DigitalOcean Regular (2 GB) vs. Vultr High Frequency Intel (8 GB, 3 Cores)
New day, new benchmarks. Today I've spun up brand new instance from DigitalOcean and Vultr and ran some benchmarks. Each instance was spun up with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and all resided in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Without further ado, here's the results.
Overview
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Vultr – High Frequency Intel (8 GB, 3 Cores)
Last Benchmarked
Tue, 12 May 2026 23:00:52 GMT
Wed, 13 May 2026 12:00:56 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
$48.00
RAM (GB)
2
8
CPU Cores
1
3
Storage (TB)
50
256
Storage Type
SSD
NVMe
Transfer (TB)
2
4
CPU
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Vultr – High Frequency Intel (8 GB, 3 Cores)
Vendor
GenuineIntel
GenuineIntel
Model Name
DO-Regular
Intel Core Processor (Skylake, IBRS, no TSX)
Clock Speed (MHz)
2,294.61
3,791.94
CPU Cache Size (KB)
4,096.00
16,384.00
BogoMips
4,589.21
7,583.88
Events per Second
408.72
1,588.61
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.98
0.6
Average Latency (ms)
2.44
0.63
Maximum Latency (ms)
30.57
1.06
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
4.1
0.67
Memory
Memory Read
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Vultr – High Frequency Intel (8 GB, 3 Cores)
Operations per second
1,633,276.41
7,884,082.37
Mebibytes per second
1,595.00
7,699.30
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
3.35
0.22
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
Memory Write
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Vultr – High Frequency Intel (8 GB, 3 Cores)
Operations per second
1,592,941.48
7,885,513.57
Mebibytes per second
1,555.61
7,700.70
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
5.53
0.22
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
File I/O
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Vultr – High Frequency Intel (8 GB, 3 Cores)
Reads per Second
1,584.78
8,376.82
Writes per Second
1,056.52
5,584.54
Fsyncs per Second
3,385.97
17,873.04
Read Mebibytes per Second
24.76
130.89
Written Mebibytes per Second
16.51
87.26
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.16
0.03
Maximum Latency (ms)
20.31
7.2
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.51
0.11
Mutex
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Vultr – High Frequency Intel (8 GB, 3 Cores)
Minimum Latency (ms)
2,434.32
313.28
Average Latency (ms)
2,473.55
357.73
Maximum Latency (ms)
2,489.41
383.79
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2,493.86
383.33
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Vultr – High Frequency Intel (8 GB, 3 Cores)
Transactions per second
4,752.00
10,451.00
Queries per second
47,520.00
104,510.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.23
0.88
Average Latency (ms)
2.1
0.96
Maximum Latency (ms)
5.76
2.21
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.66
1.06
MySQL Write-only
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Vultr – High Frequency Intel (8 GB, 3 Cores)
Transactions per second
1,930.00
9,424.00
Queries per second
19,300.00
94,240.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
2.65
0.66
Average Latency (ms)
5.18
1.06
Maximum Latency (ms)
56.83
2.59
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
7.98
1.34
MySQL Read/Write
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Vultr – High Frequency Intel (8 GB, 3 Cores)
Transactions per second
1,306.00
4,489.00
Queries per second
13,060.00
44,890.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
4.6
1.66
Average Latency (ms)
7.65
2.23
Maximum Latency (ms)
28.54
3.58
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
10.09
2.66
MySQL INSERT
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Vultr – High Frequency Intel (8 GB, 3 Cores)
Transactions per second
3,148.00
14,748.00
Queries per second
31,480.00
147,480.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.72
0.39
Average Latency (ms)
3.17
0.68
Maximum Latency (ms)
32.67
8.13
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
4.41
0.89
MySQL Bulk INSERT
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Vultr – High Frequency Intel (8 GB, 3 Cores)
Transactions per second
669,209.00
2,395,217.00
Queries per second
6,692,090.00
23,952,170.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.02
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
772.1
208.41
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
MySQL SELECT
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Vultr – High Frequency Intel (8 GB, 3 Cores)
Transactions per second
136,020.00
234,211.00
Queries per second
1,360,200.00
2,342,110.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.04
0.03
Average Latency (ms)
0.07
0.04
Maximum Latency (ms)
3.33
0.3
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.11
0.05
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Vultr – High Frequency Intel (8 GB, 3 Cores)
Transactions per second
3,617.00
12,201.00
Queries per second
36,170.00
122,010.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.82
0.22
Average Latency (ms)
2.76
0.82
Maximum Latency (ms)
12.27
2.86
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
3.82
1.04
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Vultr – High Frequency Intel (8 GB, 3 Cores)
Transactions per second
3,087.00
10,460.00
Queries per second
30,870.00
104,600.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.67
0.32
Average Latency (ms)
3.23
0.96
Maximum Latency (ms)
8.52
2.97
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
5.18
1.23
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Vultr – High Frequency Intel (8 GB, 3 Cores)
Transactions per second
2,586.00
15,980.00
Queries per second
25,860.00
159,800.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.8
0.39
Average Latency (ms)
3.86
0.63
Maximum Latency (ms)
45.13
12.56
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
6.21
0.87
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Vultr – High Frequency Intel (8 GB, 3 Cores)
Transactions per second
3,094.00
15,997.00
Queries per second
30,940.00
159,970.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.83
0.38
Average Latency (ms)
3.23
0.62
Maximum Latency (ms)
35.75
6.69
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
4.65
0.87
MySQL DELETE
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Vultr – High Frequency Intel (8 GB, 3 Cores)
Transactions per second
19,562.00
140,187.00
Queries per second
195,620.00
1,401,870.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.04
0.03
Average Latency (ms)
0.51
0.07
Maximum Latency (ms)
32.94
7.56
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
3.02
0.08
Redis
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Vultr – High Frequency Intel (8 GB, 3 Cores)
PING_INLINE per Second
39,729.84
89,126.56
PING_MBULK per Second
42,176.30
88,028.16
SET per Second
40,833.00
89,047.20
GET per Second
34,590.11
87,032.20
INCR per Second
35,410.77
87,950.75
LPUSH per Second
39,184.95
88,731.15
RPUSH per Second
36,509.68
88,652.48
LPOP per Second
36,791.76
88,417.33
RPOP per Second
38,834.95
88,809.95
SADD per Second
35,727.05
87,565.68
HSET per Second
35,790.98
86,805.56
SPOP per Second
39,478.88
87,565.68
ZADD per Second
38,850.04
88,967.98
ZPOPMIN per Second
40,338.84
88,417.33
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second
17,461.15
63,775.51
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second
7,711.29
37,453.18
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second
4,860.50
26,441.04
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second
4,094.67
23,601.61
MSET (10 keys) per Second
32,041.01
91,324.20
Redis Average Latency (ms)
DigitalOcean – Regular (2 GB)
Vultr – High Frequency Intel (8 GB, 3 Cores)
PING_INLINE
0.83
0.29
PING_MBULK
0.78
0.29
SET
0.82
0.29
GET
0.94
0.30
INCR
0.93
0.29
LPUSH
0.85
0.29
RPUSH
0.91
0.29
LPOP
0.92
0.29
RPOP
0.87
0.29
SADD
0.92
0.29
HSET
0.93
0.30
SPOP
0.84
0.29
ZADD
0.86
0.29
ZPOPMIN
0.82
0.29
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)
2.05
0.40
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)
4.59
0.68
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)
7.19
0.96
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)
8.42
1.08
MSET (10 keys)
1.12
0.29
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
The Vultr High Frequency Intel instance (3 cores, 8 GB RAM) outperforms the DigitalOcean Regular instance (1 core, 2 GB RAM) significantly in both raw performance metrics and benchmarks. The Vultr instance shows higher throughput in Redis operations, CPU events per second, file I/O operations, and MySQL OLTP performance. While both instances have comparable thread fairness metrics, the Vultr instance's higher core count and more substantial RAM make it ideal for CPU-intensive and memory-heavy workloads, while the DigitalOcean instance may be more suitable for simpler, less demanding applications due to its lower cost and resource limits.
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 Vultr.