Linode Nanode (1 GB) vs. DigitalOcean Regular (1 GB)

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My friend, I'm so glad you're here! Today I've spun up brand new instance from DigitalOcean and Linode and ran some benchmarks. Each instance was 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

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Last Benchmarked Thu, 25 Dec 2025 09:00:51 GMT Thu, 25 Dec 2025 17:00:52 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 8.0.44-0ubuntu0.24.04.2 8.0.44-0ubuntu0.24.04.2
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 2,494.14
CPU Cache Size (KB) 512.00 4,096.00
BogoMips 3,999.99 4,988.27
Events per Second 1,664.06 658.25
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.28 0.91
Average Latency (ms) 0.6 1.52
Maximum Latency (ms) 29.07 4.37
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.86 2.76

Memory

Memory Read

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Operations per second 2,695,177.67 4,590,506.96
Mebibytes per second 2,632.01 4,482.92
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 3.64 1.47
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

Memory Write

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Operations per second 5,064,699.38 4,461,825.89
Mebibytes per second 4,946.00 4,357.25
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 2.03 1.05
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

File I/O

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Reads per Second 2,101.42 2,902.70
Writes per Second 1,400.94 1,935.13
Fsyncs per Second 4,487.49 6,204.32
Read Mebibytes per Second 32.83 45.35
Written Mebibytes per Second 21.89 30.24
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.12 0.09
Maximum Latency (ms) 6.63 31.01
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.3 0.24

Mutex

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Minimum Latency (ms) 1,779.50 1,886.90
Average Latency (ms) 1,789.35 1,902.88
Maximum Latency (ms) 1,804.14 1,917.74
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1,803.47 1,903.57

MySQL

MySQL Read-only

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Transactions per second 6,359.00 6,616.00
Queries per second 63,590.00 66,160.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.3 1.13
Average Latency (ms) 1.57 1.51
Maximum Latency (ms) 9.8 6.91
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.89 2.22

MySQL Write-only

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Transactions per second 4,913.00 5,741.00
Queries per second 49,130.00 57,410.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.35 0.97
Average Latency (ms) 2.03 1.74
Maximum Latency (ms) 8.51 25.7
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.81 2.61

MySQL Read/Write

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Transactions per second 2,408.00 2,490.00
Queries per second 24,080.00 24,900.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 3.1 2.67
Average Latency (ms) 4.15 4.01
Maximum Latency (ms) 11.3 26.68
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 5.18 5.67

MySQL INSERT

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Transactions per second 7,492.00 9,069.00
Queries per second 74,920.00 90,690.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.95 0.48
Average Latency (ms) 1.33 1.1
Maximum Latency (ms) 9.48 80.73
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.79 1.73

MySQL Bulk INSERT

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Transactions per second 1,201,092.00 1,055,467.00
Queries per second 12,010,920.00 10,554,670.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.01 0.01
Maximum Latency (ms) 508.44 1012.19
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

MySQL SELECT

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Transactions per second 127,654.00 188,955.00
Queries per second 1,276,540.00 1,889,550.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.06 0.04
Average Latency (ms) 0.08 0.05
Maximum Latency (ms) 6.3 1.59
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.11 0.08

MySQL SELECT (Random Points)

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Transactions per second 8,562.00 5,352.00
Queries per second 85,620.00 53,520.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.29 0.55
Average Latency (ms) 1.17 1.87
Maximum Latency (ms) 9.19 6.67
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.58 2.97

MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Transactions per second 9,338.00 5,879.00
Queries per second 93,380.00 58,790.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.41 0.5
Average Latency (ms) 1.07 1.7
Maximum Latency (ms) 7.81 5.23
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.39 3.02

MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Transactions per second 7,211.00 9,925.00
Queries per second 72,110.00 99,250.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.77 0.47
Average Latency (ms) 1.39 1.01
Maximum Latency (ms) 7.29 48.42
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2 1.67

MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Transactions per second 7,966.00 9,177.00
Queries per second 79,660.00 91,770.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.92 0.46
Average Latency (ms) 1.25 1.09
Maximum Latency (ms) 9.36 103.03
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.64 1.73

MySQL DELETE

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Transactions per second 52,482.00 77,722.00
Queries per second 524,820.00 777,220.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.05 0.04
Average Latency (ms) 0.19 0.13
Maximum Latency (ms) 11.04 27.76
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.16 0.48

Redis

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
PING_INLINE per Second 35,448.42 41,597.34
PING_MBULK per Second 35,373.19 42,826.55
SET per Second 35,100.04 45,516.61
GET per Second 36,310.82 44,923.63
INCR per Second 35,498.76 46,317.74
LPUSH per Second 35,511.36 47,348.48
RPUSH per Second 35,373.19 45,106.00
LPOP per Second 35,038.54 42,444.82
RPOP per Second 34,566.20 43,271.31
SADD per Second 35,663.34 42,087.54
HSET per Second 35,298.27 37,509.38
SPOP per Second 36,483.04 40,567.95
ZADD per Second 35,893.75 37,369.21
ZPOPMIN per Second 36,023.05 41,823.50
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second 25,284.45 20,128.82
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second 15,195.26 10,488.78
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second 10,902.75 6,303.18
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second 9,585.89 5,894.49
MSET (10 keys) per Second 29,078.22 38,461.54

Redis Average Latency (ms)

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
PING_INLINE0.930.80
PING_MBULK0.930.77
SET0.950.74
GET0.910.74
INCR0.930.72
LPUSH0.940.71
RPUSH0.940.75
LPOP0.960.79
RPOP0.970.78
SADD0.930.79
HSET0.940.89
SPOP0.910.81
ZADD0.930.90
ZPOPMIN0.920.79
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)1.341.80
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)2.223.47
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)3.085.67
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)3.556.06
MSET (10 keys)1.160.92

Conclusion

From the friendly robots:

After a detailed comparison of the benchmarks, DigitalOcean's Regular (1 GB) instance provides slightly higher performance in most metrics, especially in Redis operations and MySQL OLTP tasks, achieving higher RPS and lower latency across various tests. However, the Linode Nanode (1 GB) instance shows better CPU utilization and slightly lower file I/O latency, indicating robust file handling capabilities. Overall, DigitalOcean's instance is more suited for applications that require high throughput and low latency in Redis operations and database transactions, whereas the Linode Nanode would excel in scenarios where file I/O performance is a critical factor. The choice between them depends on whether the priority lies in database operations or file system performance.

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 Linode.

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