IONOS Cloud vs Contabo

Both are German hosts that rent KVM servers you set up yourself. IONOS Cloud bills its Cubes by the minute next to storage, networks and GPUs, while Contabo rents a VPS by the month, with locations as far as Asia and Australia.

The companies and products

IONOS Cloud

IONOS Cloud is the public cloud of IONOS, a German hosting company in the United Internet group. It is a hyperscaler-style IaaS cloud, not an agent sandbox.

You rent KVM virtual machines: Cubes (fixed sizes from 1 to 16 vCPU with a local NVMe disk, billed by the minute), vCPU servers up to 60 vCPU and 230 GB of RAM, Dedicated Core servers and H200 GPU VMs. You build them in the Data Center Designer or through the Cloud API, SDKs and Terraform, next to block storage, private networks, firewalls and managed services. It is for teams that want to run their own servers in Germany, the rest of Europe or the US, and set up everything on them themselves.

Company: IONOS, member of the United Internet group; IONOS Group SE listed since February 2023
Founded: As 1&1 in 1988, headquartered in Germany
Isolation: KVM virtual machines; a Cube is a VM with an attached NVMe volume
Locations: Cubes and vCPU servers in Germany (Berlin, Frankfurt), UK (London, Worcester), France (Paris), Spain (Logroño) and the US (Newark, Lenexa)
GPUs: NVIDIA H200 PCIe VMs with 1 to 8 GPUs, in Frankfurt and Worcester
Billing: Pay as you go; Cubes are invoiced by the minute; first 2 TB of outgoing traffic each month at no charge

Contabo

Contabo is a German hosting company, founded in Munich in 2003, that rents VPS, dedicated-core VDS, GPU and dedicated servers by the month.

A Contabo Cloud VPS is a KVM virtual machine with shared vCPU cores, a fixed RAM allocation, a static IPv4 and root access, which you order, pay for and then manage yourself. It is a VPS host, not a sandbox product: there is no per-second billing, no agent tooling and no managed HTTPS in front of the server. It fits people who want one cheap server that runs all month in a region of their choice.

Founded: 2003, in Munich, Germany (Contabo GmbH)
Isolation: KVM virtual servers; Cloud VPS shares vCPU cores at the hypervisor, Cloud VDS has dedicated cores
Billing: Monthly rent, minimum first term of one month; listed prices assume a 24-month term
Regions: 11 locations in 9 regions: EU, UK, three US sites, Singapore, Japan, India, Australia
Network: 1 static IPv4 and a /64 IPv6 subnet per server
GPUs: GPU VPS with an Nvidia RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell, in Europe and US Central
Provisioning: A few minutes after payment clears; orders can need identity checks

Which use cases each one fits

For each use case, Battleships prices every sandbox provider on the same workload and sorts them from the cheapest monthly bill up. “Cheapest of 377” means no of the other 376 providers run that workload, with every feature it needs, for less. “With limits” means the provider runs it but misses something, so it is listed after every full match. Open a use case for its whole ranking and what each provider misses.

Use case and its workload	IONOS Cloud: price rank	Contabo: price rank	bochka: price rank
Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month	64th of 367, with limits $492 a month	79th of 367, with limits $660 a month	3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month
Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB Both can keep an assistant running for months, but you install the agent, its keys and its desktop yourself; bochka ranks 5th with those built in.	107th of 366, with limits $540 a month	95th of 366, with limits $330 a month	5th cheapest of 366 $657 a month
Code interpreter bursts 100 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 200,000 sessions of 1 min a month Many short code runs suit IONOS Cloud's per-minute billing better than Contabo's monthly rent, if you can create and delete VMs fast enough through its API.	53rd of 345, with limits $27 a month	159th of 345, with limits $660 a month	186th of 345, with limits $2,000 a month
Sandboxes for your users 300 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 23 min a month Sandboxes for your users need fast starts and stops: IONOS Cloud ranks 35th, Contabo 153rd because of monthly terms, and bochka ranks 1st.	35th of 361, with limits $182 a month	153rd of 361, with limits $1,980 a month	Cheapest of 361 $209 a month
RL rollouts 1,000 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 1,000,000 sessions of 3 min a month IONOS Cloud ranks 9th for RL rollouts thanks to per-minute billing, while Contabo ranks 108th; bochka ranks 34th.	9th of 360, with limits $740 a month	108th of 360, with limits $6,600 a month	34th of 360, with limits $2,000 a month
Agent evals 250 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 15,000 sessions of 20 min a month	93rd of 364, with limits $137 a month	177th of 364, with limits $1,650 a month	10th cheapest of 364 $200 a month
CI runners 40 at once · 8 vCPU / 16 GB · 6,000 sessions of 12 min a month IONOS Cloud ranks 1st for CI runners because it bills by the minute, while Contabo ranks 133rd since every runner is a full month's rent; bochka ranks 4th.	Cheapest of 377 $60 a month	133rd cheapest of 377 $2,980 a month	4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month
24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB Contabo ranks 1st for one dev box that runs all month, since a flat monthly rent buys a 4 vCPU / 8 GB server; IONOS Cloud ranks 9th and bochka 18th.	9th cheapest of 368 $20 a month	Cheapest of 368 $6.6 a month	18th cheapest of 368 $26 a month
Computer-use agents 50 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 20,000 sessions of 15 min a month Neither has a desktop for computer use, only a console for fixing servers, so you would install and stream one yourself; bochka ranks 6th.	86th of 369, with limits $137 a month	140th of 369, with limits $330 a month	6th cheapest of 369 $200 a month
Browser-use agents 50 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 10 min a month	156th of 367, with limits $74 a month	232nd of 367, with limits $330 a month	7th cheapest of 367 $200 a month
Scraping & bots (startup scale) 50 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 100,000 sessions of 3 min a month	153rd of 346, with limits $40 a month	258th of 346, with limits $330 a month	6th cheapest of 346 $90 a month
Mass scraping & bots (undetectable) 1,000 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 3,000,000 sessions of 2 min a month	39th of 338, with limits $897 a month	184th of 338, with limits $6,600 a month	71st of 338, with limits $1,800 a month
Parallel red teaming 200 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 5,000 sessions of 30 min a month	105th of 360, with limits $38 a month	321st of 360, with limits $1,320 a month	2nd cheapest of 360 $200 a month
GPU eval jobs 10 at once · 8 vCPU / 32 GB · 500 sessions of 30 min a month	Can't run it	Can't run it	Can't run it
macOS agents 5 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 1,000 sessions of 20 min a month	Can't run it	Can't run it	Can't run it

Key features

Feature	IONOS Cloud	Contabo	bochka
What it is	Public cloud: KVM servers plus storage, private networks and managed services	Monthly-rented VPS and VDS servers you set up yourself	Sandbox VMs for AI agents, started and stopped from an API
Billing	Pay as you go; Cubes invoiced by the minute, no plan fee	Monthly rent, minimum first term of one month; listed prices assume a 24-month term	Monthly plan from $20 that becomes usage credit, spent per second on running sandboxes
Stopping a machine	Suspended Cubes keep billing; to stop paying you snapshot and delete the Cube	The month's rent is due whether the server is busy or idle	A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk
Isolation	Every server is a KVM VM with its own kernel	KVM VM; Cloud VPS shares vCPU cores, Cloud VDS has dedicated cores	Full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts
Docker and nested virtualization	Root Linux VM where you install Docker; running your own VMs inside is not documented	Root VM where you install Docker; nested virtualization not on any VPS plan, only on Cloud VDS	Docker, root, systemd and /dev/kvm ready on every machine
Snapshots	Manual full snapshots of a block storage volume, usable only in the same location	1 to 5 manual disk snapshots by plan, kept 30 days, restored in place; none on Cloud VDS	Automatic snapshots every minute and on stop
Fork	Snapshot a disk, then create new VMs from it; disk only, no memory	No fork; custom images upload as ISO or QCOW2	Fork a running sandbox in one call; named snapshots as templates
Desktop and computer use	None; a remote console for troubleshooting servers	Headless server; a VNC console for setup and rescue	60fps desktop and Chromium, computer use and browser control, embeddable stream
Coding agents	None in the VM; an MCP server lets your own AI client manage IONOS resources	None built in; 1-Click images for apps like n8n, Ollama and OpenClaw	Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and more preinstalled, driven from outside with a prompt, steer and events API
Keeping keys out of the machine	None; you put secrets into the VM yourself	None; secrets live inside the server	AI credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API you register
Reaching the machine	Public IP on each VM and any port you open; reserved IPv4 billed per 30 days; load balancers	Static public IPv4 and a /64 IPv6, all ports; domains and TLS are yours to set up	HTTPS URLs with TLS for up to 50 ports, token-protected; raw TCP; dedicated IPv6 or IPv4
Network rules	Network Security Groups with ingress and egress rules by IP, port and protocol	Firewall rules for incoming traffic; no outbound allowlist	Open internet on every plan; no provider-side allowlist
GPUs	NVIDIA H200 PCIe VMs, 1 to 8 GPUs, in Frankfurt and Worcester	GPU VPS with an Nvidia RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell, in Europe and US Central	None
Regions	Germany, UK, France, Spain and the US	11 locations: EU, UK, US, Singapore, Japan, India and Australia	EU only: Germany, Finland, France

Every feature Battleships tracks (43)

Feature	IONOS Cloud	Contabo	bochka
Full VM (own kernel)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Docker inside	Yes	Yes	Yes
Nested virtualization	Not published	No	Yes
Root	Not published	Yes	Yes
Systemd	Not published	Yes	Yes
Desktop GUI	No	No	Yes
Browser	No	No	Yes
Computer-use API	No	No	Yes
SSH	Yes	Yes	Yes
Persistent disk	Yes	Yes	Yes
Pause/resume	Yes	No	Yes
Automatic snapshots	No	No	Yes
Fork/clone	Yes	No	Yes
Live fork (no pause)	Yes	No	Yes
Memory fork	No	No	No
Custom image (Docker or snapshot)	Yes	Yes	Yes
≥24 h sessions	Yes	Yes	Yes
Idle auto-stop	No	No	No
Wake on request	No	No	No
HTTPS preview URLs	Yes	No	Yes
Raw TCP inbound	Not published	Yes	Yes
Public IPv4	Yes	Yes	No
Egress allowlist	Yes	No	No
Secret proxy	No	No	Yes
Secret proxy for any API	No	No	Yes
Preinstalled agents	No	No	Yes
Agent harness API	No	No	Yes
MCP server	Yes	No	No
GPU	Yes	Yes	No
Windows	Yes	Yes	No
Arm64	No	No	No
Self-hosting	No	No	No
BYOC	No	No	No
Open source	No	No	No
Scoped API keys	Not published	Not published	Yes
Spend limits	Not published	Not published	Yes
Usage per sandbox (API)	Yes	No	Yes
Audit logs	Not published	Not published	No
SSO	Yes	No	No
SOC 2	Not published	No	No
HIPAA	No	No	No
EU data residency	Yes	Yes	Yes
Zero data retention	Not published	Not published	Yes

Performance

IONOS CloudNot measured

ContaboNot measured

bochka26.69 runs/s

There is no comparable CPU measurement for IONOS Cloud or Contabo: neither was in StarSling's hpc-sandbox-benchmarks run. bochka did 26.69 Node.js build-and-test runs per second at 4 vCPU / 8 GB in that run, on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts. Contabo's Cloud VPS shares vCPU cores, and we don't guess how either host would score.

Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. IONOS Cloud and Contabo have no published run in this suite yet, so there is no like-for-like number to compare.

Pricing in five scenarios

Each bill is priced from the providers' public price lists by the open Battleships engine, with the cheapest plan that runs the scenario.

Scenario	IONOS Cloud, a month	Contabo, a month	bochka, a month
One coding agent, workdays 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, 8 hours a day, 22 days a month, files kept between days	$5 · Pay as you go	$7 · Usage account	$20 · $20/mo
One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month	$20 · Pay as you go	$7 · Usage account	$26 · $20/mo
50 agents in parallel 50 machines of 4 vCPU / 8 GB at once, 8-hour sessions, 1,100 sessions a month, Docker inside	$240 · Pay as you go	$330 · Usage account	$317 · $20/mo × 3 seats
Sandboxes for your users 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 30,000 sessions of 10 minutes a month, up to 300 at once	$74 · Pay as you go · with limits	$1,980 · Usage account · with limits	$200 · $100/mo × 2 seats
1,000 short jobs at once 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 1,000 at once, 3 minutes each, 200,000 jobs a month	$148 · Pay as you go · with limits	$6,600 · Usage account · with limits	$2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits

IONOS Cloud: IONOS Cloud bills Cubes by the minute at a fixed rate per size, with the NVMe disk included, and the first 2 TB of outgoing traffic each month is free. Suspended Cubes keep billing, so the low workday figure assumes you snapshot and delete the machine each night.

Contabo: Contabo charges a flat monthly rent per server, busy or idle, and its listed prices assume a 24-month term. Each machine you need at the same time is a full month's rent, even for short bursts.

Contabo: You pick a monthly plan from $20, and all of it becomes usage credit spent per second on running sandboxes. A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.

Limits in those scenarios

Neither IONOS Cloud nor Contabo publishes how many servers one account can run at once, so 300 sandboxes for your users and 1,000 short jobs at once are not confirmed on either. On Contabo each of those machines is also a full month's rent, which is why those scenarios come to $1,980 and $6,600 a month there, and its shared Cloud VPS cores can slow down under heavy, sustained load. One IONOS Cube tops out at 16 vCPU and 64 GB. On bochka, start-rate limits mean even the $2,000 plan queues the 1,000-job burst.

Scenario	IONOS Cloud	Contabo	bochka
One coding agent, workdays	None that bite	monthly cap reached	None that bite
One agent that never stops	None that bite	None that bite	None that bite
50 agents in parallel	how many machines can run at once: limit not published, probably fine at 50 (the typical published limit is 50)	monthly cap reached how many machines can run at once: limit not published, probably fine at 50 (the typical published limit is 50)	None that bite
Sandboxes for your users	not confirmed: how many machines can run at once (you need 300; the typical published limit is 50)	not confirmed: how many machines can run at once (you need 300; the typical published limit is 50) monthly cap reached	None that bite
1,000 short jobs at once	not confirmed: how many machines can run at once (you need 1,000; the typical published limit is 50)	not confirmed: how many machines can run at once (you need 1,000; the typical published limit is 50) shared vCPUs on this tier: heavy, sustained CPU use can be slowed by other tenants monthly cap reached	max 2,400 starts/day (needs ~6,667) max 600 starts/hour (needs ~1,000) bursts above 90 starts/min are queued (a burst of 333 takes ~4 min to start)

Which one should you use?

Use IONOS Cloud when

machines run in bursts and you want per-minute billing, H200 GPUs, Windows Server, or servers next to private networks, storage and outbound firewall rules.

Billing by the minute. Useful for machines that run in bursts: Cubes are invoiced by the minute with no plan fee or monthly term.
H200 GPUs next to your servers. Useful if you train or serve models: IONOS Cloud rents NVIDIA H200 VMs with 1 to 8 GPUs.
A whole cloud with outbound rules. Useful if servers must sit next to private networks and storage, with egress limited by IP, port and protocol.

Use Contabo when

you want one cheap server that runs all month, a machine in Asia or Australia, or nested virtualization on a Cloud VDS.

One server that runs all month. Useful for one always-on box: a flat monthly rent buys a 4 vCPU / 8 GB VPS with a static IPv4.
Locations far from Europe. Useful if your users are in Asia or Australia: Contabo has servers in Singapore, Japan, India and Australia.
Nested virtualization on Cloud VDS. Useful if you run VMs inside your server: Contabo's dedicated-core Cloud VDS line supports nested virtualization.

Where bochka fits

IONOS Cloud and Contabo both rent empty Linux servers, which is right for hosting your own software. If what you are really running is AI agents that start, stop and fork machines all day, bochka gives each one a full VM from an API with coding agents, a desktop and saved state already there.

Coding agents you drive from outside

On both, you install each agent, copy real API keys onto the server and write the code that prompts and watches it. bochka preinstalls the agents, drives them by API, and its credentials proxy keeps real keys out of the sandbox.

State saved every minute, and free stops

IONOS snapshots are manual and suspended Cubes keep billing, so stopping the bill means snapshot, delete and rebuild. A Contabo Cloud VPS 4 has one manual snapshot slot and bills all month. bochka saves every minute and a stopped sandbox costs nothing.

A desktop and /dev/kvm on every machine

Computer-use agents need a screen, and emulators need /dev/kvm. Neither host has a desktop for agents, IONOS does not document nested virtualization, and Contabo offers it only on the pricier Cloud VDS line.

Use bochka when agents start, stop and fork machines all day: each sandbox is a full VM from an API, saved every minute, with a desktop and coding agents you drive from outside. Compare it one to one: bochka vs IONOS Cloud and bochka vs Contabo.

Questions people ask

Is IONOS Cloud cheaper than Contabo?

It depends on how long machines run. For one agent that never stops, Contabo comes to $7 a month against $20 on IONOS Cloud, but for 50 agents in parallel IONOS is lower, $240 against $330, because it bills by the minute. IONOS's $5 workday figure assumes you delete the machine each night, since suspended Cubes keep billing.

Which is faster, IONOS Cloud or Contabo?

We have no comparable CPU measurement for either, so we can't say. bochka did 26.69 Node.js build-and-test runs per second at 4 vCPU / 8 GB in StarSling's benchmark. Contabo's Cloud VPS shares vCPU cores, while its Cloud VDS has dedicated cores.

Does Contabo have hourly billing like IONOS Cloud?

No. Contabo rents servers by the month with a minimum first term of one month. IONOS Cloud invoices Cubes by the minute, and bochka bills per second while a sandbox runs.

Can IONOS Cloud and Contabo run Docker?

Yes, both give you a root Linux VM where you install Docker yourself. Contabo supports nested virtualization only on Cloud VDS, and IONOS does not document it. Every bochka sandbox has Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm ready.

Where do IONOS Cloud and Contabo run?

IONOS Cloud runs in Germany, the UK, France, Spain and the US. Contabo has 11 locations in the EU, the UK, the US, Singapore, Japan, India and Australia. bochka runs only in the EU, in Germany, Finland and France.

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