The best Contabo alternative depends on why you are looking: a data centre closer to your users, dedicated rather than shared CPU, hourly billing for short-lived servers, included backups, support you can reach in your time zone, or a payment method that works for you. Decide which of these matters most, then compare providers on that, using like-for-like specifications rather than the lowest headline price. This is Tremhost’s own blog, and Tremhost is one of the providers listed.
What makes a VPS provider a good Contabo alternative?
CPU type: shared or dedicated
What to check: whether the plan’s vCPUs are shared with other customers or dedicated to your server, and the generation of the hardware.
Why it matters: two plans with “2 vCPU” can perform very differently. Shared vCPUs are cheaper but can slow down when neighbours are busy; dedicated cores cost more but behave predictably. Compare shared with shared and dedicated with dedicated.
Data centre location
What to check: the list of regions, and which is nearest most of your users.
Why it matters: every request travels to the server and back. For users in Zimbabwe and southern Africa, a Johannesburg region is much closer than Europe or North America.
Storage type and size
What to check: NVMe or SSD, the size, and whether extra block storage is available.
Why it matters: databases and busy sites are sensitive to disk speed. Large but slow disks suit backups better than applications.
Billing model
What to check: hourly or per-second billing versus fixed monthly or yearly terms, setup fees, and the renewal price.
Why it matters: hourly billing suits test servers you create and destroy. Fixed monthly or yearly plans are simpler to budget for a server that runs all year.
Backups and snapshots
What to check: whether backups are included or charged as a percentage of the server price, how often they run and where they are stored.
Why it matters: an unmanaged VPS without backups is one mistake away from data loss.
Bandwidth
What to check: the monthly transfer allowance and the price per GB over it.
Why it matters: media sites and download services can exceed small allowances quickly.
Support and management
What to check: support hours and channels, and whether a managed option exists if you later want someone else to run the server.
Why it matters: on an unmanaged VPS you run the server, but you still need the provider for network, hardware and billing problems.
Payment methods
What to check: cards, PayPal, mobile money, local bank transfer or cryptocurrency.
Why it matters: if your card is declined, the cheapest plan is no use.
A shortlist of VPS providers to compare
Listed in alphabetical order, not ranked. Figures come from each provider’s own page as listed on 5 November 2026 and can change. We have not tested these services, and the plans differ in CPU type, so read the full specifications before comparing prices.
DigitalOcean
Its Droplet pricing page, as listed on 5 November 2026, starts Basic Droplets at $4 a month for 1 vCPU, 512 MiB RAM, 10 GiB SSD and 500 GiB transfer, billed per second with a monthly cap. Backups cost extra (20% of the Droplet price for weekly, 30% for daily). Its listed data centres are in North America, Europe, India, Singapore and Australia.
Hetzner
Its cloud pricing page, as listed on 5 November 2026, starts Regular Performance cloud servers (shared resources) at €6.49 a month excluding VAT, with General Purpose servers with dedicated vCPUs from €43.49 a month. Locations are Falkenstein and Nuremberg in Germany, Helsinki in Finland, Singapore, and Hillsboro and Ashburn in the USA.
Tremhost
Tremhost’s KVM VPS plans are unmanaged, with dedicated cores, NVMe storage, full root access and one IPv4 address. KVM 1 is $15 a month for 2 cores, 2 GB RAM and 40 GB NVMe; KVM 4 is $25 a month for 6 cores, 8 GB RAM and 120 GB; on KVM 1 to 6, a year costs ten times the monthly price. Data centres are Johannesburg, New York, Miami, Limburg (Germany) and Roubaix (France). Payment is in US dollars by EcoCash, InnBucks, ZimSwitch, Omari, Visa, Mastercard or cryptocurrency. Support is by ticket, WhatsApp and booked call, Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 17:00 CAT, not round the clock. Hosting and servers carry a 99.9% monthly availability target in Tremhost’s SLA.
Vultr
Its Regular Performance compute page, as listed on 5 November 2026, starts at $2.50 a month on previous-generation shared Intel CPUs and regular SSDs, billed hourly with a monthly cap, and lists Johannesburg among its regions.
Which should you choose? A decision guide
- Your users are in Zimbabwe or southern Africa: pick a provider with a Johannesburg region. Of the pages above, Tremhost and Vultr list one.
- You need predictable CPU for a database or busy application: compare dedicated-core plans only; Tremhost’s KVM plans and Hetzner’s General Purpose servers are described as dedicated.
- You spin servers up and down for testing: per-second or hourly billing, as DigitalOcean and Vultr list, keeps short-lived servers cheap.
- You want to pay by EcoCash or ZimSwitch: Tremhost accepts these; see its payment methods guide. Check any other provider’s billing page first.
- You would rather not run the server yourself: look for a managed option. Tremhost’s managed cPanel VPS starts at $80 a month with cPanel, LiteSpeed, CloudLinux, Imunify360 and backups included.
How to move from Contabo to another VPS
- Take a full backup of files, databases and configuration, and copy it off the server.
- Build the new server with the same operating system version where possible, and install your stack.
- Copy data and test using a temporary hostname or your hosts file before changing DNS.
- Lower the DNS TTL a day in advance, then switch records and watch logs.
- Keep the old server running for a few days until you are sure nothing is missing, then cancel it.
Frequently asked questions
Why are some VPS plans much cheaper than others with the same specs?
Usually because of shared versus dedicated CPU, older hardware, smaller bandwidth allowances, backups charged separately or longer contract terms. Compare like for like.
Is a Johannesburg VPS faster for Zimbabwean visitors?
Generally, a nearer data centre means less network delay for visitors in the region. Test with your own users if speed matters; Tremhost’s data centre page lists its locations.
Do I need a control panel on a VPS?
No. Many developers manage servers over SSH. A panel such as cPanel helps if you host many websites or email accounts, but it usually adds a licence cost.
Next step
Write down the cores, RAM, storage, location and billing you actually need, then compare two or three providers on the criteria above. If Tremhost is on your list, ask on WhatsApp (+263 73 563 9917) which KVM plan matches your current server.
