Contabo VPS Specs (2026): Port Speeds, Snapshots and US Datacentres, as Contabo Publishes Them

1. The plan ladder, with the port speed attached

Contabo's Cloud VPS page puts cores, memory, storage, snapshots, port speed and traffic in one table. Reproduced as published, September 2026:

The asterisk is Contabo's own, attached to "Unlimited Traffic*"; its explanation is that fair usage policies apply. Storage can be extended at extra cost ("More storage available" on every row).

Two things stand out against the rest of this site. The memory per dollar is unmatched: 8 GB at the entry plan, where Vultr's $10 plan has 2 GB and InterServer's $6 has 4 GB. And the port speed climbs with the plan rather than being fixed, so the cheapest plan is also the slowest link, at a fifth of what the top plans get.

2. Prices, VAT and currency

Contabo prices in euros and shows VAT explicitly. Every card carries both figures, as in Cloud VPS 4 at "€5.50 ... €4.40 ... Including VAT / Excluding VAT ... for the first 24 months". US buyers do not pay EU VAT, so the excluding-VAT figure is the one that applies. The page's own embedded price data converts it: {"GBP":4.32,"EUR":4.4,"USD":5.28}.

The euro price is the fixed fact; every dollar figure is a conversion. Divide them and the arithmetic is plain: $5.28 ÷ €4.40 and $6.60 ÷ €5.50 both give an implied rate of 1.20, so the two dollar figures differ because one converts the VAT-exclusive euro price and the other the VAT-inclusive one, not because a rate moved between readings. Which of those a US order pays depends on the tax treatment Contabo applies to a US buyer, and the price after the 24-month term is not printed on the card at all. This site has not observed a US checkout and does not state what one settles at; if the exact amount matters, take it from Contabo rather than from any conversion here.

3. Unlimited traffic, limited port

Contabo's summary sentence: "Every Cloud VPS plan comes with unlimited inbound and outbound data transfer. Port speeds run from 200 Mbit/s up to 1 Gbit/s. Fair usage policies apply." Free firewall and DDoS protection are listed on the same page, along with a "99.9% Uptime" claim, which is Contabo's statement rather than a measurement.

The shape of that offer is the opposite of most US hosts: no monthly transfer ceiling, a port that is modest at the entry plan. The network figures page puts it next to OVHcloud (500 Mbit/s on the entry plan, also unlimited), Linode (a 1,000 Mbps cap with a 1 TB allowance) and Vultr (an allowance with no published port). For a site serving pages, 200 Mbit/s is not the constraint; for a download or media host, it is the first thing to check, and the answer is to buy a larger plan rather than more transfer.

4. The three US datacentres

Contabo's United States locations page names all three: "With Data Centers in Seattle, St. Louis, and Carlstadt, you can get low latency throughout North America. With ping as low as 3 ms, we serve all major metropolitan areas". Its detail list:

St. Louis is the interesting one: central US sites are rare among budget hosts, and it is the reason Contabo appears on this site's East Coast and West Coast pages at once. The "ping as low as 3 ms" is Contabo's claim about its metros, not a measurement by this site; section 6 is how to check it for your own users.

5. Snapshots and Auto Backup

The plan table gives a snapshot allowance per plan: one on Cloud VPS 4, two on Cloud VPS 6, three from Cloud VPS 8 upwards. Contabo also sells Auto Backup as a separate line (its plan table offers "VPS with Auto Backup" as an alternative column) and describes it as daily off-server backups, with snapshots for instant rollback.

The distinction matters more than the count. A snapshot lives on the same infrastructure as the server and protects against your own mistakes; an off-server backup protects against the infrastructure. Contabo is one of the few budget hosts to sell both, which is worth noting against InterServer, which advertises neither and leaves both to you.

6. Measuring it, including Contabo's own suggestion

Contabo answers the network question with a self-test rather than a number. From its US locations FAQ: "How can I check the connection speed to each Region? Please go to speedtest.net and search for 'Contabo'. Then select 'Carlstadt, NJ' or 'Se[attle]'..." That is the fastest way to see latency and throughput from your own connection to each of its three US sites before you order.

After you order, the commands on the benchmarks hub measure the server itself: sysbench cpu --threads=1 --time=60 run for single-thread CPU, a 4K fio run for the disk, and iperf3 against a machine near your users. Contabo bills monthly at minimum, so a test costs a month rather than an hour; the 24-month advertised rate is a term, not a commitment to stay (see section 7).

7. Contract terms

Contabo publishes these as a single line: "Minimum initial contract length: 1 month | Minimum following contract length: Equal to the initial contract length | Minimum cancellation notice: None (pre-paid) or 4 weeks (post-paid)". Read with the "for the first 24 months" on the price cards, that means the advertised rate is tied to a 24-month term while the contract itself can be taken monthly, and the renewal price is not stated. If the price after the term matters to your budget, ask before ordering; this site's terms and renewals page covers how the same trick differs across hosts.

8. What Contabo does not publish

• A CPU model per plan. The Core VPS line states vCPU counts only; the Performance and Max Performance lines name AMD EPYC models on their own cards.
• Disk IOPS or throughput. The Core line lists "SSD" and a capacity, nothing else; the storage page shows how normal that is.
• The price after 24 months.
• A typical network throughput figure. The port speed is a ceiling; only Hetzner publishes an expectation.
• Setup fees by term on the plan card. Where a setup fee applies it appears in the order flow, not in the table this page reproduces.