DigitalOcean Regular (1 GB) vs. UpCloud Balanced (1 GB)

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My friend, I'm so glad you're here! Today I've spun up brand new instance from DigitalOcean and UpCloud and did some benchmarking. All instances were spun up with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Without further ado, here's the results.

Overview

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Last Benchmarked Tue, 17 Feb 2026 06:00:52 GMT Tue, 17 Feb 2026 12:00:52 GMT
Linux Distro Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64
Kernel Version 6.8.0-71-generic 6.8.0-87-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 $6.00 €7.00
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) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Vendor GenuineIntel AuthenticAMD
Model Name DO-Regular AMD EPYC 9575F 64-Core Processor
Clock Speed (MHz) 2,294.61 3,295.46
CPU Cache Size (KB) 4,096.00 512.00
BogoMips 4,589.21 6,590.91
Events per Second 387.61 5,269.12
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.99 0.17
Average Latency (ms) 2.57 0.19
Maximum Latency (ms) 6.65 0.78
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 4.33 0.2

Memory

Memory Read

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Operations per second 2,159,653.01 6,495,754.58
Mebibytes per second 2,109.04 6,343.51
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 3.81 5.62
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

Memory Write

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Operations per second 3,104,196.36 6,653,943.56
Mebibytes per second 3,031.44 6,497.99
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 0.47 4.05
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

File I/O

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Reads per Second 764.77 2,843.26
Writes per Second 509.85 1,895.51
Fsyncs per Second 1,635.99 6,077.14
Read Mebibytes per Second 11.95 44.43
Written Mebibytes per Second 7.97 29.62
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.34 0.09
Maximum Latency (ms) 141.7 130.72
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.21 0.29

Mutex

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Minimum Latency (ms) 2,605.86 1,405.90
Average Latency (ms) 2,616.99 1,420.12
Maximum Latency (ms) 2,630.24 1,430.71
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2,632.28 1,427.08

MySQL

MySQL Read-only

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second 3,580.00 20,293.00
Queries per second 35,800.00 202,930.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.7 0.32
Average Latency (ms) 2.79 0.49
Maximum Latency (ms) 20.85 6.79
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 3.36 0.62

MySQL Write-only

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second 1,094.00 4,585.00
Queries per second 10,940.00 45,850.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 4.94 0.66
Average Latency (ms) 9.14 2.18
Maximum Latency (ms) 173.39 97.21
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 13.46 4.91

MySQL Read/Write

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second 812.00 3,152.00
Queries per second 8,120.00 31,520.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 7.49 1.31
Average Latency (ms) 12.31 3.17
Maximum Latency (ms) 54.05 38.87
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 17.01 6.09

MySQL INSERT

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second 1,557.00 7,436.00
Queries per second 15,570.00 74,360.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 3.96 0.44
Average Latency (ms) 6.41 1.34
Maximum Latency (ms) 36.41 47.68
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 9.73 1.96

MySQL Bulk INSERT

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second 636,443.00 2,220,467.00
Queries per second 6,364,430.00 22,204,670.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.02 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 841.96 240.79
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

MySQL SELECT

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second 106,875.00 716,229.00
Queries per second 1,068,750.00 7,162,290.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.04 0.01
Average Latency (ms) 0.09 0.01
Maximum Latency (ms) 3.01 3.14
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.15 0.02

MySQL SELECT (Random Points)

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second 2,896.00 8,118.00
Queries per second 28,960.00 81,180.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.53 0.23
Average Latency (ms) 3.45 1.23
Maximum Latency (ms) 14.99 12.44
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 4.49 1.79

MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second 2,687.00 13,131.00
Queries per second 26,870.00 131,310.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.95 0.2
Average Latency (ms) 3.72 0.76
Maximum Latency (ms) 7.93 4.01
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 5.47 1.14

MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second 1,241.00 6,728.00
Queries per second 12,410.00 67,280.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 4.3 0.51
Average Latency (ms) 8.06 1.48
Maximum Latency (ms) 160.26 42.6
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 13.95 2.43

MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second 1,307.00 5,255.00
Queries per second 13,070.00 52,550.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 4.05 0.51
Average Latency (ms) 7.66 1.9
Maximum Latency (ms) 98.17 42.38
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 12.52 4.18

MySQL DELETE

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second 6,422.00 259,230.00
Queries per second 64,220.00 2,592,300.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.06 0.01
Average Latency (ms) 1.56 0.04
Maximum Latency (ms) 49.19 67.05
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 7.84 0.04

Redis

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
PING_INLINE per Second 30,284.68 87,719.30
PING_MBULK per Second 32,573.29 127,064.80
SET per Second 30,293.85 104,821.80
GET per Second 29,904.30 110,375.27
INCR per Second 27,932.96 125,786.16
LPUSH per Second 28,571.43 125,944.58
RPUSH per Second 30,571.69 133,511.34
LPOP per Second 30,193.24 134,228.19
RPOP per Second 30,321.41 128,534.70
SADD per Second 32,289.31 133,689.83
HSET per Second 31,959.09 127,713.92
SPOP per Second 32,299.74 142,247.52
ZADD per Second 33,057.85 143,884.89
ZPOPMIN per Second 31,969.31 152,905.20
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second 13,513.51 77,041.60
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second 6,263.70 31,836.99
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second 4,185.15 20,064.21
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second 3,583.97 19,708.32
MSET (10 keys) per Second 25,614.75 131,061.59

Redis Average Latency (ms)

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
PING_INLINE1.090.43
PING_MBULK1.000.26
SET1.090.32
GET1.100.30
INCR1.160.27
LPUSH1.150.27
RPUSH1.080.25
LPOP1.100.25
RPOP1.100.26
SADD1.030.25
HSET1.040.26
SPOP1.020.23
ZADD1.030.24
ZPOPMIN1.030.22
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)2.680.47
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)5.611.14
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)8.121.83
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)9.501.86
MSET (10 keys)1.440.28

Conclusion

From the friendly robots:

After analyzing the provided benchmark data, it's clear that the UpCloud Balanced instance outperforms the DigitalOcean Regular instance across most metrics. The UpCloud instance achieves significantly higher request rates per second for various Redis operations, including PING_INLINE, SET, GET, and LPUSH, reflecting its superior CPU performance with the AMD EPYC 9575F processor. While the DigitalOcean instance shows better latency in single-operation benchmarks, the UpCloud instance demonstrates superior overall throughput in CPU, memory, and file I/O operations. In conclusion, the UpCloud Balanced instance is better suited for CPU-intensive, high-throughput workloads, while the DigitalOcean Regular instance might be more appropriate for scenarios where slightly lower latency in simple operations is a priority and budget is a key concern.

From the friendly human:

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