DigitalOcean Regular (2 GB) vs. Vultr High Frequency Intel (2 GB)
My friend, I'm so glad you're here! Today I've spun up some brand new instance from DigitalOcean and Vultr and ran some benchmarks. All instances were running 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) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Tue, 12 May 2026 23:00:52 GMT | Mon, 11 May 2026 09:00:53 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 | $12.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 2 | 2 |
| CPU Cores | 1 | 1 |
| Storage (TB) | 50 | 64 |
| Storage Type | SSD | NVMe |
| Transfer (TB) | 2 | 2 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | GenuineIntel | GenuineIntel |
| Model Name | DO-Regular | Intel Core Processor (Skylake, IBRS, no TSX) |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,294.61 | 3,791.92 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 4,096.00 | 16,384.00 |
| BogoMips | 4,589.21 | 7,583.83 |
| Events per Second | 408.72 | 1,623.96 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.98 | 0.59 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.44 | 0.62 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 30.57 | 2.57 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.1 | 0.64 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 1,633,276.41 | 8,028,253.00 |
| Mebibytes per second | 1,595.00 | 7,840.09 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.35 | 0.2 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 1,592,941.48 | 8,022,601.15 |
| Mebibytes per second | 1,555.61 | 7,834.57 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.53 | 0.27 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 1,584.78 | 4,917.69 |
| Writes per Second | 1,056.52 | 3,278.46 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 3,385.97 | 10,498.56 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 24.76 | 76.84 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 16.51 | 51.23 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.16 | 0.05 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 20.31 | 1.69 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.51 | 0.18 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2,434.32 | 1,065.51 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2,473.55 | 1,070.36 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2,489.41 | 1,075.66 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2,493.86 | 1,069.86 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,752.00 | 10,713.00 |
| Queries per second | 47,520.00 | 107,130.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.23 | 0.87 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.1 | 0.93 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.76 | 2.63 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.66 | 0.99 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,930.00 | 10,055.00 |
| Queries per second | 19,300.00 | 100,550.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.65 | 0.68 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 5.18 | 0.99 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 56.83 | 10.38 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 7.98 | 1.27 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,306.00 | 4,079.00 |
| Queries per second | 13,060.00 | 40,790.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 4.6 | 1.82 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 7.65 | 2.45 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 28.54 | 6.54 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 10.09 | 3.13 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,148.00 | 17,789.00 |
| Queries per second | 31,480.00 | 177,890.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.72 | 0.38 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.17 | 0.56 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 32.67 | 11.67 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.41 | 0.7 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 669,209.00 | 2,238,676.00 |
| Queries per second | 6,692,090.00 | 22,386,760.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.02 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 772.1 | 213.8 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 136,020.00 | 237,541.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,360,200.00 | 2,375,410.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.07 | 0.04 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.33 | 1.17 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.11 | 0.05 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,617.00 | 11,395.00 |
| Queries per second | 36,170.00 | 113,950.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.82 | 0.29 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.76 | 0.88 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 12.27 | 3.62 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.82 | 1.1 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,087.00 | 11,591.00 |
| Queries per second | 30,870.00 | 115,910.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.67 | 0.3 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.23 | 0.86 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.52 | 2.45 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5.18 | 1.12 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,586.00 | 16,080.00 |
| Queries per second | 25,860.00 | 160,800.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.8 | 0.38 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.86 | 0.62 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 45.13 | 2.37 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 6.21 | 0.83 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,094.00 | 16,743.00 |
| Queries per second | 30,940.00 | 167,430.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.83 | 0.38 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.23 | 0.6 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 35.75 | 2.12 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.65 | 0.77 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 19,562.00 | 154,529.00 |
| Queries per second | 195,620.00 | 1,545,290.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.51 | 0.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 32.94 | 5 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.02 | 0.09 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 39,729.84 | 55,617.35 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 42,176.30 | 57,077.62 |
| SET per Second | 40,833.00 | 56,369.79 |
| GET per Second | 34,590.11 | 56,753.69 |
| INCR per Second | 35,410.77 | 56,753.69 |
| LPUSH per Second | 39,184.95 | 55,834.73 |
| RPUSH per Second | 36,509.68 | 56,085.25 |
| LPOP per Second | 36,791.76 | 55,340.34 |
| RPOP per Second | 38,834.95 | 55,648.30 |
| SADD per Second | 35,727.05 | 56,211.35 |
| HSET per Second | 35,790.98 | 55,648.30 |
| SPOP per Second | 39,478.88 | 55,928.41 |
| ZADD per Second | 38,850.04 | 55,340.34 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 40,338.84 | 55,772.45 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 17,461.15 | 37,936.27 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 7,711.29 | 21,083.70 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 4,860.50 | 14,682.13 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 4,094.67 | 12,987.01 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 32,041.01 | 52,056.22 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB) | Vultr – High Frequency Intel (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.83 | 0.58 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.78 | 0.56 |
| SET | 0.82 | 0.57 |
| GET | 0.94 | 0.56 |
| INCR | 0.93 | 0.56 |
| LPUSH | 0.85 | 0.57 |
| RPUSH | 0.91 | 0.57 |
| LPOP | 0.92 | 0.58 |
| RPOP | 0.87 | 0.58 |
| SADD | 0.92 | 0.57 |
| HSET | 0.93 | 0.58 |
| SPOP | 0.84 | 0.57 |
| ZADD | 0.86 | 0.58 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.82 | 0.57 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 2.05 | 0.91 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 4.59 | 1.66 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 7.19 | 2.44 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 8.42 | 2.79 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 1.12 | 0.66 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
In benchmarking the two VPS instances, DigitalOcean's Regular (2 GB) shows steady performance with respectable Redis throughput and latency metrics, as well as solid MySQL OLTP operations, making it suitable for moderately demanding CPU-intensive workloads and general-purpose usage. Vultr's High Frequency Intel (2 GB), however, outperforms DigitalOcean in all Redis benchmarks, showcasing significantly higher request rates and lower latencies, along with better MySQL performance and faster file I/O operations. This makes it an ideal choice for high-throughput, I/O-heavy applications and workloads requiring superior CPU performance, though it comes at a similar cost. Both providers offer robust configurations suitable for various application needs, but Vultr's instance edges out in performance metrics.
From the friendly human:
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