DigitalOcean Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) vs. Vultr High Performance Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores)
Welcome to another round of the VPS Showdown. Today I've spun up brand new instance from DigitalOcean and Vultr to run some benchmarks on. All instances were running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Enough talk. Here's the data.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Tue, 02 Jun 2026 06:00:52 GMT | Mon, 01 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 | 6.8.0-117-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 | $24.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 8 | 4 |
| CPU Cores | 4 | 2 |
| Storage (TB) | 240 | 100 |
| Storage Type | NVMe | NVMe |
| Transfer (TB) | 6 | 5 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 1,127.22 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.46 | 0.83 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.48 | 0.89 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.77 | 1.63 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.49 | 1.03 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,031,036.30 | 5,076,641.48 |
| Mebibytes per second | 3,936.56 | 4,957.66 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.09 | 0.11 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,327,248.72 | 5,199,921.82 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,225.83 | 5,078.05 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.18 | 0.32 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 1,848.36 | 6,643.48 |
| Writes per Second | 1,232.24 | 4,428.99 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 3,943.27 | 14,178.45 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 28.88 | 103.80 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 19.25 | 69.20 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.14 | 0.04 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 32.73 | 2.72 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.83 | 0.13 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 496.91 | 934.92 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 678.09 | 952.27 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 755.25 | 971.10 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 759.88 | 977.74 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,172.00 | 6,936.00 |
| Queries per second | 51,720.00 | 69,360.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.28 | 1.12 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.93 | 1.44 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.32 | 3.44 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.61 | 1.93 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,301.00 | 7,639.00 |
| Queries per second | 23,010.00 | 76,390.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.35 | 0.82 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 4.34 | 1.31 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 12.64 | 5.39 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 7.3 | 1.86 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,495.00 | 3,172.00 |
| Queries per second | 14,950.00 | 31,720.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.89 | 2.12 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 6.68 | 3.15 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 19.01 | 6.4 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 10.46 | 4.1 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,010.00 | 12,696.00 |
| Queries per second | 30,100.00 | 126,960.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.11 | 0.43 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.32 | 0.78 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 14.62 | 3.84 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 6.09 | 1.08 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,201,092.00 | 1,375,842.00 |
| Queries per second | 12,010,920.00 | 13,758,420.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 566.03 | 346.5 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 157,927.00 | 183,136.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,579,270.00 | 1,831,360.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.03 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.06 | 0.05 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.99 | 0.84 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.09 | 0.08 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,434.00 | 5,984.00 |
| Queries per second | 54,340.00 | 59,840.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.45 | 0.39 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.84 | 1.67 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 14.81 | 29.6 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.71 | 2.26 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,582.00 | 7,185.00 |
| Queries per second | 65,820.00 | 71,850.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.57 | 0.46 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.52 | 1.39 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.15 | 3.38 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.66 | 1.96 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,033.00 | 11,973.00 |
| Queries per second | 30,330.00 | 119,730.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1 | 0.45 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.29 | 0.83 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 67.75 | 4.5 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5.99 | 1.23 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,268.00 | 12,915.00 |
| Queries per second | 32,680.00 | 129,150.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.03 | 0.43 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.06 | 0.77 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 11.49 | 8.63 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5.57 | 1.08 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 24,924.00 | 107,097.00 |
| Queries per second | 249,240.00 | 1,070,970.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.4 | 0.09 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 26.64 | 4.34 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.81 | 0.14 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 93,545.37 | 59,808.61 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 87,796.30 | 54,614.96 |
| SET per Second | 93,457.94 | 50,916.50 |
| GET per Second | 94,250.71 | 63,171.20 |
| INCR per Second | 85,106.38 | 61,652.28 |
| LPUSH per Second | 95,057.03 | 52,826.20 |
| RPUSH per Second | 86,505.19 | 59,523.81 |
| LPOP per Second | 89,285.71 | 65,359.48 |
| RPOP per Second | 100,100.10 | 59,952.04 |
| SADD per Second | 90,661.83 | 62,344.14 |
| HSET per Second | 90,415.91 | 53,734.55 |
| SPOP per Second | 96,432.02 | 58,038.30 |
| ZADD per Second | 97,751.71 | 61,349.70 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 97,751.71 | 64,308.68 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 58,997.05 | 43,687.20 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 26,191.72 | 21,390.37 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 15,961.69 | 16,374.65 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 14,390.56 | 15,060.24 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 73,152.89 | 58,858.15 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – High Performance Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.28 | 0.44 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.31 | 0.51 |
| SET | 0.31 | 0.53 |
| GET | 0.28 | 0.43 |
| INCR | 0.31 | 0.43 |
| LPUSH | 0.29 | 0.49 |
| RPUSH | 0.32 | 0.43 |
| LPOP | 0.32 | 0.40 |
| RPOP | 0.27 | 0.43 |
| SADD | 0.32 | 0.45 |
| HSET | 0.29 | 0.48 |
| SPOP | 0.30 | 0.45 |
| ZADD | 0.31 | 0.42 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.28 | 0.40 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.46 | 0.64 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.05 | 1.50 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 2.04 | 1.83 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 2.12 | 1.91 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.49 | 0.50 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
Comparing the two VPS instances, the DigitalOcean Premium Intel (8 GB, 4 Cores) excels in overall performance metrics, showing higher throughput rates and lower latency across most benchmarks, particularly in CPU operations and Redis commands where it achieves significantly higher requests per second (rps) and lower average latency compared to the Vultr High Performance Intel (4 GB, 2 Cores). The DigitalOcean instance also demonstrates superior performance in memory and file I/O operations. However, the Vultr instance, while slightly behind in raw performance, shows better thread fairness in certain benchmarks, which could be beneficial in multi-threaded workloads. Given these benchmarks, the DigitalOcean instance is better suited for CPU-intensive and memory-demanding tasks, while the Vultr instance might be more appropriate for scenarios that require high thread fairness and slightly lower resource allocation, such as specific multi-threaded or I/O-heavy workloads.
From the friendly human:
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