Vergelijk Contabo Object Storage en Hetzner op mogelijkheden, rechtsgebied, waarborgen en geschiktheid voor Europese kopers.
Beide vermeld als alternatief voor: 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.
Germany· Cloud Computing
Needs review
Shortlist for German-owned IaaS/bare metal in DE/FI parks, API cloud VMs, inclusive-traffic EU economics, ISO 27001 + BSI C5 Type 2. Skip for hyperscaler PaaS depth, SOC 2-first audits, or zero US-group footprint (optional US Ashburn/Hillsboro + Singapore via subsidiaries/colocation). Prefer OVHcloud/Scaleway for broader EU portfolios; STACKIT for DE public-sector framing.
Gemarkeerde rijen verschillen tussen de twee producten.
| Kenmerk | Contabo Object Storage | Hetzner |
|---|---|---|
| Land van herkomst | Germany | Germany |
| Categorie | Cloud Computing | Cloud Computing |
| Open source | Nee | Nee |
| Self-hosted | Nee | Nee |
| Hoofdkantoor | Germany | Germany |
| Juridische entiteit | Contabo GmbH (Welfenstrasse 22, 81541 Munich; AG Munich HRB 180722; VAT DE267602842) | Hetzner Online GmbH, Industriestr. 25, 91710 Gunzenhausen (HRB 6089 Ansbach) |
| VS-moeder / zeggenschap | VS-moeder of zeggenschap | Geen bekende VS-moeder |
| CLOUD Act-blootstelling (indicatief) | Hoog | Middel |
| Hosting / residentie | 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. | Owned parks: Nuremberg, Falkenstein (DE), Helsinki (FI). Non-cloud EU-only. Cloud optional US (Ashburn, Hillsboro) and Singapore on 3rd-party colocation. AV subprocessors: Hetzner Finland Oy; US: Hetzner US LLC, NTT Americas, QTS Hillsboro; SG: Hetzner Singapore, NTT SG1. Master data stays EU. |
| Samenvatting | S3-compatible object storage from Munich-based Contabo GmbH, running on Ceph with EU, US, and Singapore endpoints. | German data center operator (Gunzenhausen): dedicated servers, Hetzner Cloud VPS, storage, and owned parks in Germany and Finland, with optional US and Singapore cloud locations. |
| Tags |
| In één oogopslag | Contabo Object Storage | Hetzner |
|---|---|---|
| HQ | Munich, Germany (Contabo GmbH, HRB 180722) | Gunzenhausen, Germany |
| Product | Hosted Ceph S3 object storage | Niet vermeld |
| S3 regions | EU (eu2), United States (usc1), Singapore (sin1) | Niet vermeld |
| Addressing | Path-style; HTTPS only | Niet vermeld |
| Commercial model | Purchased capacity with optional auto-scale; no per-GB egress on Contabo's stated model | Niet vermeld |
| Ownership | KKR majority (2022), Oakley Capital Fund V minority | Niet vermeld |
| Legal entity | Niet vermeld | Hetzner Online GmbH (HRB 6089 Ansbach) |
| EU parks | Niet vermeld | Nuremberg, Falkenstein (DE); Helsinki (FI) |
| Optional cloud regions | Niet vermeld | Ashburn and Hillsboro (US); Singapore |
| Model | Niet vermeld | IaaS / dedicated / hosting (unmanaged cloud and root) |
| Open source | Niet vermeld | No (commercial infrastructure) |
| Key capabilities | Contabo Object Storage | Hetzner |
|---|---|---|
| S3-compatible (partial) | Ja | Niet vermeld |
| Ceph backend | Ja | Niet vermeld |
| EU region available | Ja | Niet vermeld |
| German GmbH | Ja | Niet vermeld |
| In-panel DPA | Ja | Niet vermeld |
| EU-operated (DE HQ) | Niet vermeld | Ja |
| Owned DE/FI parks | Niet vermeld | Ja |
| ISO 27001:2022 | Niet vermeld | Ja |
| BSI C5 Type 2 | Niet vermeld | Ja |
| Bare metal + auction | Niet vermeld | Ja |
| Optional US/SG cloud | Niet vermeld | Ja |
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.
Dedicated root servers and Server Auction
Bare-metal root servers with full hardware isolation for predictable I/O and custom OS installs. The Server Auction lists surplus or end-of-primary-use machines at declining prices for labs, secondary environments, and cost-sensitive dedicated capacity.
Hetzner Cloud with API, networks, and apps
VMs with shared or dedicated vCPU classes, managed via Console, REST API, and CLI. Private networks, stateful firewalls, load balancers, Linux images, Terraform/Ansible/Kubernetes integrations, and one-click apps (Docker, Nextcloud, GitLab CE, WireGuard, and more) for self-hosted stacks.
Owned EU data center parks plus optional US/Singapore cloud
Company-operated parks in Nuremberg, Falkenstein (Germany), and Helsinki (Finland). Cloud also in Ashburn, Hillsboro (USA), and Singapore on third-party colocation. Non-cloud products and EU-selected cloud locations keep server data in the EU per Hetzner docs; master data stays in the EU.
ISO 27001, BSI C5 Type 2, and console DPA
Public ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certificate for DE/FI park scope; BSI C5 Type 2 for cloud; Art. 28 DPA accept-in-console with published TOMs and annual external TOM review available to DPA customers. Not a SOC 2-first vendor.
Inclusive traffic-oriented European cloud pricing model
Pay-as-you-go cloud (hourly or monthly) and list-based dedicated servers, with marketing emphasis on high inclusive traffic on European plans versus hyperscaler egress bills. Confirm current allowances and rates only on the official calculator—figures change by region and over time.
| Assurance & compliance | Contabo Object Storage | Hetzner |
|---|---|---|
| Independent security / no-logs audit | Not found Searched About, help, and product docs. No public independent audit PDF for Object Storage. | Not applicable Hosting/IaaS, not a no-logs VPN. Public ISO 27001, BSI C5 Type 2, and annual TOM review (TUV Rheinland) instead. |
| ISO 27001 | Partial Some Contabo location marketing pages list colocation-facility ISO 27001 (for example Singapore). No company-wide Contabo ISO 27001 certificate found. | Verified ISO/IEC 27001:2022; public SOCOTEC certificate. Scope: infrastructure, operation, support of Nuremberg, Falkenstein, Helsinki parks. |
| 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 Hetzner states focus on ISO 27001 rather than SOC 2 for international market. |
| 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 German entity; public privacy policy, Art. 28 DPA, TOMs, subprocessor list. Customer remains controller for data on rented systems. |
| 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 EU entity / no known US parent, but optional US cloud uses Hetzner US LLC and US colocation (NTT, QTS); Singapore similarly. EU placements keep server data in EU per docs. 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 Standard DPA accept-in-console; sample PDF published; no custom wet-ink DPAs per vendor docs. |
| EU AI Act | Not applicable Object storage IaaS, not an AI system. | Not applicable Infrastructure hosting, not an AI system product. |
| BSI C5 (cloud) | Niet vermeld | Verified Vendor publishes BSI C5 Type 2 attestation PDF for cloud services (German BSI catalogue). |
| KRITIS / section 8a BSIG | Niet vermeld | Vendor claimed Hetzner states BSI classification as operator of critical services and certification under section 8a BSIG. |
| Considerations & known limitations | Contabo Object Storage | Hetzner |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Niet vermeld |
| 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. | Niet vermeld |
| 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. | Niet vermeld |
| 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. | Niet vermeld |
| 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. | Niet vermeld |
| 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. | Niet vermeld |
| Optional US and Singapore cloud regions | Niet vermeld | Medium Ashburn, Hillsboro, and Singapore use third-party colocation and local subsidiaries; server content placed there leaves the EU. Zero-US-footprint policies may still reject the vendor even for EU-only workloads. |
| Unmanaged cloud and dedicated servers | Niet vermeld | Medium You own OS patching, app security, and backups. Platform firewalls help but do not replace customer ops. Poor fit if you need managed DBaaS and full-stack ops. |
| Narrower managed-service catalog vs hyperscalers | Niet vermeld | Low Strong IaaS and bare metal; weak match if procurement assumes AWS-parity managed services. Plan hybrid architecture early. |
| ISO scope is DE/FI parks | Niet vermeld | Low Published ISO 27001 scope centers on German and Finnish parks. Do not assume identical coverage for every US/Singapore deployment without reading current certificates. |
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 a broader European cloud portfolio or more managed service surface
Consider: OVHcloud or Scaleway
Still European operators; compare regions, bare-metal depth, and support models.
When: German public-sector sovereign cloud framing is the primary procurement driver
Consider: STACKIT
Different product and governance story; verify current certifications and residency.
When: You need hyperscaler managed depth more than EU-owned IaaS
Consider: AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud (accept US-group CLOUD Act posture)
Trade EU operator control for catalog breadth.
When: You want a smaller EU regional cloud with a different feature/region mix
Consider: Exoscale or UpCloud
Compare locations, SLAs, and managed options against Hetzner's park scale.