Contabo vs netcup (2026): Which VPS for a Self-Hosted VPN?

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 netcup. Plans, prices and locations below were read on each provider's official page on 13 October 2026 and can change: confirm them before you order.

Quick answer: for a self-hosted VPN, both work, and the smallest plan of either is more than enough. Contabo wins on listed price per resource and on the number of regions: its entry plan showed €5.50 a month for 4 vCPU and 8 GB of RAM. netcup costs more per month at the entry level and gives you less hardware for it, but it sells a one-month contract and has a datacenter in Vienna and one in Amsterdam, which matters if those are the exits you want. If you only need a cheap, roomy server in Europe, the US or Asia, start with Contabo. If you want a short commitment or an Austrian or Dutch IP, look at netcup.

The entry plans side by side

Sources: contabo.com/en/vps and netcup.com/en/server/vps, both read on 13 October 2026.

Two cautions on the price row, because this is where comparisons usually go wrong:

• VAT basis. netcup's figure includes 19% German VAT. Without it, €8.26 works out to about €6.94. Contabo's page has an "Including VAT / Excluding VAT" switch: check which position it is in for your country before you put the two numbers next to each other.
• Promotions. netcup showed €8.26 with a crossed-out €9.50 beside it. Contabo showed a lower introductory figure next to its €5.50 list price. Both are temporary by nature. Compare the regular prices, then treat any discount as a bonus.

Even after both corrections, the gap in resources stays: Contabo's entry plan has twice the vCPU and twice the RAM of netcup's.

One step up

If you plan to run more than a VPN on the machine (a password manager, a small Nextcloud, a reverse proxy), the next tier is the realistic comparison.

netcup's VPS 1000 is the plan that matches Contabo's entry plan on vCPU and RAM (4 and 8 GB), with more storage (128 GB against 100 GB), at €14.50 against €5.50 as listed. That is the clearest way to read the price difference.

Where each one puts your server

For a VPN, location is the first filter: it sets your latency and the country your traffic appears to come from.

• Contabo lists the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore, Japan, India and Australia.
• netcup lists Vienna, Nuremberg, Amsterdam, Manassas (USA) and Singapore, plus a "No preference Europe" option where the host picks among its European sites.

So if you need the UK, Japan, India or Australia, only Contabo sells it. If you specifically want an Austrian or a Dutch exit, netcup names Vienna and Amsterdam explicitly.

Nuremberg, one of the five locations netcup lists for its VPS line.

Contract terms: the real argument for netcup

netcup's FAQ states that its G12.5 VPS can be ordered with a minimum term of one, twelve or 24 months, the longer ones being cheaper. A one-month term is useful in two situations:

• you want to test a location from your own network before committing;
• you only need the VPN for a trip or a short project.

netcup also lets you choose the network setup at order time: IPv4 and IPv6, IPv6 only, or a private vLAN only. For a VPN that every device must reach, take the option with IPv4: many mobile and hotel networks still have no IPv6.

On Contabo, read the term options and any setup fee on the order page before you pay, since they depend on the period you pick.

What neither page tells you

Three things matter for a VPN and are not on a price card:

1. IP reputation. Some streaming sites and some networks block datacenter ranges. No host publishes this and nobody can promise it. The only test is to deploy and try from where you will use it.
2. Real throughput at peak hours. A port speed is a ceiling, not a measurement. We have not benchmarked these two plans against each other, so we are not going to give you a number.
3. Support quality on the day something breaks. Read recent user reports rather than a comparison table.

Which one should you take?

• You want the most server for the money, in a common region: Contabo Cloud VPS 4. It is larger than a VPN needs, which leaves room for other self-hosted services.
• You want to commit for one month only: netcup, on its one-month term.
• You want an exit in Vienna or Amsterdam specifically: netcup.
• You want the UK, Japan, India or Australia: Contabo.

See the current Contabo Cloud VPS plans

Setting it up

The installation is the same on both: a fresh Debian or Ubuntu image, a firewall rule for one UDP port, and a WireGuard key pair per device. Our Contabo WireGuard guide walks through it step by step, and the commands apply to a netcup server unchanged. For a wider field, see Contabo vs Hetzner vs OVH and the cheapest VPS for WireGuard.

For a host that sells on an introductory price instead, see Contabo vs Hostinger, and for per-second cloud billing, Contabo vs DigitalOcean.

Summary

Contabo and netcup are both German hosts, and either will run a personal VPN without effort. On the figures displayed on 13 October 2026, Contabo gives you twice the resources for a lower listed price and sells more regions. netcup answers with a one-month contract and named sites in Vienna and Amsterdam. Decide on location first, contract length second, price third.

Start with a Contabo Cloud VPS