DigitalOcean Premium Intel (1 GB) vs. Linode Linode (4 GB)
My friend, I'm so glad you're here! Today I've spun up brand new instance from DigitalOcean and Linode to run some benchmarks on. Each instance was spun up with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and all resided in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Let's get into the numbers.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Mon, 01 Jun 2026 05:00:52 GMT | Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:52 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 | $8.00 | $24.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 1 | 4 |
| CPU Cores | 1 | 2 |
| Storage (TB) | 35 | 80 |
| Storage Type | NVMe | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 1 | 4 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | GenuineIntel | AuthenticAMD |
| Model Name | DO-Premium-Intel | AMD EPYC 7713 64-Core Processor |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,494.14 | 2,000.00 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 4,096.00 | 512.00 |
| BogoMips | 4,988.28 | 3,999.99 |
| Events per Second | 771.15 | 3,444.02 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.91 | 0.28 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.3 | 0.29 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.28 | 4.83 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.43 | 0.3 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,962,068.28 | 5,349,213.60 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,845.77 | 5,223.84 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.25 | 3.16 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,776,781.23 | 5,332,401.09 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,664.83 | 5,207.42 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.23 | 3.25 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 3,231.15 | 3,325.24 |
| Writes per Second | 2,154.10 | 2,216.89 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 6,894.61 | 7,095.98 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 50.49 | 51.96 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 33.66 | 34.64 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.08 | 0.08 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 6.93 | 13.12 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.21 | 0.22 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1,765.96 | 864.93 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1,773.18 | 931.61 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1,781.78 | 968.34 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1,771.29 | 960.30 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,098.00 | 5,919.00 |
| Queries per second | 80,980.00 | 59,190.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.06 | 1.29 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.23 | 1.69 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.59 | 8 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.76 | 2.03 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,982.00 | 5,152.00 |
| Queries per second | 69,820.00 | 51,520.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.83 | 1.22 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.43 | 1.94 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 17.43 | 24.88 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.14 | 2.52 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,010.00 | 2,609.00 |
| Queries per second | 30,100.00 | 26,090.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.31 | 2.83 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.32 | 3.83 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 9.93 | 8.83 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.65 | 4.74 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 11,468.00 | 7,493.00 |
| Queries per second | 114,680.00 | 74,930.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.46 | 0.73 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.87 | 1.33 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 7.4 | 15.06 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.25 | 1.86 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,084,592.00 | 1,754,467.00 |
| Queries per second | 10,845,920.00 | 17,544,670.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 396.25 | 418.75 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 234,000.00 | 130,180.00 |
| Queries per second | 2,340,000.00 | 1,301,800.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.05 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.08 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.17 | 4.63 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.06 | 0.1 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,442.00 | 8,212.00 |
| Queries per second | 64,420.00 | 82,120.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.4 | 0.33 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.55 | 1.22 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.44 | 11.27 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.11 | 2.3 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,455.00 | 8,956.00 |
| Queries per second | 74,550.00 | 89,560.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.48 | 0.42 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.34 | 1.12 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.23 | 4.66 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.73 | 1.44 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 11,660.00 | 7,381.00 |
| Queries per second | 116,600.00 | 73,810.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.46 | 0.81 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.86 | 1.35 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 12.68 | 8.43 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.34 | 1.76 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 12,470.00 | 7,379.00 |
| Queries per second | 124,700.00 | 73,790.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.45 | 0.82 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.8 | 1.35 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.75 | 7.2 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.14 | 1.73 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 76,943.00 | 58,502.00 |
| Queries per second | 769,430.00 | 585,020.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.13 | 0.17 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 11.08 | 8.26 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.57 | 1.14 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 68,540.09 | 44,444.45 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 75,987.84 | 42,158.52 |
| SET per Second | 71,377.59 | 43,725.41 |
| GET per Second | 72,992.70 | 43,084.88 |
| INCR per Second | 73,313.78 | 43,917.44 |
| LPUSH per Second | 69,783.67 | 44,169.61 |
| RPUSH per Second | 70,771.41 | 42,918.46 |
| LPOP per Second | 66,533.60 | 43,630.02 |
| RPOP per Second | 69,637.88 | 42,900.04 |
| SADD per Second | 65,530.80 | 43,066.32 |
| HSET per Second | 70,175.44 | 42,826.55 |
| SPOP per Second | 74,571.22 | 43,821.21 |
| ZADD per Second | 71,123.76 | 43,706.29 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 74,239.05 | 46,554.93 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 35,727.05 | 30,084.24 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 15,590.89 | 21,141.65 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 10,346.61 | 17,825.31 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 8,889.68 | 15,969.34 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 62,656.64 | 45,578.85 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.47 | 0.58 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.42 | 0.61 |
| SET | 0.45 | 0.59 |
| GET | 0.44 | 0.60 |
| INCR | 0.44 | 0.59 |
| LPUSH | 0.46 | 0.58 |
| RPUSH | 0.46 | 0.60 |
| LPOP | 0.50 | 0.59 |
| RPOP | 0.47 | 0.60 |
| SADD | 0.50 | 0.60 |
| HSET | 0.46 | 0.60 |
| SPOP | 0.43 | 0.59 |
| ZADD | 0.45 | 0.59 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.43 | 0.55 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 1.01 | 0.89 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 2.38 | 1.25 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 3.53 | 1.50 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 4.09 | 1.59 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.56 | 0.57 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
After a thorough comparison of the benchmarks from both instances, the DigitalOcean Premium Intel (1 GB) and the Linode (4 GB) demonstrate distinct strengths suitable for different use cases. The DigitalOcean instance excels in Redis operations, delivering higher request rates and lower latency for a variety of commands, likely due to its optimized network stack and NVMe storage. However, it falls short in I/O intensive tasks such as large file reads and writes, where it shows higher latency and throughput compared to the Linode instance. The Linode instance, with its AMD EPYC processor, offers more CPU power, better handling of large file operations, and superior performance in MySQL benchmarks, making it ideal for CPU-intensive and I/O-heavy workloads. Therefore, the DigitalOcean instance is better suited for low-RAM applications that benefit from high network performance and Redis optimization, while the Linode instance is preferable for more powerful, multi-core, and I/O demanding tasks.
From the friendly human:
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