DigitalOcean Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) vs. Vultr High Performance Intel (1 GB)
Fresh benchmarks coming at ya. Today I've spun up some brand new instance from DigitalOcean and Vultr and did some benchmarking. All instances were spun up with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in the New York area (or close to it). Without further ado, here's the results.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Tue, 02 Jun 2026 06:00:52 GMT | Sat, 30 May 2026 16:00:52 GMT |
| Linux Distro | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 |
| Kernel Version | 6.8.0-71-generic | 6.8.0-117-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 | $64.00 | $6.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 8 | 1 |
| CPU Cores | 4 | 1 |
| Storage (TB) | 240 | 25 |
| Storage Type | NVMe | NVMe |
| Transfer (TB) | 6 | 2 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | GenuineIntel | GenuineIntel |
| Model Name | DO-Premium-Intel | Intel Xeon Processor (Cascadelake) |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 1,995.31 | 2,893.17 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 4,096.00 | 16,384.00 |
| BogoMips | 3,990.61 | 5,786.33 |
| Events per Second | 2,100.00 | 1,117.86 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.46 | 0.83 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.48 | 0.89 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.77 | 3.92 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.49 | 1.04 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,031,036.30 | 4,957,996.46 |
| Mebibytes per second | 3,936.56 | 4,841.79 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.09 | 0.83 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,327,248.72 | 4,994,957.56 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,225.83 | 4,877.89 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.18 | 0.96 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 1,848.36 | 4,047.78 |
| Writes per Second | 1,232.24 | 2,698.52 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 3,943.27 | 8,646.86 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 28.88 | 63.25 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 19.25 | 42.16 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.14 | 0.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 32.73 | 3.35 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.83 | 0.19 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 496.91 | 1,571.60 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 678.09 | 1,588.95 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 755.25 | 1,599.96 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 759.88 | 1,589.90 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,172.00 | 8,137.00 |
| Queries per second | 51,720.00 | 81,370.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.28 | 1.08 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.93 | 1.23 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.32 | 6.86 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.61 | 1.42 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,301.00 | 7,462.00 |
| Queries per second | 23,010.00 | 74,620.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.35 | 0.77 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 4.34 | 1.34 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 12.64 | 5.26 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 7.3 | 1.93 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,495.00 | 3,070.00 |
| Queries per second | 14,950.00 | 30,700.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.89 | 2.45 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 6.68 | 3.25 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 19.01 | 8.6 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 10.46 | 4.18 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,010.00 | 15,069.00 |
| Queries per second | 30,100.00 | 150,690.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.11 | 0.43 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.32 | 0.66 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 14.62 | 3.39 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 6.09 | 0.87 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,201,092.00 | 964,103.00 |
| Queries per second | 12,010,920.00 | 9,641,030.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 566.03 | 458.6 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 157,927.00 | 213,306.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,579,270.00 | 2,133,060.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.06 | 0.05 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.99 | 4.3 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.09 | 0.07 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,434.00 | 5,672.00 |
| Queries per second | 54,340.00 | 56,720.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.45 | 0.58 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.84 | 1.76 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 14.81 | 8.16 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.71 | 2.52 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,582.00 | 7,910.00 |
| Queries per second | 65,820.00 | 79,100.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.57 | 0.43 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.52 | 1.26 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.15 | 3.43 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.66 | 1.67 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,033.00 | 13,874.00 |
| Queries per second | 30,330.00 | 138,740.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1 | 0.43 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.29 | 0.72 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 67.75 | 10.49 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5.99 | 1.08 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,268.00 | 15,344.00 |
| Queries per second | 32,680.00 | 153,440.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.03 | 0.42 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.06 | 0.65 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 11.49 | 4.43 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5.57 | 0.86 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 24,924.00 | 83,214.00 |
| Queries per second | 249,240.00 | 832,140.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.05 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.4 | 0.12 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 26.64 | 4.88 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.81 | 0.31 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 93,545.37 | 45,998.16 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 87,796.30 | 46,210.72 |
| SET per Second | 93,457.94 | 48,756.70 |
| GET per Second | 94,250.71 | 47,014.57 |
| INCR per Second | 85,106.38 | 46,707.14 |
| LPUSH per Second | 95,057.03 | 46,296.29 |
| RPUSH per Second | 86,505.19 | 45,248.87 |
| LPOP per Second | 89,285.71 | 47,551.12 |
| RPOP per Second | 100,100.10 | 47,573.74 |
| SADD per Second | 90,661.83 | 46,794.57 |
| HSET per Second | 90,415.91 | 42,662.11 |
| SPOP per Second | 96,432.02 | 46,794.57 |
| ZADD per Second | 97,751.71 | 45,433.89 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 97,751.71 | 46,296.29 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 58,997.05 | 24,260.07 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 26,191.72 | 14,120.31 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 15,961.69 | 9,612.61 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 14,390.56 | 8,560.91 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 73,152.89 | 43,859.65 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.28 | 0.71 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.31 | 0.70 |
| SET | 0.31 | 0.68 |
| GET | 0.28 | 0.70 |
| INCR | 0.31 | 0.71 |
| LPUSH | 0.29 | 0.72 |
| RPUSH | 0.32 | 0.73 |
| LPOP | 0.32 | 0.70 |
| RPOP | 0.27 | 0.70 |
| SADD | 0.32 | 0.70 |
| HSET | 0.29 | 0.76 |
| SPOP | 0.30 | 0.70 |
| ZADD | 0.31 | 0.72 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.28 | 0.70 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.46 | 1.42 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.05 | 2.51 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 2.04 | 3.69 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 2.12 | 4.14 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.49 | 0.78 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
Based on the benchmark results, the DigitalOcean instance demonstrates superior performance in terms of raw computational power, memory handling, and overall throughput compared to the Vultr instance. DigitalOcean excels in handling CPU-intensive tasks, with more CPU cores and higher benchmarked rates in various operations across Redis, MySQL, and general CPU tasks. It also outperforms in file I/O operations and memory management, suggesting it is better suited for applications requiring high I/O performance and multitasking capabilities. Conversely, the Vultr instance, while still capable, is geared more towards cost-sensitive, simpler applications where a single CPU core suffices. For developers and sysadmins seeking high-performance computing capabilities, especially in data-intensive workloads, the DigitalOcean instance is the more appropriate choice. However, for lighter workloads and when budget constraints are a priority, the Vultr instance provides adequate performance at a lower cost.
From the friendly human:
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