Contabo vs Amazon EC2

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We have tested 12 VPS plans from Contabo and Amazon EC2. We'll show which one is best based on a detailed performance analysis, on features and prices.


Contabo

Contabo

Contabo was founded as a VPS provider in 2003.
It is headquartered in Germany.
It offers Web, Dedicated and VPS hosting products.

It has datacenters in:
  • Australia
  • Germany
  • India
  • Japan
  • Singapore
  • United Kingdom
  • United States

Amazon EC2

EC2

Amazon EC2 was founded as a VPS provider in 2006.
It is headquartered in the USA.
It offers VPS, Database, Storage and Networking hosting products.

It has datacenters in:
  • Australia
  • Bahrain
  • Brazil
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • Singapore
  • South Africa
  • South Korea
  • Sweden
  • United Arab Emirates
  • United Kingdom
  • United States

VPS Plans

Plan Name Monthly Price CPU cores Memory (GB) Disk Space (GB) Data Transfer (GB) Latest trial
Cloud VPS 1 4.50€ 4 6.0 100 32000 Oct 25 2024
Cloud VPS 2 9.50€ 6 16.0 200 32000 Mar 13 2024
Cloud VPS 3 14.00€ 8 24.0 300 32000 Jun 12 2024
m7g.medium $30.98 1 4.0 20 0 Jul 28 2023
m7a.medium $43.33 1 4.0 20 0 Mar 18 2024
Cloud VDS S NVMe 42.99€ 3 24.0 180 32000 Sep 11 2024
Cloud VDS M NVMe 55.99€ 4 32.0 240 32000 Jan 29 2024
Cloud VPS 6 61.50€ 24 120.0 600 32000 Jul 27 2024
c7i.large $71.06 2 4.0 40 0 Sep 10 2024
Cloud VDS L NVMe 79.99€ 6 48.0 360 32000 Apr 28 2024
Cloud VDS XL NVMe 102.99€ 8 64.0 480 32000 Jul 23 2023
m7i.2xlarge $293.90 8 32.0 0 0 Oct 28 2024

Compare specs for all plans from all providers

Performance Grades

To summarize the performance of each VPS plan, we generated grades based on the various tests that were run: web, sysbench, endurance and remote timing tests. Each grade focuses on one aspect of the VPS speed or stability (cpu, disk IO, network IO...) and is made of one or more metrics measured during the tests.

Grades are evenly distributed between A and F. A is best, F is worst.

Follow the letter links to find the test results backing the grade.

How are grades calculated?

Screen all VPS from Contabo and Amazon EC2
Plan Name Web Perf Raw CPU Power Perf Stability Disk IO Perf Network Perf
Cloud VPS 1
4.50€
A B B C E
Cloud VPS 2
9.50€
E B E E D
Cloud VPS 3
14.00€
E B E E D
m7g.medium
$30.98
C E A F C
m7a.medium
$43.33
C D B F C
Cloud VDS S NVMe
42.99€
B C B C E
Cloud VDS M NVMe
55.99€
C B B C D
Cloud VPS 6
61.50€
E B F E D
c7i.large
$71.06
B E D F C
Cloud VDS L NVMe
79.99€
D B C C D
Cloud VDS XL NVMe
102.99€
B A C B C
m7i.2xlarge
$293.90
C C D F C
Show Price Weighted Grades   

Features and Datacenters

This list is a subset of the features each provider may offer.

Amazon EC2 Contabo
Backups  Yes Yes
Block storage  Yes No
Object storage  Yes Yes
Load balancer  Yes No
DDoS protection  Yes Yes
Hourly Billing  Yes No
SSH Keys Setup  Yes Yes
Total Number of Datacenters  22 12
Number of Datacenter Continents  4 4
Compare more Contabo and Amazon EC2 Features

CPUs

These are the CPUs we have seen in Contabo and Amazon EC2 instances in the past 18 months.

Contabo Amazon EC2
All Contabo CPUs by plan All Amazon EC2 CPUs by plan
AMD EPYC 7282 16-Core Processor
AMD EPYC 9224 24-Core Processor
AMD EPYC 9R14
Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum 8488C
unknown

Performance Consistency

The provider consistency score shows how much variation can be expected between 2 servers of the same type at the same provider. A high consistency score (>65) means the performance of all servers of the provider is consistent over many trials and many plans.

Providers who don't have enough data yet at VPSBenchmarks don't have a consistency score.

Contabo Amazon EC2
Consistency Score 49 46

Screenshots


VPS Instance Provisioning Time

This is the average time it took to create an instance for Contabo and Amazon EC2 from instance order to instance accepting connections.

All VPS provisioning times

Contabo Amazon EC2
Number of instance creations in sample 10 4
Average provisioning time 22295s 26s

Performance in Depth...

These are some of the test results that are used to determine the grades above.

Web Response Times

We ran a database intensive web application at various levels of load on cloud servers from Contabo and Amazon EC2. This is the average response time measured locally on the VPS for each plan we tested.



Local Response Time per Plan

Lower is better


Maximum HTTP Load

We ran a database intensive web application at various levels of load on cloud servers from Contabo and Amazon EC2. This is the maximum rate of HTTP requests that each server handled without timing out.



Maximum HTTP request rate

Higher is better


During the Web Test, we collect response time metrics, rate metrics and CPU metrics. All of those are measured locally on the VPS running the web server. All metrics can be compared on the Web Performance Comparison page.

Sysbench CPU Performance

We ran the full suite of Sysbench tests on VPS plans of Contabo and Amazon EC2. These are the Sysbench CPU test results:



Rate of operations

Higher is better


Sysbench Disk IO Performance

We ran the full suite of Sysbench tests on VPS plans of Contabo and Amazon EC2. These are the Sysbench Disk IO Random Read test results:



Rate of operations

Higher is better

Sysbench test results are also available for random disk IO tests, sequential disk IO tests and memory tests.
Review and compare all Sysbench numbers on the Sysbench Comparison page for Contabo and Amazon EC2.

Network Transfers

We have performed large file transfers from the Contabo and Amazon EC2 VPS and we measured the speed of downloads and uploads.

The transfers involve multiple files, 10 threads and last for at least 10 seconds at maximum speed. The transfers are repeated 3 times from different servers and only the fastest transfer is reported here.


Download Speed per Plan

Higher is better

Network Transfers measurements including download and upload speeds can be compared for Contabo and Amazon EC2 on the Network Transfers Comparison page.

Sustained CPU Endurance Tests

We pushed the CPU of those VPS plans hard for 24 hours straight.

This test shows how fast the VPS can go for long periods of time, how stable the performance is and it also gives clues on how overallocated the VPSs may be.

Throughput variations of the endurance test over 24 hours. The coefficient of variation is the standard deviation of the test throughput divided by its average value. Low variations mean that resources allocated to the server were stable for the duration of the test and there was little contention.


Ops/hour coefficient of variation

Lower is better

Review and compare endurance test results for Contabo and Amazon EC2 on the Sustained CPU Endurance Comparison page.

Having trouble finding the VPS that fits your needs?

Use the VPS Screener to quickly zero in on the specifications, performance and price that you're looking for.


Compare Contabo and Amazon EC2 against other providers



Run VPSBenchmarks on your own servers

With "Private Trials", the same benchmarks that run on all VPS at vpsbenchmarks.com will run on the servers of your choice. The results are private and you will be able to compare them to any other public benchmark on this website.

Run your first Private Trial for just $4.



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