Compare Contabo Object Storage and UpCloud on capabilities, jurisdiction, assurance, and fit for European buyers.
Both listed as alternatives to: DigitalOcean
Germany· Cloud Computing
Needs review
Shortlist when you want a Ceph S3 bucket next to Contabo VPS or VDS, can use path-style endpoints, and can live without S3 logging. Skip when you need Amazon-complete S3, a first-party custom TLS hostname, company-wide ISO 27001 or SOC 2, or a store with no US parent and no US region. Consider Hetzner Object Storage or OVHcloud Object Storage instead.
Finland· Cloud Computing
Needs review
Shortlist UpCloud when you want Finnish-contracted IaaS with MaxIOPS storage, CNCF Managed Kubernetes, managed open-source databases, and customer-pinned EU regions—plus optional global PoPs. Skip when you need hyperscaler-only PaaS depth or the absolute lowest bare-metal VPS pricing; consider Hetzner, Scaleway, or AWS/Azure/GCP depending on that gap.
Highlighted rows differ between the two products.
| Feature | Contabo Object Storage | UpCloud |
|---|---|---|
| Country of origin | Germany | Finland |
| Category | Cloud Computing | Cloud Computing |
| Open source | No | No |
| Self-hosted | No | No |
| Headquarters | Germany | Finland |
| Legal entity | Contabo GmbH (Welfenstrasse 22, 81541 Munich; AG Munich HRB 180722; VAT DE267602842) | UpCloud Oy (Business ID 2431560-5), Aleksanterinkatu 15 B, 00100 Helsinki |
| Governing law | Not listed | Finland (Terms of Service; arbitration Helsinki) |
| US parent / control | US parent or control | No known US parent |
| CLOUD Act exposure (indicative) | High | Medium |
| Hosting / residency | Object storage sold in the EU (eu2.contabostorage.com), United States (usc1.contabostorage.com), and Singapore (sin1.contabostorage.com). Contabo operates its own data centers. No public object-storage subprocessor list. Management API auth is at auth.contabo.com. Official custom-domain docs use Cloudflare as an optional customer-side proxy, not as the S3 data plane. | Customer-selected regions across 15 DCs (EU majority: FI, SE, NO, DK, DE, NL, ES, PL, UK; plus US-CHI/NYC/SJO, SG, AU) in colocations (Equinix, Digital Realty, CoreSite, Telia, Verne, Green Mountain, etc.). Customer Data stays in chosen DC. Vendor: EU VMs have no customer-data subprocessors; group subsidiaries only otherwise. Account data in Finland with global support access (incl. US/SG). Payments/hCaptcha are separate third parties. |
| Summary | S3-compatible object storage from Munich-based Contabo GmbH, running on Ceph with EU, US, and Singapore endpoints. | Finnish IaaS from UpCloud Oy (Helsinki): MaxIOPS block storage, Cloud Servers, managed Kubernetes and databases across 15 global regions with customer-selected residency. |
| Tags |
| At a glance | Contabo Object Storage | UpCloud |
|---|---|---|
| HQ | Munich, Germany (Contabo GmbH, HRB 180722) | Helsinki, Finland |
| Product | Hosted Ceph S3 object storage | Not listed |
| S3 regions | EU (eu2), United States (usc1), Singapore (sin1) | Not listed |
| Addressing | Path-style; HTTPS only | Not listed |
| Commercial model | Purchased capacity with optional auto-scale; no per-GB egress on Contabo's stated model | Hourly pay-as-you-go; trial credits; zero-cost egress policy |
| Ownership | KKR majority (2022), Oakley Capital Fund V minority | Not listed |
| Legal entity | Not listed | UpCloud Oy (2431560-5) |
| Founded | Not listed | 2011 |
| Regions | Not listed | 15 DCs / 12 countries (EU-heavy + US/APAC) |
| Open source | Not listed | No (platform proprietary) |
| Self-hosted | Not listed | No (public/private cloud IaaS) |
| Key capabilities | Contabo Object Storage | UpCloud |
|---|---|---|
| S3-compatible (partial) | Yes | Not listed |
| Ceph backend | Yes | Not listed |
| EU region available | Yes | Not listed |
| German GmbH | Yes | Not listed |
| In-panel DPA | Yes | Not listed |
| Finnish-operated IaaS | Not listed | Yes |
| MaxIOPS block storage | Not listed | Yes |
| CNCF Managed Kubernetes | Not listed | Yes |
| ISO 27001 (claimed) | Not listed | Yes |
| Selectable EU regions | Not listed | Yes |
| Zero-cost egress policy | Not listed | Yes |
Ceph S3 API with path-style buckets
Contabo states the store is Ceph-based and largely S3 compatible, not fully equivalent to Amazon S3. Logging is not supported. Official tool notes require Contabo S3 URLs, path-style buckets, and access_key/secret_key mapped to aws_access_key_id/aws_secret_access_key.
EU, US, and Singapore S3 endpoints
Documented base URLs are eu2.contabostorage.com (European Union), usc1.contabostorage.com (United States), and sin1.contabostorage.com (Singapore). The management API allows one object-storage purchase per location. All locations on an account share the same S3 credentials.
Bucket versioning and Object Lock
Versioning is enabled per bucket via s3api put-bucket-versioning on the regional endpoint. Suspending versioning stops new versions but does not delete old ones. Object Lock can be turned on at bucket creation (example uses GOVERNANCE mode) so objects cannot be overwritten or deleted for a retention period.
Capacity auto-scale via management API
The Contabo API (not the S3 API) orders, upgrades, cancels, and auto-scales purchased space up to a monthly size limit. Usage statistics are exposed there. The open-source cntb CLI (GPL-3.0) wraps the same management API. S3 keys come from the User Management API or the Object Storage panel.
Published client list and hard limits
Documented working tools include cntb, aws cli, rclone, Cyberduck, goofys, s3fs-fuse, s3cmd, WinSCP, Cloudberry Explorer, BucketAnywhere, Virtualmin, Velero, and Plesk. FileZilla Pro is listed as incompatible. Defaults include 5 TB max object size, 100 buckets, 3 million objects (increasable on request), 250 requests per second, and 10 MByte/s default bandwidth.
MaxIOPS clustered block storage
In-house all-flash block tier rated up to ~100,000 read IOPS at 4K, separate from compute hosts, with Standard and Archive tiers for capacity. Attach up to 16 devices per server (up to 64 TB total); encryption at rest optional. Suits databases and I/O-heavy apps that outgrow commodity cloud disks.
Cloud Servers on AMD EPYC with automation
Linux/Windows VMs with Starter, Premium, and Cloud Native plan families, hot resize options, firewall, utility and SDN private networking. Full lifecycle via control panel, REST API, CLI, Terraform/OpenTofu, Pulumi, and Crossplane—for teams automating fleets rather than clicking one-off VPS.
CNCF Managed Kubernetes (UKS)
Managed control planes with CNCF-certified Kubernetes versions, autoscaler integration, CSI block volumes, load-balancer integration, and private-only clusters. Worker nodes use ordinary Cloud Server plans including Private Cloud hosts—good fit when you want K8s without running etcd yourself.
Managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, Valkey, OpenSearch
Turnkey databases with automated backups, multi-node HA options, private utility/SDN connectivity, and point-in-time recovery on relational plans. Reduces ops load for product teams that still want open engines rather than proprietary hyperscaler databases.
Customer-selected global regions (EU-first footprint)
Fifteen data centers across twelve countries: dense Northern/Central Europe (Helsinki x2, Stockholm, Stavanger, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Madrid, Warsaw, London) plus US, Singapore, and Sydney. Customer Data stays in the chosen zone unless you request a move—use EU zones for residency programmes.
Zero-cost egress packaging and 99.999% SLA line
Public pricing emphasises no per-GB internet egress charges under a Fair Transfer Policy, plus Premium-class 99.999% SLA with service credits for unscheduled downtime. Simplifies bills for chatty APIs and multi-service architectures compared with classic egress meters—confirm fair-use limits for extreme transfer cases.
| Assurance & compliance | Contabo Object Storage | UpCloud |
|---|---|---|
| Independent security / no-logs audit | Not found Searched About, help, and product docs. No public independent audit PDF for Object Storage. | Vendor claimed Vendor states cloud services audited against Finnish PiTuKri criteria by an independent firm; ISO 27001 ISMS regularly audited. Public PiTuKri report not fully reproduced on marketing pages—request artefacts. |
| ISO 27001 | Partial Some Contabo location marketing pages list colocation-facility ISO 27001 (for example Singapore). No company-wide Contabo ISO 27001 certificate found. | Vendor claimed Vendor asserts ISO 27001 certified ISMS and publishes certificate PDF; independent registry re-check not completed in this draft. |
| SOC 2 / SOC 3 | Not found No Contabo-issued SOC 2 or SOC 3 report found. Facility-level SOC marks on some non-EU location pages are not treated as a Contabo attestation. | Not found Facility providers list SOC reports; no clear first-party UpCloud SOC 2 Type II product claim found on compliance pages reviewed. |
| GDPR / EU data protection | Vendor claimed EU legal entity; DPA available in the Customer Control Panel and listed as covering Object Storage. EU region is optional, not exclusive. | Vendor claimed Finnish controller/processor under GDPR; customer chooses region; DPA in ToS; CISPE Code of Conduct adherence claimed. |
| US CLOUD Act exposure (indicative) | Partial Contabo GmbH is German, but KKR (US) has been the majority investor since June 2022 and Contabo sells a US object-storage region. Not legal advice. | Partial Finnish entity / no known US parent; EU-region VMs can avoid US storage. Material exceptions: optional US DCs, US/SG support affiliates for account ops, US colocations if selected. Assessment not a vendor safety claim. Not legal advice. |
| Data processing agreement (B2B) | Vendor claimed Customer Control Panel wizard. Object Storage is an explicit covered service. Review the generated PDF. | Vendor claimed DPA incorporated into Terms of Service; binding on acceptance without separate signature per vendor. |
| EU AI Act | Not applicable Object storage IaaS, not an AI system. | Not applicable General-purpose IaaS/platform; not an AI system provider by primary product. |
| CISPE Code of Conduct | Not listed | Vendor claimed Vendor states adherence to CISPE data protection code for cloud infrastructure providers. |
| Considerations & known limitations | Contabo Object Storage | UpCloud |
|---|---|---|
| US private-equity majority owner | High Oakley Capital announced in June 2022 that KKR would be majority investor, with Oakley Fund V retaining a minority stake. Treat CLOUD Act exposure as high at the ownership layer even when objects sit on eu2.contabostorage.com. | Not listed |
| Optional United States object region | Medium usc1.contabostorage.com is a first-party SKU. Shared credentials across locations make it easy to point a client at the US endpoint by mistake. Pin the EU URL if residency is a hard requirement. | Not listed |
| Partial S3 compatibility | Medium Contabo states the Ceph API is not fully compatible with AWS S3. Logging is unsupported. Path-style addressing is required. FileZilla Pro does not work. Test SDK features before migrating production. | Not listed |
| Default request and bandwidth caps | Medium Published defaults include 250 API requests per second, 10 MByte/s bandwidth, 100 buckets, and 3 million objects. Auto-scale increases purchased terabytes, not those caps. | Not listed |
| No public company-wide audit | Medium No independent Object Storage audit, Contabo-issued ISO 27001, or SOC 2 report was found. Facility ISO/SOC marks on some location pages are not a substitute. | Not listed |
| No first-party custom TLS hostname | Low HTTPS-only S3 endpoints reject a simple CNAME. Public websites need a customer-operated reverse proxy. Public-to-private ACL changes may remain cached for up to one hour. | Not listed |
| Optional non-EU regions and support access | Not listed | Medium US, Singapore, and Sydney zones are first-class options. Mis-pinned workloads or defaults can place Customer Data outside the EU. Account information is accessible to non-EEA support staff even when VMs stay in Europe. |
| Narrower catalogue than hyperscalers | Not listed | Low Strong IaaS and focused managed services; missing many proprietary AWS/Azure/GCP PaaS and AI products. Multi-cloud or dual-vendor designs may still be required. |
| Limited public SOC 2 for UpCloud entity | Not listed | Medium ISO 27001 and PiTuKri claims are published; a customer-facing SOC 2 Type II for UpCloud itself was not found. Enterprise questionnaires may need NDA artefacts or reliance on ISO plus facility reports. |
| Colocation facility dependency | Not listed | Low Platform runs in third-party data centres. Facility certifications differ by site; treat them as complementary to UpCloud’s own ISMS, not a substitute for vendor due diligence. |
| Fair Transfer Policy on zero egress | Not listed | Low Zero-cost egress is a commercial differentiator but is governed by a Fair Transfer Policy—extreme or abusive transfer patterns may fall outside the marketing promise. Validate for CDN-scale or bulk egress designs. |
When: You want a German hoster's object store with an EU-concentrated footprint and no US majority PE owner
Consider: Hetzner Object Storage
Contabo's own comparison places Hetzner object storage in European data centers and notes a thinner APAC story.
When: You need a broader EU compliance portfolio (ISO 27001, SecNumCloud) more than a simple capacity bill
Consider: OVHcloud Object Storage
Billing and product surface are more complex than Contabo's single-account IaaS stack.
When: You need managed Kubernetes or managed Postgres next to S3, not just raw buckets
Consider: Scaleway Object Storage
France-first footprint. Contabo does not sell first-party managed databases or Kubernetes.
When: You need Amazon-complete S3 (logging, IAM, global regions) and will accept a US cloud
Consider: Amazon S3
Use Contabo only after you have tested the Ceph compatibility gaps against your SDK.
When: You need cheaper raw compute or dedicated servers more than managed K8s packaging
Consider: Hetzner
Often stronger on price for VPS/dedicated; compare managed service depth separately.
When: You want a broader French/EU public-cloud portfolio or different regional SKUs
Consider: OVHcloud or Scaleway
Different product breadth and commercial culture; still European-operated peers.
When: You need hyperscaler-managed platforms, global enterprise contracts, or deep marketplace ecosystems
Consider: AWS, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure
Trade European HQ simplicity for catalogue depth and global account teams.
When: You want a compact European cloud with Swiss roots and a tighter region set
Consider: Exoscale
Compare region map and managed feature parity to UpCloud’s 15-DC footprint.