Is AWS Lightsail or Contabo VPS cheaper in 2026?

It depends on volume — AWS Lightsail wins 2 of the 3 modelled workloads and Contabo VPS wins 1. The scenario table above shows where the crossover falls.

What is the difference in egress cost between AWS Lightsail and Contabo VPS?

Contabo VPS does not charge for data transfer out at all, while AWS Lightsail charges $0.090 per GB. On a read-heavy workload that difference is the entire comparison.

Which has the better free tier, AWS Lightsail or Contabo VPS?

Both publish one. AWS Lightsail: Three months free on the smallest plan. Contabo VPS: Unlimited traffic, throttled after 32 TB.

What do these estimates not include?

Committed-use and reserved discounts, regional price variation, per-request API charges, support plans, and minimum retention periods. All of those move real invoices, sometimes by a lot. These figures compare published list prices for the same workload, which is the comparison the rate cards alone cannot give you.

AWS Lightsail vs Contabo VPS

Neither wins outright: AWS Lightsail is cheaper for 2 of 3 workloads and Contabo VPS for the rest.

List prices checked May 2026

Rate cards side by side

Only the axes at least one of them bills on. A dash means that provider does not charge for it.

Billing axis	AWS Lightsail	Contabo VPS	Difference
Entry plan	$5.00/mo	$5.50/mo	1.1× AWS Lightsail
Data transfer out	$0.090/GB	Free	—
Free tier	Yes	Yes	—

Source: Amazon Web Services pricing (May 2026) · Contabo pricing (May 2026). Published list prices only — committed-use discounts, regional variation, and per-request charges are not included. Not yet independently re-checked against the vendor’s page.

Monthly cost for three real workloads

The rate cards applied to identical usage. This is where the winner changes.

Workload	AWS Lightsail	Contabo VPS	Cheaper
Side projectA personal site or small app with modest traffic, a few gigabytes of assets, and one small always-on process.	$5.00	$5.50	AWS Lightsailsaves $0.50/mo (9%)
Growing SaaSA funded product serving a few thousand daily users, with an image-heavy frontend and two application servers.	$10	$11	AWS Lightsailsaves $1.00/mo (9%)
Media-heavy siteA publisher or video product where delivery dominates the bill and compute is almost an afterthought.	$725	$5.50	Contabo VPSsaves $720/mo (99%)

Workload definitions are identical on every comparison page, so figures here can be read against any other pair in the same category.

What each one is for

AWS Lightsail

by Amazon Web Services

Amazon's flat-rate answer to DigitalOcean, bundling generous transfer into a fixed monthly price. Overage reverts to standard EC2 egress rates, which is where it stops being cheap.

Free tier: Three months free on the smallest plan

Contabo VPS

by Contabo

The most RAM and disk per dollar in the category, with unlimited traffic. Single-thread performance and network consistency are noticeably weaker than the price suggests.

Free tier: Unlimited traffic, throttled after 32 TB

Common questions

Is AWS Lightsail or Contabo VPS cheaper in 2026?: It depends on volume — AWS Lightsail wins 2 of the 3 modelled workloads and Contabo VPS wins 1. The scenario table above shows where the crossover falls.
What is the difference in egress cost between AWS Lightsail and Contabo VPS?: Contabo VPS does not charge for data transfer out at all, while AWS Lightsail charges $0.090 per GB. On a read-heavy workload that difference is the entire comparison.
Which has the better free tier, AWS Lightsail or Contabo VPS?: Both publish one. AWS Lightsail: Three months free on the smallest plan. Contabo VPS: Unlimited traffic, throttled after 32 TB.
What do these estimates not include?: Committed-use and reserved discounts, regional price variation, per-request API charges, support plans, and minimum retention periods. All of those move real invoices, sometimes by a lot. These figures compare published list prices for the same workload, which is the comparison the rate cards alone cannot give you.