Netcup is a German hosting provider with a reputation for selling more hardware per euro than almost anyone in Europe. Raff Technologies is a US cloud provider where the virtual machine is one product among several, alongside managed databases, object storage, Functions and Kubernetes on the same account. On raw specifications this is not a close comparison: Netcup VPS 500 G12 lists 2 vCores, 4 GB DDR5 ECC and 128 GB NVMe for €5.91/month including VAT, while the closest Raff plan is $17.99/month with 80 GB. Both offer US hosting, both use DDR5 ECC and NVMe. What differs is what runs beside the server, and who operates it.
Netcup VPS and Raff at a glance
Netcup sells two server lines. VPS uses shared vCores and is the volume product; Root Server provides dedicated cores. Alongside them it sells web hosting, domains and related services. The current VPS generation is the G12 series, running from VPS 500 G12 at 2 vCores, 4 GB DDR5 and 128 GB NVMe up to VPS 8000 G12 at 16 vCores, 64 GB and 2 TB. Every plan includes traffic, copy-on-write snapshots and a remote console, on DDR5 ECC memory and NVMe storage.
Netcup operates data centers in Vienna, Nuremberg, Amsterdam, Manassas (USA) and Singapore — a wider footprint than Raff's single us-east region, including a US East presence. The location is chosen on the product page before ordering, and Netcup does not list a location surcharge: the same plan costs the same in Manassas as in Nuremberg. Billing is either a 12-month term or hourly with no minimum commitment, and listed prices include 19% German VAT; the rate varies by the country you select.
Raff Technologies runs 15,000+ VMs for 3,000+ customers from its us-east region, with a 99.9% uptime SLA backed by service credits, rated 4.5/5 on Trustpilot and 4.6/5 on G2. VMs run AMD EPYC with DDR5 ECC memory and NVMe storage in two lines: General Purpose with shared vCPU from $4.99/month, and CPU-Optimized with dedicated vCPU from $15.99/month, scaling to 16 vCPU and 32 GB. Every plan includes a 3 Gbps port with unmetered transfer, automated Daily or Weekly backup schedules, uncapped snapshots, firewall controls, private networking and full root access, with no setup fee and no term.
Past the VM, Raff sells S3-compatible object storage at $7/month for 100 GB and 1 TB of egress, managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, Valkey, ClickHouse and Kafka from $7.99/month, managed Kubernetes with a free control plane and workers from $9.99/month, Functions with a free monthly tier, block volumes at $0.08/GiB-month, and Raff Apps from $3/month.
Netcup VPS pricing vs Raff pricing
Netcup VPS uses shared vCores, so the like-for-like Raff line is General Purpose.
| Shape | Netcup VPS G12 | Netcup ex-VAT | Raff General Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 cores / 4 GB | €5.91 — VPS 500, 128 GB NVMe | €4.97 ≈ $5.76 | $17.99 — 2 vCPU / 4 GB / 80 GB NVMe |
| 4 cores / 8 GB | €10.37 — VPS 1000, 256 GB NVMe | €8.71 ≈ $10.10 | $33.99 — 4 vCPU / 8 GB / 160 GB NVMe |
| 8 cores / 16 GB | €19.25 — VPS 2000, 512 GB NVMe | €16.18 ≈ $18.75 | $71.99 — 8 vCPU / 16 GB / 240 GB NVMe |
| 12 cores / 32 GB | €32.41 — VPS 4000, 1 TB NVMe | €27.24 ≈ $31.57 | $109.99 — 12 vCPU / 24 GB / 320 GB NVMe |
| 16 cores / 64 GB | €47.95 — VPS 8000, 2 TB NVMe | €40.29 ≈ $46.71 | $139.99 — 16 vCPU / 32 GB / 320 GB NVMe |
Raff General Purpose against Netcup VPS — both shared vCores. Raff CPU-Optimized from $15.99/mo is the match for Netcup Root Server. Netcup list prices read 2026-08-18 and include 19% German VAT; the ex-VAT column is the figure a customer outside the EU is more likely to pay, converted at €1 = $1.1593 (ECB, 2026-08-17). Confirm your own VAT position with Netcup.
Netcup wins on price and on specifications, decisively. Comparing ex-VAT, Raff is 200% to 284% more expensive — and Netcup ships more of everything: 128 GB against 80 GB at the entry shape, 2 TB against 640 GB at the top, and 64 GB of RAM at 16 cores where Raff sells 32 GB at any price.
There is no reading of this table where Raff is the value option, and this page will not pretend otherwise. The rest of the comparison is about what the extra money buys, and for a large share of readers the honest answer will be "nothing you need."
Netcup's Root Server line for reference
Netcup also sells Root Server, with dedicated cores rather than shared vCores. The like-for-like Raff line there is CPU-Optimized, and the gap is wider than on the shared comparison:
| Shape | Netcup Root Server | Netcup ex-VAT | Raff CPU-Optimized |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 dedicated / 8 GB | €12.79 — RS 1000, 256 GB NVMe | ≈ $12.46 | $60.99 at 4 vCPU / 4 GB / 80 GB |
| 8 dedicated / 16 GB | €21.43 — RS 2000, 512 GB NVMe | ≈ $20.88 | $144.99 at 8 vCPU / 16 GB / 180 GB |
| 12 dedicated / 32 GB | €39.92 — RS 4000, 1 TB NVMe | ≈ $38.89 | no Raff plan at 32 GB |
| 16 dedicated / 64 GB | €71.36 — RS 8000, 2 TB NVMe | ≈ $69.52 | $288.99 at 16 vCPU / 32 GB / 360 GB |
Dedicated cores on Netcup cost less than shared vCPU on Raff. If guaranteed CPU allocation is what you are buying, Netcup Root Server is the cheaper way to buy it, and by a wide margin.
Term and billing
Netcup offers a 12-month term or hourly billing with no minimum commitment, and lists prices including 19% German VAT — the applicable rate depends on the country you select at checkout. Raff bills monthly in USD with no term, no VAT calculation, and a 14-day money-back guarantee. Confirm any setup or one-off fees with Netcup at checkout for the term you choose.
Bandwidth
Neither provider meters standard outbound transfer. Netcup includes traffic on its VPS plans; Raff includes unmetered transfer on a 3 Gbps port. Netcup does not publish a per-plan port speed on its VPS page, so this is not a comparison worth resting anything on.
Automated backups
Netcup includes snapshots on VPS plans. Raff includes a free backup and snapshot storage pool — 50 GB per account plus 10–15% of each VM's disk — with Daily and Weekly schedules you configure, retention from 1 to 365 days, and uncapped snapshots. Storage above the pool is $0.06/GB-month. Confirm Netcup's current backup scheduling and retention options directly, as they differ from snapshot-only workflows.
Netcup VPS performance vs Raff
Methodology
Raff figures are internal, measured March–May 2026 on a 2 vCPU / 4 GB shared instance. Netcup figures are third-party, from VPSBenchmarks, on an RS 1000 G12 with four dedicated cores in Manassas, Virginia — same region as Raff's us-east. Netcup states its VPS line carries no CPU guarantee, so a VPS would be expected to score at or below these numbers.
Results
| Metric | Raff GP (2 shared vCPU) | Netcup RS 1000 G12 (4 dedicated) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geekbench 6 single-core | 2,266 | 1,630 | Raff 39% higher |
| Geekbench 6 multi-core | 4,057 (2 vCPU) | 5,130 (4 cores) | Netcup higher with twice the cores |
| fio 4K read, 50/50 mix | 48,670 IOPS | 37,250 IOPS | Raff 31% higher |
| fio 1M sequential read | 2,491 MB/s | 1,441 MB/s | Raff 73% higher |
| fio 1M sequential write | 1,257 MB/s | 1,538 MB/s | Netcup 22% higher |
| iperf3 to NYC download | 3,635 Mbps | 2,417 Mbps | Raff 50% higher |
| iperf3 to NYC upload † | 9,574 Mbps | 2,796 Mbps | Raff 3.4x higher |
| iperf3 to Los Angeles download | 3,430 Mbps | 2,099 Mbps | Raff 63% higher |
† Raff publishes a 3 Gbps port on 10 Gbps host uplinks; 9,574 Mbps is a peak across parallel streams.
What this tells you
Raff's shared vCPU scores 39% higher single-core than Netcup's guaranteed dedicated cores. That is the most useful line in the table, because Netcup's VPS line — the one priced against Raff above — carries no CPU guarantee at all. If a Root Server measures 1,630, a VPS on the same platform is unlikely to exceed it.
Raff also leads on random IOPS by 31% on the same 50/50 job, on sequential read by 73%, and on network by 50% to 3.4x within the same region. Netcup leads on sequential write by 22%, and on multi-core aggregate because it ships twice the cores at a third of the price.
None of which changes the arithmetic. Netcup RS 1000 G12 is €12.79 including VAT — about $12.46 ex-VAT — for four dedicated cores, 8 GB and 256 GB. The closest Raff CPU-Optimized plan is $72.99. Raff is faster per core and faster on the network; Netcup is roughly four times cheaper and gives you twice the cores and twice the disk.
Location matters more than any of it. Netcup offers Manassas at the same price as its German locations, so a US buyer should choose Manassas. Measured from a German Netcup host, throughput to US cities falls to 93 Mbps to New York and 35 Mbps to Los Angeles against 898 Mbps to Paris — picking the default European location will cost more performance than every CPU difference on this page combined.
Netcup vs Raff: features and reliability
Compute
Netcup VPS offers five shared-vCore shapes from 2 to 16 cores and 4 to 64 GB DDR5, with more memory per core than Raff sells at any tier. Netcup Root Server offers dedicated cores for workloads that need them. Raff offers General Purpose from $4.99/month and CPU-Optimized dedicated vCPU from $15.99/month, on AMD EPYC with DDR5 ECC memory, scaling to 16 vCPU and 32 GB, with on-demand resize: stop the VM, switch plan, restart, with the difference settled to your account balance and a resize API endpoint for CPU, RAM and disk.
Networking
Raff includes a 3 Gbps port, private networking, VPC, firewall controls and site-to-site VPN gateways. Netcup includes traffic on its VPS plans; port speed is not published per plan.
Storage
Netcup includes substantially more local NVMe at every tier — 128 GB against Raff's 80 GB at the entry shape, 2 TB against 640 GB at the top. Raff separates storage into VM disk, block volumes at $0.08/GiB-month that resize independently of the VM, and S3-compatible object storage at $7/month for 100 GB and 1 TB of egress.
Support and billing
Raff provides 24/7 human support through live chat, with a first response typically under 10 minutes. No bots triaging you first, and no support tier to buy: a single $4.99 VM reaches the same engineers as a hundred production machines, through the same queue. Billing is in USD with no VAT calculation and no setup fee.
Netcup's prices include 19% German VAT and its standard term is 12 months, so the number you compare depends on your VAT position and how long you commit. Confirm Netcup's current support channels and response targets directly.
Platform
A VM is rarely the whole requirement. An application needs a database, somewhere to put uploads, background jobs, and eventually a way to scale past one server. On Raff those are products on the same account: managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, Valkey, ClickHouse and Kafka from $7.99/month, object storage at $7/month, Functions with a free tier of 100,000 GB-seconds and 10,000 vCPU-seconds per month, Raff Apps from $3/month, and managed Kubernetes with a free control plane.
They connect over private networking, share one API, one CLI and one bill. Netcup sells servers, hosting and domains — a database, a queue and an object store are yours to assemble and operate.
The honest counter-argument is strong here: a 32 GB Netcup VPS at €32.41 will run Postgres, Redis and your application together with room to spare, for a third of what the equivalent Raff stack costs. What you are then operating is backups, restore testing, failover, point-in-time recovery and version upgrades. If that work sits inside your team's capability and time budget, Netcup is the better buy and it is not close.
When you should choose Netcup over Raff
- Wider choice of regions — Vienna, Nuremberg, Amsterdam, Manassas in the US and Singapore, against Raff's single us-east
- Maximum specifications per euro — 128 GB NVMe at the entry shape, 2 TB at the top, and 64 GB RAM at 16 cores that Raff does not sell at any price
- Memory-heavy and storage-heavy workloads — self-hosted media, backup targets, analytics, large dev and CI fleets
- Teams comfortable operating their own data services — a single large VPS running database, cache and application is genuinely cheaper
- Committed 12-month budgets — the 12-month term carries no setup fee and the lowest monthly rate
When you should choose Raff over Netcup
- Managed data services beside the VM — PostgreSQL, MySQL, Valkey, ClickHouse and Kafka from $7.99/month with backups, point-in-time recovery and failover operated for you
- Stacks that outgrow one server — managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, Valkey, ClickHouse and Kafka from $7.99/month, object storage at $7/month, Functions and Kubernetes on the same account over private networking (VPS for databases)
- Teams without database operations capacity — managed engines with backups, PITR and failover handled, instead of self-hosting on a large VPS
- Buyers who want simple monthly billing — USD, no term, no VAT position to work out, and a 14-day money-back guarantee
- Simple USD billing — no VAT position to work out, no exchange-rate variance on the invoice
- 24/7 human support — live chat to the same engineers at any account size, first response typically under 10 minutes
Migrating from Netcup to Raff
- Ask what you are actually buying — if you want a cheap capable server, Netcup already sells one in the US. This migration only makes sense if you want the managed services beside it.
- Right-size on utilisation, not specifications — Netcup ships far more RAM and disk than most workloads use. Measure actual consumption before matching 64 GB with 64 GB, because you cannot: Raff's ceiling is 32 GB.
- Plan the storage gap — Netcup includes 128 GB to 2 TB locally. Decide what belongs on VM disk, what moves to block volumes at $0.08/GiB-month, and what belongs in object storage.
- Provision and harden — create the Raff VM on the same distribution, apply firewall rules, attach private networking before moving data.
- Move data in order — files with rsync or SCP, then database dumps, then static assets to object storage. Keep the Netcup VPS running throughout.
- Cut over and check the term — lower DNS TTL beforehand, switch, then confirm your Netcup contract. A 12-month term continues after you migrate.
About Netcup
Netcup is a German hosting provider offering VPS, Root Server, web hosting, domains and related infrastructure services, serving customers from data centers in Vienna, Nuremberg, Amsterdam, Manassas in the United States and Singapore. It is known for high memory and storage allocations at low monthly prices. See Netcup VPS for current plans and terms.
Conclusion: Netcup or Raff?
The comparison resolves across four axes:
- Price and specifications — Netcup wins decisively: €5.91 (about $5.76 ex-VAT) against $17.99 at the entry shape, with more RAM and more disk at every tier
- Regions — Netcup wins: Vienna, Nuremberg, Amsterdam, Manassas in the US and Singapore, against Raff's single us-east
- Platform — Raff adds managed databases, object storage, Functions, Apps and Kubernetes on one account; Netcup sells servers, hosting and domains
- Billing — Raff is USD, monthly, no term; Netcup is VAT-inclusive with a 12-month term or hourly billing
If you want the most hardware per euro, a choice of regions, and you are comfortable running your own data services, choose Netcup — it is the better buy on price, specifications and geography, and the gap is large. Choose Raff only if you want managed databases, object storage and Functions operated for you beside the VM, with 24/7 support and no VAT or term to work out.
Raff runs 15,000+ VMs for 3,000+ customers and is rated 4.5/5 on Trustpilot, with a 99.9% uptime SLA in writing.