DigitalOcean Regular (2 GB) vs. UpCloud Balanced (2 GB)
New day, new benchmarks. Today I've got brand new instances from DigitalOcean and UpCloud and did some benchmarking. All instances were spun up with Ubuntu 26.04 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)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Last Benchmarked
Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:31:21 GMT
Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:32:51 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
€13.00
RAM (GB)
2
2
CPU Cores
1
1
Storage (TB)
50
50
Storage Type
SSD
SSD
Transfer (TB)
2
2
Head-to-head
Category winners from the latest benchmarks.
Category
Winner
CPU (events/sec)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Memory (read MiB/s)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Disk I/O (MiB/s)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
MySQL (read/write tps)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Redis (GET/sec)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Value (CPU events per $/mo)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) takes 6 of 6 categories.
CPU
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Vendor
GenuineIntel
AuthenticAMD
Model Name
DO-Regular
AMD EPYC 9575F 64-Core Processor
Clock Speed (MHz)
2,494.14
3,295.48
CPU Cache Size (KB)
4,096.00
512.00
BogoMips
4,988.28
6,590.95
Events per Second
411.59
4,956.10
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.99
0.18
Average Latency (ms)
2.42
0.2
Maximum Latency (ms)
19.9
2.23
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
3.96
0.21
Memory
Memory Read
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Operations per second
4,123,717.02
7,348,809.99
Mebibytes per second
4,027.07
7,176.57
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
0.54
0.4
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
Memory Write
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Operations per second
4,007,053.05
7,078,785.07
Mebibytes per second
3,913.14
6,912.88
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
1.82
1.2
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
File I/O
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Reads per Second
2,758.95
3,766.66
Writes per Second
1,839.23
2,511.11
Fsyncs per Second
5,895.77
8,036.14
Read Mebibytes per Second
43.11
58.85
Written Mebibytes per Second
28.74
39.24
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.09
0.07
Maximum Latency (ms)
11.81
19.19
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.3
0.24
Mutex
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Minimum Latency (ms)
2,498.24
1,248.77
Average Latency (ms)
2,546.75
1,256.62
Maximum Latency (ms)
2,562.19
1,260.30
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2,585.31
1,258.08
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
5,626.00
16,759.00
Queries per second
56,260.00
167,590.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.18
0.41
Average Latency (ms)
1.77
0.6
Maximum Latency (ms)
3.44
2.26
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.39
0.75
MySQL Write-only
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
4,813.00
6,115.00
Queries per second
48,130.00
61,150.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.92
0.73
Average Latency (ms)
2.07
1.63
Maximum Latency (ms)
29.26
30.18
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
3.19
2.76
MySQL Read/Write
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
1,931.00
4,692.00
Queries per second
19,310.00
46,920.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
2.94
1.24
Average Latency (ms)
5.17
2.13
Maximum Latency (ms)
17.66
23.43
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
7.17
2.86
MySQL INSERT
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
6,585.00
8,886.00
Queries per second
65,850.00
88,860.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.56
0.5
Average Latency (ms)
1.51
1.12
Maximum Latency (ms)
11.88
26.84
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.71
1.93
MySQL Bulk INSERT
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
833,039.00
2,278,717.00
Queries per second
8,330,390.00
22,787,170.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.01
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
568.39
236.89
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
MySQL SELECT
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
148,439.00
425,431.00
Queries per second
1,484,390.00
4,254,310.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.04
0.02
Average Latency (ms)
0.07
0.02
Maximum Latency (ms)
4.95
1.3
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.1
0.03
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
3,505.00
9,684.00
Queries per second
35,050.00
96,840.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.98
0.29
Average Latency (ms)
2.85
1.03
Maximum Latency (ms)
6.79
5.24
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
4.25
1.37
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
5,769.00
15,489.00
Queries per second
57,690.00
154,890.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.53
0.15
Average Latency (ms)
1.73
0.64
Maximum Latency (ms)
4.73
2.79
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.66
0.99
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
6,299.00
10,759.00
Queries per second
62,990.00
107,590.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.57
0.46
Average Latency (ms)
1.58
0.93
Maximum Latency (ms)
28.52
34.7
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
3.07
1.39
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
7,198.00
11,023.00
Queries per second
71,980.00
110,230.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.51
0.45
Average Latency (ms)
1.39
0.91
Maximum Latency (ms)
167.69
33.4
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.35
1.32
MySQL DELETE
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
33,426.00
212,798.00
Queries per second
334,260.00
2,127,980.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.04
0.02
Average Latency (ms)
0.3
0.05
Maximum Latency (ms)
22.19
19.8
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1.61
0.05
Redis
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
PING_INLINE per Second
34,188.04
55,126.79
PING_MBULK per Second
44,483.99
54,794.52
SET per Second
40,112.31
55,710.31
GET per Second
40,883.07
55,340.34
INCR per Second
39,729.84
54,734.54
LPUSH per Second
40,404.04
52,994.17
RPUSH per Second
37,397.16
56,689.34
LPOP per Second
37,257.82
57,240.98
RPOP per Second
36,114.12
57,110.22
SADD per Second
37,425.15
55,401.66
HSET per Second
38,759.69
55,218.11
SPOP per Second
45,641.26
55,524.71
ZADD per Second
42,283.30
56,561.09
ZPOPMIN per Second
47,438.33
53,191.49
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second
23,089.36
45,998.16
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second
12,169.89
24,987.51
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second
8,394.19
18,031.01
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second
6,932.89
16,369.29
MSET (10 keys) per Second
31,796.50
54,884.74
Redis Average Latency (ms)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
PING_INLINE
0.94
0.54
PING_MBULK
0.69
0.53
SET
0.77
0.55
GET
0.75
0.55
INCR
0.78
0.56
LPUSH
0.78
0.58
RPUSH
0.84
0.54
LPOP
0.85
0.54
RPOP
0.87
0.54
SADD
0.83
0.55
HSET
0.81
0.56
SPOP
0.68
0.54
ZADD
0.74
0.55
ZPOPMIN
0.65
0.56
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)
1.40
0.71
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)
2.63
1.29
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)
3.62
1.77
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)
4.24
2.06
MSET (10 keys)
1.06
0.65
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
The UpCloud Balanced (2 GB) instance outpaces the DigitalOcean Regular (2 GB) in most benchmarks, especially in CPU performance with a higher "events per second" of 4956 vs. 411.59 and superior Redis benchmarks like the "PING_INLINE" rate per second at 55127 vs. 34188. For use cases favoring CPU-intensive tasks or high database throughput, UpCloud's instance is the better choice. However, both offer similar performance in memory operations and file I/O, making DigitalOcean a more cost-effective option for applications not demanding peak CPU performance.
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.
