DigitalOcean Regular (2 GB) vs. UpCloud Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores)
My friend, I'm so glad you're here! Today I've spun up some brand new instance from DigitalOcean and UpCloud to run some benchmarks on. Each instance was spun up with 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) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | New York, NY |
| Monthly Price | $12.00 | €52.00 |
| 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) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 5,045.89 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.98 | 0.18 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.44 | 0.2 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 30.57 | 5.65 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.1 | 0.21 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 1,633,276.41 | 6,705,847.76 |
| Mebibytes per second | 1,595.00 | 6,548.68 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.35 | 5.68 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 1,592,941.48 | 6,701,571.28 |
| Mebibytes per second | 1,555.61 | 6,544.50 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.53 | 3.65 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 1,584.78 | 3,294.66 |
| Writes per Second | 1,056.52 | 2,196.44 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 3,385.97 | 7,029.60 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 24.76 | 51.48 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 16.51 | 34.32 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.16 | 0.08 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 20.31 | 24.7 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.51 | 0.37 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2,434.32 | 324.85 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2,473.55 | 356.96 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2,489.41 | 386.91 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2,493.86 | 390.30 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,752.00 | 8,948.00 |
| Queries per second | 47,520.00 | 89,480.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.23 | 0.42 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.1 | 1.12 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.76 | 35.89 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.66 | 3.36 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,930.00 | 1,794.00 |
| Queries per second | 19,300.00 | 17,940.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.65 | 1.37 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 5.18 | 5.57 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 56.83 | 34.12 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 7.98 | 12.52 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,306.00 | 1,176.00 |
| Queries per second | 13,060.00 | 11,760.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 4.6 | 2.2 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 7.65 | 8.49 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 28.54 | 28.9 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 10.09 | 17.32 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,148.00 | 2,578.00 |
| Queries per second | 31,480.00 | 25,780.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.72 | 1.02 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.17 | 3.87 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 32.67 | 22.83 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.41 | 8.43 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 669,209.00 | 2,016,592.00 |
| Queries per second | 6,692,090.00 | 20,165,920.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.02 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 772.1 | 341.39 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 136,020.00 | 239,483.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,360,200.00 | 2,394,830.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.07 | 0.04 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.33 | 28.58 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.11 | 0.06 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,617.00 | 6,315.00 |
| Queries per second | 36,170.00 | 63,150.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.82 | 0.4 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.76 | 1.58 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 12.27 | 19.67 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.82 | 3.36 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,087.00 | 7,625.00 |
| Queries per second | 30,870.00 | 76,250.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.67 | 0.3 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.23 | 1.31 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.52 | 42.62 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5.18 | 2.86 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,586.00 | 2,783.00 |
| Queries per second | 25,860.00 | 27,830.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.8 | 0.98 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.86 | 3.59 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 45.13 | 32.55 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 6.21 | 8.13 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,094.00 | 2,693.00 |
| Queries per second | 30,940.00 | 26,930.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.83 | 0.86 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.23 | 3.71 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 35.75 | 21.41 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.65 | 7.7 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 19,562.00 | 11,344.00 |
| Queries per second | 195,620.00 | 113,440.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.51 | 0.88 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 32.94 | 44.94 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.02 | 4.74 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 39,729.84 | 142,450.14 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 42,176.30 | 151,975.69 |
| SET per Second | 40,833.00 | 152,439.02 |
| GET per Second | 34,590.11 | 140,845.08 |
| INCR per Second | 35,410.77 | 134,952.77 |
| LPUSH per Second | 39,184.95 | 198,807.16 |
| RPUSH per Second | 36,509.68 | 144,092.22 |
| LPOP per Second | 36,791.76 | 147,058.83 |
| RPOP per Second | 38,834.95 | 174,520.06 |
| SADD per Second | 35,727.05 | 145,348.83 |
| HSET per Second | 35,790.98 | 160,000.00 |
| SPOP per Second | 39,478.88 | 146,198.83 |
| ZADD per Second | 38,850.04 | 133,155.80 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 40,338.84 | 144,717.80 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 17,461.15 | 93,808.63 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 7,711.29 | 40,322.58 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 4,860.50 | 23,713.54 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 4,094.67 | 23,490.72 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 32,041.01 | 135,501.36 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.83 | 0.22 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.78 | 0.19 |
| SET | 0.82 | 0.20 |
| GET | 0.94 | 0.21 |
| INCR | 0.93 | 0.21 |
| LPUSH | 0.85 | 0.14 |
| RPUSH | 0.91 | 0.22 |
| LPOP | 0.92 | 0.21 |
| RPOP | 0.87 | 0.17 |
| SADD | 0.92 | 0.21 |
| HSET | 0.93 | 0.18 |
| SPOP | 0.84 | 0.20 |
| ZADD | 0.86 | 0.22 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.82 | 0.20 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 2.05 | 0.37 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 4.59 | 0.86 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 7.19 | 1.41 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 8.42 | 1.41 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 1.12 | 0.28 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
Comparing the benchmark results for the DigitalOcean Regular (2 GB) instance and the UpCloud Balanced (8 GB, 4 cores) instance, we see that the UpCloud instance clearly outperforms in terms of CPU capacity, with higher RPS rates and lower latencies across various Redis commands, indicating superior handling of concurrent operations. The UpCloud instance also boasts higher CPU event rates per second and lower average latencies for CPU operations. The memory benchmarks show comparable performance in terms of read and write latencies, although the UpCloud instance has more RAM. The file IO performance is also stronger on the UpCloud server in terms of both speed and throughput. Based on these metrics, the UpCloud instance is ideal for high-concurrency, CPU-intensive workloads, whereas the DigitalOcean instance is more suitable for lower-resource, cost-sensitive applications.
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.
You can also support me directly by buying me a coffee.