Linode Nanode (1 GB) vs. DigitalOcean Regular (1 GB)
Fresh benchmarks coming at ya. Today I've spun up brand new instance from DigitalOcean and Linode and ran my world famous suite of benchmarking scripts. Each instance was running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in the New York area (or close to it). Without further ado, here's the results.
Overview
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Wed, 18 Feb 2026 22:00:52 GMT | Tue, 17 Feb 2026 06:00:52 GMT |
| Linux Distro | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 |
| Kernel Version | 6.8.0-71-generic | 6.8.0-71-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 | Newark, NJ | New York, NY |
| Monthly Price | $5.00 | $6.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 1 | 1 |
| CPU Cores | 1 | 1 |
| Storage (TB) | 25 | 25 |
| Storage Type | SSD | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 1 | 1 |
CPU
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | AuthenticAMD | GenuineIntel |
| Model Name | AMD EPYC 7713 64-Core Processor | DO-Regular |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,000.00 | 2,294.61 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 512.00 | 4,096.00 |
| BogoMips | 3,999.99 | 4,589.21 |
| Events per Second | 1,796.69 | 387.61 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.24 | 0.99 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.56 | 2.57 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 33.29 | 6.65 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.52 | 4.33 |
Memory
Memory Read
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 2,781,893.45 | 2,159,653.01 |
| Mebibytes per second | 2,716.69 | 2,109.04 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.48 | 3.81 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 3,003,981.67 | 3,104,196.36 |
| Mebibytes per second | 2,933.58 | 3,031.44 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 31.65 | 0.47 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 2,901.52 | 764.77 |
| Writes per Second | 1,934.35 | 509.85 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 6,191.21 | 1,635.99 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 45.34 | 11.95 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 30.22 | 7.97 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.09 | 0.34 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 15.73 | 141.7 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.24 | 1.21 |
Mutex
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1,404.10 | 2,605.86 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1,411.48 | 2,616.99 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1,422.33 | 2,630.24 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1,427.08 | 2,632.28 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 9,135.00 | 3,580.00 |
| Queries per second | 91,350.00 | 35,800.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.98 | 1.7 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.09 | 2.79 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 10.15 | 20.85 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.27 | 3.36 |
MySQL Write-only
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,708.00 | 1,094.00 |
| Queries per second | 67,080.00 | 10,940.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.87 | 4.94 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.49 | 9.14 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 37.92 | 173.39 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.03 | 13.46 |
MySQL Read/Write
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,482.00 | 812.00 |
| Queries per second | 34,820.00 | 8,120.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.16 | 7.49 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.87 | 12.31 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 9.8 | 54.05 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.55 | 17.01 |
MySQL INSERT
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 10,885.00 | 1,557.00 |
| Queries per second | 108,850.00 | 15,570.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.58 | 3.96 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.92 | 6.41 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 6.79 | 36.41 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.12 | 9.73 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,887,810.00 | 636,443.00 |
| Queries per second | 18,878,100.00 | 6,364,430.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.02 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 322.52 | 841.96 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 203,558.00 | 106,875.00 |
| Queries per second | 2,035,580.00 | 1,068,750.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.09 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 13.04 | 3.01 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.06 | 0.15 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 11,192.00 | 2,896.00 |
| Queries per second | 111,920.00 | 28,960.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.21 | 1.53 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.89 | 3.45 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 6.53 | 14.99 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.18 | 4.49 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 11,116.00 | 2,687.00 |
| Queries per second | 111,160.00 | 26,870.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.24 | 0.95 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.9 | 3.72 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 7.03 | 7.93 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.16 | 5.47 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 9,976.00 | 1,241.00 |
| Queries per second | 99,760.00 | 12,410.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.56 | 4.3 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1 | 8.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.74 | 160.26 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.34 | 13.95 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 10,150.00 | 1,307.00 |
| Queries per second | 101,500.00 | 13,070.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.54 | 4.05 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.98 | 7.66 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 41.86 | 98.17 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.27 | 12.52 |
MySQL DELETE
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 101,100.00 | 6,422.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,011,000.00 | 64,220.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.06 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.1 | 1.56 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.67 | 49.19 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.16 | 7.84 |
Redis
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 54,734.54 | 30,284.68 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 55,493.89 | 32,573.29 |
| SET per Second | 55,248.62 | 30,293.85 |
| GET per Second | 55,218.11 | 29,904.30 |
| INCR per Second | 55,648.30 | 27,932.96 |
| LPUSH per Second | 54,200.54 | 28,571.43 |
| RPUSH per Second | 54,141.85 | 30,571.69 |
| LPOP per Second | 53,418.80 | 30,193.24 |
| RPOP per Second | 54,525.63 | 30,321.41 |
| SADD per Second | 55,524.71 | 32,289.31 |
| HSET per Second | 53,078.56 | 31,959.09 |
| SPOP per Second | 54,614.96 | 32,299.74 |
| ZADD per Second | 54,975.26 | 33,057.85 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 55,066.08 | 31,969.31 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 38,022.81 | 13,513.51 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 20,230.63 | 6,263.70 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 14,701.56 | 4,185.15 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 13,066.77 | 3,583.97 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 52,659.29 | 25,614.75 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.61 | 1.09 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.59 | 1.00 |
| SET | 0.60 | 1.09 |
| GET | 0.59 | 1.10 |
| INCR | 0.59 | 1.16 |
| LPUSH | 0.62 | 1.15 |
| RPUSH | 0.62 | 1.08 |
| LPOP | 0.63 | 1.10 |
| RPOP | 0.61 | 1.10 |
| SADD | 0.59 | 1.03 |
| HSET | 0.63 | 1.04 |
| SPOP | 0.60 | 1.02 |
| ZADD | 0.61 | 1.03 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.60 | 1.03 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.91 | 2.68 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.70 | 5.61 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 2.36 | 8.12 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 2.65 | 9.50 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.67 | 1.44 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
In benchmarking the DigitalOcean Regular (1 GB) and Linode Nanode (1 GB) instances, we observe that the Linode Nanode generally outperforms the DigitalOcean instance across most metrics, particularly in Redis and MySQL operations where it demonstrates significantly higher request rates per second (rps) and lower latencies. The Linode instance benefits from its more powerful CPU based on AMD EPYC architecture, which translates into superior overall processing capabilities. In terms of file I/O operations, the Linode instance also shows better throughput and lower latencies compared to the DigitalOcean instance. The DigitalOcean instance, while still competent, lags behind in CPU and memory benchmarks, showing longer latencies in tasks such as Redis LRANGE operations and MySQL bulk inserts. For developers prioritizing high throughput and low latency in CPU-intensive, memory-demanding, or I/O-heavy workloads, the Linode Nanode (1 GB) would be the better choice, whereas the DigitalOcean Regular (1 GB) might be more suitable for less demanding tasks or those on a tighter budget.
From the friendly human:
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