DigitalOcean Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) vs. Vultr Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores)
New day, new benchmarks. Today I've spun up some brand new instance from DigitalOcean and Vultr and ran some benchmarks. All instances were running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and all resided in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Enough talk. Here's the data.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Fri, 12 Jun 2026 09:00:52 GMT | Thu, 11 Jun 2026 09:00:52 GMT |
| Linux Distro | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 |
| Kernel Version | 6.8.0-71-generic | 6.8.0-124-generic |
| MySQL Version | 8.0.46-0ubuntu0.24.04.2 | 8.0.46-0ubuntu0.24.04.2 |
| Redis Version | 7.0.15 | 7.0.15 |
| Location | New York, NY | Newark, NJ |
| Monthly Price | $24.00 | $20.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 2 | 4 |
| CPU Cores | 2 | 2 |
| Storage (TB) | 90 | 80 |
| Storage Type | NVMe | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 3 | 3 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | GenuineIntel | GenuineIntel |
| Model Name | DO-Premium-Intel | Intel Xeon Processor (Skylake, IBRS) |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,494.13 | 2,593.91 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 4,096.00 | 16,384.00 |
| BogoMips | 4,988.26 | 5,187.81 |
| Events per Second | 1,088.38 | 1,022.39 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.81 | 0.88 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.92 | 0.98 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.48 | 1.77 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.99 | 1.21 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 5,174,794.43 | 3,523,809.57 |
| Mebibytes per second | 5,053.51 | 3,441.22 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.1 | 0.22 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 5,213,776.01 | 3,568,203.77 |
| Mebibytes per second | 5,091.58 | 3,484.57 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.1 | 1.02 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 3,658.60 | 2,972.63 |
| Writes per Second | 2,439.07 | 1,981.75 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 7,816.53 | 6,347.81 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 57.17 | 46.45 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 38.11 | 30.96 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.07 | 0.09 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 28.9 | 17.12 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.19 | 0.33 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 856.93 | 899.28 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 886.45 | 935.93 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 908.23 | 969.92 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 909.80 | 977.74 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,067.00 | 3,779.00 |
| Queries per second | 80,670.00 | 37,790.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.99 | 1.84 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.24 | 2.64 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.87 | 24.55 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.39 | 3.82 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,949.00 | 4,044.00 |
| Queries per second | 79,490.00 | 40,440.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.79 | 1.4 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.26 | 2.47 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 12.04 | 13.46 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.7 | 3.3 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,012.00 | 1,798.00 |
| Queries per second | 40,120.00 | 17,980.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.82 | 3.86 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.49 | 5.56 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 11.32 | 27.33 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.19 | 6.91 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 13,968.00 | 6,405.00 |
| Queries per second | 139,680.00 | 64,050.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.44 | 0.99 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.71 | 1.56 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 7.99 | 15.15 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.99 | 2.03 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,637,967.00 | 865,805.00 |
| Queries per second | 16,379,670.00 | 8,658,050.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 292.21 | 538.25 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 202,761.00 | 126,618.00 |
| Queries per second | 2,027,610.00 | 1,266,180.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.03 | 0.05 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.08 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.41 | 2.46 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.06 | 0.11 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,471.00 | 3,674.00 |
| Queries per second | 74,710.00 | 36,740.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.44 | 1.07 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.34 | 2.72 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.83 | 6.45 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.73 | 3.55 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,783.00 | 2,728.00 |
| Queries per second | 77,830.00 | 27,280.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.42 | 1.3 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.28 | 3.66 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.23 | 11.85 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.67 | 5 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 12,429.00 | 5,438.00 |
| Queries per second | 124,290.00 | 54,380.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.45 | 0.99 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.8 | 1.84 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 18.27 | 13.86 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.18 | 2.71 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 13,300.00 | 6,370.00 |
| Queries per second | 133,000.00 | 63,700.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.44 | 1.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.75 | 1.57 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 24.3 | 8.99 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.08 | 2.07 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 138,507.00 | 51,180.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,385,070.00 | 511,800.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.03 | 0.05 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.07 | 0.19 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 9.89 | 6.11 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.09 | 1.39 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 92,850.51 | 49,677.10 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 103,412.62 | 45,372.05 |
| SET per Second | 101,112.23 | 45,392.64 |
| GET per Second | 103,199.18 | 53,163.21 |
| INCR per Second | 100,200.40 | 48,732.94 |
| LPUSH per Second | 102,564.10 | 50,327.12 |
| RPUSH per Second | 102,145.05 | 48,285.85 |
| LPOP per Second | 103,412.62 | 48,355.90 |
| RPOP per Second | 101,936.80 | 51,413.88 |
| SADD per Second | 102,459.02 | 48,332.53 |
| HSET per Second | 102,986.61 | 49,285.36 |
| SPOP per Second | 103,626.95 | 48,332.53 |
| ZADD per Second | 102,459.02 | 51,229.51 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 99,502.48 | 45,085.66 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 65,445.03 | 27,122.32 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 30,807.15 | 12,442.45 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 21,186.44 | 7,930.21 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 17,841.21 | 6,902.74 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 97,370.98 | 45,146.73 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.28 | 0.53 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.25 | 0.57 |
| SET | 0.26 | 0.57 |
| GET | 0.25 | 0.49 |
| INCR | 0.26 | 0.53 |
| LPUSH | 0.25 | 0.51 |
| RPUSH | 0.26 | 0.54 |
| LPOP | 0.26 | 0.54 |
| RPOP | 0.28 | 0.52 |
| SADD | 0.26 | 0.55 |
| HSET | 0.27 | 0.54 |
| SPOP | 0.26 | 0.54 |
| ZADD | 0.28 | 0.52 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.28 | 0.57 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.45 | 1.02 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.02 | 2.29 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 1.28 | 3.27 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 1.57 | 3.91 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.30 | 0.78 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
Comparing the benchmarks from the DigitalOcean and Vultr instances reveals that both providers offer strong performance but cater to slightly different needs. The DigitalOcean instance, with its Intel CPU, provides exceptional Redis throughput and latency, making it ideal for applications requiring high Redis performance. It also excels in MySQL OLTP operations and has notable file I/O capabilities, suggesting it could be a good choice for CPU-intensive tasks. Conversely, the Vultr instance, powered by an Intel Xeon Processor, boasts slightly higher Redis request rates and generally better CPU performance metrics, indicating it might be preferable for environments where raw CPU power and high Redis request handling are paramount. Additionally, Vultr's file I/O throughput is superior, making it more suitable for I/O-heavy workloads. Both instances offer comparable memory performance, but Vultr's extra RAM could be beneficial for memory-intensive applications. Overall, the DigitalOcean instance shines in Redis and MySQL performance, while the Vultr instance offers a bit more in terms of CPU and I/O capabilities, suggesting that the best choice depends on whether Redis throughput, MySQL performance, or raw CPU and I/O capacity is the priority.
From the friendly human:
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