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VPNSmith Guides & Comparisons

Understand how a WireGuard tunnel works, what a GDPR VPS truly costs, and how to forge your own infra. Long-form, sourced, kept up to date.

All · 117 VPS Comparisons · 12 Self-host VPN · 75 Tunneling & Obfuscation · 13 clusters.self-host-vpn-head · 9 clusters.vpn-trust-audits · 1 clusters.commercial-vpn · 2 clusters.vps-hosting · 3 clusters.wireguard · 1 Cloud Privacy · 1

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FeaturedVPS Comparisons2026-10-16

Contabo Custom Image (2026): Supported Formats, Requirements and How to Install One

Contabo accepts custom images in two formats only, ISO and QCOW2, checked by content rather than by file extension. What Contabo's help centre says about formats, compression, architecture, VirtIO drivers, Windows and the Custom Images add-on, with the steps to upload and install an image on a Cloud VPS or VDS.

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VPS Comparisons

2026-10-165 min

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

The right Contabo alternative depends on what bothers you: traffic you want counted, backups, billing by the second, contract terms or a city near your users. Hostinger, netcup and DigitalOcean compared on figures read on their official pages on 13 and 14 October 2026, plus Hetzner and OVH, and what you give up by leaving.

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A data centre aisle lined with tall dark server cabinets, with a workstation cart in the foreground holding a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse

VPS Comparisons

2026-10-155 min

Contabo vs DigitalOcean (2026): Fixed Monthly Box or Per-Second Cloud for Your VPN?

Contabo and DigitalOcean compared on the figures both publish: Contabo's Cloud VPS plans read on 13 October 2026, DigitalOcean's Basic Droplets, billing, transfer allowance and backups read on 14 October 2026. Which one fits a self-hosted WireGuard server, and when the other wins.

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A woman in black holding an open laptop leans against the glass wall of a server room lit in blue, her reflection visible in the glass, with an office corridor stretching behind her

VPS Comparisons

2026-10-146 min

Contabo vs Hostinger VPS (2026): Entry Price, Renewal Price, and What You Get

Contabo and Hostinger VPS plans compared on the figures both hosts displayed on 13 October 2026: resources, traffic, port speed, backups, and the renewal price that follows Hostinger's introductory rate. With a verdict for a self-hosted VPN.

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Close-up of two rack servers stacked one above the other, seen at an angle: rows of drive bays with small green status lights, perforated metal front panels, background out of focus

VPS Comparisons

2026-10-136 min

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

Contabo and netcup are two German VPS hosts with very different entry plans. Prices, resources, contract terms and datacenter locations read on both official pages on 13 October 2026, and what each one means for a self-hosted WireGuard server.

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VPS Comparisons

2026-08-095 min

Best VPS for a VPN (2026): the Advertised Price Is Not What You Pay

Seven hosts compared for self-hosting WireGuard: Contabo, Hetzner, OVHcloud, Netcup, Scaleway, IONOS, Oracle Always Free. Prices read on official pages on 9 August 2026, plus the two line items that change the ranking - paid IPv4 and throttling.

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VPS Comparisons

2026-07-153 min

Contabo VPS Review (2026): Is It Good for Self-Hosting a VPN?

An honest look at Contabo VPS for self-hosting a WireGuard or OpenVPN server: what you get, the real strengths and the widely-reported downsides, and whether its budget trade-offs actually matter for a personal VPN.

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VPS Comparisons

2026-06-144 min

What Is a VPS? Virtual Private Servers Explained (2026)

A VPS is your own private slice of a physical server - root access, a public IP, running 24/7 - rented for a few euros a month. What a VPS is, how it differs from shared and dedicated hosting, what people use it for, and how to choose one.

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VPS Comparisons

2026-06-1111 min

Cheapest VPS for WireGuard 2026: 5 ranked by real cost

Budget-first ranking of the 5 cheapest VPS providers for self-hosted WireGuard in 2026. Price-per-Mbps metric from published specs, no paid placements.

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VPS Comparisons

2026-06-0210 min

OpenVPN vs WireGuard: deep technical comparison 2026

OpenVPN vs WireGuard technical deep-dive: cipher, handshake, kernel vs userspace, mobile battery, audit history, and a reproducible iperf3 benchmark procedure for your own VPS.

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VPS Comparisons

2026-06-0215 min

Contabo VPS Prices in Europe (2026) vs Hetzner and OVH

Contabo Cloud VPS list prices in euros, checked June 2026, next to Hetzner and OVH for a self-hosted WireGuard VPN. Specs, datacentres, GDPR.

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VPS Comparisons

2026-06-027 min

Privacy-first cloud hosting 2026: 5 GDPR alternatives to AWS

Contabo, Hetzner, Scaleway, OVH, Vultr Frankfurt - jurisdiction, audit, no-logs and GDPR compliance compared. Our top pick and why.

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