DigitalOcean Regular (2 GB) vs. Linode Linode (8 GB)
Same showdown, different day. Today I've spun up some brand new instance from DigitalOcean and Linode and did some benchmarking. All instances were running 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 (2 GB) | Linode – (8 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Tue, 12 May 2026 23:00:52 GMT | Wed, 13 May 2026 12:00:52 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 | Newark, NJ |
| Monthly Price | $12.00 | $48.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 2 | 8 |
| CPU Cores | 1 | 4 |
| Storage (TB) | 50 | 160 |
| Storage Type | SSD | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 2 | 5 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Linode – (8 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | GenuineIntel | AuthenticAMD |
| Model Name | DO-Regular | AMD EPYC 7642 48-Core Processor |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,294.61 | 2,300.00 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 4,096.00 | 512.00 |
| BogoMips | 4,589.21 | 4,600.00 |
| Events per Second | 408.72 | 1,617.18 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.98 | 0.6 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.44 | 0.62 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 30.57 | 4.03 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.1 | 0.63 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Linode – (8 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 1,633,276.41 | 5,413,239.64 |
| Mebibytes per second | 1,595.00 | 5,286.37 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.35 | 0.27 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Linode – (8 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 1,592,941.48 | 5,401,772.35 |
| Mebibytes per second | 1,555.61 | 5,275.17 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.53 | 3.16 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Linode – (8 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 1,584.78 | 5,352.26 |
| Writes per Second | 1,056.52 | 3,568.24 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 3,385.97 | 11,427.82 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 24.76 | 83.63 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 16.51 | 55.75 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.16 | 0.05 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 20.31 | 17.35 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.51 | 0.17 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Linode – (8 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2,434.32 | 348.05 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2,473.55 | 396.31 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2,489.41 | 431.69 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2,493.86 | 434.83 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Linode – (8 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,752.00 | 6,622.00 |
| Queries per second | 47,520.00 | 66,220.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.23 | 1.26 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.1 | 1.51 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.76 | 5.55 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.66 | 1.79 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Linode – (8 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,930.00 | 6,585.00 |
| Queries per second | 19,300.00 | 65,850.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.65 | 1.08 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 5.18 | 1.52 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 56.83 | 13.03 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 7.98 | 1.89 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Linode – (8 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,306.00 | 3,140.00 |
| Queries per second | 13,060.00 | 31,400.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 4.6 | 2.42 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 7.65 | 3.18 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 28.54 | 20.95 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 10.09 | 3.62 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Linode – (8 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,148.00 | 8,943.00 |
| Queries per second | 31,480.00 | 89,430.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.72 | 0.7 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.17 | 1.12 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 32.67 | 12.42 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.41 | 1.34 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Linode – (8 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 669,209.00 | 1,608,842.00 |
| Queries per second | 6,692,090.00 | 16,088,420.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.02 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 772.1 | 398.1 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Linode – (8 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 136,020.00 | 154,001.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,360,200.00 | 1,540,010.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.07 | 0.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.33 | 8.37 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.11 | 0.08 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Linode – (8 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,617.00 | 8,666.00 |
| Queries per second | 36,170.00 | 86,660.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.82 | 0.32 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.76 | 1.15 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 12.27 | 4.6 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.82 | 1.44 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Linode – (8 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,087.00 | 7,418.00 |
| Queries per second | 30,870.00 | 74,180.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.67 | 0.49 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.23 | 1.35 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.52 | 4.59 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5.18 | 1.73 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Linode – (8 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,586.00 | 8,731.00 |
| Queries per second | 25,860.00 | 87,310.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.8 | 0.74 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.86 | 1.14 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 45.13 | 12.55 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 6.21 | 1.39 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Linode – (8 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,094.00 | 9,183.00 |
| Queries per second | 30,940.00 | 91,830.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.83 | 0.71 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.23 | 1.09 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 35.75 | 19.59 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.65 | 1.25 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Linode – (8 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 19,562.00 | 90,891.00 |
| Queries per second | 195,620.00 | 908,910.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.51 | 0.11 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 32.94 | 14.78 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.02 | 0.12 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Linode – (8 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 39,729.84 | 59,171.59 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 42,176.30 | 58,823.53 |
| SET per Second | 40,833.00 | 58,173.36 |
| GET per Second | 34,590.11 | 59,066.75 |
| INCR per Second | 35,410.77 | 59,453.03 |
| LPUSH per Second | 39,184.95 | 60,569.35 |
| RPUSH per Second | 36,509.68 | 59,880.24 |
| LPOP per Second | 36,791.76 | 57,537.40 |
| RPOP per Second | 38,834.95 | 57,636.89 |
| SADD per Second | 35,727.05 | 56,625.14 |
| HSET per Second | 35,790.98 | 58,377.11 |
| SPOP per Second | 39,478.88 | 56,850.48 |
| ZADD per Second | 38,850.04 | 58,241.12 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 40,338.84 | 57,339.45 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 17,461.15 | 46,838.41 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 7,711.29 | 27,517.89 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 4,860.50 | 20,226.54 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 4,094.67 | 17,812.61 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 32,041.01 | 59,417.71 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Linode – (8 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.83 | 0.44 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.78 | 0.44 |
| SET | 0.82 | 0.45 |
| GET | 0.94 | 0.44 |
| INCR | 0.93 | 0.44 |
| LPUSH | 0.85 | 0.43 |
| RPUSH | 0.91 | 0.43 |
| LPOP | 0.92 | 0.45 |
| RPOP | 0.87 | 0.45 |
| SADD | 0.92 | 0.46 |
| HSET | 0.93 | 0.44 |
| SPOP | 0.84 | 0.45 |
| ZADD | 0.86 | 0.44 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.82 | 0.45 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 2.05 | 0.56 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 4.59 | 0.94 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 7.19 | 1.30 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 8.42 | 1.46 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 1.12 | 0.44 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
The DigitalOcean instance shows solid performance with a single CPU core and 2GB of RAM, excelling in Redis operations and memory management with notable RPS rates and low latencies, though it struggles slightly with larger LRANGE operations. The Linode instance, boasting 4 CPU cores and 8GB of RAM, outperforms in nearly all metrics, especially in Redis throughput and latency, CPU operations, file I/O, and MySQL tasks, displaying significantly higher RPS and lower average latencies across the board, though it shows a bit more variance in thread latency and fairness. Ideal use cases for the DigitalOcean instance are lightweight tasks and where cost-effectiveness is prioritized, while the Linode instance is better suited for more demanding applications requiring high performance and multitasking capabilities.
From the friendly human:
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