DigitalOcean Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) vs. Linode Nanode (1 GB)
New day, new benchmarks. Today I've spun up some brand new instance from DigitalOcean and Linode and did some benchmarking. All instances were running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Without further ado, here's the results.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Wed, 27 May 2026 17:00:52 GMT | Fri, 29 May 2026 15:00:53 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 | $24.00 | $5.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 2 | 1 |
| CPU Cores | 2 | 1 |
| Storage (TB) | 90 | 25 |
| Storage Type | NVMe | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 3 | 1 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | GenuineIntel | AuthenticAMD |
| Model Name | DO-Premium-Intel | AMD EPYC 7642 48-Core Processor |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,494.13 | 2,300.00 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 4,096.00 | 512.00 |
| BogoMips | 4,988.26 | 4,599.99 |
| Events per Second | 1,069.54 | 1,022.23 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.85 | 0.61 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.93 | 0.98 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.46 | 5.4 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.97 | 2.39 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 5,027,978.08 | 5,296,233.64 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,910.13 | 5,172.10 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.43 | 3.05 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 5,044,663.97 | 5,154,651.90 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,926.43 | 5,033.84 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.12 | 3.06 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 4,091.68 | 2,055.76 |
| Writes per Second | 2,727.79 | 1,370.51 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 8,735.96 | 4,389.22 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 63.93 | 32.12 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 42.62 | 21.41 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.06 | 0.13 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.07 | 12.79 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.21 | 0.35 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 834.65 | 1,633.32 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 839.58 | 1,644.62 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 845.01 | 1,653.29 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 846.57 | 1,648.20 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,128.00 | 7,575.00 |
| Queries per second | 81,280.00 | 75,750.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.04 | 1.22 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.23 | 1.32 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.98 | 4.67 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.37 | 1.42 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,483.00 | 5,800.00 |
| Queries per second | 84,830.00 | 58,000.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.75 | 1.15 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.18 | 1.72 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.68 | 12.35 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.55 | 2.39 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,118.00 | 2,955.00 |
| Queries per second | 41,180.00 | 29,550.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.87 | 2.64 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.43 | 3.38 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.45 | 22.69 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.02 | 4.41 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 15,154.00 | 8,921.00 |
| Queries per second | 151,540.00 | 89,210.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.42 | 0.65 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.66 | 1.12 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.86 | 8.92 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.94 | 1.42 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,637,967.00 | 1,288,467.00 |
| Queries per second | 16,379,670.00 | 12,884,670.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 285.43 | 398.24 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 208,537.00 | 170,179.00 |
| Queries per second | 2,085,370.00 | 1,701,790.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.03 | 0.05 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.45 | 7.27 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.06 | 0.08 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,487.00 | 7,819.00 |
| Queries per second | 74,870.00 | 78,190.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.48 | 0.42 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.33 | 1.28 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.66 | 6.03 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.7 | 1.64 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,465.00 | 7,328.00 |
| Queries per second | 74,650.00 | 73,280.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.39 | 0.3 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.34 | 1.36 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.32 | 4.97 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.76 | 1.76 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 13,876.00 | 8,603.00 |
| Queries per second | 138,760.00 | 86,030.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.43 | 0.69 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.72 | 1.16 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 9.4 | 6.97 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.03 | 1.7 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 15,049.00 | 7,719.00 |
| Queries per second | 150,490.00 | 77,190.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.43 | 0.65 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.66 | 1.29 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.05 | 54.76 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.9 | 1.73 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 118,145.00 | 80,451.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,181,450.00 | 804,510.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.03 | 0.05 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.08 | 0.12 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.52 | 16.14 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.12 | 0.42 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 103,305.79 | 44,052.86 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 103,305.79 | 44,563.28 |
| SET per Second | 102,669.41 | 44,072.28 |
| GET per Second | 102,249.49 | 44,345.89 |
| INCR per Second | 102,880.66 | 42,535.09 |
| LPUSH per Second | 103,950.10 | 41,545.49 |
| RPUSH per Second | 103,412.62 | 37,299.52 |
| LPOP per Second | 104,166.67 | 43,327.55 |
| RPOP per Second | 104,166.67 | 43,103.45 |
| SADD per Second | 101,729.40 | 43,994.72 |
| HSET per Second | 102,354.15 | 43,956.04 |
| SPOP per Second | 102,459.02 | 44,130.62 |
| ZADD per Second | 101,832.99 | 42,390.84 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 101,112.23 | 43,159.26 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 65,832.78 | 28,843.38 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 30,571.69 | 15,153.81 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 19,739.44 | 10,595.47 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 17,525.41 | 9,122.42 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 101,626.02 | 40,112.31 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.25 | 0.78 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.25 | 0.77 |
| SET | 0.25 | 0.78 |
| GET | 0.25 | 0.77 |
| INCR | 0.25 | 0.80 |
| LPUSH | 0.25 | 0.82 |
| RPUSH | 0.25 | 0.90 |
| LPOP | 0.25 | 0.80 |
| RPOP | 0.25 | 0.80 |
| SADD | 0.25 | 0.78 |
| HSET | 0.25 | 0.79 |
| SPOP | 0.25 | 0.77 |
| ZADD | 0.26 | 0.81 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.26 | 0.79 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.42 | 1.23 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 0.88 | 2.38 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 1.37 | 3.44 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 1.50 | 3.96 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.33 | 0.88 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
Comparing the two instances, DigitalOcean's Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) outperforms Linode's Nanode (1 GB) in most benchmark metrics, showing higher throughput, lower latency, and better CPU performance. DigitalOcean excels in Redis operations like SET, GET, and INCR with higher RPS and lower latency averages. Linode's CPU, though powerful, only has a single core compared to DigitalOcean's dual-core setup, which results in slightly better thread fairness and CPU event handling. DigitalOcean's storage also offers a significant throughput advantage over Linode. Linode, however, provides a cost-effective solution at half the price with acceptable performance for less demanding workloads, but for CPU-intensive, high-throughput, or I/O-heavy applications, DigitalOcean's superior performance and resources make it the better choice.
From the friendly human:
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