DigitalOcean Regular (1 GB) vs. Linode Linode (4 GB)
New day, new benchmarks. Today I've spun up brand new instance from DigitalOcean and Linode and ran my world famous suite of benchmarking scripts. All instances were spun up with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and all resided in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Let's get into the numbers.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Sat, 30 May 2026 16:00:52 GMT | Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:52 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 | Newark, NJ |
| Monthly Price | $6.00 | $24.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 1 | 4 |
| CPU Cores | 1 | 2 |
| Storage (TB) | 25 | 80 |
| Storage Type | SSD | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 1 | 4 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | GenuineIntel | AuthenticAMD |
| Model Name | DO-Regular | AMD EPYC 7713 64-Core Processor |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,494.14 | 2,000.00 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 4,096.00 | 512.00 |
| BogoMips | 4,988.28 | 3,999.99 |
| Events per Second | 529.66 | 3,444.02 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.92 | 0.28 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.88 | 0.29 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 16.46 | 4.83 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.43 | 0.3 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 3,987,036.39 | 5,349,213.60 |
| Mebibytes per second | 3,893.59 | 5,223.84 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.4 | 3.16 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 3,995,737.24 | 5,332,401.09 |
| Mebibytes per second | 3,902.09 | 5,207.42 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.17 | 3.25 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 1,945.54 | 3,325.24 |
| Writes per Second | 1,297.00 | 2,216.89 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 4,155.18 | 7,095.98 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 30.40 | 51.96 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 20.27 | 34.64 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.13 | 0.08 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 9.2 | 13.12 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.37 | 0.22 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2,822.79 | 864.93 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2,870.31 | 931.61 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2,894.40 | 968.34 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2,880.27 | 960.30 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,259.00 | 5,919.00 |
| Queries per second | 52,590.00 | 59,190.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.18 | 1.29 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.9 | 1.69 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8 | 8 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.57 | 2.03 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,346.00 | 5,152.00 |
| Queries per second | 23,460.00 | 51,520.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.49 | 1.22 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 4.25 | 1.94 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 52.22 | 24.88 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 8.13 | 2.52 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,464.00 | 2,609.00 |
| Queries per second | 14,640.00 | 26,090.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 3.41 | 2.83 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 6.82 | 3.83 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 29.15 | 8.83 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 11.24 | 4.74 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,314.00 | 7,493.00 |
| Queries per second | 63,140.00 | 74,930.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.59 | 0.73 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.58 | 1.33 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 14.38 | 15.06 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.52 | 1.86 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 964,103.00 | 1,754,467.00 |
| Queries per second | 9,641,030.00 | 17,544,670.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 533.45 | 418.75 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 149,521.00 | 130,180.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,495,210.00 | 1,301,800.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.05 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.07 | 0.08 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.86 | 4.63 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.11 | 0.1 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,958.00 | 8,212.00 |
| Queries per second | 39,580.00 | 82,120.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.48 | 0.33 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.52 | 1.22 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 9.22 | 11.27 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.68 | 2.3 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,379.00 | 8,956.00 |
| Queries per second | 43,790.00 | 89,560.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.79 | 0.42 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.28 | 1.12 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 6.74 | 4.66 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.36 | 1.44 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,761.00 | 7,381.00 |
| Queries per second | 47,610.00 | 73,810.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.7 | 0.81 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.1 | 1.35 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 14.39 | 8.43 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.75 | 1.76 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,433.00 | 7,379.00 |
| Queries per second | 44,330.00 | 73,790.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.82 | 0.82 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.25 | 1.35 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 47.54 | 7.2 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.1 | 1.73 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 33,039.00 | 58,502.00 |
| Queries per second | 330,390.00 | 585,020.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.3 | 0.17 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 10.34 | 8.26 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.7 | 1.14 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 39,745.63 | 44,444.45 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 34,602.07 | 42,158.52 |
| SET per Second | 33,036.01 | 43,725.41 |
| GET per Second | 41,186.16 | 43,084.88 |
| INCR per Second | 42,918.46 | 43,917.44 |
| LPUSH per Second | 37,495.31 | 44,169.61 |
| RPUSH per Second | 37,160.91 | 42,918.46 |
| LPOP per Second | 33,955.86 | 43,630.02 |
| RPOP per Second | 38,714.67 | 42,900.04 |
| SADD per Second | 39,416.63 | 43,066.32 |
| HSET per Second | 35,880.88 | 42,826.55 |
| SPOP per Second | 34,506.55 | 43,821.21 |
| ZADD per Second | 26,511.13 | 43,706.29 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 31,877.59 | 46,554.93 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 16,152.48 | 30,084.24 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 9,134.09 | 21,141.65 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 5,766.68 | 17,825.31 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 4,820.90 | 15,969.34 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 27,457.44 | 45,578.85 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Linode – (4 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.84 | 0.58 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.94 | 0.61 |
| SET | 1.01 | 0.59 |
| GET | 0.81 | 0.60 |
| INCR | 0.78 | 0.59 |
| LPUSH | 0.89 | 0.58 |
| RPUSH | 0.90 | 0.60 |
| LPOP | 0.99 | 0.59 |
| RPOP | 0.87 | 0.60 |
| SADD | 0.85 | 0.60 |
| HSET | 0.93 | 0.60 |
| SPOP | 0.96 | 0.59 |
| ZADD | 1.24 | 0.59 |
| ZPOPMIN | 1.04 | 0.55 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 2.25 | 0.89 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 3.93 | 1.25 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 6.15 | 1.50 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 7.38 | 1.59 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 1.27 | 0.57 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
Based on the provided benchmarks, the Linode instance with 2 CPUs and 4 GB of RAM performs significantly better than the DigitalOcean instance with 1 CPU and 1 GB of RAM across a range of metrics, particularly in CPU-intensive tasks and memory operations. The Linode instance shows higher RPS rates, lower latencies, and greater throughput in Redis operations, file I/O, and MySQL benchmarks. This indicates that the Linode instance is better suited for high-performance workloads that require more CPU power and memory, such as large-scale web applications, data processing pipelines, or intensive database operations. Meanwhile, the DigitalOcean instance, although more cost-effective, is ideal for lighter workloads or development environments where performance is not as critical.
From the friendly human:
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