DigitalOcean Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) vs. UpCloud Balanced (2 GB)
New day, new benchmarks. Today I've spun up brand new instance from DigitalOcean and UpCloud to run some benchmarks on. All instances were running 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 (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Mon, 11 May 2026 10:00:52 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 | $48.00 | €13.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 8 | 2 |
| CPU Cores | 4 | 1 |
| Storage (TB) | 160 | 50 |
| Storage Type | SSD | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 5 | 2 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | GenuineIntel | AuthenticAMD |
| Model Name | DO-Regular | AMD EPYC 9575F 64-Core Processor |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,494.14 | 3,295.48 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 4,096.00 | 512.00 |
| BogoMips | 4,988.28 | 6,590.95 |
| Events per Second | 896.57 | 5,025.21 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.91 | 0.18 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.11 | 0.2 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.9 | 5.35 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.32 | 0.22 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,379,540.09 | 5,932,400.60 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,276.89 | 5,793.36 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.18 | 2.22 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 4,212,238.67 | 6,706,599.41 |
| Mebibytes per second | 4,113.51 | 6,549.41 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.47 | 1.56 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 5,311.94 | 3,214.64 |
| Writes per Second | 3,541.33 | 2,143.03 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 11,343.44 | 6,864.71 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 83.00 | 50.23 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 55.33 | 33.48 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.08 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 21.59 | 20.14 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.19 | 0.31 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 387.37 | 1,349.13 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 479.16 | 1,353.60 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 548.46 | 1,361.99 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 549.52 | 1,352.03 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,420.00 | 19,090.00 |
| Queries per second | 54,200.00 | 190,900.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.28 | 0.31 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.84 | 0.52 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.54 | 5.34 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.52 | 0.64 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,301.00 | 3,974.00 |
| Queries per second | 43,010.00 | 39,740.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.1 | 0.87 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.32 | 2.51 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 6.06 | 38.67 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.13 | 5 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,038.00 | 2,830.00 |
| Queries per second | 20,380.00 | 28,300.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.9 | 1.29 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 4.9 | 3.53 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 27.95 | 56.72 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 6.32 | 6.32 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,949.00 | 4,647.00 |
| Queries per second | 59,490.00 | 46,470.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.84 | 0.61 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.68 | 2.15 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 11.06 | 28.58 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.43 | 4.41 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,317,592.00 | 2,249,592.00 |
| Queries per second | 13,175,920.00 | 22,495,920.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 327.97 | 207.34 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 138,526.00 | 645,161.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,385,260.00 | 6,451,610.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.07 | 0.02 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.74 | 2.26 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.11 | 0.02 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,975.00 | 8,546.00 |
| Queries per second | 49,750.00 | 85,460.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.53 | 0.13 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.01 | 1.17 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.74 | 172.57 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.97 | 1.58 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,697.00 | 11,562.00 |
| Queries per second | 56,970.00 | 115,620.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.65 | 0.22 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.75 | 0.86 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.64 | 4.07 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.66 | 1.27 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,546.00 | 4,711.00 |
| Queries per second | 65,460.00 | 47,110.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.74 | 0.73 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.53 | 2.12 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 12.42 | 30.41 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.14 | 3.96 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,682.00 | 5,393.00 |
| Queries per second | 66,820.00 | 53,930.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.69 | 0.48 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.49 | 1.85 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 10.51 | 39 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.14 | 3.43 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 50,636.00 | 101,195.00 |
| Queries per second | 506,360.00 | 1,011,950.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 44.03 | 39.3 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.37 | 0.17 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 58,207.21 | 130,208.34 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 56,915.20 | 130,208.34 |
| SET per Second | 56,148.23 | 130,890.05 |
| GET per Second | 58,685.45 | 129,198.97 |
| INCR per Second | 61,312.08 | 128,534.70 |
| LPUSH per Second | 61,162.08 | 128,040.97 |
| RPUSH per Second | 65,832.78 | 126,582.27 |
| LPOP per Second | 56,980.06 | 124,688.28 |
| RPOP per Second | 55,248.62 | 127,226.46 |
| SADD per Second | 58,038.30 | 129,198.97 |
| HSET per Second | 60,350.03 | 133,511.34 |
| SPOP per Second | 65,316.79 | 139,275.77 |
| ZADD per Second | 54,525.63 | 130,039.02 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 54,406.96 | 129,701.68 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 37,850.11 | 55,524.71 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 18,106.10 | 28,785.26 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 11,355.89 | 18,942.98 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 9,591.41 | 17,038.68 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 56,657.22 | 108,225.10 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.46 | 0.25 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.47 | 0.25 |
| SET | 0.51 | 0.26 |
| GET | 0.47 | 0.26 |
| INCR | 0.45 | 0.26 |
| LPUSH | 0.48 | 0.26 |
| RPUSH | 0.43 | 0.27 |
| LPOP | 0.51 | 0.27 |
| RPOP | 0.50 | 0.27 |
| SADD | 0.45 | 0.26 |
| HSET | 0.48 | 0.26 |
| SPOP | 0.45 | 0.24 |
| ZADD | 0.50 | 0.26 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.50 | 0.26 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.85 | 0.66 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.61 | 1.27 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 2.62 | 1.95 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 3.23 | 2.16 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.55 | 0.34 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
The benchmark results for the DigitalOcean Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) and UpCloud Balanced (1 CPU, 2 GB) instances reveal that both offer distinct performance characteristics. The DigitalOcean instance excels in high-concurrency tasks such as Redis commands, achieving notably higher requests per second (rps) for various operations, although latency for some Redis operations like LRANGE increases significantly with larger dataset sizes. The UpCloud instance, despite its lower CPU and RAM, performs exceptionally well in raw CPU and memory operations, demonstrating superior performance in Redis PING commands and overall memory read/write operations. For use cases requiring high concurrency and lower latency for smaller dataset interactions, the DigitalOcean instance is preferable, while for tasks that benefit from raw CPU power and lower memory latency, the UpCloud instance would be more suitable.
From the friendly human:
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