Most SaaS startups eventually need three infrastructure layers: shared compute for early-stage workloads (Cloud VPS), dedicated compute when traffic demands consistent performance (Cloud VDS), and scalable object storage for user uploads, backups, and media. The question is whether to assemble these from separate providers — adding cost, complexity, and cross-provider egress fees — or to run the whole stack under one account. Contabo covers all three layers under a single flat-rate account, with EU data centers and S3-compatible object storage that connects directly to any VPS or VDS instance in the same region. This guide compares how Contabo stacks up against Hetzner, DigitalOcean, OVHcloud, and Scaleway on exactly this combination.
Full-Stack Provider Comparison: VPS + VDS + Object Storage (2026)
The table below compares providers on the five dimensions that matter for a SaaS startup choosing a unified IaaS stack. Verify current pricing and product specs directly before committing.
| Provider | VPS | VDS (dedicated CPU) | Object Storage | S3 API | Flat billing | EU DCs | One account |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contabo | Cloud VPS (Core/Plus/Max) | Cloud VDS (AMD EPYC dedicated) | Yes — EU/US/Asia regions | Yes | Yes — fixed monthly, no egress on VPS traffic | Yes (Hub Europe + 8 global) | Yes — all products, one invoice |
| Hetzner | Cloud VPS | Dedicated root servers (bare-metal) | Yes — EU and select US | Yes | Yes — predictable; some transfer overage | Yes (DE, FI, US-VA, US-OR) | Yes |
| DigitalOcean | Droplets | CPU-Optimized Droplets | Spaces ($5/mo base, 250 GB + 1 TB transfer) | Yes | Moderate — Spaces overages apply | Yes (AMS, FRA, LON + global) | Yes |
| OVHcloud | Public Cloud VPS | Dedicated servers (separate product line) | Yes — S3-compatible | Yes | Complex — public cloud usage-based; dedicated flat | Yes (FR, DE, UK, PL + global) | Yes — one account, mixed billing models |
| Scaleway | Instances | Bare metal servers | Yes — French regions | Yes | Usage-based (hourly instances) | Yes (FR primarily) | Yes |
Why One Account Matters More Than It Sounds
Splitting compute and storage across two different providers seems like a minor inconvenience until you’re running in production. Three specific costs compound over time:
- Internal egress billing — when your VPS reads files from an object storage bucket at the same provider, some platforms treat this as billable data transfer. Others (Contabo, Hetzner) do not charge for intra-region traffic between their own products. For a SaaS that processes user-uploaded images, videos, or documents — generating continuous storage reads — this difference adds up month over month.
- Operational overhead — two providers means two sets of API credentials, two billing cycles, two support relationships, and two access-control models. For a small SaaS team, that administrative overhead is not free.
- Latency — routing storage reads over the public internet (cross-provider) adds round-trip latency compared to using a provider’s internal network. In a request-response cycle where your application needs to load a file before returning a response, that latency is visible to end users.
Provider Deep-Dives: Where Each One Wins and Loses
Contabo — Best Flat-Rate Value, EU-First
Contabo’s infrastructure spans Cloud VPS (Core and Performance lines with shared vCPUs at different performance tiers), Cloud VDS (AMD EPYC dedicated cores with NVMe storage as the default configuration), and S3-compatible Object Storage available in EU, US, and Asia-Pacific regions — all under a single customer account with one monthly invoice.
The billing model is the primary differentiator: fixed monthly price per product, no egress charges on VPS and VDS traffic, and Object Storage priced per storage tier without hidden transfer fees. For a SaaS startup on a predictable budget that needs EU data residency and wants to avoid infrastructure billing surprises, this is the clearest value proposition in the comparison. The upgrade path from VPS to VDS is in-account — no provider migration, no contract renegotiation when the startup outgrows shared compute.
The honest trade-off: Contabo is an IaaS provider. Managed Kubernetes, managed Postgres, and managed Redis are not first-party services — teams manage their own stack with Docker Compose, Helm, or their preferred tooling. For teams that need managed databases alongside their compute, DigitalOcean or OVHcloud fill that gap.
Hetzner — Best Raw Compute Price, EU-Concentrated
Hetzner delivers the lowest compute cost per core and per GB of RAM in this comparison — typically 30-60% cheaper than DigitalOcean for equivalent VPS specs, and competitive with Contabo on the Cloud VPS line. Its S3-compatible Object Storage is simply priced and hosted in European data centers. Like Contabo, billing is predictable with no per-GB egress surprises on standard plans.
The primary limitation for global SaaS teams: Hetzner’s US footprint covers only Virginia and Oregon; APAC coverage is absent. For European-first SaaS where most users are in the EU, Hetzner is the strongest pure price-performance option. The dedicated server line covers the dedicated-CPU use case, though these are bare-metal machines requiring more initial setup than cloud-managed VDS instances.
DigitalOcean — Best Developer Experience and Managed Services
DigitalOcean’s strength is ecosystem breadth. Droplets (VPS), CPU-Optimized Droplets (VDS-equivalent with dedicated vCPUs), Spaces object storage, managed PostgreSQL and MySQL, managed Redis, and managed Kubernetes (DOKS) all exist under one platform with consistent documentation and a clean API. For a SaaS team that wants to avoid running its own database and prefers not to think about infrastructure management, DigitalOcean reduces operational complexity at a moderate cost premium.
Spaces pricing ($5/month base covering 250 GB storage and 1 TB outbound transfer) is straightforward at low volumes. Overages apply past the included transfer allowance — worth modelling if your SaaS serves high volumes of media. DigitalOcean has the most global location coverage of the group outside AWS/Azure territory, which matters for SaaS products with users distributed across multiple continents.
OVHcloud — Broadest EU Compliance Certifications
OVHcloud is the largest European cloud provider by infrastructure scale and holds the most extensive compliance certification portfolio of the providers in this comparison: ISO 27001, SecNumCloud (the French government’s highest-tier cloud security qualification), and GDPR adequacy documentation across its EU data centers. VPS, dedicated servers, and S3-compatible object storage all live under one customer account.
The practical complexity: OVHcloud’s public cloud instances are usage-based (hourly), while its dedicated server line uses flat monthly pricing. These two billing models coexist on the same invoice but require separate cost modelling. For SaaS startups serving regulated industries — financial services, healthcare, or public-sector clients in Europe — OVHcloud’s certification portfolio often justifies this complexity. For teams outside regulated sectors, Hetzner or Contabo are simpler choices.
Scaleway — Developer-Focused, France-First
Scaleway offers a clean developer experience with Instances (VPS), Elastic Metal bare metal servers, and S3-compatible Object Storage, plus managed Kubernetes (Kapsule) and managed Postgres that are more mature than Hetzner’s equivalents. Its Terraform provider is well-maintained and actively used in production by French and broader European teams.
The main geographic constraint: Scaleway’s data centers are concentrated in France (Paris and Lyon) with one location in Amsterdam. For SaaS teams whose users are primarily French or Western European, this is sufficient. For broader EU coverage or any non-EU requirement, Scaleway’s footprint becomes a limitation. Pricing uses hourly billing for instances, which is predictable for steady workloads but requires cost attention for variable ones.
S3 Integration With Your VPS and VDS: What to Verify Before Committing
Before finalising a provider, answer these four questions:
- Intra-provider egress cost — when your VPS reads from the same provider’s object storage bucket, is that transfer billed? If yes, find the per-GB rate and model against your expected monthly data volume. The difference between free and $0.02/GB becomes significant at a few terabytes of reads per month.
- Private network availability — can your VPS reach the object storage endpoint via a private or internal IP address, or does all traffic route over the public internet? Private network access reduces latency and avoids public egress charges entirely.
- S3 API feature coverage — most providers implement the core S3 operations (PUT, GET, DELETE, LIST), but some omit features like S3 Select, bucket versioning, object-level logging, or presigned URL expiry. Cross-check against your application’s AWS SDK usage.
- Regional co-location — is the object storage bucket available in the same geographic region as your VPS? Cross-region reads within one provider are faster and cheaper than cross-provider reads, but intra-region is fastest and cheapest.
How to Choose: Decision Checklist for SaaS Founders
| Your situation | Recommended path |
|---|---|
| EU-first SaaS, cost is the priority, team manages its own stack | Contabo (flat-rate, EU, VPS+VDS+Object Storage one account) or Hetzner (lowest raw compute cost) |
| Global SaaS, want managed databases and Kubernetes, developer experience matters | DigitalOcean |
| Regulated industry (finance, healthcare, public sector), EU compliance certifications required | OVHcloud (SecNumCloud, ISO 27001) |
| EU SaaS, want managed Postgres and clean developer API | Scaleway |
| SaaS currently on a shared VPS, will need dedicated CPU as traffic grows, want to avoid provider migration | Contabo — VPS to VDS upgrade is in-account, no re-platforming |
| GDPR data residency required, prefer a German-owned provider with no US parent company | Contabo (Germany) or Hetzner (Germany) |
| Media-heavy SaaS with high outbound transfer volume (video, large files) | Verify egress policy first — Contabo’s no-egress model has the clearest cost ceiling |
FAQ: VPS, VDS, and Object Storage for SaaS Startups
Contabo, Hetzner, DigitalOcean, OVHcloud, and Scaleway all offer VPS, dedicated compute (VDS or equivalent), and S3-compatible object storage under a single customer account. The key differences are billing model (flat vs usage-based), EU-only vs global data center coverage, and the availability of managed services (databases, Kubernetes) alongside the compute and storage products.
Yes — Contabo Object Storage uses the S3 API, works with the AWS SDK and tools like rclone and s3cmd, and is available in EU, US, and Asia-Pacific regions. For a SaaS startup storing user uploads, application backups, or static assets, the integration with any Contabo VPS or VDS in the same region is direct and billable at a flat monthly rate without egress fees. Verify current pricing tiers at contabo.com/en/object-storage/ before committing.
Often yes — but the specifics depend on the provider. Providers like Contabo do not charge egress fees on VPS or VDS traffic at all, making intra-provider object storage reads effectively free in terms of transfer billing. Other providers include a transfer allowance per plan and charge overages. The key question to ask any provider: what is the per-GB transfer rate when a VPS in region X reads from an object storage bucket in the same region?
For pure compute cost, Hetzner typically delivers the lowest per-core and per-GB pricing for its Cloud VPS line. For the combination of compute, dedicated CPU (VDS), and object storage under one flat monthly price with no egress billing, Contabo is the most cost-predictable option. The ‘cheapest’ answer depends on whether you value the lowest unit cost (Hetzner wins) or the most predictable total monthly bill without usage surprises (Contabo’s flat-rate model wins).
