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

vs.

Fresh benchmarks coming at ya. Today I've spun up some 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 all resided in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Let's get into the numbers.

Overview

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Last Benchmarked Wed, 10 Jun 2026 21:00:52 GMT Mon, 08 Jun 2026 21:00:52 GMT
Linux Distro Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64
Kernel Version 6.8.0-111-generic 6.8.0-71-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 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 4,000.00 4,589.21
Events per Second 1,605.64 426.06
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.28 0.97
Average Latency (ms) 0.61 2.34
Maximum Latency (ms) 15.02 11.13
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.86 4.03

Memory

Memory Read

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Operations per second 2,578,716.87 3,186,627.49
Mebibytes per second 2,518.28 3,111.94
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 8.61 3.13
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

Memory Write

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Operations per second 5,134,212.89 3,529,570.35
Mebibytes per second 5,013.88 3,446.85
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 7.28 0.73
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

File I/O

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Reads per Second 2,103.79 531.03
Writes per Second 1,402.53 354.02
Fsyncs per Second 4,497.88 1,137.44
Read Mebibytes per Second 32.87 8.30
Written Mebibytes per Second 21.91 5.53
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.12 0.49
Maximum Latency (ms) 9.57 34.65
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.3 2.14

Mutex

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Minimum Latency (ms) 2,611.09 2,179.34
Average Latency (ms) 2,623.26 2,192.91
Maximum Latency (ms) 2,632.60 2,199.32
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2,632.28 2,198.52

MySQL

MySQL Read-only

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Transactions per second 7,182.00 4,443.00
Queries per second 71,820.00 44,430.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.22 1.27
Average Latency (ms) 1.39 2.25
Maximum Latency (ms) 8.56 10.86
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.64 2.76

MySQL Write-only

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Transactions per second 5,215.00 732.00
Queries per second 52,150.00 7,320.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.25 5.99
Average Latency (ms) 1.91 13.67
Maximum Latency (ms) 9.94 43.33
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.71 22.69

MySQL Read/Write

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Transactions per second 2,358.00 401.00
Queries per second 23,580.00 4,010.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 2.86 12.07
Average Latency (ms) 4.24 24.97
Maximum Latency (ms) 16.4 157.04
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 6.91 44.17

MySQL INSERT

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Transactions per second 7,570.00 867.00
Queries per second 75,700.00 8,670.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.75 4.9
Average Latency (ms) 1.32 11.54
Maximum Latency (ms) 11.85 78.4
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.89 21.89

MySQL Bulk INSERT

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Transactions per second 1,201,092.00 701,975.00
Queries per second 12,010,920.00 7,019,750.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.01 0.01
Maximum Latency (ms) 577.85 927.69
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

MySQL SELECT

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Transactions per second 152,163.00 136,327.00
Queries per second 1,521,630.00 1,363,270.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.05 0.04
Average Latency (ms) 0.07 0.07
Maximum Latency (ms) 7.75 8.26
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.09 0.11

MySQL SELECT (Random Points)

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Transactions per second 9,119.00 3,493.00
Queries per second 91,190.00 34,930.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.37 0.97
Average Latency (ms) 1.09 2.86
Maximum Latency (ms) 6.43 30.03
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.44 3.96

MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Transactions per second 8,501.00 2,982.00
Queries per second 85,010.00 29,820.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.35 0.73
Average Latency (ms) 1.17 3.35
Maximum Latency (ms) 8.45 7.26
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.22 5

MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Transactions per second 7,551.00 471.00
Queries per second 75,510.00 4,710.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.7 7.73
Average Latency (ms) 1.32 21.3
Maximum Latency (ms) 10.76 316.49
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2 42.61

MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Transactions per second 7,901.00 759.00
Queries per second 79,010.00 7,590.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.7 5.39
Average Latency (ms) 1.26 13.17
Maximum Latency (ms) 10.46 186.75
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.79 24.38

MySQL DELETE

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
Transactions per second 60,656.00 3,484.00
Queries per second 606,560.00 34,840.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.05 0.04
Average Latency (ms) 0.16 2.87
Maximum Latency (ms) 11.78 53.15
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.12 14.46

Redis

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
PING_INLINE per Second 37,467.22 37,936.27
PING_MBULK per Second 37,664.79 29,239.77
SET per Second 37,160.91 31,142.95
GET per Second 37,608.12 37,064.49
INCR per Second 37,271.71 36,886.76
LPUSH per Second 37,037.04 36,403.35
RPUSH per Second 35,997.12 36,310.82
LPOP per Second 35,511.36 35,087.72
RPOP per Second 34,542.32 36,873.16
SADD per Second 36,913.99 37,425.15
HSET per Second 37,230.08 35,448.42
SPOP per Second 37,821.48 31,867.43
ZADD per Second 37,936.27 33,579.59
ZPOPMIN per Second 37,551.63 36,886.76
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second 26,910.66 15,003.75
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second 15,573.90 6,284.57
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second 11,301.99 4,604.48
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second 9,987.02 3,898.18
MSET (10 keys) per Second 34,867.50 24,789.29

Redis Average Latency (ms)

Linode – Nanode (1 GB) DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB)
PING_INLINE0.880.88
PING_MBULK0.881.12
SET0.891.06
GET0.870.90
INCR0.870.90
LPUSH0.880.92
RPUSH0.900.92
LPOP0.920.96
RPOP0.940.92
SADD0.880.89
HSET0.880.94
SPOP0.871.02
ZADD0.870.99
ZPOPMIN0.880.89
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)1.252.40
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)2.185.55
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)2.957.48
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)3.398.75
MSET (10 keys)0.961.51

Conclusion

From the friendly robots:

Upon analyzing the benchmark data from both the DigitalOcean Regular (1 GB) and Linode Nanode (1 GB) instances, it's clear that Linode's Nanode instance generally outperforms DigitalOcean's offering in most metrics, particularly in Redis operations, file I/O, and CPU performance. The Linode instance shows higher rates of requests per second and lower latency across various benchmarks, along with stronger throughput and file I/O operations. The DigitalOcean instance, however, provides competitive results in memory operations and has a more affordable monthly rate. Ideal use cases for the DigitalOcean instance might involve scenarios where cost is a significant factor, and moderate performance in CPU and I/O is sufficient, such as light web hosting or small-scale development environments. Conversely, the Linode Nanode instance is better suited for more demanding workloads that require higher performance, such as high-traffic web applications, intensive data processing tasks, or databases where low latency and high throughput are crucial.

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.

You can also support me directly by buying me a coffee.