Opinion

Three European boxes. One honest pick.

Search “cheap VPS Europe” and you get coupon sites. Here is the short version from plans we actually track.

Default pick: Hetzner Cloud. Clean SKUs, strong euro-per-RAM, EU datacenters, and a list price that does not pretend to be a 24-month promo. If you know SSH, start here.

More RAM for the money: Contabo. When the budget is fixed and you need 8–24 GB for self-hosted stacks, Contabo often wins the spreadsheet. Expect less polish and fair-use traffic — fine if you self-manage.

Easier panel, watch renewal: Hostinger KVM. NVMe and guided tools look great at signup. Model month 13 before you call it cheaper than Hetzner. See the intro-pricing trap and Hostinger vs Hetzner.

Filter the live table for EU-capable + min 2 GB RAM on the compare engine, then confirm nothing moved on the price tracker. Full ranking: Cheap VPS in Europe · Contabo vs Hetzner.