DigitalOcean Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) vs. UpCloud Balanced (2 GB)
My friend, I'm so glad you're here! Today I've spun up 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 or around the New York / New Jersey area. Time to see who showed up today.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Tue, 12 May 2026 02:00:52 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 | $24.00 | €13.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 4 | 2 |
| CPU Cores | 2 | 1 |
| Storage (TB) | 80 | 50 |
| Storage Type | SSD | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 4 | 2 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | 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 | 697.47 | 5,025.21 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.97 | 0.18 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.43 | 0.2 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 15.8 | 5.35 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.36 | 0.22 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 3,412,092.37 | 5,932,400.60 |
| Mebibytes per second | 3,332.12 | 5,793.36 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.5 | 2.22 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 3,386,795.06 | 6,706,599.41 |
| Mebibytes per second | 3,307.42 | 6,549.41 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.16 | 1.56 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 1,540.78 | 3,214.64 |
| Writes per Second | 1,027.19 | 2,143.03 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 3,299.48 | 6,864.71 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 24.07 | 50.23 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 16.05 | 33.48 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.17 | 0.08 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 32.93 | 20.14 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.58 | 0.31 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1,127.52 | 1,349.13 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1,169.63 | 1,353.60 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1,192.95 | 1,361.99 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1,191.92 | 1,352.03 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,533.00 | 19,090.00 |
| Queries per second | 35,330.00 | 190,900.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.53 | 0.31 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.82 | 0.52 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 23.79 | 5.34 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.75 | 0.64 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,921.00 | 3,974.00 |
| Queries per second | 19,210.00 | 39,740.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.85 | 0.87 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 5.2 | 2.51 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 38.8 | 38.67 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 7.3 | 5 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,124.00 | 2,830.00 |
| Queries per second | 11,240.00 | 28,300.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 5.43 | 1.29 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 8.89 | 3.53 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 41.98 | 56.72 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 12.3 | 6.32 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,363.00 | 4,647.00 |
| Queries per second | 23,630.00 | 46,470.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.43 | 0.61 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 4.22 | 2.15 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 43.91 | 28.58 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 6.21 | 4.41 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 771,895.00 | 2,249,592.00 |
| Queries per second | 7,718,950.00 | 22,495,920.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 720.67 | 207.34 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 116,104.00 | 645,161.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,161,040.00 | 6,451,610.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.09 | 0.02 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.46 | 2.26 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.12 | 0.02 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,693.00 | 8,546.00 |
| Queries per second | 36,930.00 | 85,460.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.85 | 0.13 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.7 | 1.17 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 35.33 | 172.57 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.68 | 1.58 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,614.00 | 11,562.00 |
| Queries per second | 26,140.00 | 115,620.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.1 | 0.22 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.82 | 0.86 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 21.26 | 4.07 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5.67 | 1.27 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,513.00 | 4,711.00 |
| Queries per second | 25,130.00 | 47,110.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.1 | 0.73 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.97 | 2.12 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 36.25 | 30.41 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5.99 | 3.96 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,177.00 | 5,393.00 |
| Queries per second | 21,770.00 | 53,930.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.18 | 0.48 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 4.59 | 1.85 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 169.62 | 39 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 7.43 | 3.43 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 12,257.00 | 101,195.00 |
| Queries per second | 122,570.00 | 1,011,950.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.81 | 0.1 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 36.29 | 39.3 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.25 | 0.17 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 49,431.54 | 130,208.34 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 50,327.12 | 130,208.34 |
| SET per Second | 46,926.32 | 130,890.05 |
| GET per Second | 45,372.05 | 129,198.97 |
| INCR per Second | 44,563.28 | 128,534.70 |
| LPUSH per Second | 50,125.31 | 128,040.97 |
| RPUSH per Second | 54,945.05 | 126,582.27 |
| LPOP per Second | 53,763.44 | 124,688.28 |
| RPOP per Second | 57,570.52 | 127,226.46 |
| SADD per Second | 51,572.98 | 129,198.97 |
| HSET per Second | 47,664.44 | 133,511.34 |
| SPOP per Second | 46,641.79 | 139,275.77 |
| ZADD per Second | 55,586.44 | 130,039.02 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 50,916.50 | 129,701.68 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 28,105.68 | 55,524.71 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 11,893.43 | 28,785.26 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 8,426.02 | 18,942.98 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 6,626.91 | 17,038.68 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 44,189.13 | 108,225.10 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (4 GB, 2 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.53 | 0.25 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.52 | 0.25 |
| SET | 0.56 | 0.26 |
| GET | 0.58 | 0.26 |
| INCR | 0.60 | 0.26 |
| LPUSH | 0.53 | 0.26 |
| RPUSH | 0.49 | 0.27 |
| LPOP | 0.50 | 0.27 |
| RPOP | 0.48 | 0.27 |
| SADD | 0.51 | 0.26 |
| HSET | 0.56 | 0.26 |
| SPOP | 0.57 | 0.24 |
| ZADD | 0.48 | 0.26 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.52 | 0.26 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 1.07 | 0.66 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 2.40 | 1.27 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 3.42 | 1.95 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 4.80 | 2.16 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.79 | 0.34 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
After analyzing the benchmark data from the two VPS providers, it's clear that the DigitalOcean instance performs moderately across the board with solid scores in CPU operations, memory management, and thread fairness. While its Redis benchmarks are competitive, they aren't as high as those from the UpCloud instance, especially in operations like LPUSH and LRANGE which have notably lower latencies and higher throughput rates. The UpCloud instance excels in almost all benchmarks, especially in Redis operations where it shows significantly higher request rates per second and lower latencies across a variety of commands. The CPU performance, while single-core, also outperforms DigitalOcean, and its memory operations are similarly robust. Thus, for workloads heavily reliant on Redis performance and single-core processing, such as high-traffic applications or database-intensive tasks, the UpCloud instance would be more suitable. Conversely, for more balanced usage cases where moderate performance across multiple metrics is crucial, such as general-purpose applications or when cost is a significant factor, the DigitalOcean instance could be the preferable choice.
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.