Contabo renewal pricing: the 39% jump hiding in month two

Contabo has built its reputation on one promise: big servers for small money. The catch is written into the second line of the price table. Almost every Contabo plan has a two-tier price — a headline price for the first payment period, and a higher renewal price from the second period onwards. None of it is hidden; most people just read the first number.

The line that matters: first payment vs renewal

Take the two cloud VPS plans we track. Both are 1-month durations, so the jump lands immediately in month two:

• Cloud VPS 2 — 3 vCPU (Xeon Gold), 8 GB RAM, 100 GB SSD, 200 Mbit port, EU/US/Asia. $6.36 first month, $8.86/mo on renewal.
• Cloud VPS 5 — 4 vCPU (Xeon Gold), 16 GB RAM, 200 GB SSD, 200 Mbit port, EU/US/Asia. $12.36 first month, $17.36/mo on renewal.

That is a 39–40% step-up in both cases. If you keep the server for a year, your effective average price is far closer to the renewal number than the headline:

• Cloud VPS 2: 11 months at $8.86 plus the $6.36 first month averages out to about $8.62/mo over the year.
• Cloud VPS 5: about $16.86/mo averaged over year one.

Dedicated Duo: the rare flat one

Not every Contabo plan plays this game. The Dedicated Duo — 8 vCPU (Xeon E5-2650), 64 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, 1 Gbps port, EU/US — is $138.00/mo with a $138.00 renewal. One number, published once. If you hate pricing games, the dedicated line at least prices without them.

How this compares with other budget hosts we track

Flat-renewal hosts exist at the bottom of the market. Netcup prices its VPS with a single monthly figure, and RackNerd's annual plans renew at the same rate you signed up at. Hetzner raised list prices across its lineup in 2026 but applies the new price to existing customers too — a different model again: no two-tier table, but expect to be moved. When you compare a Contabo headline price against a flat host, compare against the flat host's renewal, not its headline.

Is the jump still worth it?

At $8.86/mo for 8 GB RAM and 3 vCPU, Cloud VPS 2 on renewal still undercut most rivals' first-month prices a few years ago. The market has tightened — hosts like AlphaVPS and GreenCloudVPS now sell comparable RAM at comparable renewal prices. Contabo's edge today is spec-per-dollar at the very low end, not renewal pricing. Check the live Contabo menu on OneYearDeal before you commit, and budget for the second number.

Prices recorded from Contabo's public price tables and checked on 2026-10-06; see each product page above for the current figures we track.