You need a Linux server for an app or an API, you can run it yourself, and you do not want to overpay for memory. You also do not want to be stuck paying for a server you stopped needing. If you are comparing these two, you are probably a developer or a small team on a budget. Contabo sells big specs cheap if you commit for two years. DigitalOcean sells smaller machines by the second.
Both tools are affiliate partners of ours: we may earn a commission if you sign up through a button on this page, at no extra cost to you. That is why we also say when to pick neither. Disclosure: we earn commissions when you shop through the links below.
| Contabo | DigitalOcean | |
|---|---|---|
| Price we read | Cloud VPS 4 €4.40/mo on a 24-month term (excl. VAT); Cloud VPS 12 €25 monthly, €21.25 on 12 months, €20 on 24 months (read 24 Oct 2026) | Droplets from $4 a month; App Platform free for three static sites, containers from $5; managed databases from $15; GPUs from $0.76 per GPU-hour (read 3 Oct 2026) |
| Entry price | Cloud VPS 4: €4.40/mo on a 24-month term, excl. VAT, 4 vCPU and 8 GB RAM (read 8 Oct 2026) | Basic Droplet $4/mo: 512 MiB, 1 vCPU, 10 GiB SSD (read 3 Oct 2026) |
| How you pay | Fixed term; 24 months prepaid (€480 upfront on Cloud VPS 12); 1 month costs about 25% more | Per second, charged monthly in arrears; no term |
| Free plan or trial | Not stated in our reading; 14-day revocation for private accounts only | App Platform free for 3 static sites; $5 signup credit valid 90 days |
| Best for | Developers who run their own Linux server and can commit to a long term | Developers who want per-second billing with managed databases, apps or GPUs nearby |
| Main catch | Cheap price needs a 24-month prepay; backups €6.70/mo extra; servers are unmanaged | $4 buys only the server; backups add 20% or 30%, databases from $15; no refunds |
You want someone else to look after the server and the software on it. Contabo leaves software upkeep and backups to you, and a Droplet is a server you install, secure and patch yourself.
Look at Cloudways instead. DigitalOcean owns Cloudways, which runs and patches the server for you on top of the same cloud. Read our Cloudways review.
A small production server with backups, excluding VAT and overage. Contabo Cloud VPS 12 (12 vCPU, 48 GB RAM) on the monthly term: €25.00 + €6.70 Auto Backup = €31.70 a month. On the 24-month term: €20.00 + €6.70 = €26.70 a month, with 24 × €20.00 = €480.00 due at checkout (read 8 Oct 2026). DigitalOcean: a 2 GiB Droplet at $12 + daily backups at 30% ($3.60) + the smallest managed database at $15 = $30.60 a month (read 3 Oct 2026). These are different currencies and very different machines, so compare what your app needs, not the totals.
Cloud VPS 4: €4.40 a month on a 24-month term, excluding VAT (read 8 Oct 2026, unchanged 24 Oct 2026). For a short project choose the 1-month term: on Cloud VPS 12 that was €25.00 against €20.00.
Start with Contabo →A Basic Droplet: $4 a month for the smallest size, or $12 for 2 GiB (read 3 Oct 2026). Turn on daily backups for 30% of the Droplet price.
Start with DigitalOcean →It is the effective monthly rate on a 24-month term, labelled 'for the first 24 months' when we re-read it on 24 Oct 2026. The page does not say what the server costs from month 25. On Cloud VPS 12 the 24-month term was prepaid at €480.00.
DigitalOcean's billing FAQ says it does not offer refunds. Contabo refunds only in set cases: a 14-day revocation for private accounts, 72 hours after an automatic renewal (not for customers in Germany), an accidental order cancelled straight away, or an account balance.
Not on either. Contabo's Auto Backup was €6.70 a month on Cloud VPS 12. DigitalOcean backups cost 20% of the Droplet price for weekly or 30% for daily.
Not from a Droplet: DigitalOcean blocks ports 25, 465 and 587 and points you to an email delivery service. Our Contabo dossier does not cover mail ports, so we did not compare this.
Contabo: contabo.com/en/vps, contabo.com/en/pricing and the Cloud VPS 12 configurator, read 8 Oct 2026 and re-read 24 Oct 2026, plus its terms and help-desk articles (24 Oct 2026). DigitalOcean: its pricing pages, read 3 Oct 2026, and its Droplet, billing and limits documentation, read 25 and 27 Oct 2026. We have not used either ourselves. Prices change: each one carries the date we read it, and our reviews are re-checked against the vendor pages. How we review.