DigitalOcean Regular (1 GB) vs. Vultr Cloud Compute (1 GB)

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Welcome to another round of the VPS Showdown. Today I've spun up brand new instance from DigitalOcean and Vultr and did some benchmarking. All instances were running 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) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Last Benchmarked Tue, 26 Aug 2025 14:00:52 GMT Tue, 26 Aug 2025 17:00:52 GMT
Linux Distro Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64
Kernel Version 6.8.0-71-generic 6.8.0-60-generic
MySQL Version 8.0.43-0ubuntu0.24.04.1 8.0.43-0ubuntu0.24.04.1
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) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Vendor GenuineIntel GenuineIntel
Model Name DO-Regular Intel Core Processor (Broadwell, no TSX, IBRS)
Clock Speed (MHz) 2,494.14 2,394.45
CPU Cache Size (KB) 4,096.00 16,384.00
BogoMips 4,988.28 4,788.90
Events per Second 954.20 861.36
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.91 1.14
Average Latency (ms) 1.05 1.16
Maximum Latency (ms) 2.11 2.77
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.27 1.21

Memory

Memory Read

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Operations per second 4,209,859.81 4,189,369.10
Mebibytes per second 4,111.19 4,091.18
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 1.49 1.75
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

Memory Write

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Operations per second 4,189,329.99 4,222,451.44
Mebibytes per second 4,091.14 4,123.49
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 1.03 0.72
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

File I/O

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Reads per Second 2,467.11 2,500.89
Writes per Second 1,644.74 1,667.19
Fsyncs per Second 5,269.57 5,346.52
Read Mebibytes per Second 38.55 39.08
Written Mebibytes per Second 25.70 26.05
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.11 0.1
Maximum Latency (ms) 14.6 3.4
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.3 0.3

Mutex

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Minimum Latency (ms) 2,239.74 2,081.46
Average Latency (ms) 2,269.10 2,089.86
Maximum Latency (ms) 2,285.87 2,098.02
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2,279.14 2,082.91

MySQL

MySQL Read-only

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second 6,274.00 5,526.00
Queries per second 62,740.00 55,260.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.15 1.7
Average Latency (ms) 1.59 1.81
Maximum Latency (ms) 5.02 11.86
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.26 1.93

MySQL Write-only

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second 4,050.00 5,084.00
Queries per second 40,500.00 50,840.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.18 1.45
Average Latency (ms) 2.46 1.96
Maximum Latency (ms) 45.75 10.63
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 3.96 2.61

MySQL Read/Write

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second 1,942.00 2,327.00
Queries per second 19,420.00 23,270.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 3.07 3.56
Average Latency (ms) 5.14 4.3
Maximum Latency (ms) 40.59 11.69
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 7.04 5.09

MySQL INSERT

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second 6,791.00 9,678.00
Queries per second 67,910.00 96,780.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.58 0.71
Average Latency (ms) 1.47 1.03
Maximum Latency (ms) 21.15 5.87
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.48 1.27

MySQL Bulk INSERT

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second 1,026,342.00 964,103.00
Queries per second 10,263,420.00 9,641,030.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.01 0.01
Maximum Latency (ms) 577.57 555.35
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

MySQL SELECT

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second 156,704.00 123,440.00
Queries per second 1,567,040.00 1,234,400.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.04 0.07
Average Latency (ms) 0.06 0.08
Maximum Latency (ms) 2.29 6.36
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.1 0.1

MySQL SELECT (Random Points)

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second 4,865.00 5,660.00
Queries per second 48,650.00 56,600.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.62 0.7
Average Latency (ms) 2.05 1.77
Maximum Latency (ms) 12.45 5.62
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 3.19 2.3

MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second 5,861.00 5,897.00
Queries per second 58,610.00 58,970.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.65 0.59
Average Latency (ms) 1.7 1.69
Maximum Latency (ms) 5.66 5.37
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.76 2.22

MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second 5,999.00 8,813.00
Queries per second 59,990.00 88,130.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.61 0.72
Average Latency (ms) 1.66 1.13
Maximum Latency (ms) 43.09 6.19
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.91 1.61

MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second 7,513.00 9,183.00
Queries per second 75,130.00 91,830.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.54 0.7
Average Latency (ms) 1.33 1.09
Maximum Latency (ms) 43.22 7.93
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2 1.37

MySQL DELETE

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second 60,867.00 60,278.00
Queries per second 608,670.00 602,780.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.04 0.07
Average Latency (ms) 0.16 0.16
Maximum Latency (ms) 16.04 12.23
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.99 0.95

Redis

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
PING_INLINE per Second 49,529.47 37,678.97
PING_MBULK per Second 49,067.71 37,467.22
SET per Second 48,007.68 36,469.73
GET per Second 48,520.13 38,022.81
INCR per Second 50,025.02 37,907.50
LPUSH per Second 46,446.82 30,238.89
RPUSH per Second 49,431.54 35,561.88
LPOP per Second 49,164.21 37,523.45
RPOP per Second 48,590.86 37,750.09
SADD per Second 44,642.86 37,678.97
HSET per Second 30,562.35 37,313.43
SPOP per Second 35,739.81 37,850.11
ZADD per Second 42,643.92 37,369.21
ZPOPMIN per Second 44,782.80 38,986.36
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second 22,212.35 24,125.45
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second 9,703.09 12,500.00
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second 8,345.85 8,862.11
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second 7,045.73 7,744.73
MSET (10 keys) per Second 38,299.50 34,554.25

Redis Average Latency (ms)

DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
PING_INLINE0.670.88
PING_MBULK0.670.88
SET0.700.91
GET0.690.88
INCR0.670.88
LPUSH0.731.08
RPUSH0.680.94
LPOP0.690.90
RPOP0.700.89
SADD0.750.88
HSET1.090.90
SPOP0.930.88
ZADD0.800.90
ZPOPMIN0.750.87
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)1.611.41
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)3.732.74
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)4.313.90
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)5.034.41
MSET (10 keys)0.931.02

Conclusion

From the friendly robots:

After analyzing the benchmark results for the DigitalOcean and Vultr instances, it's clear that both providers offer solid performance for a 1 GB RAM configuration, but they excel in different areas. The DigitalOcean instance shows slightly better performance in Redis operations, MySQL OLTP tasks, and file I/O operations, indicating it might be more suitable for CPU-intensive workloads and applications that require fast read/write speeds. Conversely, the Vultr instance demonstrates superior performance in Redis SET, GET, and INCR operations, suggesting it could be better for applications that rely heavily on Redis for caching and quick data retrieval. Both instances provide comparable latency and throughput for file I/O and memory operations, but the slight edge in certain Redis operations for Vultr and slightly lower monthly cost make it a compelling choice for budget-conscious users prioritizing Redis performance.

From the friendly human:

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