DigitalOcean Regular (1 GB) vs. Linode Nanode (1 GB)

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Fresh benchmarks coming at ya. Today I've spun up brand new instance from DigitalOcean and Linode and ran my world famous suite of benchmarking scripts. Each instance was running 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 – Regular (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Last Benchmarked Tue, 17 Feb 2026 06:00:52 GMT Wed, 18 Feb 2026 22:00:52 GMT
Linux Distro Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64
Kernel Version 6.8.0-71-generic 6.8.0-71-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 $6.00 $5.00
RAM (GB) 1 1
CPU Cores 1 1
Storage (TB) 25 25
Storage Type SSD SSD
Transfer (TB) 1 1

CPU

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Vendor GenuineIntel AuthenticAMD
Model Name DO-Regular AMD EPYC 7713 64-Core Processor
Clock Speed (MHz) 2,294.61 2,000.00
CPU Cache Size (KB) 4,096.00 512.00
BogoMips 4,589.21 3,999.99
Events per Second 387.61 1,796.69
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.99 0.24
Average Latency (ms) 2.57 0.56
Maximum Latency (ms) 6.65 33.29
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 4.33 2.52

Memory

Memory Read

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Operations per second 2,159,653.01 2,781,893.45
Mebibytes per second 2,109.04 2,716.69
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 3.81 8.48
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

Memory Write

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Operations per second 3,104,196.36 3,003,981.67
Mebibytes per second 3,031.44 2,933.58
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 0.47 31.65
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

File I/O

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Reads per Second 764.77 2,901.52
Writes per Second 509.85 1,934.35
Fsyncs per Second 1,635.99 6,191.21
Read Mebibytes per Second 11.95 45.34
Written Mebibytes per Second 7.97 30.22
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.34 0.09
Maximum Latency (ms) 141.7 15.73
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.21 0.24

Mutex

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Minimum Latency (ms) 2,605.86 1,404.10
Average Latency (ms) 2,616.99 1,411.48
Maximum Latency (ms) 2,630.24 1,422.33
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2,632.28 1,427.08

MySQL

MySQL Read-only

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 3,580.00 9,135.00
Queries per second 35,800.00 91,350.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.7 0.98
Average Latency (ms) 2.79 1.09
Maximum Latency (ms) 20.85 10.15
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 3.36 1.27

MySQL Write-only

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 1,094.00 6,708.00
Queries per second 10,940.00 67,080.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 4.94 0.87
Average Latency (ms) 9.14 1.49
Maximum Latency (ms) 173.39 37.92
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 13.46 2.03

MySQL Read/Write

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 812.00 3,482.00
Queries per second 8,120.00 34,820.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 7.49 2.16
Average Latency (ms) 12.31 2.87
Maximum Latency (ms) 54.05 9.8
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 17.01 3.55

MySQL INSERT

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 1,557.00 10,885.00
Queries per second 15,570.00 108,850.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 3.96 0.58
Average Latency (ms) 6.41 0.92
Maximum Latency (ms) 36.41 6.79
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 9.73 1.12

MySQL Bulk INSERT

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 636,443.00 1,887,810.00
Queries per second 6,364,430.00 18,878,100.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.02 0.01
Maximum Latency (ms) 841.96 322.52
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

MySQL SELECT

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 106,875.00 203,558.00
Queries per second 1,068,750.00 2,035,580.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.04 0.04
Average Latency (ms) 0.09 0.05
Maximum Latency (ms) 3.01 13.04
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.15 0.06

MySQL SELECT (Random Points)

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 2,896.00 11,192.00
Queries per second 28,960.00 111,920.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.53 0.21
Average Latency (ms) 3.45 0.89
Maximum Latency (ms) 14.99 6.53
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 4.49 1.18

MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 2,687.00 11,116.00
Queries per second 26,870.00 111,160.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.95 0.24
Average Latency (ms) 3.72 0.9
Maximum Latency (ms) 7.93 7.03
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 5.47 1.16

MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 1,241.00 9,976.00
Queries per second 12,410.00 99,760.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 4.3 0.56
Average Latency (ms) 8.06 1
Maximum Latency (ms) 160.26 4.74
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 13.95 1.34

MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 1,307.00 10,150.00
Queries per second 13,070.00 101,500.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 4.05 0.54
Average Latency (ms) 7.66 0.98
Maximum Latency (ms) 98.17 41.86
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 12.52 1.27

MySQL DELETE

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 6,422.00 101,100.00
Queries per second 64,220.00 1,011,000.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.06 0.04
Average Latency (ms) 1.56 0.1
Maximum Latency (ms) 49.19 8.67
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 7.84 0.16

Redis

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
PING_INLINE per Second 30,284.68 54,734.54
PING_MBULK per Second 32,573.29 55,493.89
SET per Second 30,293.85 55,248.62
GET per Second 29,904.30 55,218.11
INCR per Second 27,932.96 55,648.30
LPUSH per Second 28,571.43 54,200.54
RPUSH per Second 30,571.69 54,141.85
LPOP per Second 30,193.24 53,418.80
RPOP per Second 30,321.41 54,525.63
SADD per Second 32,289.31 55,524.71
HSET per Second 31,959.09 53,078.56
SPOP per Second 32,299.74 54,614.96
ZADD per Second 33,057.85 54,975.26
ZPOPMIN per Second 31,969.31 55,066.08
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second 13,513.51 38,022.81
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second 6,263.70 20,230.63
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second 4,185.15 14,701.56
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second 3,583.97 13,066.77
MSET (10 keys) per Second 25,614.75 52,659.29

Redis Average Latency (ms)

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
PING_INLINE1.090.61
PING_MBULK1.000.59
SET1.090.60
GET1.100.59
INCR1.160.59
LPUSH1.150.62
RPUSH1.080.62
LPOP1.100.63
RPOP1.100.61
SADD1.030.59
HSET1.040.63
SPOP1.020.60
ZADD1.030.61
ZPOPMIN1.030.60
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)2.680.91
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)5.611.70
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)8.122.36
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)9.502.65
MSET (10 keys)1.440.67

Conclusion

From the friendly robots:

In benchmarking the DigitalOcean Regular (1 GB) and Linode Nanode (1 GB) instances, we observe that the Linode Nanode generally outperforms the DigitalOcean instance across most metrics, particularly in Redis and MySQL operations where it demonstrates significantly higher request rates per second (rps) and lower latencies. The Linode instance benefits from its more powerful CPU based on AMD EPYC architecture, which translates into superior overall processing capabilities. In terms of file I/O operations, the Linode instance also shows better throughput and lower latencies compared to the DigitalOcean instance. The DigitalOcean instance, while still competent, lags behind in CPU and memory benchmarks, showing longer latencies in tasks such as Redis LRANGE operations and MySQL bulk inserts. For developers prioritizing high throughput and low latency in CPU-intensive, memory-demanding, or I/O-heavy workloads, the Linode Nanode (1 GB) would be the better choice, whereas the DigitalOcean Regular (1 GB) might be more suitable for less demanding tasks or those on a tighter budget.

From the friendly human:

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