Contabo Review

Really happy with the service so far. The pricing is good and they offer a ton of different solutions for all kinds of needs. Works perfectly for me. Feels reliable.

Their support team is available and they actually take responsibility. Helped me fix a 2FA issue even on a weekend. Also the hosting prices look really attractive, and I'm guessing the quality is just as good.

Pretty good value for what you pay. Only complaint so far is that setting up the VPS took a while — about a week in my case. Performance seems solid though.

Problems rarely come up. But what really counts is that support responds quickly, listens well, and solves everything you report. I really like the new Contabo Firewall that works at the network level. So thanks — I'll happily stay with you and recommend you to anyone who asks.

It's simple, easy, and speedy. Good support and competitive prices. No complaints.

For now the service is awesome and fast since it's hosted in Germany, so only 7ms latency from France. Great so far — let's see how it goes in the future.

I've used Contabo for over 3 years and never had communication or usage issues. Today I had a financial problem — I added funds to my account at the same time as the monthly charge, so they took the monthly amount twice. I contacted support and they fixed it in less than two hours.

The VPS is stable and offers good value for money. I use it as a test environment for agentic AI, specifically OpenClaw and Hermes Agent. It gives me a platform to run and test these services without spending a lot on expensive computing hardware.

Excellent VPS and the best support crew ever. Really happy with them.

Great service, affordable pricing, and amazing support. Nothing else to say.

Very good company for a first experience. Support was fast when I needed it, but I never had any technical issues to begin with.

They need to monitor server performance before issues happen. But the support is fast.

I really like their services and how they price things. Adding the firewall to the dashboard covered everything I needed.

Everyone knows it's not the most advanced technically, but their support works well and never lets you down.

Really good price for VPS servers and checkout is simple. Everything worked perfectly getting it up and running. Very happy so far.

The support team responded fast and explained things clearly. Their response times are amazing.

It's a good service overall.

We're still doing tests, so let's see how it goes.

Recurring billing is broken: Manual payments work, but automatic ones disappear

I am extremely disappointed with Contabo's billing system and their support. While my initial purchase and manual top-ups are correctly reflected in the control panel, their automatic debit system is a complete mess.

Both my February and March automatic payments were debited from my bank account. I even received two confirmation emails from their automated system stating that the funds were successfully collected. However, these specific transactions do not appear in my payment history.

When I contacted support, I provided the transaction details and attached the very same confirmation emails their own system sent me, yet they ignored the evidence. I only received generic responses claiming they "don't see the payments."

My bank has confirmed that both the February and March charges are in a "pending/transition" state because Contabo triggered the debit but failed to properly claim the funds. I’ve had to switch my payment method to PayPal just to stop this from happening again.

If you value your peace of mind and don't want your money trapped in limbo while support gives you copy-pasted answers, look elsewhere. Their system is failing to synchronize, and they are making the customer pay for their technical incompetence.

UPDATE: After escalating the case to management, I received the correct transaction IDs to recover my money from the bank. Contabo also provided one month of free credit as compensation. While the technical issue is resolved, the initial support experience was very poor. Changing my rating from 1 to 4 stars due to the final resolution.

Very patient, very knowledgeable, they fixed my issue (which was my own fault), and they were courteous and respectful.

Update:
After my initial review, the QA Manager (Gil) contacted me immediately to resolve the VAT issue for the Canary Islands. My account has now been updated to 0% VAT and I have received a credit for past charges. Contabo’s technical service was already 5 stars (2 years with zero downtime), and now I can confirm that their management is also excellent when issues are escalated to the right people. Thank you, Gil, for the professional support!

Original:
I’ve been a loyal customer for 2 years and the VPS performance is 5 stars, but I’m rating 2 stars due to a severe Billing & Tax Compliance issue.

I reside in the Canary Islands (Spain), a territory that is LEGALLY EXCLUDED from the EU VAT territory according to Council Directive 2006/112/EC (Article 6).

Contabo is incorrectly charging 21% VAT in a non-VAT territory. Even more concerning, support (Ticket 16240132905) claims that because we are not an "independent nation" they must collect Spanish VAT. This is legally false, VAT is territorial (Article 6 of EU Directive 2006/112/EC)

This undue tax collection represents a serious non-compliance risk that should be reviewed by senior management or tax auditors.

I am ready to restore this review to 5 stars as soon as a manager manually fixes my account tax status and credits the overcharged VAT from the last 2 years.

It's great, but sometimes the host stops without any reason. Still a good host. I'd give it 8 out of 10.

The VPS server was set up super fast. The OpenClaw script is really useful. Download and upload speeds are great, and the price is more than fair. I'd happily use it again. One suggestion: offer Arch Linux instead of just Ubuntu. Best regards.

It's really stable and the pricing is competitive. No issues.

For now, it's been good.

My experience with Contabo has been excellent in every way. From the start, I noticed way better performance and stability than other providers I've tried. What really makes them different is the balance between price and performance — you get powerful resources for very little money, which is rare. The servers are fast and reliable, and I haven't had any real issues. Customer support is also impressive. They're responsive, professional, and always ready to help with clear solutions. Honestly, I'm very satisfied and highly recommend them.

Provisioning was quick and hassle-free. They have up-to-date systems and images. Excellent value for money.

Very good, and the pricing is fair.

I've been running a personal homelab on Contabo for a while and I'm quite satisfied. The price to specs ratio is excellent — one of the most affordable VPS options out there. I run a Matrix server, Gitea, FreshRSS, an HLS streaming server, and Syncthing through Tailscale with no issues. Response times are acceptable and it handles self-hosted services reliably. For personal use, Contabo is outstanding. One thing: there's a monthly location fee the farther you are from the EU. But even with that, it's still one of the cheapest VPS options in Japan, which says a lot.

I'm very satisfied with how quickly support responds.

Their first reply completely misunderstood my problem, but the follow-ups were excellent.

I like that Contabo offers services at very competitive prices. I have one server and it works fine. It would be great if they also offered servers in South Korea.

The helpdesk solved my problem fast. Good service overall.

They responded quickly and gave me all the info I needed.

Good pricing and the support response time is awesome whenever you need it.

The UI is well structured, configuration is easy and fast, and it's well documented. They also offer many free services and have a good price to performance ratio. I like getting update emails about security vulnerabilities and new services. Overall, good quality and easy to use from my perspective.

Great job. The team is very responsive.

The best of all, really the top number one. Everything is good and nice. Thanks Contabo.