Oracle Cloud vs Contabo
Oracle Cloud is a full cloud that bills VMs by the hour, with GPUs, Arm, Mac servers and regions worldwide. Contabo is a hosting company that rents a KVM server by the month at a flat rent, which you then set up yourself.
The companies and products
Oracle Cloud
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is Oracle's general-purpose cloud: compute, storage, networking, databases and AI services in regions around the world.
OCI Compute rents virtual machines and bare metal servers on x86 (AMD, Intel) and Arm (Ampere), plus GPU machines and Mac servers. You pick a shape, an OS image, a network and a disk, and then install and run everything inside the VM yourself. It is not a sandbox product, so this page compares the part that overlaps: running agent code on a VM.
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.
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 364” means no of the other 363 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 | Oracle 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 | 58th of 367, with limits $413 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 | 100th of 366, with limits $376 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 Short code runs are cheap on Oracle's burstable VMs, but each waits for a VM boot; on Contabo every machine is rented for a month. | 51st of 345, with limits $16 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 Neither suits a fresh sandbox per user: Oracle Cloud leaves the sandbox layer to you, and Contabo servers take minutes to provision and bill monthly; bochka ranks 1st. | 31st of 361, with limits $115 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 Oracle Cloud fits big rollout fleets on price once your tenancy limits are raised; on Contabo every parallel machine is a full month's rent. | 7th of 360, with limits $679 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 Oracle Cloud ranks 1st here because it bills by the hour and stopped VMs pause compute billing, while Contabo must keep each eval machine rented for a whole month. | Cheapest of 364 $136 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 Oracle Cloud and bochka both bill CI runners only while they run, while a Contabo runner is rented for the month whether it is busy or not. | 6th cheapest of 377 $102 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 For one box that runs all month, Contabo ranks 1st on its flat monthly rent and Oracle Cloud ranks 2nd; bochka costs more but saves the disk every minute. | 2nd cheapest of 368 $12 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 Oracle Compute VMs nor Contabo servers have a desktop stream, so you install one yourself; bochka streams a 60fps desktop with Chromium. | 75th of 369, with limits $97 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 | 154th of 367, with limits $49 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 | 150th of 346, with limits $32 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 | 35th of 338, with limits $642 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 | 102nd of 360, with limits $26 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 | Oracle Cloud | Contabo | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | A plain cloud VM or bare metal server that you set up yourself | A monthly-rented VPS or VDS server that you set up yourself | A sandbox VM made for agents, created and driven by API |
| Billing | Pay as you go per OCPU hour and memory GB hour; stopping a standard VM pauses compute billing | Flat monthly rent per server, minimum first term of one month; listed prices assume a 24-month term | Monthly plan from $20 that becomes usage credit spent per second; a stopped sandbox costs nothing |
| CPU | Choice of shapes; the cheapest burstable ones guarantee 12.5% of each vCPU | Cloud VPS shares vCPU cores with no published guarantee; Cloud VDS has dedicated cores | 4 vCPU / 8 GB by default on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts, measured at 26.69 runs/s |
| Isolation | KVM VM with its own kernel; bare metal also available | KVM VM with its own kernel | Full VM with its own kernel |
| Docker and nested virtualization | Root on every VM, Docker is yours to install; nested KVM documented on E5 and Standard3 Flex VMs, not on Ampere Arm | Root on every VM, Docker is yours to install; no nested virtualization on any VPS plan, only on Cloud VDS | Docker, root, systemd and /dev/kvm ready on every machine |
| Saved state | Boot volume kept while stopped and billed until deleted; backups by hand or on a schedule | 1 to 5 manual disk snapshots by plan, kept 30 days, restored in place; none on Cloud VDS | Snapshots every minute and on stop |
| Fork | Custom image of the boot disk; imaging a running VM shuts it down for several minutes | No fork; custom images upload as ISO or QCOW2 | Fork a running sandbox while it keeps running |
| Desktop and coding agents | No desktop on Compute VMs and no coding agents preinstalled | Headless server with a VNC console for setup; no coding agents built in | 60fps desktop with Chromium and computer use; Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and more, driven by a prompt, steer and events API |
| Keeping keys out of the machine | OCI Secret Management; the VM fetches secrets, so the key ends up inside | None; secrets live inside the server | AI credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API you register |
| Reaching the machine | Public IPv4 and any port you open in security rules; HTTPS through your own server or a load balancer | Static IPv4 and a /64 IPv6, all ports; domains and TLS are yours to set up | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected; raw TCP; dedicated IPv6 or IPv4 |
| Network rules | Security lists and network security groups by IP range, protocol and port; domain filtering through OCI Network Firewall | No provider-side egress allowlist | Open internet on every plan; no provider-side allowlist |
| Running many at once | Default or trial service limits per tenancy; more needs an approved limit increase | No published limit; big orders can wait on identity checks and stock | 100 to 2,000 sandboxes at once by plan, self-serve |
| GPUs, Windows, Mac and Arm | Nvidia and AMD GPUs, Windows Server, Mac servers and Ampere Arm VMs | GPU VPS with an Nvidia RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell and Windows Server as a licensed add-on; no Mac or Arm | Linux x86 only, no GPUs; Wine for Windows apps |
| Regions and free tier | Regions across the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Australia; Always Free Arm compute each month | 11 locations: EU, UK, three US sites, Singapore, Japan, India, Australia | EU only: Germany, Finland, France, with EU data residency |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | Oracle Cloud | Contabo | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | Yes | No | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | Yes | 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) | No | 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 | No | No | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | Yes | 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 | Yes | 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 | Yes | No | No |
| HIPAA | Yes | No | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Performance
There is no comparable CPU measurement for Oracle Cloud or Contabo: neither was in StarSling's sandbox benchmark run of 2026-09-29. bochka did 26.69 Node.js build-and-test runs per second there at 4 vCPU / 8 GB on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts. Oracle's cheap burstable shapes guarantee only 12.5% of each vCPU, and Contabo's Cloud VPS shares cores with no published guarantee.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Oracle 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 | Oracle 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 · Usage account · with limits | $7 · Usage account | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $15 · Usage account · with limits | $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 | $203 · Usage account · with limits | $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 | $49 · Usage account · 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 | $97 · Usage account · with limits | $6,600 · Usage account · with limits | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
Oracle Cloud: Oracle bills per OCPU hour (one x86 OCPU is two vCPUs) and per GB hour of memory while a VM runs, plus the boot disk until you delete it; the first 10 TB of outbound data each month is free. The Oracle prices in our table use burstable VMs billed at a 12.5% CPU baseline, so full-speed shapes cost more.
Contabo: Contabo charges a flat monthly rent per server, busy or idle, with a minimum first term of one month and lower rates on longer terms. A Cloud VPS 4 with 4 vCPU, 8 GB and 100 GB of disk lists at $6.60 a month before extras.
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
Every Oracle row is marked as not fitting because those prices use burstable VMs that are throttled above 12.5% of each vCPU, which a busy agent hits all day; a new tenancy also needs an approved limit increase for 50 agents or 1,000 jobs at once. Contabo bills every machine for a full month, so 300 user sandboxes come to $1,980 and 1,000 short jobs to $6,600, and it publishes no limit on how many servers one account can run. Contabo's shared vCPUs can slow under heavy, sustained load. On bochka the 1,000-job burst needs more starts per day and per hour than the $2,000 plan allows.
| Scenario | Oracle Cloud | Contabo | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays |
|
| None that bite |
| One agent that never stops |
| None that bite | None that bite |
| 50 agents in parallel |
|
| None that bite |
| Sandboxes for your users |
|
| None that bite |
| 1,000 short jobs at once |
|
|
|
Which one should you use?
Use Oracle Cloud when
your machines come and go by the hour, or you need GPUs, Mac servers, Arm, strict network rules or regions worldwide, and you are fine building your own setup on top.
- Hourly billing that stops with the VM. Useful for work that comes and goes: Oracle bills per hour, and stopping a standard VM pauses compute billing.
- GPUs, Mac servers and Arm. Useful if your work needs big GPUs, macOS or Arm: Oracle Cloud rents all three, which Contabo does not.
- A free small box and fine network control. Useful for one small personal box or strict traffic rules: Always Free Arm compute and per-port, per-range firewalls.
Use Contabo when
you want one or a few servers that run all month at a flat rent, with root, a static IP and no cloud to learn.
- One low-rent server that runs all month. Useful for one always-on box: a flat monthly rent buys a 4 vCPU / 8 GB VPS with 100 GB disk and a static IPv4.
- Simple bills. Useful if you want one known rent per server, with traffic unlimited under fair use instead of metered.
- A plain server, ready in minutes. Useful if you just want a server with root and a static IP, without learning a big cloud's networks and limits.
Where bochka fits
Oracle Cloud and Contabo both rent plain VMs that you set up and run yourself. If what you are really running is agents, bochka gives each one a full VM by API in seconds, with Docker, /dev/kvm, a desktop, coding agents and a disk saved every minute already there.
Saved every minute, forked while running
When an agent breaks its machine, Oracle has your last backup and imaging a running VM shuts it down for minutes; Contabo has 1 to 5 manual snapshots. bochka snapshots every minute and forks a running sandbox.
Coding agents and a desktop built in
On either one you install the agent, write glue to drive it over SSH, stream a desktop yourself and keep the API key on the machine. bochka ships the agents, a 60fps desktop and a credentials proxy.
Machines that start and stop all day
Oracle needs approved limit increases for big fleets and its cheap shapes throttle above 12.5% of each vCPU; Contabo rents each parallel machine for a month. bochka runs 100 to 2,000 at once, billed per second.
Use bochka when agents start, stop and fork machines all day: each sandbox is a full VM from an API in seconds, with Docker, /dev/kvm, a desktop, coding agents and a disk saved every minute. Compare it one to one: bochka vs Oracle Cloud and bochka vs Contabo.
Questions people ask
Is Oracle Cloud cheaper than Contabo?
It depends on the work. For one agent that never stops, Contabo's flat rent is $7 a month against $15 on Oracle, and Oracle's shape is a throttled burstable VM. For machines that come and go, Oracle bills by the hour: 300 user sandboxes come to $49 on Oracle against $1,980 on Contabo, and $200 on bochka.
Which is faster, Oracle Cloud or Contabo?
Neither has a comparable measurement in the benchmark we use, so we don't rank them. Oracle's speed depends on the shape you pick, and its cheapest burstable shapes guarantee only 12.5% of each vCPU. Contabo's Cloud VPS shares cores with no published guarantee, while Cloud VDS gives dedicated cores.
Does Contabo have hourly billing like Oracle Cloud?
No. Contabo rents servers by the month with a minimum first term of one month, and its listed prices assume a 24-month term. Oracle bills per hour and pauses compute billing when you stop a standard VM, and bochka bills per second.
Can Oracle Cloud and Contabo run Docker and nested virtualization?
Both give you root, so you can install Docker yourself. Oracle documents nested KVM on E5 and Standard3 Flex VMs but not on Ampere Arm; Contabo does not support it on any VPS plan, only on Cloud VDS. Every bochka sandbox has Docker and /dev/kvm ready.
Can I run AI coding agents on Oracle Cloud or Contabo?
Yes, on a server you set up yourself: you install the agent and Docker, run it over SSH, and keep your API key on the machine. Neither has a sandbox API, built-in coding agents or a desktop stream. bochka ships all of that and keeps real keys out of the sandbox.
Where do Oracle Cloud, Contabo and bochka run?
Oracle Cloud has regions across the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Australia, plus government clouds. 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.
Try bochka
Install the CLI, then run bochka new.
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