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Cloud · head to head

Contabo vs Jaeger

Contabo logo

Contabo

Cloud

Affordable high-performance VPS hosting

From
€4.5/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Jaeger logo

Jaeger

Cloud

Open-source end-to-end distributed tracing

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Jaeger has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Contabo fully unmanaged infrastructure requires all setup and maintenance by customer; Jaeger tracing is only as good as the instrumentation, and partial instrumentation produces misleading gaps
  • They diverge on capability: Contabo covers VPS Hosting, Jaeger covers Distributed trace search.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Contabo and Jaeger actually diverge.

Attributes where Contabo and Jaeger differ
AttributeContaboJaeger
Starting price€4.5/monthFree
Pricing modelUnknownOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsLinux, WindowsLinux, Kubernetes, Docker
Founded2003Unknown

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Cloud).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Contabo

  • VPS Hosting
  • Dedicated Servers
  • Object Storage
  • Snapshots
  • DDoS Protection
  • Custom ISO
  • Multiple Locations
  • SSD Storage

Only in Jaeger

  • Distributed trace search
  • Dependency graph
  • Adaptive sampling
  • Pluggable storage

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Contabo

  • Web hostingnot Jaeger
  • Game serversnot Jaeger
  • Development environmentsnot Jaeger
  • VPN serversnot Jaeger

Jaeger

  • Finding which service in a request path causes the latencynot Contabo
  • Understanding real service dependencies rather than the diagram on the wikinot Contabo
  • Debugging failures that only appear under production traffic patternsnot Contabo

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Contabo

  • Fully unmanaged infrastructure requires all setup and maintenance by customer
  • No formal SLA with financial compensation for downtime violations

Jaeger

  • Tracing is only as good as the instrumentation, and partial instrumentation produces misleading gaps
  • Storage is the real operational cost: high-volume tracing on Elasticsearch or Cassandra is a cluster to run and pay for
  • Traces alone, without correlated metrics and logs, leave you switching between tools during an incident

Pricing, plan by plan

Contabo

€4.5/month
  • Cloud VPS$4.5/month
    • 4 vCPU
    • 8 GB RAM
    • 100 GB SSD
  • Cloud VDS$39/month
    • Dedicated cores
    • 24 GB RAM
    • 180 GB NVMe
  • Dedicated Server$149/month
    • AMD CPU
    • 64 GB RAM
    • 1 TB NVMe

Jaeger

Free
  • JaegerFree
    • Full functionality
    • No usage limits
    • Community support

Which should you pick?

Choose Contabo if

  • You need vps hosting.
  • You work on Linux, Windows.
  • You also want dedicated servers.
Contabo review

Choose Jaeger if

  • You need distributed trace search.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Kubernetes, Docker.
  • You also want dependency graph.
Jaeger review

Questions people ask

Is Contabo or Jaeger better?
Neither clearly leads. Contabo starts at €4.5/month and Jaeger at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Contabo or Jaeger?
Jaeger has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at €4.5/month for Contabo and Free for Jaeger.
Does Contabo or Jaeger run on more platforms?
Contabo runs on Linux, Windows. Jaeger runs on Linux, Kubernetes, Docker.
Can I use Jaeger for free?
Yes. Jaeger has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Contabo starts at €4.5/month.
What is Contabo best used for?
Contabo is most often used for web hosting, game servers, development environments, vpn servers. Of those, web hosting and game servers are not what Jaeger is typically brought in for.
What can Contabo do that Jaeger cannot?
Contabo covers VPS Hosting, Dedicated Servers, Object Storage, Snapshots. Jaeger covers Distributed trace search, Dependency graph, Adaptive sampling, Pluggable storage.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Contabo: What is the base pricing for Contabo VPS?

Contabo Cloud VPS starts at EUR 4.50 per month (approximately $4.95 USD) with 4 vCPU cores and 8 GB RAM. Prices scale up to EUR 39+ per month for dedicated performance VPS with higher specs.

Source
Jaeger: Is Jaeger free?

Yes, open source and CNCF-graduated. Costs are the storage backend you run.

Contabo: Does Contabo raise prices at renewal?

No. Unlike many hosting providers, Contabo does not increase renewal prices. The promotional price you get at sign-up is locked in for future renewals.

Source
Jaeger: Do I use Jaeger or OpenTelemetry?

Both, usually. Instrument with OpenTelemetry and use Jaeger to store and query the traces.

Contabo: What data center locations does Contabo offer?

Contabo operates 9 global data center regions including multiple EU locations, US East/Central/West Coast, United Kingdom, India, Singapore, Japan, and Australia.

Source
Jaeger: Does Jaeger handle metrics and logs?

No. It is a tracing system. Metrics and logs need Prometheus, Loki or an equivalent.

Contabo: Does Contabo provide managed services?

No. Contabo VPS is fully unmanaged. You handle all setup, security patching, and system maintenance. Managed hosting adds 2 hours per month of dedicated support for a fee.

Source
Contabo: What is Contabo's uptime guarantee?

Contabo maintains a 99.996% uptime guarantee across all plans. The platform includes unlimited traffic and free DDoS protection.

Source
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