The Setup
Hetzner and Contabo are both German companies selling cheap VPS. On paper, Contabo offers more RAM per euro. In practice, the experience is worlds apart.
Price Comparison
| Config | Hetzner | Contabo |
|---|---|---|
| 2 vCPU / 4GB | €5.39/mo | — |
| 4 vCPU / 8GB | €10.59/mo | €4.99/mo |
| 6 vCPU / 16GB | €20.99/mo | €8.99/mo |
Contabo looks cheaper. But you need to see what happens under load.
Disk IO — The Dealbreaker
| Metric | Hetzner | Contabo |
|---|---|---|
| Sequential Write | 1.4 GB/s | 180 MB/s |
| 4K Random Read | 95,000 IOPS | 8,500 IOPS |
| 4K Random Write | 62,000 IOPS | 3,200 IOPS |
Hetzner is 11x faster on random reads. This isn’t a small difference — it’s a different class of hardware entirely.
Real impact: WordPress loads in 0.8s on Hetzner, 3+ seconds on Contabo.
CPU Consistency
| Time of Day | Hetzner (variance) | Contabo (variance) |
|---|---|---|
| Off-peak vs peak | 5-8% drop | 25-35% drop |
| CPU steal time | Under 3% | 18-35% |
Contabo oversells aggressively. Your “4 cores” perform like 2.5 cores during peak hours.
Network
| Metric | Hetzner | Contabo |
|---|---|---|
| Port speed | Up to 1Gbps+ | 200Mbps fixed |
| Included transfer | 20TB | Unlimited |
200Mbps is Contabo’s hard ceiling on every plan. Hetzner can burst much higher.
Provisioning
| Factor | Hetzner | Contabo |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy time | Under 2 minutes | 1-3 business days |
| Setup fee | None | €4.99 |
| API | Full REST API | Basic |
The Verdict
| If you need… | Choose |
|---|---|
| Fast disk IO | Hetzner |
| Stable CPU | Hetzner |
| High bandwidth | Hetzner |
| Instant deployment | Hetzner |
| Maximum RAM per euro | Contabo |
| Bulk storage | Contabo |
Bottom line: Unless your workload is purely memory-bound with zero IO requirements, Hetzner is the better choice. The few extra euros buy you dramatically better real-world performance.