Cloudways vs Contabo 2026

Both Cloudways and Contabo sit in our live hosting matrix. Overall scores land at 9.2 (Cloudways, from about $14.00/mo) and 8.0 (Contabo, entry near $4.99/mo). Spec rows pull from April 2026 catalogue checks; median TTFB and uptime, when available, come from multi-week probes. Treat this as a starting point and confirm renewal pricing on the host's checkout.
Cloudways
9.2
from $14.00/mo
Get Deal Cloudways →
VS
Contabo
8.0
from $4.99/mo
Get Deal Contabo →

Behind this comparison

Parallel active accounts on Cloudways and Contabo stay maintained. In the latest pass, median TTFB came in near 292 ms on Cloudways and 318 ms on Contabo, while observed uptime windows landed around 99.97% versus 99.90%. Support ping checks showed median first meaningful replies near 5 minutes for Cloudways and 60 minutes for Contabo, though queue times swing with seasonality. The spec table reflects current plan pages as of the publish date; when vendors change tiers, numbers are re-run before adjusting the verdict boxes.

Cloudways: Median TTFB292 ms
Contabo: Median TTFB318 ms
Cloudways: Observed uptime99.97%
Contabo: Observed uptime99.90%

Feature comparison

Feature Cloudways Contabo
Overall score 9.2 8.0
Speed score 9.5 8.2
Reliability score 9.4 8.0
Support score 9.1 7.2
Starting price $14.00/mo $4.99/mo
Median TTFB (our probes) 292 ms 318 ms
Uptime (listed) 99.99% 99.9%
Storage (entry) 25 GB SSD 50 GB NVMe (VPS S)
Websites (entry) Unlimited Unlimited (self-managed)
Free domain (1st year) No No
Free SSL Yes No

Our verdict

Our pick
Cloudways
Choose Cloudways if you prioritise the higher overall score in our matrix (9.2 vs 8.0) and faster median TTFB in our probes (292 ms vs 318 ms). Scale up without a full migration, useful when traffic is hard to predict. On the trade-off side, more expensive than a raw VPS. Know the trade before committing.
Get Deal Cloudways →
Contabo
Choose Contabo if you prioritise the lower advertised entry price ($4.99/mo). High RAM per euro for memory-heavy staging setups. On the trade-off side, basic, slow ticket support.
Get Deal Contabo →

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I pick Cloudways or Contabo?+
It depends on budget, audience location, and whether you need phone support or specific regions. Our overall scores are 9.2 vs 8.0; cross-check the table with your must-haves, then confirm renewals on the host's checkout.
Do you run live tests on both providers?+
Published TTFB and uptime figures come from parallel test accounts and external probes over several weeks. Storage and site limits reflect published grids checked in April 2026.

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