DigitalOcean Regular (2 GB) vs. UpCloud Balanced (2 GB)
My friend, I'm so glad you're here! Today I've spun up some brand new instance from DigitalOcean and UpCloud and did some benchmarking. All instances were 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 (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Last Benchmarked
Tue, 12 May 2026 23:00:52 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
$12.00
€13.00
RAM (GB)
2
2
CPU Cores
1
1
Storage (TB)
50
50
Storage Type
SSD
SSD
Transfer (TB)
2
2
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)
2,294.61
3,295.48
CPU Cache Size (KB)
4,096.00
512.00
BogoMips
4,589.21
6,590.95
Events per Second
408.72
5,025.21
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.98
0.18
Average Latency (ms)
2.44
0.2
Maximum Latency (ms)
30.57
5.35
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
4.1
0.22
Memory
Memory Read
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Operations per second
1,633,276.41
5,932,400.60
Mebibytes per second
1,595.00
5,793.36
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
3.35
2.22
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
Memory Write
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Operations per second
1,592,941.48
6,706,599.41
Mebibytes per second
1,555.61
6,549.41
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
5.53
1.56
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
File I/O
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Reads per Second
1,584.78
3,214.64
Writes per Second
1,056.52
2,143.03
Fsyncs per Second
3,385.97
6,864.71
Read Mebibytes per Second
24.76
50.23
Written Mebibytes per Second
16.51
33.48
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.16
0.08
Maximum Latency (ms)
20.31
20.14
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.51
0.31
Mutex
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Minimum Latency (ms)
2,434.32
1,349.13
Average Latency (ms)
2,473.55
1,353.60
Maximum Latency (ms)
2,489.41
1,361.99
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2,493.86
1,352.03
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
4,752.00
19,090.00
Queries per second
47,520.00
190,900.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.23
0.31
Average Latency (ms)
2.1
0.52
Maximum Latency (ms)
5.76
5.34
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.66
0.64
MySQL Write-only
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
1,930.00
3,974.00
Queries per second
19,300.00
39,740.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
2.65
0.87
Average Latency (ms)
5.18
2.51
Maximum Latency (ms)
56.83
38.67
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
7.98
5
MySQL Read/Write
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
1,306.00
2,830.00
Queries per second
13,060.00
28,300.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
4.6
1.29
Average Latency (ms)
7.65
3.53
Maximum Latency (ms)
28.54
56.72
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
10.09
6.32
MySQL INSERT
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
3,148.00
4,647.00
Queries per second
31,480.00
46,470.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.72
0.61
Average Latency (ms)
3.17
2.15
Maximum Latency (ms)
32.67
28.58
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
4.41
4.41
MySQL Bulk INSERT
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
669,209.00
2,249,592.00
Queries per second
6,692,090.00
22,495,920.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.02
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
772.1
207.34
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
MySQL SELECT
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
136,020.00
645,161.00
Queries per second
1,360,200.00
6,451,610.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.04
0.01
Average Latency (ms)
0.07
0.02
Maximum Latency (ms)
3.33
2.26
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.11
0.02
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
3,617.00
8,546.00
Queries per second
36,170.00
85,460.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.82
0.13
Average Latency (ms)
2.76
1.17
Maximum Latency (ms)
12.27
172.57
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
3.82
1.58
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
3,087.00
11,562.00
Queries per second
30,870.00
115,620.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.67
0.22
Average Latency (ms)
3.23
0.86
Maximum Latency (ms)
8.52
4.07
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
5.18
1.27
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
2,586.00
4,711.00
Queries per second
25,860.00
47,110.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.8
0.73
Average Latency (ms)
3.86
2.12
Maximum Latency (ms)
45.13
30.41
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
6.21
3.96
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
3,094.00
5,393.00
Queries per second
30,940.00
53,930.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.83
0.48
Average Latency (ms)
3.23
1.85
Maximum Latency (ms)
35.75
39
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
4.65
3.43
MySQL DELETE
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
19,562.00
101,195.00
Queries per second
195,620.00
1,011,950.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.04
0.01
Average Latency (ms)
0.51
0.1
Maximum Latency (ms)
32.94
39.3
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
3.02
0.17
Redis
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
PING_INLINE per Second
39,729.84
130,208.34
PING_MBULK per Second
42,176.30
130,208.34
SET per Second
40,833.00
130,890.05
GET per Second
34,590.11
129,198.97
INCR per Second
35,410.77
128,534.70
LPUSH per Second
39,184.95
128,040.97
RPUSH per Second
36,509.68
126,582.27
LPOP per Second
36,791.76
124,688.28
RPOP per Second
38,834.95
127,226.46
SADD per Second
35,727.05
129,198.97
HSET per Second
35,790.98
133,511.34
SPOP per Second
39,478.88
139,275.77
ZADD per Second
38,850.04
130,039.02
ZPOPMIN per Second
40,338.84
129,701.68
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second
17,461.15
55,524.71
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second
7,711.29
28,785.26
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second
4,860.50
18,942.98
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second
4,094.67
17,038.68
MSET (10 keys) per Second
32,041.01
108,225.10
Redis Average Latency (ms)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
PING_INLINE
0.83
0.25
PING_MBULK
0.78
0.25
SET
0.82
0.26
GET
0.94
0.26
INCR
0.93
0.26
LPUSH
0.85
0.26
RPUSH
0.91
0.27
LPOP
0.92
0.27
RPOP
0.87
0.27
SADD
0.92
0.26
HSET
0.93
0.26
SPOP
0.84
0.24
ZADD
0.86
0.26
ZPOPMIN
0.82
0.26
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)
2.05
0.66
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)
4.59
1.27
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)
7.19
1.95
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)
8.42
2.16
MSET (10 keys)
1.12
0.34
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
The benchmarks for the DigitalOcean Regular (2 GB) instance show strong performance in both CPU utilization and Redis operations, especially with high request per second (rps) rates and relatively low latencies for most commands, though there are some longer latencies for complex operations like LRANGE. UpCloud's Balanced (2 GB) instance, featuring an AMD EPYC processor, significantly outperforms in CPU benchmarks with higher events per second and lower latencies across various operations, and it generally excels in Redis throughput with much higher rps and lower latency across most Redis commands. Both instances provide similar file I/O, memory, and MySQL performance but differ significantly in CPU capabilities; DigitalOcean is suitable for moderately CPU-intensive workloads, while UpCloud is ideal for highly CPU-demanding applications such as large-scale Redis operations or multi-threaded processing tasks.
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.