DigitalOcean Regular (1 GB) vs. UpCloud Balanced (1 GB)
Fresh benchmarks coming at ya. Today I've spun up brand new instance from DigitalOcean and UpCloud and did some benchmarking. Each instance was spun up with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in the New York area (or close to it). Let's get into the numbers.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Tue, 07 Apr 2026 15:00:53 GMT | Wed, 08 Apr 2026 23:00:52 GMT |
| Linux Distro | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 |
| Kernel Version | 6.8.0-71-generic | 6.8.0-106-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 | 3,295.48 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 4,096.00 | 512.00 |
| BogoMips | 4,589.21 | 6,590.95 |
| Events per Second | 413.49 | 5,498.48 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.98 | 0.16 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.41 | 0.18 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 6.72 | 1.19 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.96 | 0.2 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 2,931,810.57 | 7,536,293.91 |
| Mebibytes per second | 2,863.10 | 7,359.66 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.41 | 0.25 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 3,364,154.34 | 7,610,312.91 |
| Mebibytes per second | 3,285.31 | 7,431.95 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.03 | 0.18 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 1,031.43 | 4,958.78 |
| Writes per Second | 687.62 | 3,305.85 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 2,211.89 | 10,581.62 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 16.12 | 77.48 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 10.74 | 51.65 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.25 | 0.05 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 124.42 | 23.72 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.64 | 0.2 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2,085.64 | 1,200.46 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2,117.30 | 1,205.89 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2,126.74 | 1,209.97 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2,120.76 | 1,213.57 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,188.00 | 23,913.00 |
| Queries per second | 41,880.00 | 239,130.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.34 | 0.29 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.38 | 0.42 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 13.68 | 3.69 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.76 | 0.55 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 898.00 | 7,390.00 |
| Queries per second | 8,980.00 | 73,900.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 3.87 | 0.59 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 11.12 | 1.35 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 199.35 | 151.26 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 22.28 | 2.18 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 977.00 | 5,643.00 |
| Queries per second | 9,770.00 | 56,430.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 6.44 | 1.07 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 10.23 | 1.77 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 46.69 | 18.59 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 15.27 | 2.39 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,413.00 | 10,691.00 |
| Queries per second | 24,130.00 | 106,910.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.28 | 0.4 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 4.14 | 0.93 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 161.12 | 28.16 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 6.79 | 1.52 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 767,507.00 | 2,861,217.00 |
| Queries per second | 7,675,070.00 | 28,612,170.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 701.42 | 190.34 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 129,998.00 | 797,057.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,299,980.00 | 7,970,570.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.08 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.05 | 1.08 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.11 | 0.02 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,875.00 | 14,716.00 |
| Queries per second | 28,750.00 | 147,160.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.27 | 0.19 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.47 | 0.68 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 24.28 | 5.31 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.74 | 1.01 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,894.00 | 18,683.00 |
| Queries per second | 28,940.00 | 186,830.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.12 | 0.15 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.45 | 0.53 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 12.05 | 2.69 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.91 | 0.77 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,665.00 | 11,777.00 |
| Queries per second | 16,650.00 | 117,770.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.62 | 0.39 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 6 | 0.85 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 45.51 | 16.28 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 11.65 | 1.23 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,754.00 | 11,468.00 |
| Queries per second | 17,540.00 | 114,680.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.21 | 0.35 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 5.7 | 0.87 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 163.84 | 15.13 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 11.04 | 1.23 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 15,267.00 | 397,047.00 |
| Queries per second | 152,670.00 | 3,970,470.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.65 | 0.02 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 31.8 | 12.77 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.62 | 0.03 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 29,577.05 | 163,132.14 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 36,496.35 | 146,412.88 |
| SET per Second | 32,164.68 | 168,067.22 |
| GET per Second | 36,589.83 | 163,666.12 |
| INCR per Second | 36,390.10 | 168,067.22 |
| LPUSH per Second | 35,001.75 | 158,730.16 |
| RPUSH per Second | 32,552.08 | 166,666.66 |
| LPOP per Second | 34,470.87 | 157,232.70 |
| RPOP per Second | 31,575.62 | 157,232.70 |
| SADD per Second | 28,546.96 | 161,030.59 |
| HSET per Second | 29,673.59 | 157,977.88 |
| SPOP per Second | 31,705.77 | 165,562.92 |
| ZADD per Second | 31,585.60 | 158,730.16 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 33,255.74 | 167,785.23 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 13,048.02 | 89,285.71 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 6,657.35 | 42,354.93 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 4,256.59 | 28,042.62 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 3,682.29 | 23,635.07 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 19,047.62 | 140,845.08 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 1.10 | 0.21 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.90 | 0.22 |
| SET | 1.03 | 0.20 |
| GET | 0.91 | 0.20 |
| INCR | 0.91 | 0.20 |
| LPUSH | 0.95 | 0.21 |
| RPUSH | 1.01 | 0.20 |
| LPOP | 0.98 | 0.22 |
| RPOP | 1.06 | 0.22 |
| SADD | 1.13 | 0.21 |
| HSET | 1.09 | 0.21 |
| SPOP | 1.03 | 0.20 |
| ZADD | 1.04 | 0.21 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.98 | 0.20 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 2.76 | 0.40 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 5.26 | 0.84 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 8.10 | 1.26 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 9.21 | 1.52 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 2.01 | 0.26 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
After analyzing the benchmark results for both the DigitalOcean Regular (1 GB) and UpCloud Balanced (1 GB) instances, it is evident that UpCloud's instance exhibits superior performance across most metrics, driven by a more powerful CPU and better overall throughput. DigitalOcean's instance, while capable, lags behind in CPU performance and specific operations like bulk redis commands, though it performs adequately for typical use cases. UpCloud's higher redis requests per second and lower latencies make it ideal for applications demanding high concurrency and low latency, while DigitalOcean might suffice for moderately demanding applications or where cost is a primary consideration. Both instances offer 1 GB of RAM and 25 GB of storage, with comparable performance in file I/O and memory operations, but UpCloud's superior CPU performance stands out. For high-performance, low-latency workloads, UpCloud is the recommended choice, whereas DigitalOcean is best suited for more budget-conscious, moderate workloads.
From the friendly human:
If you found this VPS Showdown helpful in your search for a hosting provider, please consider supporting my efforts by signing up using my referral links for DigitalOcean and UpCloud.
You can also support me directly by buying me a coffee.