DigitalOcean Regular (2 GB) vs. UpCloud Balanced (1 GB)
Same showdown, different day. Today I spun up fresh instances from DigitalOcean and UpCloud to run some benchmarks on. Each instance was spun up with Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x64 and were created in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Enough talk. Here's the data.
Overview
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Last Benchmarked
Sat, 01 Aug 2026 05:03:47 GMT
Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:42:22 GMT
Linux Distro
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x64
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x64
Kernel Version
7.0.0-27-generic
7.0.0-14-generic
MySQL Version
8.4.10-0ubuntu0.26.04.1
8.4.10-0ubuntu0.26.04.1
Redis Version
8.0.5
8.0.5
Location
New York, NY
New York, NY
Monthly Price
$12.00
€7.00
RAM (GB)
2
1
CPU Cores
1
1
Storage (TB)
50
25
Storage Type
SSD
SSD
Transfer (TB)
2
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 (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Vendor
GenuineIntel
AuthenticAMD
Model Name
DO-Regular
AMD EPYC 9575F 64-Core Processor
Clock Speed (MHz)
2,294.61
3,295.46
CPU Cache Size (KB)
4,096.00
512.00
BogoMips
4,589.21
6,590.91
Events per Second
337.24
5,281.40
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.07
0.17
Average Latency (ms)
2.96
0.19
Maximum Latency (ms)
7.98
5.63
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
4.74
0.21
Memory
Memory Read
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Operations per second
2,158,838.24
7,916,721.84
Mebibytes per second
2,108.24
7,731.17
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
7.22
0.56
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
Memory Write
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Operations per second
3,098,478.11
7,831,276.08
Mebibytes per second
3,025.86
7,647.73
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
2.23
0.33
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
File I/O
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Reads per Second
897.65
3,918.58
Writes per Second
598.43
2,612.35
Fsyncs per Second
1,924.36
8,362.41
Read Mebibytes per Second
14.03
61.23
Written Mebibytes per Second
9.35
40.82
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.29
0.07
Maximum Latency (ms)
30.6
56.19
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.9
0.2
Mutex
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Minimum Latency (ms)
2,798.91
1,149.76
Average Latency (ms)
2,816.88
1,155.73
Maximum Latency (ms)
2,827.29
1,166.28
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2,828.87
1,170.65
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
4,209.00
0.00
Queries per second
42,090.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.24
0
Average Latency (ms)
2.37
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
5.8
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.91
0
MySQL Write-only
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
720.00
0.00
Queries per second
7,200.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
2.26
0
Average Latency (ms)
13.89
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
898.41
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
11.24
0
MySQL Read/Write
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
914.00
0.00
Queries per second
9,140.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
5.04
0
Average Latency (ms)
10.93
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
399.05
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
12.98
0
MySQL INSERT
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
2,481.00
0.00
Queries per second
24,810.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.76
0
Average Latency (ms)
4.02
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
209.08
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
6.43
0
MySQL Bulk INSERT
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
603,677.00
0.00
Queries per second
6,036,770.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.02
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
768.14
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
MySQL SELECT
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
111,711.00
0.00
Queries per second
1,117,110.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.04
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.09
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
4.67
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.14
0
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
2,616.00
0.00
Queries per second
26,160.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.4
0
Average Latency (ms)
3.82
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
19.97
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
5.18
0
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
2,567.00
0.00
Queries per second
25,670.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.01
0
Average Latency (ms)
3.89
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
8.69
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
5.57
0
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
1,815.00
0.00
Queries per second
18,150.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.76
0
Average Latency (ms)
5.5
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
1034.92
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
6.67
0
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
3,210.00
0.00
Queries per second
32,100.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.61
0
Average Latency (ms)
3.11
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
42.13
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
5.09
0
MySQL DELETE
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
18,558.00
0.00
Queries per second
185,580.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.04
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.54
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
146.02
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.91
0
Redis
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
PING_INLINE per Second
32,310.18
45,871.56
PING_MBULK per Second
31,645.57
57,870.37
SET per Second
29,222.68
60,096.15
GET per Second
28,760.43
59,347.18
INCR per Second
34,411.56
58,997.05
LPUSH per Second
31,705.77
60,024.01
RPUSH per Second
30,883.26
59,206.63
LPOP per Second
30,892.80
59,952.04
RPOP per Second
33,602.15
59,206.63
SADD per Second
32,520.32
58,754.41
HSET per Second
34,459.00
58,275.06
SPOP per Second
35,997.12
59,559.26
ZADD per Second
29,197.08
61,312.08
ZPOPMIN per Second
29,403.12
61,050.06
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second
14,295.93
45,392.64
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second
6,915.15
25,859.84
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second
4,855.55
16,854.88
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second
4,463.09
17,455.05
MSET (10 keys) per Second
27,631.94
49,578.58
Redis Average Latency (ms)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
PING_INLINE
0.96
0.73
PING_MBULK
0.97
0.51
SET
1.06
0.51
GET
1.08
0.51
INCR
0.91
0.52
LPUSH
0.98
0.52
RPUSH
0.99
0.52
LPOP
1.00
0.52
RPOP
0.94
0.53
SADD
0.95
0.52
HSET
0.91
0.53
SPOP
0.86
0.50
ZADD
1.07
0.51
ZPOPMIN
1.05
0.50
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)
2.23
0.72
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)
4.29
1.24
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)
5.91
1.89
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)
6.47
1.79
MSET (10 keys)
1.37
0.71
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
The DigitalOcean instance with 2 GB of RAM and 1 CPU outperforms the UpCloud instance with 1 GB of RAM and 1 CPU in most benchmarks, especially in CPU operations per second (337.24 vs 5281.4) and Redis RPS for operations like SET and GET. The UpCloud instance, despite having a more powerful AMD EPYC processor, falls short in memory and file I/O operations per second compared to the DigitalOcean instance, and it lacks MySQL benchmarks. For users prioritizing CPU performance and memory operations, the DigitalOcean instance is the better choice.
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.
