If you have shopped for a cheap VPS lately, two names keep showing up: Hostinger and Contabo. Both promise far more server than the price suggests, and both are popular with self-hosters for exactly that reason. But the low prices come from two very different business models, and the one that looks cheaper at checkout is not always the one that stays cheaper.
This is a straight comparison of what each provider actually gives you, what the catches are, and which one fits which kind of project. All prices below are approximate figures from the providers’ public pricing pages as of October 2026 — both companies change pricing and promos regularly, so check the official page before you buy. I have not invented any benchmark numbers in this article, because a benchmark I did not run would be fiction.
How each provider makes it cheap
Hostinger sells a polished product at a promo price. The VPS plans run on AMD EPYC processors with NVMe storage, come with a clean control panel (hPanel), one-click app templates, free weekly backups, and 24/7 live chat support. The catch is the pricing model: you pay a low intro rate for a long term (usually 24 months, billed upfront), and renewal costs roughly 1.7 to 2.2 times the intro price.
Contabo sells raw capacity at a flat price. Its Cloud VPS plans hand you unusually generous specs — 8 GB of RAM on the entry tier, for example — at a monthly price that barely moves between the first and the twenty-fourth month. The longer you commit, the cheaper it gets: the 24-month term is the cheapest, month-to-month costs noticeably more. The catch here is not the renewal; it is everything around the edges, which I will get to below.
Specs head-to-head
Here is how the entry and mid tiers line up. Prices are approximate and exclude VAT where applicable.
| Hostinger KVM 1 (entry) | Hostinger KVM 2 (mid) | Contabo Cloud VPS (entry) | Contabo Cloud VPS (mid) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| vCPU | 1 | 2 | ~4 | 6–8 |
| RAM | 4 GB | 8 GB | 8 GB | 16–24 GB |
| Storage | 50 GB NVMe | 100 GB NVMe | ~75–100 GB NVMe (or larger SSD option) | ~200 GB NVMe |
| Traffic | 4 TB | 8 TB | Unmetered (fair-use policy) | Unmetered (fair-use policy) |
| Approx. price | ~$6.49/mo intro, ~$11.99 on renewal | ~$8.99/mo intro, ~$14.99 on renewal | ~€4.40–5.50/mo depending on term | ~$13–15/mo depending on term |
| Backups | Weekly, included | Weekly, included | Manual snapshots included; automated backup is a paid add-on | Manual snapshots included; automated backup is a paid add-on |
| Money-back | 30 days | 30 days | 14-day withdrawal right (EU) | 14-day withdrawal right (EU) |
On raw specs per dollar, Contabo wins the table at every tier: more vCPUs, more RAM, and unmetered traffic where Hostinger caps bandwidth. Specs are only half the story, though.
Where Hostinger wins
Hostinger is the easier server to live with. The control panel is genuinely beginner-friendly, spinning up a WordPress or Docker stack takes a couple of clicks, and when something breaks at 2 a.m. there is a live chat agent to talk to. Weekly backups are included for free, the 30-day money-back guarantee means you can test without much risk, and with data centers in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia you can usually pick a location close to your visitors. If you are setting up your first VPS, or you manage servers for clients and want support you can reach quickly, Hostinger’s day-to-day experience is the better one.
Where Contabo wins
Contabo wins on sheer capacity and long-term price stability. Eight gigabytes of RAM on an entry plan means you can run a WordPress site, a small database, and a couple of side services on one box without constantly watching memory. Traffic is unmetered under a fair-use policy, so a bandwidth-heavy side project will not trigger overage surprises the way a capped plan can. And because there is no intro-then-renewal jump, the price you see in year one is close to the price you pay in year three. For developers, staging servers, game servers, and self-hosted app stacks that just need a lot of headroom, Contabo is hard to beat on value.
The catches in the fine print
Hostinger: the renewal jump. The intro price is real, but it is a 24-month commitment billed upfront, and renewal runs about 1.7 to 2.2 times higher. Budget for the renewal price, not the promo price, because you will be paying it for far longer than the first term.
Contabo: the CPU is shared, and it shows under load. Those generous vCPU counts are shared cores, not dedicated ones. Independent testers report noticeable performance variance depending on how busy the physical host is — fine for a blog or dev box, a real problem if you need consistent CPU for encoding, builds, or anything latency-sensitive. Treat the specs as capacity, not guaranteed throughput.
Contabo: support is slow. There is no live chat. You get a ticket system with response times that independent reviewers measure in hours to a day or more. If you can fix things yourself, this never matters. If you cannot, it matters a lot.
Contabo: the add-ons add up. Automated backups, a non-EU server location, Windows licenses, and control panels like cPanel are all paid extras on top of the headline price. None of them are hidden, but a “€4.50 server” can become a €12 server once you add the things Hostinger includes.
Both: check the fine print on email. If you plan to self-host email, verify port 25 policy on the provider’s site before buying — both providers currently document that outbound port 25 is open on VPS plans, but policies and rate limits change, and self-hosted mail lives or dies on deliverability details like IP reputation.
Which should you pick?
It comes down to what you value more: convenience or capacity.
- Pick Hostinger if this is your first VPS, you want one-click installs and live support, or you host client work where a fast answer at 2 a.m. is worth paying for. Accept the renewal pricing and set a calendar reminder before it hits.
- Pick Contabo if you are comfortable on the command line, you want maximum RAM and storage per dollar, or you run workloads that are hungry for memory and traffic but forgiving about CPU consistency — dev servers, staging, game servers, media tools, personal VPNs.
- Pick neither for production workloads with strict latency or uptime requirements. Both are budget providers; at that point you are shopping in the wrong price bracket.
Frequently asked questions
Which is cheaper in the long run, Hostinger or Contabo?
Usually Contabo, because its price barely moves between the first and third year while Hostinger’s roughly doubles at renewal. But do the math with the add-ons you actually need — Contabo’s paid extras (automated backups, non-EU location, control panel licenses) can close the gap.
Can I self-host email on either VPS?
Both providers currently document open outbound port 25 on their VPS plans, with rate limits against abuse. That said, email deliverability depends on IP reputation and proper DNS setup (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), so expect setup work either way. Verify the current port policy on the official page before buying.
Which is better for WordPress?
Hostinger is the simpler path: one-click WordPress installs, a friendly panel, and live support when a plugin breaks something. Contabo gives you more RAM for the money, which helps busy WordPress sites — but you will be setting up and securing the whole stack yourself.
Do either offer hourly billing or a free trial?
Neither offers true hourly billing — both bill monthly or per term. Hostinger offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, which is the closest thing to a trial. Contabo offers the standard 14-day EU withdrawal right on new orders.
My take
In my opinion, most beginners should start with Hostinger: the support and the panel are worth more than extra RAM when you are still learning to run a server. Most experienced self-hosters who know exactly what they need should at least price out Contabo, because the specs-per-dollar gap is real and it compounds over years of renewals. Whichever you lean toward, read the current pricing page carefully — intro prices, renewal prices, and add-on fees are where budget VPS deals are actually won or lost.