DigitalOcean Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) vs. Vultr Cloud Compute (2 GB, 2 Cores)
My friend, I'm so glad you're here! Today I've spun up some brand new instance from DigitalOcean and Vultr and did some benchmarking. All instances were running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in the New York area (or close to it). Let's get into the numbers.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Mon, 11 May 2026 18:00:53 GMT | Mon, 11 May 2026 04:00:52 GMT |
| Linux Distro | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 |
| Kernel Version | 6.8.0-71-generic | 6.8.0-111-generic |
| MySQL Version | 8.0.45-0ubuntu0.24.04.1 | 8.0.45-0ubuntu0.24.04.1 |
| Redis Version | 7.0.15 | 7.0.15 |
| Location | New York, NY | Newark, NJ |
| Monthly Price | $28.00 | $15.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 4 | 2 |
| CPU Cores | 2 | 2 |
| Storage (TB) | 80 | 65 |
| Storage Type | NVMe | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 2 | 3 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | AuthenticAMD | GenuineIntel |
| Model Name | DO-Premium-AMD | Intel Core Processor (Skylake, IBRS, no TSX) |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 1,996.25 | 3,792.00 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 512.00 | 16,384.00 |
| BogoMips | 3,992.50 | 7,583.99 |
| Events per Second | 1,048.70 | 1,481.60 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.64 | 0.63 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.95 | 0.67 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 7.41 | 1.95 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.76 | 0.77 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,138,415.98 | 6,401,389.08 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,041.42 | 6,251.36 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 6.71 | 0.23 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,558,150.63 | 6,411,085.35 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,451.32 | 6,260.83 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.24 | 0.18 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 1,623.20 | 4,345.71 |
| Writes per Second | 1,082.14 | 2,897.07 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 3,468.23 | 9,273.19 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 25.36 | 67.90 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 16.91 | 45.27 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.16 | 0.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.73 | 2.92 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.63 | 0.17 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 886.01 | 214.63 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 989.64 | 569.72 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1,026.93 | 636.55 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1,032.01 | 634.66 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,989.00 | 8,015.00 |
| Queries per second | 49,890.00 | 80,150.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.45 | 0.92 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2 | 1.25 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.41 | 5.5 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.57 | 1.86 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,798.00 | 8,497.00 |
| Queries per second | 27,980.00 | 84,970.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.66 | 0.76 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.57 | 1.17 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 21.45 | 3.04 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5.57 | 1.55 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,530.00 | 3,726.00 |
| Queries per second | 15,300.00 | 37,260.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 3.58 | 1.78 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 6.53 | 2.68 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 31.77 | 5.82 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 10.27 | 3.43 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,730.00 | 15,028.00 |
| Queries per second | 37,300.00 | 150,280.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.11 | 0.41 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.68 | 0.66 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 14.01 | 2.42 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.57 | 0.86 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,259,342.00 | 1,696,217.00 |
| Queries per second | 12,593,420.00 | 16,962,170.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 491.29 | 283.37 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 106,801.00 | 201,989.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,068,010.00 | 2,019,890.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.03 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.09 | 0.05 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.28 | 0.51 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.13 | 0.07 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,211.00 | 8,025.00 |
| Queries per second | 62,110.00 | 80,250.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.5 | 0.35 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.61 | 1.24 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.41 | 3.55 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.35 | 2.07 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,787.00 | 8,336.00 |
| Queries per second | 57,870.00 | 83,360.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.67 | 0.4 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.73 | 1.2 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.58 | 4.25 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.35 | 2.22 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,618.00 | 13,858.00 |
| Queries per second | 36,180.00 | 138,580.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.15 | 0.42 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.76 | 0.72 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 17.67 | 6.33 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.82 | 0.95 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,766.00 | 14,587.00 |
| Queries per second | 37,660.00 | 145,870.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.29 | 0.4 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.65 | 0.68 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 17.38 | 11.69 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.41 | 0.9 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 28,987.00 | 129,013.00 |
| Queries per second | 289,870.00 | 1,290,130.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.03 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.34 | 0.08 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 16.85 | 2.61 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.22 | 0.09 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 57,372.34 | 78,247.26 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 55,309.73 | 74,738.41 |
| SET per Second | 57,142.86 | 77,041.60 |
| GET per Second | 55,493.89 | 83,333.33 |
| INCR per Second | 59,488.40 | 80,971.66 |
| LPUSH per Second | 58,105.75 | 79,113.92 |
| RPUSH per Second | 60,422.96 | 77,160.49 |
| LPOP per Second | 57,703.40 | 81,499.59 |
| RPOP per Second | 52,854.12 | 82,440.23 |
| SADD per Second | 54,614.96 | 80,192.46 |
| HSET per Second | 55,432.37 | 83,612.04 |
| SPOP per Second | 58,858.15 | 85,034.02 |
| ZADD per Second | 57,273.77 | 83,263.95 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 57,570.52 | 82,987.55 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 35,778.18 | 55,555.56 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 19,638.65 | 28,851.70 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 14,444.61 | 19,391.12 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 12,823.80 | 17,211.71 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 47,596.38 | 80,256.82 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Premium AMD (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.45 | 0.34 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.47 | 0.35 |
| SET | 0.45 | 0.34 |
| GET | 0.47 | 0.32 |
| INCR | 0.44 | 0.32 |
| LPUSH | 0.45 | 0.34 |
| RPUSH | 0.43 | 0.34 |
| LPOP | 0.45 | 0.32 |
| RPOP | 0.50 | 0.32 |
| SADD | 0.47 | 0.32 |
| HSET | 0.47 | 0.31 |
| SPOP | 0.44 | 0.30 |
| ZADD | 0.45 | 0.31 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.45 | 0.31 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.79 | 0.54 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.37 | 1.11 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 2.03 | 1.62 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 2.13 | 1.84 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.68 | 0.38 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
After thorough analysis of the benchmarks, the DigitalOcean Premium AMD instance shows higher performance in Redis operations, particularly with LRANGE commands that involve larger data sets, while also demonstrating strong CPU and file I/O performance metrics. In contrast, the Vultr Cloud Compute instance excels in Redis benchmarked operations such as PING, SET, GET, INCR, and LPUSH, suggesting superior throughput and lower latency for these specific tasks. However, the Vultr instance lags behind in CPU and file I/O metrics, alongside memory operations. Therefore, the DigitalOcean instance is better suited for I/O-heavy workloads and applications requiring large data handling, whereas the Vultr instance is more ideal for Redis-intensive workloads with less focus on complex data retrieval operations, file handling, and memory throughput.
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.
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