Contabo vs BuyVM
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Contabo and BuyVM.
Quick Verdict
3.4/5
Contabo
0 reviews
4.1/5
BuyVM
0 reviews
BuyVM is rated higher (4.1 vs 3.4). German budget host known for lots of RAM and CPU for the money. Cloud VPS from about €5.50/month (4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM) on a 24-month term; performance reviews are mixed. BuyVM (operated by Frantech Solutions) offers KVM VPS in Las Vegas, New York, and Roost (Luxembourg).
Contabo Affordable VPS hosting with generous resources at predictable pricing | BuyVM Frantech-operated VPS with DDoS protection | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.4 (0 reviews) | 4.1 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | paid | paid |
| Starting price | From $5.5/mo | From $2/mo✓ |
| Best for | Budget-conscious developers, self-hosters and teams running dev/staging, side projects or bulk capacity where specs-per-euro and unlimited traffic matter more than guaranteed IOPS and fast support. | Self-managed, bandwidth- and storage-heavy workloads — media servers, community platforms, backups, VPNs — where price per resource matters more than platform polish |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | 4 vCPU✓ | 1 vCPU |
| RAM | 8 GB✓ | 0.5 GB |
| Storage | 100 GB✓ | 10 GB |
| Bandwidth | — | — |
| SLA uptime | 99.9% | 99.9% |
| Data-center count | 13✓ | 3 |
| €/vCPU/mo | €1.38✓ | €2.00 |
| €/GB RAM/mo | €0.69✓ | €4.00 |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ✓ | |
| Free tier | ||
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | Germany (5 facilities), UK (Portsmouth), US (New York, St. Louis, Seattle), Singapore, Japan (Tokyo), Australia (Sydney), India | Las Vegas, Nevada; New York, New York; Roost, Luxembourg |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | nvme storageipv6ddos protectioneu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenterwindows available | nvme storageipv6ddos protectionbackups includedeu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenter |
| Visit Contabo → | Visit BuyVM → | |
Contabo
Pros
- + Best raw specs-per-euro in the budget class: 4 vCPU / 8 GB / 100 GB SSD from €5.50/month including VAT
- + Unlimited data transfer and free always-on DDoS protection on every plan
- + Nine regions including Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, India, three US regions, UK and Germany (five facilities)
- + Independent uptime monitoring repeatedly shows 100% availability over multi-week windows
- + Two decades of continuous operation (2003, ex Giga-International) with 450,000 servers running
Cons
- - Aggressive oversubscription: third-party testing grades disk I/O and performance stability weakly (D/F on contended plans)
- - Location fees of up to ~€2.35/month on entry plans (scaling with size) outside the EU change the price comparison
- - Unmanaged only, with ticket-based support and widely reported slow response times
- - Intro rates are for the first 24 months — renewal pricing steps up
- - Recycled IP addresses with abuse history occasionally trigger immediate suspension workflows on new accounts
BuyVM
Pros
- + Cheapest serious block storage we track: $1.25/256 GB, $5/TB per month, hot-migratable slabs
- + Unmetered 1 Gbps bandwidth on every slice — no egress metering to model
- + Cheap, credible DDoS filtering at $3/month per IP (3.5+ Tbps pooled, Path.net-backed)
- + Real KVM with custom ISOs, full disk encryption, and a free DirectAdmin license
- + 16-year track record with a support reputation that outclasses the price point
Cons
- - Stock shortages on popular slices and locations are routine; no elastic scaling
- - Self-managed only — no managed tier, no object storage product, no autoscaling API
- - Only three locations (Las Vegas, New York, Luxembourg); no Asia-Pacific presence
- - Modest 99.9% SLA with application-layer floods excluded; credits handled via TOS
- - No downgrades, and nightly backups cost extra (10% of base price)
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