Alibaba Cloud
vs
Contabo
What's good about each
- 30+ regions, most in mainland China and Asia-Pacific
- 3,200+ CDN nodes in 70+ countries
- Qwen models served through Model Studio
- PolarDB, its own MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible database
- Low-cost VPS and dedicated servers
- Offers GPUs and object storage too
- Available in 9 regions around the world
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Alibaba Cloud | Contabo | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $5.62 /mo 2 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (ecs.e-c2m1.large) | $6.21 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM (Cloud VPS 4) | 10% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Medium VM | $60.34 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (ecs.e-c1m2.xlarge) | $8.47 /mo 6 vCPU, 12 GB RAM (Cloud VPS 6) | 86% cheaper on Contabo |
| Large VM | $188.64 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (ecs.c8a.2xlarge) | $15.82 /mo 8 vCPU, 24 GB RAM (Cloud VPS 8) | 92% cheaper on Contabo |
| Block storage | $7.60 /mo 100 GB (ESSD PL0) | -- Not listed | |
| Object storage | $27.70 /mo 1 TB | $11.25 /mo 1 TB | 59% cheaper on Contabo |
| Load balancer | $19.40 /mo Network Load Balancer | -- Not listed | |
| Serverless | $20.63 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration (0.15 vCPU) | -- Not listed | |
| Egress allowance | 200 GB / mo | Unlimited, fair usage policy applies 200 Mbit/s to 1 Gbit/s port by plan | |
| Egress | $74.00 /TB $0.074 / GB | -- Not listed |
Heads up: Figures take each provider's closest plan to a common setup, and vary by region and usage. Hover a service for the reference configuration. Verify before provisioning. More on how we price.
GPUs
Alibaba Cloud and Contabo each offer 4 GPU models. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | Alibaba Cloud | Contabo | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
V100
14 configs
|
$1.51 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | Alibaba Cloud only |
|
T4
12 configs
|
$0.62 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | Alibaba Cloud only |
|
A10
26 configs
|
$0.71 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | Alibaba Cloud only |
|
P100
12 configs
|
$0.87 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | Alibaba Cloud only |
|
RTX PRO 6000
2 configs
|
-- | $2.20 /GPU/hr Reserved (1 mo) | Contabo only |
|
H200
3 configs
|
-- | $2.88 /GPU/hr Reserved (1 mo) | Contabo only |
|
L40S
2 configs
|
-- | $1.08 /GPU/hr Reserved (1 mo) | Contabo only |
|
RTX PRO 5000
2 configs
|
-- | $1.08 /GPU/hr Reserved (1 mo) | Contabo only |
Alibaba Cloud bills on-demand and reserved (12 months); Contabo bills reserved (1 months). The line under each price names the billing type shown.
Services
Managed services each provider offers.
Compliance
Frameworks each provider states on its own site, each linked to its source.
| Framework | Alibaba Cloud | Contabo |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II | -- |
| ISO 27001 | Yes | -- |
| HIPAA | Yes | -- |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes |
| PCI DSS | Level 1 | -- |
Heads up: Each entry links to the provider's own statement. An attestation can cover one tier, one region or the platform alone rather than every service. Verify the scope before you rely on it. A dash means we found nothing to link to, not that the provider lacks it.
Company details
| Fact | Alibaba Cloud | Contabo |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2009 | 2003 |
| Headquarters | China | Germany |
| Locations | 31 | 9 |
| Example customers | Taobao, Henkel, Hang Seng Bank, Tiger Brokers | -- |
| Website | www.alibabacloud.com | contabo.com |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Alibaba Cloud and Contabo against other cloud providers.
Our data for Alibaba Cloud was last updated on Oct. 1, 2026, and for Contabo on Sept. 18, 2026.