DigitalOcean Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) vs. Vultr Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores)
Same showdown, different day. Today I've spun up brand new instance from DigitalOcean and Vultr and ran my world famous suite of benchmarking scripts. Each instance was running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and all resided in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Enough talk. Here's the data.
Overview
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Thu, 11 Jun 2026 16:00:53 GMT | Thu, 11 Jun 2026 09:00:52 GMT |
| Linux Distro | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 |
| Kernel Version | 6.8.0-71-generic | 6.8.0-124-generic |
| MySQL Version | 8.0.46-0ubuntu0.24.04.2 | 8.0.46-0ubuntu0.24.04.2 |
| Redis Version | 7.0.15 | 7.0.15 |
| Location | New York, NY | Newark, NJ |
| Monthly Price | $48.00 | $20.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 8 | 4 |
| CPU Cores | 4 | 2 |
| Storage (TB) | 160 | 80 |
| Storage Type | SSD | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 5 | 3 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | GenuineIntel | GenuineIntel |
| Model Name | DO-Regular | Intel Xeon Processor (Skylake, IBRS) |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,494.14 | 2,593.91 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 4,096.00 | 16,384.00 |
| BogoMips | 4,988.27 | 5,187.81 |
| Events per Second | 849.22 | 1,022.39 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.91 | 0.88 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.18 | 0.98 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 10.7 | 1.77 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.34 | 1.21 |
Memory
Memory Read
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 3,870,078.99 | 3,523,809.57 |
| Mebibytes per second | 3,779.37 | 3,441.22 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.08 | 0.22 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 3,603,764.53 | 3,568,203.77 |
| Mebibytes per second | 3,519.30 | 3,484.57 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.72 | 1.02 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 3,806.06 | 2,972.63 |
| Writes per Second | 2,537.37 | 1,981.75 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 8,130.07 | 6,347.81 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 59.47 | 46.45 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 39.65 | 30.96 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.07 | 0.09 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 12.06 | 17.12 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.25 | 0.33 |
Mutex
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 688.56 | 899.28 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 785.91 | 935.93 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 847.21 | 969.92 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 846.57 | 977.74 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,354.00 | 3,779.00 |
| Queries per second | 33,540.00 | 37,790.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.55 | 1.84 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.98 | 2.64 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 28.74 | 24.55 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5.57 | 3.82 |
MySQL Write-only
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,570.00 | 4,044.00 |
| Queries per second | 15,700.00 | 40,440.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.03 | 1.4 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 6.36 | 2.47 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 84.67 | 13.46 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 13.46 | 3.3 |
MySQL Read/Write
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 899.00 | 1,798.00 |
| Queries per second | 8,990.00 | 17,980.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 4.52 | 3.86 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 11.11 | 5.56 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 91.08 | 27.33 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 23.52 | 6.91 |
MySQL INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,911.00 | 6,405.00 |
| Queries per second | 29,110.00 | 64,050.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.99 | 0.99 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.43 | 1.56 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 24.42 | 15.15 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 6.91 | 2.03 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 996,869.00 | 865,805.00 |
| Queries per second | 9,968,690.00 | 8,658,050.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 528.73 | 538.25 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 117,232.00 | 126,618.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,172,320.00 | 1,266,180.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.05 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.08 | 0.08 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 16.67 | 2.46 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.11 | 0.11 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,077.00 | 3,674.00 |
| Queries per second | 30,770.00 | 36,740.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.9 | 1.07 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.24 | 2.72 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 48.38 | 6.45 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 6.55 | 3.55 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,358.00 | 2,728.00 |
| Queries per second | 33,580.00 | 27,280.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.89 | 1.3 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.97 | 3.66 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 20.84 | 11.85 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 6.55 | 5 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,854.00 | 5,438.00 |
| Queries per second | 28,540.00 | 54,380.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.06 | 0.99 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.5 | 1.84 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 17.34 | 13.86 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 7.04 | 2.71 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,395.00 | 6,370.00 |
| Queries per second | 33,950.00 | 63,700.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1 | 1.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.94 | 1.57 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 23.48 | 8.99 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5.99 | 2.07 |
MySQL DELETE
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 12,000.00 | 51,180.00 |
| Queries per second | 120,000.00 | 511,800.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.05 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.83 | 0.19 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 18.71 | 6.11 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.68 | 1.39 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 43,898.15 | 49,677.10 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 42,918.46 | 45,372.05 |
| SET per Second | 40,683.48 | 45,392.64 |
| GET per Second | 41,528.24 | 53,163.21 |
| INCR per Second | 43,497.17 | 48,732.94 |
| LPUSH per Second | 46,794.57 | 50,327.12 |
| RPUSH per Second | 48,638.13 | 48,285.85 |
| LPOP per Second | 51,572.98 | 48,355.90 |
| RPOP per Second | 39,001.56 | 51,413.88 |
| SADD per Second | 42,337.00 | 48,332.53 |
| HSET per Second | 47,641.73 | 49,285.36 |
| SPOP per Second | 48,496.61 | 48,332.53 |
| ZADD per Second | 47,370.91 | 51,229.51 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 46,948.36 | 45,085.66 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 30,665.44 | 27,122.32 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 14,725.37 | 12,442.45 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 9,555.66 | 7,930.21 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 8,323.62 | 6,902.74 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 54,614.96 | 45,146.73 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| DigitalOcean – Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.63 | 0.53 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.61 | 0.57 |
| SET | 0.65 | 0.57 |
| GET | 0.68 | 0.49 |
| INCR | 0.61 | 0.53 |
| LPUSH | 0.59 | 0.51 |
| RPUSH | 0.56 | 0.54 |
| LPOP | 0.55 | 0.54 |
| RPOP | 0.74 | 0.52 |
| SADD | 0.63 | 0.55 |
| HSET | 0.64 | 0.54 |
| SPOP | 0.57 | 0.54 |
| ZADD | 0.57 | 0.52 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.57 | 0.57 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.97 | 1.02 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 2.12 | 2.29 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 3.22 | 3.27 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 3.95 | 3.91 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.60 | 0.78 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
After analyzing the benchmark performance of both the DigitalOcean and Vultr instances, it's evident that Vultr's Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) instance demonstrates superior performance across various metrics, especially in Redis operations where it achieves higher requests per second and lower latencies. The Vultr instance also shows stronger performance in file I/O and memory operations, though it has slightly higher latency in CPU and threading operations. The DigitalOcean Regular (8 GB, 4 Cores) instance, while offering more RAM and higher overall CPU performance metrics, lags behind in certain Redis operations and has longer max latencies in specific benchmarks. Thus, the Vultr instance is better suited for workloads that benefit from higher throughput and lower latencies in Redis and file operations, while the DigitalOcean instance might be more advantageous for applications requiring substantial RAM and more balanced CPU performance across a broader range of tasks.
From the friendly human:
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