DigitalOcean Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) vs. UpCloud Balanced (2 GB)
Welcome to another round of the VPS Showdown. Today I've spun up brand new instance from DigitalOcean and UpCloud and did some benchmarking. Each instance was spun up with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in the New York area (or close to it). Enough talk. Here's the data.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Mon, 11 May 2026 09:00:53 GMT | Wed, 13 May 2026 07:00:52 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 | New York, NY |
| Monthly Price | $64.00 | €13.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 8 | 2 |
| CPU Cores | 4 | 1 |
| Storage (TB) | 240 | 50 |
| Storage Type | NVMe | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 6 | 2 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | GenuineIntel | AuthenticAMD |
| Model Name | DO-Premium-Intel | AMD EPYC 9575F 64-Core Processor |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,494.14 | 3,295.48 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 4,096.00 | 512.00 |
| BogoMips | 4,988.28 | 6,590.95 |
| Events per Second | 1,080.07 | 5,025.21 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.85 | 0.18 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.93 | 0.2 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.29 | 5.35 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.95 | 0.22 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 5,021,999.15 | 5,932,400.60 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,904.30 | 5,793.36 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.14 | 2.22 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,999,702.00 | 6,706,599.41 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,882.52 | 6,549.41 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.11 | 1.56 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 8,988.52 | 3,214.64 |
| Writes per Second | 5,992.35 | 2,143.03 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 19,182.70 | 6,864.71 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 140.45 | 50.23 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 93.63 | 33.48 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.03 | 0.08 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.17 | 20.14 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.11 | 0.31 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 540.23 | 1,349.13 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 622.37 | 1,353.60 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 713.32 | 1,361.99 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 707.07 | 1,352.03 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,980.00 | 19,090.00 |
| Queries per second | 79,800.00 | 190,900.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.06 | 0.31 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.25 | 0.52 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.02 | 5.34 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.42 | 0.64 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,835.00 | 3,974.00 |
| Queries per second | 78,350.00 | 39,740.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.82 | 0.87 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.27 | 2.51 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.81 | 38.67 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.67 | 5 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,701.00 | 2,830.00 |
| Queries per second | 37,010.00 | 28,300.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.95 | 1.29 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.7 | 3.53 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 7.17 | 56.72 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.49 | 6.32 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 12,453.00 | 4,647.00 |
| Queries per second | 124,530.00 | 46,470.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.48 | 0.61 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.8 | 2.15 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.93 | 28.58 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.1 | 4.41 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,637,967.00 | 2,249,592.00 |
| Queries per second | 16,379,670.00 | 22,495,920.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 332.84 | 207.34 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 206,728.00 | 645,161.00 |
| Queries per second | 2,067,280.00 | 6,451,610.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.03 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.02 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.39 | 2.26 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.06 | 0.02 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,303.00 | 8,546.00 |
| Queries per second | 73,030.00 | 85,460.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.51 | 0.13 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.37 | 1.17 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.13 | 172.57 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.79 | 1.58 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,384.00 | 11,562.00 |
| Queries per second | 73,840.00 | 115,620.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.38 | 0.22 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.35 | 0.86 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.52 | 4.07 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.76 | 1.27 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 11,764.00 | 4,711.00 |
| Queries per second | 117,640.00 | 47,110.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.48 | 0.73 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.85 | 2.12 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.1 | 30.41 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.21 | 3.96 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 12,673.00 | 5,393.00 |
| Queries per second | 126,730.00 | 53,930.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.47 | 0.48 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.79 | 1.85 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.45 | 39 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.08 | 3.43 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 137,732.00 | 101,195.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,377,320.00 | 1,011,950.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.03 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.07 | 0.1 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.67 | 39.3 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.08 | 0.17 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 96,432.02 | 130,208.34 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 94,966.77 | 130,208.34 |
| SET per Second | 94,161.95 | 130,890.05 |
| GET per Second | 95,969.28 | 129,198.97 |
| INCR per Second | 96,246.39 | 128,534.70 |
| LPUSH per Second | 94,250.71 | 128,040.97 |
| RPUSH per Second | 88,967.98 | 126,582.27 |
| LPOP per Second | 97,370.98 | 124,688.28 |
| RPOP per Second | 95,328.88 | 127,226.46 |
| SADD per Second | 94,786.73 | 129,198.97 |
| HSET per Second | 99,009.90 | 133,511.34 |
| SPOP per Second | 100,603.62 | 139,275.77 |
| ZADD per Second | 95,877.28 | 130,039.02 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 99,700.90 | 129,701.68 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 62,814.07 | 55,524.71 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 30,750.31 | 28,785.26 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 18,580.45 | 18,942.98 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 16,843.52 | 17,038.68 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 102,249.49 | 108,225.10 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.27 | 0.25 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.28 | 0.25 |
| SET | 0.29 | 0.26 |
| GET | 0.28 | 0.26 |
| INCR | 0.27 | 0.26 |
| LPUSH | 0.28 | 0.26 |
| RPUSH | 0.30 | 0.27 |
| LPOP | 0.29 | 0.27 |
| RPOP | 0.29 | 0.27 |
| SADD | 0.28 | 0.26 |
| HSET | 0.27 | 0.26 |
| SPOP | 0.26 | 0.24 |
| ZADD | 0.30 | 0.26 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.26 | 0.26 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.46 | 0.66 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 0.92 | 1.27 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 1.46 | 1.95 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 1.66 | 2.16 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.29 | 0.34 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
After a thorough comparison of the two VPS instances, the DigitalOcean Premium Intel instance shows slightly better performance in CPU benchmarks, with higher rates of Redis operations per second, lower latency in most metrics, and higher throughput in file I/O operations. The UpCloud Balanced instance, despite having less CPU power, also performs well in Redis benchmarks, though it lags slightly behind in overall throughput and CPU latency. Memory operations are faster on UpCloud, but both instances exhibit near-perfect thread fairness in memory operations. Ideal use cases would lean towards DigitalOcean for CPU-intensive tasks and for workloads that benefit from high throughput and low latency, while UpCloud might be more suitable for memory-intensive applications and where cost is a significant factor due to its lower monthly fee.
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 directly by buying me a coffee.