. Its entry VPS 500 G12.5 lists 2 vCore, 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of SSD. Comparison in Contabo vs netcup.

Hetzner and OVH. Two EU hosts running their own data centres in Germany, Finland and France. Our Contabo vs Hetzner vs OVH comparison dates from June 2026: check both providers' current price lists before deciding.

Two hands in dark blue sleeves slide a green circuit board with an orange front panel and a column of network ports into a white equipment rack, with cables and indicator lights at the top right

A board slid into a rack: whichever host you pick, your VPN runs on hardware someone else maintains, and the plan card is the only part of it you see before ordering.

Moving a WireGuard server without cutting anyone off

Order the new server and install WireGuard on it.
Copy the server configuration from the Contabo machine, private key included, so existing clients keep their keys.
Open the same UDP port on the new server's firewall.
Update each client's endpoint to the new IP address, or change the DNS record they point to.
Test every device, then cancel the old plan.

Our WireGuard on Contabo guide walks through the installation; the commands are the same on any of the hosts above.

Before you leave: is the problem the host?

Two complaints often blamed on a host have other causes. A slow tunnel can come from the client's own network or from routing to the data centre region you picked, so test from a second network before migrating. A blocked streaming service comes from the IP range being identified as a data centre, which happens on every VPS host, Contabo and its alternatives alike.

If the reason you were leaving was resources or price, staying may be the better choice:

See the current Contabo Cloud VPS plans

Summary

Contabo's alternatives each fix one thing: Hostinger counts traffic and includes backups, DigitalOcean bills by the second in named cities, netcup lets you choose the term, Hetzner and OVH run their own EU data centres. None of them, on the plans we read, gives as much CPU and RAM for 5.50 euros. Leave for the reason that matters to you, not for a generic list.

★ Nuremberg GDPR datacenter · ✓ Dedicated IPv4 included · 200 Mbit/s port

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Frequently asked questions

What is the best alternative to Contabo?

There is no single one: it depends on why you are leaving. If you want a published traffic allowance and weekly backups included, Hostinger lists both. If you want to pay by the second for short-lived servers, DigitalOcean bills per second with a 60-second minimum. If you want contract terms you choose (1, 12 or 24 months), netcup lists them on its plan cards. For hosts in the EU with their own data centres, compare Hetzner and OVH.

Is there a VPS cheaper than Contabo for the same resources?

Not among the hosts we compared. Contabo listed Cloud VPS 4 (4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 100 GB SSD) at 5.50 euros a month on 13 October 2026. DigitalOcean's Basic Droplet with 4 vCPU and 8 GiB was listed at 48 dollars a month on 14 October 2026, Hostinger's KVM 2 with 2 vCPU and 8 GB at 8.99 dollars with a renewal at 14.99 dollars, and netcup's VPS 500 G12.5 with 2 vCore and 4 GB from 8.26 euros including VAT. Other hosts are cheaper at the very bottom, with far fewer resources.

How do I move a WireGuard server away from Contabo?

Create the new server first, install WireGuard, and copy the server's configuration, including its private key, so every client keeps working. Then point the clients to the new public IP address or update the DNS name they use, check that each one connects, and only then cancel the Contabo plan. Keep the old server running until every device has been tested.

Does vpnsmith earn money from these recommendations?

From Contabo only. The Contabo links in this article are affiliate links; we have no partnership with Hostinger, netcup, DigitalOcean, Hetzner or OVH. That is why this page also says plainly when another host is the better choice.