DigitalOcean Regular (1 GB) vs. UpCloud Balanced (1 GB)
Fresh benchmarks coming at ya. Today I've got brand new instances from DigitalOcean and UpCloud and did some benchmarking. Each instance was spun up with Ubuntu 26.04 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, 01 Sep 2026 05:00:49 GMT
Tue, 01 Sep 2026 05:02:17 GMT
Linux Distro
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x64
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x64
Kernel Version
7.0.0-27-generic
7.0.0-29-generic
MySQL Version
8.4.11-0ubuntu0.26.04.1
8.4.11-0ubuntu0.26.04.1
Redis Version
8.0.5
8.0.5
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
Head-to-head
Category winners from the latest benchmarks.
Category
Winner
CPU (events/sec)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Memory (read MiB/s)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Disk I/O (MiB/s)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Redis (GET/sec)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Value (CPU events per $/mo)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) takes 5 of 5 categories.
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)
2,494.14
3,295.48
CPU Cache Size (KB)
4,096.00
512.00
BogoMips
4,988.28
6,590.95
Events per Second
772.82
4,898.03
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.99
0.18
Average Latency (ms)
1.29
0.2
Maximum Latency (ms)
8.78
7.04
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1.55
0.24
Memory
Memory Read
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Operations per second
3,622,586.06
7,698,703.48
Mebibytes per second
3,537.68
7,518.27
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
5.1
0.28
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
Memory Write
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Operations per second
3,822,291.40
7,771,474.55
Mebibytes per second
3,732.71
7,589.33
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
4.17
0.27
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
File I/O
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Reads per Second
1,920.14
3,874.04
Writes per Second
1,280.03
2,582.69
Fsyncs per Second
4,102.48
8,274.31
Read Mebibytes per Second
30.00
60.53
Written Mebibytes per Second
20.00
40.35
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.14
0.07
Maximum Latency (ms)
8
29.08
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.36
0.21
Mutex
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Minimum Latency (ms)
2,478.01
1,206.99
Average Latency (ms)
2,532.74
1,212.44
Maximum Latency (ms)
2,549.36
1,217.09
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2,539.17
1,213.57
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
4,409.00
0.00
Queries per second
44,090.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.21
0
Average Latency (ms)
2.26
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
24.74
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.86
0
MySQL Write-only
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
3,732.00
0.00
Queries per second
37,320.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.21
0
Average Latency (ms)
2.67
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
16.14
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
4.03
0
MySQL Read/Write
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
1,483.00
0.00
Queries per second
14,830.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
3.57
0
Average Latency (ms)
6.74
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
18.12
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
10.27
0
MySQL INSERT
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
5,682.00
0.00
Queries per second
56,820.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.68
0
Average Latency (ms)
1.75
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
13.49
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.91
0
MySQL Bulk INSERT
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
767,507.00
0.00
Queries per second
7,675,070.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.01
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
617.09
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
MySQL SELECT
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
124,153.00
0.00
Queries per second
1,241,530.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.04
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.08
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
7.98
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.12
0
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
2,938.00
0.00
Queries per second
29,380.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.07
0
Average Latency (ms)
3.4
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
38.05
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
5.09
0
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
4,505.00
0.00
Queries per second
45,050.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.52
0
Average Latency (ms)
2.21
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
7.95
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
3.36
0
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
4,739.00
0.00
Queries per second
47,390.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.66
0
Average Latency (ms)
2.1
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
61.92
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
3.89
0
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
6,465.00
0.00
Queries per second
64,650.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.58
0
Average Latency (ms)
1.54
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
60.54
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.52
0
MySQL DELETE
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
40,979.00
0.00
Queries per second
409,790.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.04
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.24
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
11.16
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1.39
0
Redis
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
PING_INLINE per Second
27,956.39
36,589.83
PING_MBULK per Second
32,509.75
50,301.81
SET per Second
32,206.12
53,191.49
GET per Second
32,488.63
54,200.54
INCR per Second
28,034.76
53,219.80
LPUSH per Second
33,590.86
54,644.81
RPUSH per Second
32,883.92
53,163.21
LPOP per Second
37,439.16
54,525.63
RPOP per Second
35,803.80
55,218.11
SADD per Second
37,355.25
52,438.39
HSET per Second
36,683.79
54,704.60
SPOP per Second
36,764.71
54,704.60
ZADD per Second
37,622.27
56,116.72
ZPOPMIN per Second
35,997.12
51,572.98
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second
18,590.82
44,722.72
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second
10,315.66
27,886.22
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second
6,933.85
21,862.70
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second
6,325.51
17,173.28
MSET (10 keys) per Second
31,635.56
52,438.39
Redis Average Latency (ms)
DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
PING_INLINE
1.08
0.90
PING_MBULK
0.94
0.58
SET
0.96
0.57
GET
0.94
0.55
INCR
1.10
0.56
LPUSH
0.93
0.56
RPUSH
0.94
0.57
LPOP
0.84
0.57
RPOP
0.87
0.56
SADD
0.83
0.57
HSET
0.86
0.55
SPOP
0.83
0.54
ZADD
0.83
0.55
ZPOPMIN
0.86
0.58
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)
1.74
0.73
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)
3.03
1.15
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)
4.27
1.47
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)
4.67
1.84
MSET (10 keys)
1.08
0.67
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
The UpCloud Balanced (1 GB) instance clearly outperforms the DigitalOcean Regular (1 GB) in most benchmarks. Key metrics such as Redis RPS benchmarks (e.g., 54644.81 RPS for LPUSH compared to DigitalOcean's 33590.86) and CPU performance (4898.03 events per second vs. 772.82) highlight UpCloud's superior performance, primarily due to its more powerful AMD EPYC processor. For use cases that demand high throughput and low latency in CPU-intensive or memory-heavy tasks, UpCloud is the superior choice despite being more expensive. DigitalOcean offers acceptable performance for more budget-conscious users or applications that do not require peak CPU or memory performance.
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.
