DigitalOcean Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) vs. Linode Nanode (1 GB)
Same showdown, different day. Today I've spun up brand new instance from DigitalOcean and Linode and ran my world famous suite of benchmarking scripts. All instances were running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Without further ado, here's the results.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Wed, 27 May 2026 11:00:52 GMT | Fri, 29 May 2026 15:00:53 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 | $24.00 | $5.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 4 | 1 |
| CPU Cores | 2 | 1 |
| Storage (TB) | 80 | 25 |
| Storage Type | SSD | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 4 | 1 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | GenuineIntel | AuthenticAMD |
| Model Name | DO-Regular | AMD EPYC 7642 48-Core Processor |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,494.14 | 2,300.00 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 4,096.00 | 512.00 |
| BogoMips | 4,988.28 | 4,599.99 |
| Events per Second | 937.92 | 1,022.23 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.91 | 0.61 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.06 | 0.98 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.02 | 5.4 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.23 | 2.39 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,684,981.75 | 5,296,233.64 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,575.18 | 5,172.10 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.22 | 3.05 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,575,714.77 | 5,154,651.90 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,468.47 | 5,033.84 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.14 | 3.06 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 3,967.89 | 2,055.76 |
| Writes per Second | 2,645.26 | 1,370.51 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 8,464.83 | 4,389.22 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 62.00 | 32.12 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 41.33 | 21.41 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.07 | 0.13 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.3 | 12.79 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.22 | 0.35 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 971.12 | 1,633.32 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1,027.98 | 1,644.62 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1,054.04 | 1,653.29 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1,050.76 | 1,648.20 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,295.00 | 7,575.00 |
| Queries per second | 62,950.00 | 75,750.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.2 | 1.22 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.59 | 1.32 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.62 | 4.67 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.11 | 1.42 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,396.00 | 5,800.00 |
| Queries per second | 43,960.00 | 58,000.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.09 | 1.15 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.27 | 1.72 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 10.23 | 12.35 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.3 | 2.39 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,655.00 | 2,955.00 |
| Queries per second | 26,550.00 | 29,550.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.45 | 2.64 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.76 | 3.38 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 18.81 | 22.69 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.91 | 4.41 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,632.00 | 8,921.00 |
| Queries per second | 86,320.00 | 89,210.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.51 | 0.65 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.15 | 1.12 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 6.35 | 8.92 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.73 | 1.42 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,230,217.00 | 1,288,467.00 |
| Queries per second | 12,302,170.00 | 12,884,670.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 391.67 | 398.24 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 161,578.00 | 170,179.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,615,780.00 | 1,701,790.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.05 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.06 | 0.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 16.68 | 7.27 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.09 | 0.08 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,810.00 | 7,819.00 |
| Queries per second | 48,100.00 | 78,190.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.75 | 0.42 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.07 | 1.28 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 13.4 | 6.03 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.97 | 1.64 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,914.00 | 7,328.00 |
| Queries per second | 49,140.00 | 73,280.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.74 | 0.3 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.03 | 1.36 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.05 | 4.97 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.13 | 1.76 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,986.00 | 8,603.00 |
| Queries per second | 79,860.00 | 86,030.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.56 | 0.69 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.25 | 1.16 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 9.98 | 6.97 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.86 | 1.7 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,820.00 | 7,719.00 |
| Queries per second | 58,200.00 | 77,190.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.59 | 0.65 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.71 | 1.29 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 9.06 | 54.76 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.66 | 1.73 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 66,200.00 | 80,451.00 |
| Queries per second | 662,000.00 | 804,510.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.05 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.15 | 0.12 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 7.28 | 16.14 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.97 | 0.42 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 46,948.36 | 44,052.86 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 45,310.38 | 44,563.28 |
| SET per Second | 43,440.48 | 44,072.28 |
| GET per Second | 43,459.36 | 44,345.89 |
| INCR per Second | 43,821.21 | 42,535.09 |
| LPUSH per Second | 46,189.38 | 41,545.49 |
| RPUSH per Second | 59,276.82 | 37,299.52 |
| LPOP per Second | 67,159.17 | 43,327.55 |
| RPOP per Second | 66,577.90 | 43,103.45 |
| SADD per Second | 72,780.20 | 43,994.72 |
| HSET per Second | 64,102.57 | 43,956.04 |
| SPOP per Second | 67,476.38 | 44,130.62 |
| ZADD per Second | 63,694.27 | 42,390.84 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 69,686.41 | 43,159.26 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 42,229.73 | 28,843.38 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 20,056.16 | 15,153.81 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 13,502.57 | 10,595.47 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 11,319.90 | 9,122.42 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 54,436.58 | 40,112.31 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.55 | 0.78 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.57 | 0.77 |
| SET | 0.59 | 0.78 |
| GET | 0.59 | 0.77 |
| INCR | 0.58 | 0.80 |
| LPUSH | 0.56 | 0.82 |
| RPUSH | 0.44 | 0.90 |
| LPOP | 0.40 | 0.80 |
| RPOP | 0.40 | 0.80 |
| SADD | 0.39 | 0.78 |
| HSET | 0.41 | 0.79 |
| SPOP | 0.39 | 0.77 |
| ZADD | 0.41 | 0.81 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.37 | 0.79 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.69 | 1.23 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.53 | 2.38 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 2.12 | 3.44 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 2.57 | 3.96 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.74 | 0.88 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
After analyzing the benchmark results, it's evident that the DigitalOcean instance performs significantly better in high-throughput tasks such as Redis operations, CPU events, file I/O, and memory operations compared to the Linode instance. The DigitalOcean instance shows higher requests per second across most benchmarks with notably lower latencies, especially in memory read and write operations, and more efficient file system performance. Conversely, the Linode instance, despite its powerful CPU, lags behind in most metrics, especially in handling large Redis operations and complex MySQL tasks. Therefore, the DigitalOcean instance is better suited for CPU-intensive, I/O-heavy workloads, and tasks requiring high throughput and low latency, while the Linode instance may be more appropriate for simpler, less demanding tasks.
From the friendly human:
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