Cloudways vs Contabo: Complete 2026 Comparison
In-depth comparison of these two hosting providers across pricing, performance, features, and support.
Overall Winner
Cloudways
- Wins in 4 of 7 categories
- Top in: Best Performance, Best for WordPress, Best for Developers
- 4.2/5 overall rating
Category Winners
Best Price
Contabo
$4.50/mo vs $Infinity/mo
Best Value
Tie
Similar renewal pricing
Best Performance
Cloudways
99.99% uptime, 4.2/5 rating
Best Support
Tie
Similar support options
Best for WordPress
Cloudways
Optimized, Staging, WooCommerce
Best for Developers
Cloudways
SSH, Git, Staging, Node.js
Best for Beginners
Cloudways
Higher ease of use score (5.5/10)
Feature Comparison
| Feature | ||
|---|---|---|
| Essential Info | ||
| Hosting Type | VPS Hosting | Cloud Infrastructure |
| Monthly Price | — | $4.50/mo |
| Renewal Price | — | $4.50 |
| Renewal Markup | 0% | 0% |
| Overall Rating | 4.2/5 | 3.6/5 |
| Uptime Guarantee | 99.99% | 99.9% |
| Trustpilot Rating | 4.6/5 | 4.2/5 |
| Trustpilot Reviews | 3,600 | 8,168 |
| Free SSL | ||
| Free Domain | ||
| Free Migration | ||
| Pricing Details | ||
| First Year Cost | $168.00 | $54.00 |
| Second Year Cost | $168.00 | $54.00 |
| Money Back Guarantee | 0 days | 14 days |
| Setup Fee | Free | Free |
| Monthly Billing | ||
| Minimum Contract | — | 1 months |
| Technical Specs | ||
| Storage | 25 GB | 100 GB |
| Storage Type | SSD | SSD/NVME |
| Bandwidth | 1000 GB | 32000 GB |
| Max Websites | Unlimited | — |
| Max Databases | Unlimited | — |
| PHP Versions | 7.4, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 | — |
| SSH Access | ||
| Git Deployment | ||
| Staging Environment | — | |
| Cron Jobs | ||
| Redis Available | ||
| Programming Languages | ||
| Node.js Support | ||
| Python Support | ||
| Ruby Support | ||
| WordPress Features | ||
| WordPress Optimized | ||
| WordPress Auto-Install | ||
| WordPress Auto-Updates | ||
| WordPress Staging | ||
| WooCommerce Optimized | ||
| LiteSpeed Cache | ||
| Object Caching | ||
| WP Multisite | ||
| WP-CLI Access | ||
| Security | ||
| DDoS Protection | ||
| DDoS Protection Level | Bot Protection and Firewall via Cloudflare | Basic DDoS protection included |
| Malware Scanning | ||
| Malware Removal | ||
| Firewall Included | ||
| Backup Frequency | Hourly to Daily (configurable: 1h, 3h, 6h, 12h, daily) | Manual/Snapshot-based |
| Backup Retention | 14 days | — |
| Backup Restore Fee | Free | Free |
| On-Demand Backup | ||
| Two-Factor Auth | ||
| Wildcard SSL | ||
| Dedicated IP | ||
| Support | ||
| Support Channels | Live Chat, Ticket, Knowledge Base, Phone (Premium add-on), Slack (Premium add-on) | Live Chat, Ticket, Phone, Knowledge Base |
| Live Chat | ||
| Live Chat Hours | 24/7/365 | Business hours |
| Phone Support | ||
| Phone Support Hours | Premium Support add-on only | Business hours |
| Ticket Support | ||
| Priority Support | ||
| Support Languages | English | German, English |
| Knowledge Base Quality | 5.0/10 | 3.0/10 |
| Avg Support Wait | 2 min | — |
| Email Accounts | ||
| Email Account Limit | — | 0 |
| Mailbox Size | — | — |
| Webmail Access | ||
| Spam Filter | ||
| Email Forwarding | ||
| Performance | ||
| CDN Included | ||
| CDN Provider | Cloudflare Enterprise CDN | — |
| Server Locations | US (Multiple), Canada, UK, Germany, Netherlands, France, Singapore, Australia, Japan, India, Brazil | Nuremberg (Germany), Munich (Germany), Düsseldorf (Germany), New York (US), St. Louis (US), Seattle (US), Los Angeles (US), London (UK), Singapore, Tokyo (Japan), Sydney (Australia) |
| Server Location Count | 65 | 11 |
| Choose Server Location | ||
| HTTP/2 Support | ||
| Brotli Compression | — | |
| Uptime SLA Credit | ||
| Platform Support | ||
| Drupal Support | ||
| Joomla Support | ||
| Magento Support | ||
| Laravel Support | ||
| Django Support | ||
| Next.js Support | ||
| Rails Support | ||
| Static Site Support | ||
| Control Panel | ||
| cPanel Included | ||
| Control Panel | Cloudways Platform | Contabo Control Panel |
| Softaculous | ||
| Website Builder | ||
| Builder Name | — | — |
| Migration | ||
| Migration Websites Limit | 1 | 0 |
| Migration Turnaround | 2 days | — |
| Paid Migration Cost | — | — |
| Migration Quality | 5.0/10 | — |
| Compliance | ||
| GDPR Compliant | ||
| PCI Compliant | ||
| HIPAA Compliant | ||
| Data Center Certs | SOC 2, ISO 27001 | ISO 27001 |
| Ratings | ||
| Value for Money | 3.5/10 | 5.0/10 |
| Performance Rating | 5.0/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Support Quality | 4.5/10 | 2.5/10 |
| Security Rating | 4.5/10 | 3.5/10 |
| Features Rating | 4.5/10 | 3.0/10 |
| Ease of Use | 3.5/10 | 3.0/10 |
| Transparency Rating | 4.0/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Suitability Scores | ||
| For Bloggers | 3.0/10 | 2.0/10 |
| For E-commerce | 5.0/10 | 3.0/10 |
| For Agencies | 5.0/10 | 3.0/10 |
| For Developers | 5.0/10 | 5.0/10 |
| For Beginners | 2.0/10 | 1.0/10 |
| For Enterprise | 4.0/10 | 3.0/10 |
| Policies | ||
| Bandwidth Overage | Pay-as-you-go; bandwidth included varies by plan (1TB base); overage charged at provider rates | 32TB included; overage billed per TB |
| Storage Overage | Pay-as-you-go; can upgrade server size or add block storage | Pay for additional storage |
| Adult Content Allowed | ||
| Gambling Sites Allowed | ||
| Crypto Sites Allowed | ||
| Reseller Hosting | ||
| White Label | ||
| API Access | ||
| Company Info | ||
| Year Founded | 2011 | 2003 |
| Headquarters | Malta | Germany |
| Parent Company | DigitalOcean (acquired September 2022 for $350M) | Independent (privately held; founded by Michael Herpich and Michael Bolke as Giga-International, rebranded to Contabo 2013) |
| Green Hosting | — | — |
| Instant Activation | ||
| Managed WordPress | ||
| Managed WP Available | ||
| Pricing Model | — | — |
| Monthly Visit Limit | — | — |
| Visit Overage Cost | — | — |
| PHP Workers | — | — |
| Plugin Restrictions | — | — |
| Dev Environment | — | — |
| Dev Env Name | — | — |
| Regional Info | ||
| Best Countries | United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore, Australia | Germany, United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, Australia |
| Local Currencies | USD, EUR, GBP | EUR, USD, GBP |
| Support Languages | English | German, English |
| Data Sovereignty | GDPR, SOC 2 | GDPR |
| External Ratings | ||
| G2 Rating | 4.7/5 | 4.0/5 |
| BBB Rating | N/A (Malta-based, no US BBB listing) | N/A (Germany-based) |
| Advanced Technical | ||
| Inode Limit | — | — |
| Max DB Size | — | — |
| Max Upload Size | — | — |
| Database Type | MySQL/MariaDB | MySQL/MariaDB/PostgreSQL |
| Elasticsearch | ||
| Image Optimization | — | — |
| PHP Switching | — | |
| Subdomains | Unlimited | — |
| FTP Accounts | Unlimited | — |
| Additional Pricing | ||
| Free Domain Duration | — | — |
| Money Back Exclusions | No money-back guarantee; pay-as-you-go model means you only pay for resources used; unused prepaid funds can be refunded within 3 months of adding funds | 14-day cancellation period; Most setup fees non-refundable once server deployed |
| Payment Methods | Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal | Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal, Bank Transfer, SEPA Direct Debit |
| Auto Renewal Default | ||
| Domain Privacy Included | — | — |
| Domain Privacy Cost | — | — |
| SSL Provider | Let's Encrypt | Self-managed (Let's Encrypt recommended) |
| Dedicated IP Cost | — | — |
| Additional Support | ||
| Phone Support Countries | United States | Germany, United States, United Kingdom |
| Priority Support Cost | — | — |
| Community Forum | ||
| Support Outsourced | ||
| Object Cache Type | Redis/Memcached | — |
| Business & Affiliate | ||
| Affiliate Program | ||
| Commission Type | Recurring | Per sale |
| Commission Amount | Up to $125 per referral or lifetime 7% recurring; 90-day cookie | €25-€100 per referral; 30-day cookie |
| Additional Policies | ||
| File Hosting Allowed | ||
| Proxy/VPN Allowed | ||
| Bandwidth Overage Cost | — | — |
| Account Suspension Policy | Account suspended for TOS violations; servers still billed until deleted; fraud prevention enforcement active | Violation of ToS; non-payment; abuse reports |
| Malware Removal Cost | $0.00 | — |
| Downloadable Backups | ||
| Additional Platforms | ||
| PrestaShop | ||
| Ghost | ||
| Shopify Migration | ||
| Wix Migration | ||
| Squarespace Migration | ||
| Webflow Export | ||
| Editorial Info | ||
| Best For | Developers and agencies needing managed cloud hosting; WordPress/WooCommerce sites needing scalable performance; Users wanting flexibility across AWS, GCP, DO, Vultr, Linode; Teams needing staging environments and Git deployment; Growing businesses that need to scale quickly; Users who want cloud power without server management | Budget-conscious users wanting high specs at low price; Developers comfortable with unmanaged servers; Users needing lots of RAM/storage cheaply; Long-term projects where value matters most; Users who don't need premium support |
| Avoid If | Need email hosting included; Want traditional shared hosting pricing; Prefer cPanel; Need domain registration; Budget-conscious with predictable monthly costs; New to web hosting (steeper learning curve) | Need reliable 24/7 support; Want managed WordPress; Require consistent uptime; Beginner requiring hand-holding; Need included cPanel; Critical applications requiring premium reliability |
| Known Issues | Email hosting not included (requires third-party add-on at extra cost); No domain registration; Backup storage charged separately at $0.033/GB; DNS hosting is paid add-on; Premium Support with phone/Slack costs extra; Pay-as-you-go billing can be confusing; Charged in arrears for previous month; Some users report billing issues and being charged after cancellation; No cPanel (proprietary panel); Post-DigitalOcean acquisition some users report declining support quality | Support response times can be slow and inconsistent; No managed services; No cPanel included; Some users report downtime issues (26-hour outage reported); Policies described as inconsistent; No phone support 24/7; Backups are manual only; Interface less polished than competitors |
| Unique Selling Point | Managed cloud hosting across 5 providers (AWS, GCP, DO, Vultr, Linode) with pay-as-you-go flexibility | Highest specs per dollar with 8GB RAM VPS for under $5/month and 32TB bandwidth |
| Ideal Customer | Developer or agency wanting managed cloud power without server administration complexity | Developer or tech user wanting maximum specs at minimum cost who doesn't need premium support |
| Best Alternative To | WP Engine | Hetzner |
| Primary Competitors | Kinsta, WP Engine, Flywheel | Hetzner, OVHcloud, Vultr |
We strive for accuracy, but pricing and features change frequently. Some data may be outdated. Report an error and we'll update it promptly.
Our Verdict
Choose Cloudways if you...
- Want higher-rated hosting (4.2/5)
- Need WordPress-optimized hosting
- Need staging environments
- Are new to web hosting
- Need enterprise-grade features
Choose Contabo if you...
- Prefer Contabo's approach to hosting