VPS Showdown VPS Showdown

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

vs.

Welcome to another round of the VPS Showdown. Today I've got brand new instances from DigitalOcean and UpCloud and ran some benchmarks. Each instance was running 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 Intel (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Last Benchmarked Sat, 01 Aug 2026 05:06:47 GMT Sat, 01 Aug 2026 05:05:17 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 $8.00 €13.00
RAM (GB) 1 2
CPU Cores 1 1
Storage (TB) 35 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 Intel (1 GB)
Value (CPU events per $/mo)UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)

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

CPU

DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Vendor GenuineIntel AuthenticAMD
Model Name DO-Premium-Intel AMD EPYC 9575F 64-Core Processor
Clock Speed (MHz) 2,100.00 3,295.42
CPU Cache Size (KB) 4,096.00 512.00
BogoMips 4,199.99 6,590.84
Events per Second 2,013.81 4,736.09
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.48 0.19
Average Latency (ms) 0.5 0.21
Maximum Latency (ms) 0.98 2.23
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.53 0.24

Memory

Memory Read

DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Operations per second 4,187,334.90 7,122,400.62
Mebibytes per second 4,089.19 6,955.47
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 1.12 0.37
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

Memory Write

DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Operations per second 4,366,312.99 7,139,007.40
Mebibytes per second 4,263.98 6,971.69
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 0.45 0.29
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

File I/O

DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Reads per Second 2,182.02 3,511.30
Writes per Second 1,454.68 2,340.87
Fsyncs per Second 4,663.66 7,490.87
Read Mebibytes per Second 34.09 54.86
Written Mebibytes per Second 22.73 36.58
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.12 0.07
Maximum Latency (ms) 19.91 29.46
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.42 0.26

Mutex

DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Minimum Latency (ms) 2,139.85 1,305.60
Average Latency (ms) 2,170.02 1,313.28
Maximum Latency (ms) 2,181.39 1,319.54
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2,198.52 1,327.91

MySQL

MySQL Read-only

DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second 8,593.00 15,488.00
Queries per second 85,930.00 154,880.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.98 0.44
Average Latency (ms) 1.16 0.64
Maximum Latency (ms) 20.7 2.13
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.61 0.77

MySQL Write-only

DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second 4,104.00 5,617.00
Queries per second 41,040.00 56,170.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.05 0.87
Average Latency (ms) 2.43 1.78
Maximum Latency (ms) 18.59 47.05
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 3.3 2.81

MySQL Read/Write

DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second 2,212.00 3,612.00
Queries per second 22,120.00 36,120.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 2.65 1.68
Average Latency (ms) 4.51 2.76
Maximum Latency (ms) 14.28 29.34
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 6.32 3.96

MySQL INSERT

DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second 6,241.00 8,793.00
Queries per second 62,410.00 87,930.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.63 0.53
Average Latency (ms) 1.6 1.13
Maximum Latency (ms) 25.45 33.56
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.66 1.79

MySQL Bulk INSERT

DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second 1,171,967.00 2,016,592.00
Queries per second 11,719,670.00 20,165,920.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.01 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 459.35 214.98
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

MySQL SELECT

DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second 234,610.00 421,834.00
Queries per second 2,346,100.00 4,218,340.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.04 0.02
Average Latency (ms) 0.04 0.02
Maximum Latency (ms) 1.37 1.13
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.06 0.03

MySQL SELECT (Random Points)

DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second 5,162.00 8,876.00
Queries per second 51,620.00 88,760.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.57 0.3
Average Latency (ms) 1.93 1.13
Maximum Latency (ms) 4.87 4.11
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.81 1.55

MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)

DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second 7,424.00 14,529.00
Queries per second 74,240.00 145,290.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.49 0.2
Average Latency (ms) 1.35 0.69
Maximum Latency (ms) 4.12 2.02
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.89 0.99

MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)

DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second 7,010.00 7,318.00
Queries per second 70,100.00 73,180.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.62 0.57
Average Latency (ms) 1.42 1.36
Maximum Latency (ms) 37.55 38.29
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.3 2.14

MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)

DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second 6,487.00 8,495.00
Queries per second 64,870.00 84,950.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.6 0.57
Average Latency (ms) 1.54 1.18
Maximum Latency (ms) 13.73 20.17
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.35 1.86

MySQL DELETE

DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second 67,164.00 150,571.00
Queries per second 671,640.00 1,505,710.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.03 0.02
Average Latency (ms) 0.15 0.07
Maximum Latency (ms) 11.58 73.25
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.03 0.08

Redis

DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
PING_INLINE per Second 68,728.52 51,626.23
PING_MBULK per Second 69,060.77 51,203.28
SET per Second 64,350.06 51,786.64
GET per Second 58,788.95 52,356.02
INCR per Second 66,137.57 52,882.07
LPUSH per Second 65,487.89 53,390.28
RPUSH per Second 68,259.38 50,479.56
LPOP per Second 66,755.67 54,318.30
RPOP per Second 66,800.27 52,603.89
SADD per Second 66,313.00 51,679.59
HSET per Second 66,533.60 49,091.80
SPOP per Second 69,979.01 47,169.81
ZADD per Second 60,938.45 50,505.05
ZPOPMIN per Second 63,411.54 50,890.59
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second 38,372.98 38,080.73
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second 18,378.97 24,125.45
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second 12,220.46 18,611.58
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second 11,273.96 16,837.85
MSET (10 keys) per Second 50,000.00 49,578.58

Redis Average Latency (ms)

DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
PING_INLINE0.460.57
PING_MBULK0.460.57
SET0.500.59
GET0.540.57
INCR0.480.57
LPUSH0.490.57
RPUSH0.470.60
LPOP0.480.57
RPOP0.480.59
SADD0.480.58
HSET0.480.62
SPOP0.450.63
ZADD0.530.61
ZPOPMIN0.500.58
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)0.870.83
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)1.751.35
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)2.711.72
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)2.891.90
MSET (10 keys)0.800.73

Conclusion

From the friendly robots:

The DigitalOcean Premium Intel (1 GB) instance excels in CPU-intensive tasks, with benchmark results showing higher rates per second (rps) across Redis operations such as SET, GET, INCR, and LPUSH, averaging significantly faster latencies compared to the UpCloud Balanced (2 GB) instance. For database operations like MySQL bulk insert, the DigitalOcean instance also leads with a higher transactions per second (tps) and lower latency. Conversely, the UpCloud instance, powered by a 64-core AMD EPYC processor, shines in handling larger memory operations and delivering higher throughput in file I/O tasks, although the difference in CPU-bound tasks remains in favor of DigitalOcean. For budget-conscious users needing strong CPU performance, the DigitalOcean instance is the better choice, while the UpCloud instance provides more headroom for memory and I/O-intensive applications.

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