Is Contabo VPS or UpCloud cheaper in 2026?

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

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

Contabo VPS does not charge for data transfer out at all, while UpCloud charges $0.010 per GB. On a read-heavy workload that difference is the entire comparison.

Which has the better free tier, Contabo VPS or UpCloud?

Contabo VPS does — Unlimited traffic, throttled after 32 TB. UpCloud bills from the first unit of usage.

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.

Contabo VPS vs UpCloud

Neither wins outright: Contabo VPS is cheaper for 1 of 3 workloads and UpCloud 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	Contabo VPS	UpCloud	Difference
Entry plan	$5.50/mo	$5.00/mo	1.1× UpCloud
Compute	—	$0.0074/vCPU-hr	—
Data transfer out	Free	$0.010/GB	—
Free tier	Yes	No	—

Source: Contabo pricing (May 2026) · UpCloud 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	Contabo VPS	UpCloud	Cheaper
Side projectA personal site or small app with modest traffic, a few gigabytes of assets, and one small always-on process.	$5.50	$5.40	UpCloudsaves $0.10/mo (2%)
Growing SaaSA funded product serving a few thousand daily users, with an image-heavy frontend and two application servers.	$11	$11	UpCloudsaves $0.20/mo (2%)
Media-heavy siteA publisher or video product where delivery dominates the bill and compute is almost an afterthought.	$5.50	$95	Contabo VPSsaves $90/mo (94%)

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

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

UpCloud

by UpCloud

A Finnish host selling on MaxIOPS block storage performance, with a transfer allowance per instance and pricing close to DigitalOcean's.

Common questions

Is Contabo VPS or UpCloud cheaper in 2026?: It depends on volume — Contabo VPS wins 1 of the 3 modelled workloads and UpCloud wins 2. The scenario table above shows where the crossover falls.
What is the difference in egress cost between Contabo VPS and UpCloud?: Contabo VPS does not charge for data transfer out at all, while UpCloud charges $0.010 per GB. On a read-heavy workload that difference is the entire comparison.
Which has the better free tier, Contabo VPS or UpCloud?: Contabo VPS does — Unlimited traffic, throttled after 32 TB. UpCloud bills from the first unit of usage.
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.