DigitalOcean Regular (1 GB) vs. DigitalOcean Premium Intel (1 GB)
Last updated on August 1, 2026
New day, new benchmarks. Today I spun up fresh instances from DigitalOcean and did some benchmarking. Each instance was running Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x64 and all resided in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Enough talk. Here's the data.
Overview
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
Last Benchmarked
Sat, 01 Aug 2026 05:00:48 GMT
Sat, 01 Aug 2026 05:06:47 GMT
Linux Distro
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x64
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x64
Kernel Version
7.0.0-27-generic
7.0.0-27-generic
MySQL Version
8.4.10-0ubuntu0.26.04.1
8.4.10-0ubuntu0.26.04.1
Redis Version
8.0.5
8.0.5
Location
New York, NY
New York, NY
Monthly Price
$6.00
$8.00
RAM (GB)
1
1
CPU Cores
1
1
Storage (TB)
25
35
Storage Type
SSD
NVMe
Transfer (TB)
1
1
Head-to-head
Category winners from the latest benchmarks.
Category Winner
CPU (events/sec) DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) Memory (read MiB/s) DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) Disk I/O (MiB/s) Tie MySQL (read/write tps) Tie Redis (GET/sec) DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) Value (CPU events per $/mo) DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) takes 4 of 6 categories.
CPU
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
Vendor
GenuineIntel
GenuineIntel
Model Name
DO-Regular
DO-Premium-Intel
Clock Speed (MHz)
2,494.14
2,100.00
CPU Cache Size (KB)
4,096.00
4,096.00
BogoMips
4,988.28
4,199.99
Events per Second
815.71
2,013.81
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.98
0.48
Average Latency (ms)
1.22
0.5
Maximum Latency (ms)
2.86
0.98
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1.5
0.53
Memory
Memory Read
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
Operations per second
3,956,759.89
4,187,334.90
Mebibytes per second
3,864.02
4,089.19
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
2.03
1.12
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
Memory Write
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
Operations per second
3,883,080.49
4,366,312.99
Mebibytes per second
3,792.07
4,263.98
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
6.51
0.45
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
File I/O
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
Reads per Second
2,180.62
2,182.02
Writes per Second
1,453.75
1,454.68
Fsyncs per Second
4,652.64
4,663.66
Read Mebibytes per Second
34.07
34.09
Written Mebibytes per Second
22.71
22.73
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.12
0.12
Maximum Latency (ms)
8.63
19.91
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.34
0.42
Mutex
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
Minimum Latency (ms)
2,077.12
2,139.85
Average Latency (ms)
2,109.98
2,170.02
Maximum Latency (ms)
2,125.57
2,181.39
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2,120.76
2,198.52
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
Transactions per second
6,111.00
8,593.00
Queries per second
61,110.00
85,930.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.13
0.98
Average Latency (ms)
1.63
1.16
Maximum Latency (ms)
16.53
20.7
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.3
1.61
MySQL Write-only
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
Transactions per second
3,456.00
4,104.00
Queries per second
34,560.00
41,040.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.3
1.05
Average Latency (ms)
2.89
2.43
Maximum Latency (ms)
17.71
18.59
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
4.57
3.3
MySQL Read/Write
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
Transactions per second
2,206.00
2,212.00
Queries per second
22,060.00
22,120.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
2.57
2.65
Average Latency (ms)
4.53
4.51
Maximum Latency (ms)
12.36
14.28
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
6.55
6.32
MySQL INSERT
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
Transactions per second
6,940.00
6,241.00
Queries per second
69,400.00
62,410.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.52
0.63
Average Latency (ms)
1.43
1.6
Maximum Latency (ms)
22.94
25.45
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.57
2.66
MySQL Bulk INSERT
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
Transactions per second
1,084,592.00
1,171,967.00
Queries per second
10,845,920.00
11,719,670.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.01
0.01
Maximum Latency (ms)
506.06
459.35
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
MySQL SELECT
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
Transactions per second
160,315.00
234,610.00
Queries per second
1,603,150.00
2,346,100.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.04
0.04
Average Latency (ms)
0.06
0.04
Maximum Latency (ms)
1.76
1.37
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.1
0.06
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
Transactions per second
3,209.00
5,162.00
Queries per second
32,090.00
51,620.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.96
0.57
Average Latency (ms)
3.11
1.93
Maximum Latency (ms)
10.53
4.87
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
4.57
2.81
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
Transactions per second
5,822.00
7,424.00
Queries per second
58,220.00
74,240.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.52
0.49
Average Latency (ms)
1.71
1.35
Maximum Latency (ms)
5.33
4.12
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.86
1.89
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
Transactions per second
9,262.00
7,010.00
Queries per second
92,620.00
70,100.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.52
0.62
Average Latency (ms)
1.08
1.42
Maximum Latency (ms)
21.4
37.55
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1.82
2.3
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
Transactions per second
8,187.00
6,487.00
Queries per second
81,870.00
64,870.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.53
0.6
Average Latency (ms)
1.22
1.54
Maximum Latency (ms)
14.67
13.73
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.18
2.35
MySQL DELETE
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
Transactions per second
79,336.00
67,164.00
Queries per second
793,360.00
671,640.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.04
0.03
Average Latency (ms)
0.13
0.15
Maximum Latency (ms)
11.85
11.58
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.34
1.03
Redis
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
PING_INLINE per Second
44,722.72
68,728.52
PING_MBULK per Second
44,267.38
69,060.77
SET per Second
47,687.18
64,350.06
GET per Second
45,351.48
58,788.95
INCR per Second
43,535.05
66,137.57
LPUSH per Second
39,047.25
65,487.89
RPUSH per Second
37,481.26
68,259.38
LPOP per Second
40,404.04
66,755.67
RPOP per Second
38,595.14
66,800.27
SADD per Second
38,834.95
66,313.00
HSET per Second
35,932.45
66,533.60
SPOP per Second
32,000.00
69,979.01
ZADD per Second
30,750.31
60,938.45
ZPOPMIN per Second
30,854.68
63,411.54
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second
24,789.29
38,372.98
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second
13,390.47
18,378.97
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second
8,059.32
12,220.46
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second
7,098.74
11,273.96
MSET (10 keys) per Second
41,928.72
50,000.00
Redis Average Latency (ms)
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB)
PING_INLINE 0.69 0.46 PING_MBULK 0.69 0.46 SET 0.65 0.50 GET 0.68 0.54 INCR 0.71 0.48 LPUSH 0.80 0.49 RPUSH 0.82 0.47 LPOP 0.78 0.48 RPOP 0.81 0.48 SADD 0.79 0.48 HSET 0.86 0.48 SPOP 0.96 0.45 ZADD 1.01 0.53 ZPOPMIN 1.00 0.50 LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) 1.31 0.87 LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) 2.44 1.75 LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) 3.79 2.71 LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) 4.25 2.89 MSET (10 keys) 0.81 0.80
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
The DigitalOcean Premium Intel (1 GB) instance benchmarks significantly higher across most metrics compared to the Regular (1 GB) instance, particularly in Redis operations where it shows substantially higher requests per second (rps) and lower latencies, such as the PING_INLINE achieving 68728.52 rps with an average latency of 0.464 ms versus the Regular instance's 44722.72 rps and 0.688 ms average latency. The Premium Intel instance also excels in CPU performance, recording 2013.81 events per second compared to the Regular's 815.71, suggesting better overall processing capabilities. For applications requiring high throughput and low latency, the Premium Intel (1 GB) instance is the better choice despite its higher 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 link for DigitalOcean .
You can also support me next time you shop on Amazon .
