Contabo is a German company, previously known as Giga-International. They mainly offer advanced VPS, VDS and dedicated server hosting. In this Contabo review. Contabo VPS is simply dedicated resources within a Virtual Environment given to you to have full control of a Server.
Contabo is growing fast, in 2014 they had 2 data centers in Germany and now they have 8 locations worldwide. So if you want to catch Contabo before they become a mainstream provider, now is the time.
Contabo has top notch features that makes it stand out in premium web hosting. Lightning fast servers and latest hardware means unmatched performance and user friendly control panel and 24/7 support means hassle free experience.
As I go through this review, you will see what you can get with Contabo Web Hosting and how you can get started with a very affordable VPS with enough Computing Power.
Bandwidth: Unlimited
Free marketing offer: None
Uptime: 99.9%
Website builder: Yes
Money-back guarantee: 14 days
Price per month: From $5.50
Contabo is great value because it offers high performance servers for low prices with a 99.996% uptime guarantee. Its cloud VPS packages are perfect for those who have outgrown their shared hosting and need something more. Also its cloud VPS packages are good for more complex projects and can be used for anything. The AMD EPYC 7282 16-core processors Contabo use are great for more workloads and bigger projects etc.
Contabo offers the following types of hosting:
Independent computing instances optimized for performance equipped with fast NVMe drives.
All plans include NVMe Storage, 32 TB of outgoing traffic and unlimited incoming traffic.
Plan |
CPU |
RAM |
Storage |
Monthly Price |
|
Cloud VPS 1 |
4 vCPU Cores |
6 GB |
100 GB |
$5.50 |
|
Cloud VPS 2 |
6 vCPU Cores |
16 GB |
200 GB |
$12.50 |
|
Cloud VPS 3 |
8 vCPU Cores |
24 GB |
300 GB |
$17.50 |
|
Cloud VPS 4 |
12 vCPU Cores |
48 GB |
400 GB |
$32.50 |
|
Cloud VPS 5 |
16 vCPU Cores |
64 GB |
500 GB |
$42.00 |
|
Cloud VPS 6 |
24 vCPU Cores |
120 GB |
600 GB |
$77.00 |
Contabo provides Storage-optimized VPS for all of your data storage needs.
All plans include SSD Storage, 32 TB of outgoing traffic and unlimited incoming traffic.
Plan |
CPU |
RAM |
Storage |
Monthly Price |
|
Storage VPS 1 |
2 vCPU Cores |
3 GB |
800 GB |
$5.50 |
|
Storage VPS 2 |
4 vCPU Cores |
8 GB |
800 GB |
$14.50 |
|
Storage VPS 3 |
6 vCPU Cores |
12 GB |
2.4 TB |
$19.50 |
|
Storage VPS 4 |
10 vCPU Cores |
24 GB |
3.2 TB |
$34.50 |
|
Storage VPS 5 |
12 vCPU Cores |
32 GB |
4 TB |
$44.00 |
|
Storage VPS 6 |
18 vCPU Cores |
60 GB |
4.8 TB |
$79.00 |
Purchase your own dedicated server to host your website. Dedicated server hosting offers more computing power and disk space compared to shared hosting plans.
All plans include NVMe Storage, 32 TB of outgoing traffic and unlimited incoming traffic.
Plan |
CPU |
RAM |
Storage |
Monthly Price |
|
Cloud VDS S |
3 Physical Cores |
24 GB |
180 GB |
$46.39 |
|
Cloud VDS M |
4 Physical Cores |
32 GB |
240 GB |
$55.19 |
|
Cloud VDS L |
6 Physical Cores |
48 GB |
360 GB |
83.19 |
|
Cloud VDS XL |
8 Physical Cores |
64 GB |
480 GB |
110.39 |
|
Cloud VDS XXL |
12 Physical Cores |
96 GB |
720 GB |
$155.99 |
Contabo is competitive with performance. Testing across 5 locations (Dallas, London, Seattle, Tel Aviv, Hong Kong) Contabo showed response times of 36 ms to 384 ms. Dallas was the fastest, Hong Kong the slowest. Since my server is in the US I think geographical location had an impact on these results. Contabo also delivers good page load times 2-3 seconds. But uptime is a bit below industry average 95% globally.
The most obvious thing about Contabo is that it has an old look and feel, both on the homepage and in the user admin panel. Sometimes that’s a good thing, as the simple interface is easy to understand. Sometimes it’s a bad thing because the feature you want to use is missing or hard to find.
Contabo is unmanaged and not for beginners. It’s a service loved by developers and server managers. With affordable rates and no nonsense approach it’s a go to option for those who need advanced server solutions. You can also have Webmin control panel installed for free.
With this service all responsibilities (and benefits) are on you. You get the hardware and the connection to it and can set up and configure everything as you like.
But if ease of use is not your priority and you understand that you are buying an unmanaged server solution along with all its implications then Contabo is a good option. In that case Contabo’s hosting management is relatively simple.
Performance is the key in this Contabo review to see if they deliver in terms of reliability and speed. Contabo VPS performs good for the price. Not industry leading but good overall.
Support wise Contabo offers many options, phone, email, support tickets and knowledge base. But live chat is missing. For phone support Contabo’s technical agents are available from 10 am to 8 pm CET (UTC+1) Monday to Friday. They are helpful and stick to their hours. Contabo doesn’t charge extra for phone support.
From my research and personal experience Contabo is a good web hosting for people whose websites don’t require latest technology and solutions. People who need dedicated servers and VPS in Europe will also find Contabo useful. The main reason website owners and businesses go to Contabo is the cheap pricing. But another good thing is the Windows integration with VPS and VDS plans.
Contabo has its downsides but I would still recommend Contabo because it’s a good web hosting for a price.