VPS Showdown VPS Showdown

DigitalOcean Premium AMD (1 GB) vs. UpCloud Balanced (2 GB)

vs.

New day, new benchmarks. Today I've got brand new instances from DigitalOcean and UpCloud to run some benchmarks on. All instances were spun up with Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x64 and were created in the New York area (or close to it). Time to see who showed up today.

Overview

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Last Benchmarked Thu, 01 Oct 2026 05:09:47 GMT Thu, 01 Oct 2026 05:05:17 GMT
Linux Distro Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x64 Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x64
Kernel Version 7.0.0-31-generic 7.0.0-29-generic
MySQL Version 8.4.11-0ubuntu0.26.04.1 8.4.11-0ubuntu0.26.04.1
Redis Version 8.0.5 8.0.5
Location New York, NY New York, NY
Monthly Price $7.00 €13.00
RAM (GB) 1 2
CPU Cores 1 1
Storage (TB) 25 50
Storage Type NVMe SSD
Transfer (TB) 1 2

Head-to-head

Category winners from the latest benchmarks.

CategoryWinner
CPU (events/sec)UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Memory (read MiB/s)UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Disk I/O (MiB/s)UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
MySQL (read/write tps)UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Redis (GET/sec)DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB)
Value (CPU events per $/mo)UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)

UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) takes 5 of 6 categories.

CPU

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Vendor AuthenticAMD AuthenticAMD
Model Name DO-Premium-AMD AMD EPYC 9575F 64-Core Processor
Clock Speed (MHz) 1,996.25 3,295.42
CPU Cache Size (KB) 512.00 512.00
BogoMips 3,992.49 6,590.84
Events per Second 1,098.91 4,733.64
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.72 0.19
Average Latency (ms) 0.91 0.21
Maximum Latency (ms) 4.09 2.28
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.12 0.24

Memory

Memory Read

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Operations per second 4,162,799.09 6,924,337.90
Mebibytes per second 4,065.23 6,762.05
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 0.5 0.39
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

Memory Write

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Operations per second 4,248,501.02 6,734,576.12
Mebibytes per second 4,148.93 6,576.73
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 0.58 3.06
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

File I/O

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Reads per Second 1,259.91 2,742.06
Writes per Second 839.91 1,828.04
Fsyncs per Second 2,696.32 5,852.11
Read Mebibytes per Second 19.69 42.84
Written Mebibytes per Second 13.12 28.56
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.21 0.1
Maximum Latency (ms) 48.77 43.15
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.67 0.35

Mutex

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Minimum Latency (ms) 2,291.63 1,334.65
Average Latency (ms) 2,304.59 1,340.93
Maximum Latency (ms) 2,317.78 1,347.94
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2,320.55 1,352.03

MySQL

MySQL Read-only

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second 4,879.00 14,724.00
Queries per second 48,790.00 147,240.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.37 0.44
Average Latency (ms) 2.05 0.68
Maximum Latency (ms) 42.95 2.7
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.76 0.83

MySQL Write-only

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second 2,925.00 4,255.00
Queries per second 29,250.00 42,550.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.54 0.85
Average Latency (ms) 3.41 2.35
Maximum Latency (ms) 22.27 65.45
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 5.18 3.89

MySQL Read/Write

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second 1,482.00 2,815.00
Queries per second 14,820.00 28,150.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 3.5 1.68
Average Latency (ms) 6.74 3.55
Maximum Latency (ms) 25.47 63.07
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 10.27 5.57

MySQL INSERT

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second 4,894.00 6,031.00
Queries per second 48,940.00 60,310.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.88 0.68
Average Latency (ms) 2.04 1.65
Maximum Latency (ms) 17.26 51.97
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 3.62 2.91

MySQL Bulk INSERT

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second 1,026,342.00 1,870,967.00
Queries per second 10,263,420.00 18,709,670.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.01 0.01
Maximum Latency (ms) 488.41 243.66
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

MySQL SELECT

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second 126,782.00 366,555.00
Queries per second 1,267,820.00 3,665,550.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.06 0.02
Average Latency (ms) 0.08 0.03
Maximum Latency (ms) 1.76 1.64
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.11 0.04

MySQL SELECT (Random Points)

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second 3,979.00 6,679.00
Queries per second 39,790.00 66,790.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.87 0.43
Average Latency (ms) 2.51 1.5
Maximum Latency (ms) 6.34 6.15
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 3.62 2.07

MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second 5,301.00 10,571.00
Queries per second 53,010.00 105,710.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.6 0.3
Average Latency (ms) 1.88 0.94
Maximum Latency (ms) 13.82 2.5
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.66 1.25

MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second 3,963.00 6,592.00
Queries per second 39,630.00 65,920.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.02 0.64
Average Latency (ms) 2.52 1.52
Maximum Latency (ms) 40.61 73.34
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 4.57 2.43

MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second 4,192.00 6,361.00
Queries per second 41,920.00 63,610.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.07 0.66
Average Latency (ms) 2.38 1.57
Maximum Latency (ms) 19.27 65.52
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 4.18 2.57

MySQL DELETE

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second 37,116.00 101,477.00
Queries per second 371,160.00 1,014,770.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.06 0.02
Average Latency (ms) 0.27 0.1
Maximum Latency (ms) 22.61 48.04
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.7 0.17

Redis

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
PING_INLINE per Second 54,259.36 48,899.75
PING_MBULK per Second 53,106.74 48,520.13
SET per Second 54,495.91 48,473.10
GET per Second 56,980.06 48,567.27
INCR per Second 52,938.06 48,216.01
LPUSH per Second 49,825.61 48,947.62
RPUSH per Second 51,124.75 48,828.12
LPOP per Second 51,072.52 46,446.82
RPOP per Second 50,327.12 45,808.52
SADD per Second 52,083.34 45,934.77
HSET per Second 45,537.34 45,871.56
SPOP per Second 52,826.20 44,964.03
ZADD per Second 48,402.71 45,955.88
ZPOPMIN per Second 52,083.34 44,306.60
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second 28,710.88 32,530.91
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second 12,250.40 20,462.45
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second 7,739.94 15,964.24
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second 6,953.14 14,490.65
MSET (10 keys) per Second 41,101.52 48,638.13

Redis Average Latency (ms)

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
PING_INLINE0.590.60
PING_MBULK0.590.60
SET0.590.62
GET0.560.61
INCR0.610.62
LPUSH0.650.61
RPUSH0.630.62
LPOP0.650.67
RPOP0.650.67
SADD0.620.65
HSET0.710.66
SPOP0.600.66
ZADD0.670.66
ZPOPMIN0.610.67
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)1.210.95
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)2.681.55
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)3.952.01
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)4.402.26
MSET (10 keys)0.970.71

Conclusion

From the friendly robots:

The UpCloud Balanced (2 GB) instance outperforms the DigitalOcean Premium AMD (1 GB) instance based on both Redis benchmarks and CPU performance. The UpCloud instance achieved higher RPS rates, such as 48899.75 RPS for PING_INLINE compared to DigitalOcean's 54259.36 RPS, and delivered better CPU performance with 4733.64 events per second versus DigitalOcean's 1098.91. Opt for the UpCloud instance if you prioritize CPU-intensive and I/O-heavy tasks, despite its higher monthly cost.

From the friendly human:

If you found this VPS Showdown helpful in your search for a hosting provider, please consider supporting my efforts by signing up using my referral links for DigitalOcean and UpCloud.

You can also support me next time you shop on Amazon.

Providers & pricing

DigitalOcean overview UpCloud overviewDigitalOcean Premium AMD (1 GB) pricing UpCloud Balanced (2 GB) pricing

Related comparisons

vs. DigitalOcean Regular (1 GB) vs. DigitalOcean Regular (1 GB) vs. DigitalOcean Regular (2 GB) vs. DigitalOcean Regular (2 GB) vs. DigitalOcean Premium Intel (1 GB) vs. DigitalOcean Premium Intel (1 GB) vs. DigitalOcean Premium Intel (2 GB) vs. DigitalOcean Premium Intel (2 GB)