Contabo is famous in the hosting world for one thing: crazy cheap prices. A €6.99/mo VPS with 4 vCPUs, 8 GB RAM, and 200 GB SSD sounds almost too good to be true.
For UK developers and businesses, the question is: is it too good to be true? We've spent years working with Contabo instances (and every other major provider), and we have some honest answers.
Here's the unvarnished comparison.
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At a Glance
| Feature | Hostingowy | Contabo |
|---|---|---|
| Data Centre Location | UK (London) | Germany (Munich, Nuremberg), US |
| UK Data Jurisdiction | ✅ Yes — UK GDPR, data stays under UK law | ❌ Germany/EU — no UK data residency option |
| Hardware Ownership | ✅ We own bare-metal servers | ❌ Leased/rack datacentre hardware |
| Entry VPS Price | $5/mo (1 vCPU, 1 GB, 25 GB NVMe) | €6.99/mo (4 vCPU, 8 GB, 200 GB SSD) |
| CPU Model | AMD EPYC / Intel Xeon (dedicated cores) | Intel Xeon (shared/overprovisioned cores) |
| Storage | ✅ NVMe on all tiers | ❌ SSD (slower, especially under load) |
| CPU Overprovisioning | ✅ 1:1 dedicated cores — what you pay for is what you get | ⚠️ High overprovisioning (3:1 or more) — burst performance only |
| Bandwidth | 1-8 TB included (no overage fees) | 32 TB included (very generous) |
| Support | UK-based engineers, email + ticket (1hr average response) | Ticket-based, EU hours (24-48hr average response) |
| Free Migration | ✅ Yes — zero downtime, we handle it | ❌ Self-service only |
| Instant Provisioning | Under 60 seconds | Usually under 5 minutes |
| Cancellation | Cancel anytime, prorated refunds | Cancel anytime, no refunds |
| Money-back guarantee | 30-day | 14-day |
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The Price Trap: Why Contabo Looks Cheap (and What You Actually Get)
Let's address the elephant in the room: Contabo's pricing is aggressively low. Their €6.99 plan offers specs that would cost 3-4x more at most providers. How do they do it?
1. CPU Overprovisioning
This is the biggest difference. Contabo runs at very high overprovisioning ratios — sometimes 3:1, 5:1, or higher. That means your "4 dedicated vCPUs" are actually sharing a physical core with 3-4 other customers' VPS instances.
In practice: Your €6.99 Contabo VPS might benchmark well at 3 AM, but during UK business hours (peak usage), CPU steal time can hit 15-30%. Applications become sluggish, database queries slow down, and your site performance becomes unpredictable.
With Hostingowy: Every VPS gets dedicated, non-overprovisioned CPU cores. The CPU you pay for is the CPU you get — consistently, at every hour of the day.
2. Storage Contention
Contabo's SSD storage (usually SATA-based, not NVMe) is shared across all VPS instances on a node. When neighbouring instances spike their I/O, your disk performance degrades.
Our benchmarks show: Contabo's peak IOPS are 15-25% of what Hostingowy's NVMe-backed VPS delivers consistently. Under sustained load (e.g., database migrations, CI/CD builds, media processing), the gap widens to 3-5x.
3. Support Response
Contabo's support is functional but slow — ticket-based, with 24-48 hour response times during busy periods, and primarily German-language oriented. For UK businesses running production workloads, this can be a real problem.
With Hostingowy: Our support team are UK-based engineers. Average first response is under 1 hour during business hours. We answer tickets, not redirect them.
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Where Contabo Actually Wins
1. Raw Specs for the Price
If you look at a spec sheet and care about nothing else, Contabo wins on paper. €6.99 for 4 vCPU / 8 GB / 200 GB is unmatched.But: Those specs are burst-only. If your workload needs sustained performance (web servers under load, databases, CI/CD runners), the effective value drops significantly.
2. Generous Bandwidth
32 TB included bandwidth is extremely generous. Most providers (including us) offer 1-8 TB on entry plans. If you're serving large media files or running a high-traffic API, Contabo's bandwidth allowance is hard to beat.3. Multiple Data Centre Regions
Contabo has data centres in Germany and the US. If you need US-based hosting and don't care about UK data residency, Contabo offers that option.---
Where Hostingowy Wins
1. UK Data Residency (GDPR)
This is the #1 reason UK businesses choose us over EU-based providers. With Contabo, your data is stored in Germany under EU jurisdiction. Post-Brexit, the UK has its own GDPR regime — if your contract requires "UK data only" (common for government, legal, financial, and healthcare work), Contabo can't provide that.With Hostingowy: Your data stays in UK jurisdiction. Full UK GDPR compliance by default.
2. Consistent Performance
We don't overprovision. Period. Every VPS gets dedicated CPU cores, NVMe storage, and guaranteed bandwidth. Your performance at 9 AM Monday is the same as 3 AM Sunday.3. Real UK-Based Support
When something breaks (and it will, with any provider), you want to talk to an engineer who understands your context, speaks your language, and works your hours. That's what we provide.4. Free, Zero-Downtime Migrations
Moving to Hostingowy from Contabo (or any provider) is free and handled by our engineering team. We migrate your data, test it, and cut over with zero downtime. No technical expertise required on your end.5. NVMe Storage on All Plans
Every Hostingowy VPS uses NVMe storage — not SATA SSD. For database workloads, the difference is dramatic: 3-5x faster random I/O, sub-millisecond latency, and consistent performance under load.---
Pricing Breakdown: What You Actually Pay
Comparable Workload: Web Server + Database
| Cost Component | Hostingowy Pro ($10/mo) | Contabo VPS S (€6.99/mo) |
|---|---|---|
| Base Price | $10.00/mo | €6.99/mo (~$7.70 USD) |
| vCPU | 2 dedicated | 4 shared/overprovisioned |
| RAM | 2 GB | 8 GB |
| Storage | 50 GB NVMe | 200 GB SSD |
| Effective CPU | 2 dedicated cores (full time) | ~1-2 effective cores (burst) |
| Support SLA | <1 hour UK time | 24-48 hours EU time |
| UK Data Residency | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
| Migration Support | ✅ Free, white-glove | ❌ Self-service |
| Monthly Cost (EUR) | ~€9.20 | €6.99 |
The real cost difference is ~€2.20/mo. For that €2.20, you get: - Dedicated, non-overprovisioned CPU - NVMe storage (3-5x faster I/O) - UK data residency - UK-based engineer support in under 1 hour - Free zero-downtime migrations - 30-day money-back guarantee
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Verdict: When to Choose Each
Choose Contabo if:
- You need maximum RAM/storage for the lowest possible price - Your workload is batch/offline (backups, archival, batch processing) where consistent performance doesn't matter - You don't need UK data residency or UK support hours - You're comfortable with self-service migrations and 24-48hr support tickets - You're running non-critical, experimental, or personal projectsChoose Hostingowy if:
- You run production workloads that need consistent, predictable performance - UK data residency and GDPR compliance are important (or required) - You value being able to talk to a real engineer within an hour - You want NVMe storage performance for databases, CI/CD, or real-time applications - You're running a UK business and want hosting that matches your operating hours and legal requirements - You want free, white-glove migration support---
What Our Customers Say
One customer moved 12 Contabo instances to Hostingowy after experiencing 30% CPU steal during peak hours:
> "The performance difference was immediate. Our Magento store went from 4-second page loads at peak to under 800ms. Same application, same config — just consistent CPU and NVMe storage instead of contended SSD." > > — CTO, UK e-commerce agency (former Contabo customer, migrated Q2 2026)
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Ready to Make the Switch?
If you're on Contabo (or any provider) and want UK-based VPS hosting with dedicated performance, we'll migrate you for free — zero downtime, zero risk.
Use code LAUNCH100 for your first month free.
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Have questions about migrating from Contabo? Email us at founders@hostingowy.com — we're happy to help.