Contabo vs Scaleway
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Contabo and Scaleway.
Contabo The cheapest VPS with large RAM allocations | Scaleway French cloud with GDPR-native design | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.2 (420 reviews) | 4.8 (475 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | paid | freemium |
| Starting price | From €4/mo | Free tier available✓ |
| Best for | Budget-conscious developers who need high RAM allocation and can tolerate variable CPU performance | European companies who need GDPR-compliant infrastructure and want a French alternative to AWS |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | 4 vCPU✓ | 2 vCPU |
| RAM | 6 GB✓ | 2 GB |
| Storage | 100 GB✓ | 20 GB |
| Bandwidth | 32 TB/mo✓ | 1 TB/mo |
| SLA uptime | 99.9% | 99.9% |
| Data-center count | 4 | 5✓ |
| €/vCPU/mo | €1.00 | €0.00✓ |
| €/GB RAM/mo | €0.67 | €0.00✓ |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ✓ | |
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ✓ | |
| Free tier | ✓ | |
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | GermanyUnited StatesUnited KingdomAustralia | FranceNetherlandsPoland |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | nvme storageipv6ddos protectioneu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenterwindows available | free tierhourly billingipv6ddos protectionsnapshotsmanaged optionbare metalgpu availables3 compatibleeu datacentergdpr compliantterraform providerkubernetes supportapi access |
| Visit Contabo → | Visit Scaleway → | |
Contabo
Pros
- + Most RAM per euro of any mainstream provider
- + Excellent for memory-intensive workloads on a budget
- + Large SSD allocation on entry plans
Cons
- - Shared CPU performance is inconsistent — noisy neighbour issues reported
- - Setup fee on some plans
- - Support slower than premium providers
Scaleway
Pros
- + French jurisdiction — strong GDPR and data sovereignty
- + Free tier includes starter VPS instances
- + Serverless functions and containers in one ecosystem
Cons
- - Primarily EU-only — limited global reach
- - Less documentation than AWS/DigitalOcean
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