VPS Showdown VPS Showdown

DigitalOcean Premium AMD (1 GB) vs. Vultr High Performance Intel (2 GB)

vs.

Fresh benchmarks coming at ya. Today I've got brand new instances from DigitalOcean and Vultr and ran my world famous suite of benchmarking scripts. Each instance was spun up with Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x64 and all resided in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Without further ado, here's the results.

Overview

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Last Benchmarked Thu, 01 Oct 2026 05:09:47 GMT Tue, 01 Sep 2026 05:13:32 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 Newark, NJ
Monthly Price $7.00 $12.00
RAM (GB) 1 2
CPU Cores 1 1
Storage (TB) 25 50
Storage Type NVMe NVMe
Transfer (TB) 1 3

Head-to-head

Category winners from the latest benchmarks.

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

Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB) takes 4 of 6 categories.

CPU

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Vendor AuthenticAMD GenuineIntel
Model Name DO-Premium-AMD Intel Xeon Processor (Cascadelake)
Clock Speed (MHz) 1,996.25 2,893.21
CPU Cache Size (KB) 512.00 16,384.00
BogoMips 3,992.49 5,786.41
Events per Second 1,098.91 1,011.48
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.72 0.89
Average Latency (ms) 0.91 0.99
Maximum Latency (ms) 4.09 2.15
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.12 1.25

Memory

Memory Read

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Operations per second 4,162,799.09 5,186,399.33
Mebibytes per second 4,065.23 5,064.84
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 0.5 0.58
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

Memory Write

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Operations per second 4,248,501.02 5,103,338.99
Mebibytes per second 4,148.93 4,983.73
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 0.58 1.94
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

File I/O

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Reads per Second 1,259.91 3,831.53
Writes per Second 839.91 2,554.36
Fsyncs per Second 2,696.32 8,179.23
Read Mebibytes per Second 19.69 59.87
Written Mebibytes per Second 13.12 39.91
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.21 0.07
Maximum Latency (ms) 48.77 2.28
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.67 0.21

Mutex

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Minimum Latency (ms) 2,291.63 1,735.94
Average Latency (ms) 2,304.59 1,756.88
Maximum Latency (ms) 2,317.78 1,766.31
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2,320.55 1,771.29

MySQL

MySQL Read-only

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Transactions per second 4,879.00 8,164.00
Queries per second 48,790.00 81,640.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.37 0.99
Average Latency (ms) 2.05 1.22
Maximum Latency (ms) 42.95 7.57
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.76 1.67

MySQL Write-only

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Transactions per second 2,925.00 10,122.00
Queries per second 29,250.00 101,220.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.54 0.72
Average Latency (ms) 3.41 0.99
Maximum Latency (ms) 22.27 8.81
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 5.18 1.37

MySQL Read/Write

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Transactions per second 1,482.00 3,490.00
Queries per second 14,820.00 34,900.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 3.5 1.98
Average Latency (ms) 6.74 2.86
Maximum Latency (ms) 25.47 12.95
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 10.27 4.03

MySQL INSERT

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Transactions per second 4,894.00 15,691.00
Queries per second 48,940.00 156,910.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.88 0.42
Average Latency (ms) 2.04 0.63
Maximum Latency (ms) 17.26 6.6
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 3.62 0.87

MySQL Bulk INSERT

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Transactions per second 1,026,342.00 1,084,592.00
Queries per second 10,263,420.00 10,845,920.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.01 0.01
Maximum Latency (ms) 488.41 581.84
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

MySQL SELECT

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Transactions per second 126,782.00 225,553.00
Queries per second 1,267,820.00 2,255,530.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.06 0.04
Average Latency (ms) 0.08 0.04
Maximum Latency (ms) 1.76 1.59
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.11 0.07

MySQL SELECT (Random Points)

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Transactions per second 3,979.00 5,528.00
Queries per second 39,790.00 55,280.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.87 0.64
Average Latency (ms) 2.51 1.81
Maximum Latency (ms) 6.34 5.91
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 3.62 2.52

MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Transactions per second 5,301.00 7,887.00
Queries per second 53,010.00 78,870.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.6 0.41
Average Latency (ms) 1.88 1.27
Maximum Latency (ms) 13.82 7.06
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.66 1.89

MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Transactions per second 3,963.00 16,393.00
Queries per second 39,630.00 163,930.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.02 0.42
Average Latency (ms) 2.52 0.61
Maximum Latency (ms) 40.61 5.96
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 4.57 0.84

MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Transactions per second 4,192.00 17,497.00
Queries per second 41,920.00 174,970.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.07 0.4
Average Latency (ms) 2.38 0.57
Maximum Latency (ms) 19.27 4.42
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 4.18 0.74

MySQL DELETE

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Transactions per second 37,116.00 145,609.00
Queries per second 371,160.00 1,456,090.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.06 0.03
Average Latency (ms) 0.27 0.07
Maximum Latency (ms) 22.61 4.46
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.7 0.12

Redis

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
PING_INLINE per Second 54,259.36 64,892.93
PING_MBULK per Second 53,106.74 69,108.50
SET per Second 54,495.91 69,735.01
GET per Second 56,980.06 70,821.53
INCR per Second 52,938.06 63,371.36
LPUSH per Second 49,825.61 61,576.36
RPUSH per Second 51,124.75 64,808.82
LPOP per Second 51,072.52 61,842.92
RPOP per Second 50,327.12 61,312.08
SADD per Second 52,083.34 63,411.54
HSET per Second 45,537.34 63,331.22
SPOP per Second 52,826.20 63,371.36
ZADD per Second 48,402.71 63,979.53
ZPOPMIN per Second 52,083.34 65,231.57
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second 28,710.88 36,456.43
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second 12,250.40 17,639.79
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second 7,739.94 11,498.22
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second 6,953.14 9,613.54
MSET (10 keys) per Second 41,101.52 54,347.82

Redis Average Latency (ms)

DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (1 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
PING_INLINE0.590.49
PING_MBULK0.590.46
SET0.590.46
GET0.560.45
INCR0.610.51
LPUSH0.650.52
RPUSH0.630.50
LPOP0.650.52
RPOP0.650.53
SADD0.620.50
HSET0.710.51
SPOP0.600.50
ZADD0.670.50
ZPOPMIN0.610.49
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)1.210.92
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)2.681.83
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)3.952.82
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)4.403.27
MSET (10 keys)0.970.72

Conclusion

From the friendly robots:

The Vultr High Performance Intel (2 GB) instance outperforms the DigitalOcean Premium AMD (1 GB) in both Redis and MySQL benchmarks, driven by higher RPS rates and lower latencies across most operations. The Vultr instance achieved a Redis GET RPS of 70,821.53 compared to DigitalOcean's 56,980.06, and its MySQL bulk insert TPS was 108,353.15 versus DigitalOcean's 102,423.8. For applications that require high throughput and low latency, such as real-time data processing or high-traffic websites, the Vultr instance provides the superior performance. However, for users prioritizing lower costs with acceptable performance margins, the DigitalOcean option could be more suitable.

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 Vultr.

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

Providers & pricing

DigitalOcean overview Vultr overviewDigitalOcean Premium AMD (1 GB) pricing Vultr High Performance Intel (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)