DigitalOcean Premium Intel (1 GB) vs. Vultr High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores)
Same showdown, different day. Today I've spun up some brand new instance from DigitalOcean and Vultr and did some benchmarking. Each instance was running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Let's get into the numbers.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Mon, 01 Jun 2026 05:00:52 GMT | Sun, 31 May 2026 13:00:55 GMT |
| Linux Distro | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 |
| Kernel Version | 6.8.0-71-generic | 6.8.0-117-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 | $18.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 1 | 2 |
| CPU Cores | 1 | 2 |
| Storage (TB) | 35 | 80 |
| Storage Type | NVMe | NVMe |
| Transfer (TB) | 1 | 3 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | GenuineIntel | GenuineIntel |
| Model Name | DO-Premium-Intel | Intel Core Processor (Skylake, IBRS, no TSX) |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,494.14 | 3,791.98 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 4,096.00 | 16,384.00 |
| BogoMips | 4,988.28 | 7,583.95 |
| Events per Second | 771.15 | 1,552.05 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.91 | 0.62 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.3 | 0.64 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.28 | 4.61 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.43 | 0.69 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,962,068.28 | 7,875,668.83 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,845.77 | 7,691.08 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.25 | 0.12 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,776,781.23 | 7,729,812.11 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,664.83 | 7,548.64 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.23 | 0.16 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 3,231.15 | 4,671.85 |
| Writes per Second | 2,154.10 | 3,114.56 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 6,894.61 | 9,976.90 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 50.49 | 73.00 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 33.66 | 48.67 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.08 | 0.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 6.93 | 2.76 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.21 | 0.17 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1,765.96 | 543.27 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1,773.18 | 554.74 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1,781.78 | 563.70 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1,771.29 | 559.50 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,098.00 | 10,621.00 |
| Queries per second | 80,980.00 | 106,210.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.06 | 0.86 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.23 | 0.94 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.59 | 2.5 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.76 | 1.03 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,982.00 | 10,229.00 |
| Queries per second | 69,820.00 | 102,290.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.83 | 0.64 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.43 | 0.98 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 17.43 | 2.08 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.14 | 1.23 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,010.00 | 5,072.00 |
| Queries per second | 30,100.00 | 50,720.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.31 | 1.59 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.32 | 1.97 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 9.93 | 3.94 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.65 | 2.39 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 11,468.00 | 16,038.00 |
| Queries per second | 114,680.00 | 160,380.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.46 | 0.38 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.87 | 0.62 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 7.4 | 13.18 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.25 | 0.8 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,084,592.00 | 2,424,342.00 |
| Queries per second | 10,845,920.00 | 24,243,420.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 396.25 | 205.81 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 234,000.00 | 241,313.00 |
| Queries per second | 2,340,000.00 | 2,413,130.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.03 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.04 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.17 | 0.76 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.06 | 0.05 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,442.00 | 12,080.00 |
| Queries per second | 64,420.00 | 120,800.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.4 | 0.21 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.55 | 0.83 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.44 | 3.31 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.11 | 1.04 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,455.00 | 10,527.00 |
| Queries per second | 74,550.00 | 105,270.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.48 | 0.16 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.34 | 0.95 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.23 | 3.25 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.73 | 1.23 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 11,660.00 | 17,123.00 |
| Queries per second | 116,600.00 | 171,230.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.46 | 0.38 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.86 | 0.58 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 12.68 | 2 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.34 | 0.78 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 12,470.00 | 16,979.00 |
| Queries per second | 124,700.00 | 169,790.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.45 | 0.38 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.8 | 0.59 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.75 | 4.13 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.14 | 0.8 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 76,943.00 | 156,424.00 |
| Queries per second | 769,430.00 | 1,564,240.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.03 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.13 | 0.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 11.08 | 4.87 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.57 | 0.07 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 68,540.09 | 88,652.48 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 75,987.84 | 89,605.73 |
| SET per Second | 71,377.59 | 90,171.33 |
| GET per Second | 72,992.70 | 90,579.71 |
| INCR per Second | 73,313.78 | 90,744.10 |
| LPUSH per Second | 69,783.67 | 90,497.73 |
| RPUSH per Second | 70,771.41 | 90,415.91 |
| LPOP per Second | 66,533.60 | 90,909.09 |
| RPOP per Second | 69,637.88 | 90,661.83 |
| SADD per Second | 65,530.80 | 90,252.70 |
| HSET per Second | 70,175.44 | 90,415.91 |
| SPOP per Second | 74,571.22 | 89,928.05 |
| ZADD per Second | 71,123.76 | 90,415.91 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 74,239.05 | 90,009.01 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 35,727.05 | 66,533.60 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 15,590.89 | 36,179.45 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 10,346.61 | 26,239.83 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 8,889.68 | 22,547.91 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 62,656.64 | 88,105.73 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.47 | 0.30 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.42 | 0.29 |
| SET | 0.45 | 0.29 |
| GET | 0.44 | 0.29 |
| INCR | 0.44 | 0.28 |
| LPUSH | 0.46 | 0.29 |
| RPUSH | 0.46 | 0.29 |
| LPOP | 0.50 | 0.28 |
| RPOP | 0.47 | 0.28 |
| SADD | 0.50 | 0.29 |
| HSET | 0.46 | 0.29 |
| SPOP | 0.43 | 0.29 |
| ZADD | 0.45 | 0.29 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.43 | 0.29 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 1.01 | 0.39 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 2.38 | 0.71 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 3.53 | 0.97 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 4.09 | 1.14 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.56 | 0.30 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
Comparing the two instances, the Vultr High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) outperforms the DigitalOcean Premium Intel (1 GB) in most benchmarks, demonstrating superior CPU, Redis, memory, and file I/O performance with higher RPS and lower latency across most tests. However, DigitalOcean provides better file and memory throughput, and its benchmarks for MySQL and thread latency also show slightly more favorable results. Both instances show strong performance, but the Vultr instance is better suited for CPU-intensive and multi-threaded workloads, while DigitalOcean might be preferred for tasks where higher throughput is critical or if budget constraints are a concern.
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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