DigitalOcean Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) vs. Linode Linode (4 GB)
New day, new benchmarks. Today I've spun up some brand new instance from DigitalOcean and Linode and ran some benchmarks. All instances were spun up with 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 (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Sat, 30 May 2026 19:00:52 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 | $24.00 | $24.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 2 | 4 |
| CPU Cores | 2 | 2 |
| Storage (TB) | 90 | 80 |
| Storage Type | NVMe | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 3 | 4 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | 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 | 963.13 | 3,444.02 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.91 | 0.28 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.04 | 0.29 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.44 | 4.83 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.25 | 0.3 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 3,902,195.50 | 5,349,213.60 |
| Mebibytes per second | 3,810.74 | 5,223.84 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.26 | 3.16 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,569,743.82 | 5,332,401.09 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,462.64 | 5,207.42 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.15 | 3.25 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 2,742.35 | 3,325.24 |
| Writes per Second | 1,828.23 | 2,216.89 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 5,857.37 | 7,095.98 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 42.85 | 51.96 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 28.57 | 34.64 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.1 | 0.08 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 9.7 | 13.12 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.27 | 0.22 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 916.48 | 864.93 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1,020.85 | 931.61 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1,118.20 | 968.34 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1,109.09 | 960.30 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,193.00 | 5,919.00 |
| Queries per second | 61,930.00 | 59,190.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.19 | 1.29 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.61 | 1.69 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 11.58 | 8 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.22 | 2.03 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,552.00 | 5,152.00 |
| Queries per second | 55,520.00 | 51,520.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.9 | 1.22 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.8 | 1.94 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 11.37 | 24.88 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.52 | 2.52 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,616.00 | 2,609.00 |
| Queries per second | 26,160.00 | 26,090.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.57 | 2.83 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.82 | 3.83 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 9.45 | 8.83 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5 | 4.74 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,253.00 | 7,493.00 |
| Queries per second | 82,530.00 | 74,930.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.54 | 0.73 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.21 | 1.33 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 15.31 | 15.06 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.76 | 1.86 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,346,717.00 | 1,754,467.00 |
| Queries per second | 13,467,170.00 | 17,544,670.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 383.36 | 418.75 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 167,795.00 | 130,180.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,677,950.00 | 1,301,800.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.05 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.06 | 0.08 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 13.06 | 4.63 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.09 | 0.1 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,976.00 | 8,212.00 |
| Queries per second | 59,760.00 | 82,120.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.56 | 0.33 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.67 | 1.22 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 6.01 | 11.27 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.52 | 2.3 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,014.00 | 8,956.00 |
| Queries per second | 60,140.00 | 89,560.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.67 | 0.42 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.66 | 1.12 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.75 | 4.66 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.76 | 1.44 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,636.00 | 7,381.00 |
| Queries per second | 86,360.00 | 73,810.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.53 | 0.81 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.16 | 1.35 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.85 | 8.43 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.7 | 1.76 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,678.00 | 7,379.00 |
| Queries per second | 86,780.00 | 73,790.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.51 | 0.82 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.15 | 1.35 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 18.84 | 7.2 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.67 | 1.73 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 67,961.00 | 58,502.00 |
| Queries per second | 679,610.00 | 585,020.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.15 | 0.17 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 18.86 | 8.26 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.83 | 1.14 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 80,450.52 | 44,444.45 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 89,047.20 | 42,158.52 |
| SET per Second | 84,602.37 | 43,725.41 |
| GET per Second | 86,281.27 | 43,084.88 |
| INCR per Second | 77,220.08 | 43,917.44 |
| LPUSH per Second | 71,942.45 | 44,169.61 |
| RPUSH per Second | 82,304.52 | 42,918.46 |
| LPOP per Second | 83,892.62 | 43,630.02 |
| RPOP per Second | 85,836.91 | 42,900.04 |
| SADD per Second | 87,108.02 | 43,066.32 |
| HSET per Second | 84,388.19 | 42,826.55 |
| SPOP per Second | 79,239.30 | 43,821.21 |
| ZADD per Second | 82,440.23 | 43,706.29 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 81,499.59 | 46,554.93 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 44,702.73 | 30,084.24 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 22,276.68 | 21,141.65 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 14,349.26 | 17,825.31 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 12,738.85 | 15,969.34 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 73,746.31 | 45,578.85 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.41 | 0.58 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.32 | 0.61 |
| SET | 0.40 | 0.59 |
| GET | 0.37 | 0.60 |
| INCR | 0.38 | 0.59 |
| LPUSH | 0.37 | 0.58 |
| RPUSH | 0.34 | 0.60 |
| LPOP | 0.32 | 0.59 |
| RPOP | 0.40 | 0.60 |
| SADD | 0.32 | 0.60 |
| HSET | 0.34 | 0.60 |
| SPOP | 0.39 | 0.59 |
| ZADD | 0.39 | 0.59 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.33 | 0.55 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.68 | 0.89 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.37 | 1.25 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 2.06 | 1.50 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 2.40 | 1.59 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.37 | 0.57 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
After analyzing the benchmark results for both DigitalOcean's Premium Intel instance and Linode's AMD EPYC instance, it's clear that both offer different strengths suitable for various workloads. DigitalOcean's instance shows impressive performance in Redis operations and MySQL operations, with higher request rates per second and lower latency across most benchmarks. Linode's instance, however, excels in handling bulk operations, showing slightly better performance in CPU, file IO, and memory operations. While DigitalOcean's instance is better for applications that benefit from higher Redis performance, Linode's instance is more suited for workloads that prioritize bulk data handling and overall CPU efficiency, making it ideal for database-intensive tasks or large file operations.
From the friendly human:
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