DigitalOcean Regular (1 GB) vs. Vultr High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores)
Welcome to another round of the VPS Showdown. Today I've spun up some brand new instance from DigitalOcean and Vultr and ran some benchmarks. Each instance was spun up with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Let's get into the numbers.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Sat, 30 May 2026 16:00:52 GMT | Sun, 31 May 2026 13:00:55 GMT |
| Linux Distro | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 |
| Kernel Version | 6.8.0-71-generic | 6.8.0-117-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 | $18.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 1 | 2 |
| CPU Cores | 1 | 2 |
| Storage (TB) | 25 | 80 |
| Storage Type | SSD | NVMe |
| Transfer (TB) | 1 | 3 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | GenuineIntel | GenuineIntel |
| Model Name | DO-Regular | Intel Core Processor (Skylake, IBRS, no TSX) |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,494.14 | 3,791.98 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 4,096.00 | 16,384.00 |
| BogoMips | 4,988.28 | 7,583.95 |
| Events per Second | 529.66 | 1,552.05 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.92 | 0.62 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.88 | 0.64 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 16.46 | 4.61 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.43 | 0.69 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 3,987,036.39 | 7,875,668.83 |
| Mebibytes per second | 3,893.59 | 7,691.08 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.4 | 0.12 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 3,995,737.24 | 7,729,812.11 |
| Mebibytes per second | 3,902.09 | 7,548.64 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.17 | 0.16 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 1,945.54 | 4,671.85 |
| Writes per Second | 1,297.00 | 3,114.56 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 4,155.18 | 9,976.90 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 30.40 | 73.00 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 20.27 | 48.67 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.13 | 0.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 9.2 | 2.76 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.37 | 0.17 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2,822.79 | 543.27 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2,870.31 | 554.74 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2,894.40 | 563.70 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2,880.27 | 559.50 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,259.00 | 10,621.00 |
| Queries per second | 52,590.00 | 106,210.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.18 | 0.86 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.9 | 0.94 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8 | 2.5 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.57 | 1.03 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,346.00 | 10,229.00 |
| Queries per second | 23,460.00 | 102,290.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.49 | 0.64 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 4.25 | 0.98 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 52.22 | 2.08 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 8.13 | 1.23 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,464.00 | 5,072.00 |
| Queries per second | 14,640.00 | 50,720.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 3.41 | 1.59 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 6.82 | 1.97 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 29.15 | 3.94 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 11.24 | 2.39 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,314.00 | 16,038.00 |
| Queries per second | 63,140.00 | 160,380.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.59 | 0.38 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.58 | 0.62 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 14.38 | 13.18 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.52 | 0.8 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 964,103.00 | 2,424,342.00 |
| Queries per second | 9,641,030.00 | 24,243,420.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 533.45 | 205.81 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 149,521.00 | 241,313.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,495,210.00 | 2,413,130.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.03 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.07 | 0.04 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.86 | 0.76 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.11 | 0.05 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,958.00 | 12,080.00 |
| Queries per second | 39,580.00 | 120,800.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.48 | 0.21 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.52 | 0.83 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 9.22 | 3.31 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.68 | 1.04 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,379.00 | 10,527.00 |
| Queries per second | 43,790.00 | 105,270.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.79 | 0.16 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.28 | 0.95 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 6.74 | 3.25 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.36 | 1.23 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,761.00 | 17,123.00 |
| Queries per second | 47,610.00 | 171,230.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.7 | 0.38 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.1 | 0.58 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 14.39 | 2 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.75 | 0.78 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,433.00 | 16,979.00 |
| Queries per second | 44,330.00 | 169,790.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.82 | 0.38 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.25 | 0.59 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 47.54 | 4.13 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.1 | 0.8 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 33,039.00 | 156,424.00 |
| Queries per second | 330,390.00 | 1,564,240.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.03 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.3 | 0.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 10.34 | 4.87 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.7 | 0.07 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 39,745.63 | 88,652.48 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 34,602.07 | 89,605.73 |
| SET per Second | 33,036.01 | 90,171.33 |
| GET per Second | 41,186.16 | 90,579.71 |
| INCR per Second | 42,918.46 | 90,744.10 |
| LPUSH per Second | 37,495.31 | 90,497.73 |
| RPUSH per Second | 37,160.91 | 90,415.91 |
| LPOP per Second | 33,955.86 | 90,909.09 |
| RPOP per Second | 38,714.67 | 90,661.83 |
| SADD per Second | 39,416.63 | 90,252.70 |
| HSET per Second | 35,880.88 | 90,415.91 |
| SPOP per Second | 34,506.55 | 89,928.05 |
| ZADD per Second | 26,511.13 | 90,415.91 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 31,877.59 | 90,009.01 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 16,152.48 | 66,533.60 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 9,134.09 | 36,179.45 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 5,766.68 | 26,239.83 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 4,820.90 | 22,547.91 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 27,457.44 | 88,105.73 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.84 | 0.30 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.94 | 0.29 |
| SET | 1.01 | 0.29 |
| GET | 0.81 | 0.29 |
| INCR | 0.78 | 0.28 |
| LPUSH | 0.89 | 0.29 |
| RPUSH | 0.90 | 0.29 |
| LPOP | 0.99 | 0.28 |
| RPOP | 0.87 | 0.28 |
| SADD | 0.85 | 0.29 |
| HSET | 0.93 | 0.29 |
| SPOP | 0.96 | 0.29 |
| ZADD | 1.24 | 0.29 |
| ZPOPMIN | 1.04 | 0.29 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 2.25 | 0.39 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 3.93 | 0.71 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 6.15 | 0.97 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 7.38 | 1.14 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 1.27 | 0.30 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
The Vultr High Frequency Intel instance (2 GB, 2 Cores) significantly outperforms the DigitalOcean Regular (1 GB) instance in most benchmarks, especially in CPU-intensive and I/O-heavy workloads, as evidenced by its higher RPS rates and lower latencies in Redis operations, CPU event handling, and file I/O operations. The Vultr instance, with its higher RAM, more CPU cores, and NVMe storage, also excels in memory-related benchmarks and overall throughput. However, the DigitalOcean instance provides better thread fairness and lower latency in MySQL operations, suggesting it might be more suited for tasks requiring fine-tuned database performance over higher-scale operations. For users prioritizing raw processing power and large-scale data handling, the Vultr instance is the better choice, while the DigitalOcean instance could be more advantageous for scenarios where database interactions and thread fairness are critical.
From the friendly human:
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