DigitalOcean Regular (2 GB, 2 Cores) vs. UpCloud Balanced (2 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). Enough talk. Here's the data.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Tue, 12 May 2026 12:00:52 GMT | Wed, 13 May 2026 07:00:52 GMT |
| Linux Distro | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 |
| Kernel Version | 6.8.0-71-generic | 6.8.0-111-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 | $18.00 | €13.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 2 | 2 |
| CPU Cores | 2 | 1 |
| Storage (TB) | 60 | 50 |
| Storage Type | SSD | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 3 | 2 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 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 | 795.46 | 5,025.21 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.98 | 0.18 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.25 | 0.2 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.48 | 5.35 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.52 | 0.22 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 3,122,928.90 | 5,932,400.60 |
| Mebibytes per second | 3,049.74 | 5,793.36 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.27 | 2.22 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 3,116,343.29 | 6,706,599.41 |
| Mebibytes per second | 3,043.30 | 6,549.41 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.32 | 1.56 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 399.70 | 3,214.64 |
| Writes per Second | 266.46 | 2,143.03 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 858.95 | 6,864.71 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 6.25 | 50.23 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 4.16 | 33.48 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.66 | 0.08 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 76.95 | 20.14 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.66 | 0.31 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1,820.91 | 1,349.13 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1,871.35 | 1,353.60 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1,911.74 | 1,361.99 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1,903.57 | 1,352.03 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,723.00 | 19,090.00 |
| Queries per second | 27,230.00 | 190,900.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.74 | 0.31 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.67 | 0.52 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 22.65 | 5.34 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 6.79 | 0.64 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 599.00 | 3,974.00 |
| Queries per second | 5,990.00 | 39,740.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 5.93 | 0.87 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 16.72 | 2.51 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 155.85 | 38.67 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 30.26 | 5 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 432.00 | 2,830.00 |
| Queries per second | 4,320.00 | 28,300.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 10.16 | 1.29 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 23.14 | 3.53 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 84.72 | 56.72 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 42.61 | 6.32 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 892.00 | 4,647.00 |
| Queries per second | 8,920.00 | 46,470.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 4.19 | 0.61 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 11.2 | 2.15 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 61.52 | 28.58 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 19.29 | 4.41 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 603,677.00 | 2,249,592.00 |
| Queries per second | 6,036,770.00 | 22,495,920.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.02 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1262.42 | 207.34 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 86,662.00 | 645,161.00 |
| Queries per second | 866,620.00 | 6,451,610.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.11 | 0.02 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 30.46 | 2.26 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.17 | 0.02 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,577.00 | 8,546.00 |
| Queries per second | 25,770.00 | 85,460.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.2 | 0.13 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.87 | 1.17 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 45.89 | 172.57 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 7.3 | 1.58 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,249.00 | 11,562.00 |
| Queries per second | 22,490.00 | 115,620.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.65 | 0.22 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 4.44 | 0.86 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 35.79 | 4.07 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 7.56 | 1.27 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 642.00 | 4,711.00 |
| Queries per second | 6,420.00 | 47,110.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 4.61 | 0.73 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 15.56 | 2.12 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 264.01 | 30.41 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 29.19 | 3.96 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 769.00 | 5,393.00 |
| Queries per second | 7,690.00 | 53,930.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 3.87 | 0.48 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 13.01 | 1.85 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 68.95 | 39 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 23.95 | 3.43 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,449.00 | 101,195.00 |
| Queries per second | 34,490.00 | 1,011,950.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.9 | 0.1 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 78.12 | 39.3 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 13.95 | 0.17 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 24,073.18 | 130,208.34 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 23,089.36 | 130,208.34 |
| SET per Second | 31,665.61 | 130,890.05 |
| GET per Second | 34,782.61 | 129,198.97 |
| INCR per Second | 33,322.23 | 128,534.70 |
| LPUSH per Second | 33,749.58 | 128,040.97 |
| RPUSH per Second | 35,423.31 | 126,582.27 |
| LPOP per Second | 31,289.11 | 124,688.28 |
| RPOP per Second | 26,123.30 | 127,226.46 |
| SADD per Second | 33,046.93 | 129,198.97 |
| HSET per Second | 32,701.11 | 133,511.34 |
| SPOP per Second | 46,926.32 | 139,275.77 |
| ZADD per Second | 40,306.33 | 130,039.02 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 36,886.76 | 129,701.68 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 19,900.50 | 55,524.71 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 11,098.78 | 28,785.26 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 8,043.76 | 18,942.98 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 7,016.07 | 17,038.68 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 42,698.55 | 108,225.10 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 1.32 | 0.25 |
| PING_MBULK | 1.42 | 0.25 |
| SET | 0.93 | 0.26 |
| GET | 0.79 | 0.26 |
| INCR | 0.82 | 0.26 |
| LPUSH | 0.83 | 0.26 |
| RPUSH | 0.78 | 0.27 |
| LPOP | 0.97 | 0.27 |
| RPOP | 1.26 | 0.27 |
| SADD | 0.93 | 0.26 |
| HSET | 0.88 | 0.26 |
| SPOP | 0.55 | 0.24 |
| ZADD | 0.66 | 0.26 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.85 | 0.26 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 1.32 | 0.66 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 2.53 | 1.27 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 3.57 | 1.95 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 4.17 | 2.16 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.78 | 0.34 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
Upon analyzing the provided benchmarks for the DigitalOcean Regular instance (2 GB RAM, 2 cores) and the UpCloud Balanced instance (1 CPU, 2 GB RAM), it's clear that the UpCloud instance excels in terms of raw performance metrics, particularly in Redis operations where it achieves significantly higher request per second (rps) rates and lower latencies across most commands compared to the DigitalOcean instance. The UpCloud instance also outperforms in CPU and memory benchmarks, displaying greater throughput and lower latencies in file I/O operations, suggesting superior handling of high-load scenarios. Conversely, the DigitalOcean instance provides a more balanced performance, being slightly better in MySQL operations, making it a suitable choice for workloads that require more consistent database interaction performance. Therefore, the UpCloud instance is recommended for CPU-intensive, I/O-heavy workloads where maximum throughput is critical, while the DigitalOcean instance is better for scenarios requiring reliable and consistent database operations.
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.
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