Softwr

Cloud · head to head

Contabo vs Portworx

Contabo logo

Contabo

Cloud

Affordable high-performance VPS hosting

From
€4.5/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Portworx logo

Portworx

Cloud

Kubernetes-native storage and data services, priced by the node hour

From
$0.33/node hour
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Contabo fully unmanaged infrastructure requires all setup and maintenance by customer; Portworx bare metal nodes are charged at 1.11 USD per node hour against 0.33 for virtual nodes, so a bare metal cluster costs more than three times a virtualised one for identical capability.
  • They diverge on capability: Contabo covers VPS Hosting, Portworx covers Container-native volumes.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Contabo and Portworx actually diverge.

Attributes where Contabo and Portworx differ
AttributeContaboPortworx
Starting price€4.5/month$0.33/node hour
Pricing modelUnknownPer node hour
PlatformsLinux, WindowsLinux
Founded2003Unknown

Identical on both: free tier (No), 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 Portworx

  • Container-native volumes
  • Failure domain placement
  • Volume encryption
  • Database automation
  • Disaster recovery
  • Autopilot capacity management
  • Hardware independence

What people use each for

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

Contabo

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

Portworx

  • Running a production PostgreSQL or Cassandra cluster on Kubernetes and needing the data to survive node lossnot Contabo
  • A platform team offering self-service databases to developers on an internal Kubernetes platformnot Contabo
  • Failing over stateful applications between clusters in different regions as a disaster recovery positionnot Contabo
  • An OpenShift estate where the built-in storage option does not meet the availability requirement for stateful setsnot 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

Portworx

  • Bare metal nodes are charged at 1.11 USD per node hour against 0.33 for virtual nodes, so a bare metal cluster costs more than three times a virtualised one for identical capability.
  • A 1,000 node hour monthly minimum applies, which means small or intermittent clusters pay for capacity they do not consume.
  • Replicating volumes across nodes consumes real capacity and network bandwidth, so the underlying infrastructure cost rises alongside the licence in a way the node hour rate does not show.
  • Pure Storage ownership means roadmap priorities are set by an array vendor, and buyers should confirm that hardware independence remains contractual rather than assumed.
  • Operating it well requires Kubernetes storage expertise, and teams that adopted Kubernetes to simplify operations often find they have added a distributed storage system to run.

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

Portworx

$0.33/node hour
  • Portworx Enterprise on virtual machine nodes$0.33/node hour
    • Minimum 1,000 node hours per month
    • Replicated persistent volumes
    • Encryption and disaster recovery
  • Portworx Enterprise on bare metal nodes$1.11/node hour
    • Minimum 1,000 node hours per month
    • Same capabilities on bare metal clusters
    • Higher rate reflects node density

Which should you pick?

Choose Contabo if

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

Choose Portworx if

  • You need container-native volumes.
  • You work on Linux.
  • You also want failure domain placement.
Portworx review

Questions people ask

Is Contabo or Portworx better?
Neither clearly leads. Contabo starts at €4.5/month and Portworx at $0.33/node hour, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Contabo or Portworx?
Contabo starts at €4.5/month and Portworx at $0.33/node hour.
Does Contabo or Portworx run on more platforms?
Contabo runs on Linux, Windows. Portworx runs on Linux.
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 Portworx is typically brought in for.
What can Contabo do that Portworx cannot?
Contabo covers VPS Hosting, Dedicated Servers, Object Storage, Snapshots. Portworx covers Container-native volumes, Failure domain placement, Volume encryption, Database automation.

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
Portworx: Is Portworx tied to Pure Storage hardware?

No. It runs on any Kubernetes distribution over any underlying storage, though Pure has owned it since 2020 and sets the roadmap.

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
Portworx: What does a real cluster cost?

At 0.33 USD per virtual node hour, twenty nodes running continuously is roughly 4,800 USD a month. Bare metal at 1.11 USD per node hour is around 16,000 USD for the same node count.

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
Portworx: Is backup included?

No. Portworx Backup is a separately priced product covering Kubernetes application backup.

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
Share

Related pages

More on Contabo

More on Portworx

Keep looking

Other head to heads