Linode Nanode (1 GB) vs. UpCloud Balanced (1 GB)
Fresh benchmarks coming at ya. Today I've spun up brand new instance from Linode and UpCloud and ran some benchmarks. Each instance was spun up with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and all resided in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Enough talk. Here's the data.
Overview
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Wed, 18 Feb 2026 22:00:52 GMT | Tue, 17 Feb 2026 12:00:52 GMT |
| Linux Distro | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 |
| Kernel Version | 6.8.0-71-generic | 6.8.0-87-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 | €7.00 |
| 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) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | AuthenticAMD | AuthenticAMD |
| Model Name | AMD EPYC 7713 64-Core Processor | AMD EPYC 9575F 64-Core Processor |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,000.00 | 3,295.46 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 512.00 | 512.00 |
| BogoMips | 3,999.99 | 6,590.91 |
| Events per Second | 1,796.69 | 5,269.12 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.24 | 0.17 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.56 | 0.19 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 33.29 | 0.78 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.52 | 0.2 |
Memory
Memory Read
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 2,781,893.45 | 6,495,754.58 |
| Mebibytes per second | 2,716.69 | 6,343.51 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.48 | 5.62 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 3,003,981.67 | 6,653,943.56 |
| Mebibytes per second | 2,933.58 | 6,497.99 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 31.65 | 4.05 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 2,901.52 | 2,843.26 |
| Writes per Second | 1,934.35 | 1,895.51 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 6,191.21 | 6,077.14 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 45.34 | 44.43 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 30.22 | 29.62 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.09 | 0.09 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 15.73 | 130.72 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.24 | 0.29 |
Mutex
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1,404.10 | 1,405.90 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1,411.48 | 1,420.12 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1,422.33 | 1,430.71 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1,427.08 | 1,427.08 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 9,135.00 | 20,293.00 |
| Queries per second | 91,350.00 | 202,930.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.98 | 0.32 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.09 | 0.49 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 10.15 | 6.79 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.27 | 0.62 |
MySQL Write-only
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,708.00 | 4,585.00 |
| Queries per second | 67,080.00 | 45,850.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.87 | 0.66 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.49 | 2.18 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 37.92 | 97.21 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.03 | 4.91 |
MySQL Read/Write
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,482.00 | 3,152.00 |
| Queries per second | 34,820.00 | 31,520.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.16 | 1.31 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.87 | 3.17 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 9.8 | 38.87 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.55 | 6.09 |
MySQL INSERT
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 10,885.00 | 7,436.00 |
| Queries per second | 108,850.00 | 74,360.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.58 | 0.44 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.92 | 1.34 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 6.79 | 47.68 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.12 | 1.96 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,887,810.00 | 2,220,467.00 |
| Queries per second | 18,878,100.00 | 22,204,670.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 322.52 | 240.79 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 203,558.00 | 716,229.00 |
| Queries per second | 2,035,580.00 | 7,162,290.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 13.04 | 3.14 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.06 | 0.02 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 11,192.00 | 8,118.00 |
| Queries per second | 111,920.00 | 81,180.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.21 | 0.23 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.89 | 1.23 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 6.53 | 12.44 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.18 | 1.79 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 11,116.00 | 13,131.00 |
| Queries per second | 111,160.00 | 131,310.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.24 | 0.2 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.9 | 0.76 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 7.03 | 4.01 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.16 | 1.14 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 9,976.00 | 6,728.00 |
| Queries per second | 99,760.00 | 67,280.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.56 | 0.51 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1 | 1.48 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.74 | 42.6 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.34 | 2.43 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 10,150.00 | 5,255.00 |
| Queries per second | 101,500.00 | 52,550.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.54 | 0.51 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.98 | 1.9 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 41.86 | 42.38 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.27 | 4.18 |
MySQL DELETE
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 101,100.00 | 259,230.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,011,000.00 | 2,592,300.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.1 | 0.04 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.67 | 67.05 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.16 | 0.04 |
Redis
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 54,734.54 | 87,719.30 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 55,493.89 | 127,064.80 |
| SET per Second | 55,248.62 | 104,821.80 |
| GET per Second | 55,218.11 | 110,375.27 |
| INCR per Second | 55,648.30 | 125,786.16 |
| LPUSH per Second | 54,200.54 | 125,944.58 |
| RPUSH per Second | 54,141.85 | 133,511.34 |
| LPOP per Second | 53,418.80 | 134,228.19 |
| RPOP per Second | 54,525.63 | 128,534.70 |
| SADD per Second | 55,524.71 | 133,689.83 |
| HSET per Second | 53,078.56 | 127,713.92 |
| SPOP per Second | 54,614.96 | 142,247.52 |
| ZADD per Second | 54,975.26 | 143,884.89 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 55,066.08 | 152,905.20 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 38,022.81 | 77,041.60 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 20,230.63 | 31,836.99 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 14,701.56 | 20,064.21 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 13,066.77 | 19,708.32 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 52,659.29 | 131,061.59 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.61 | 0.43 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.59 | 0.26 |
| SET | 0.60 | 0.32 |
| GET | 0.59 | 0.30 |
| INCR | 0.59 | 0.27 |
| LPUSH | 0.62 | 0.27 |
| RPUSH | 0.62 | 0.25 |
| LPOP | 0.63 | 0.25 |
| RPOP | 0.61 | 0.26 |
| SADD | 0.59 | 0.25 |
| HSET | 0.63 | 0.26 |
| SPOP | 0.60 | 0.23 |
| ZADD | 0.61 | 0.24 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.60 | 0.22 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.91 | 0.47 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.70 | 1.14 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 2.36 | 1.83 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 2.65 | 1.86 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.67 | 0.28 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
Based on the benchmark results, the Linode Nanode (1 GB) performs adequately but lacks the high throughput and low latency characteristics of the UpCloud Balanced (1 GB). The UpCloud instance excels in redis benchmarks with significantly higher request rates per second and lower average latencies across various operations, indicating superior performance for high-load, low-latency requirements such as caching and real-time data processing. While the Linode instance shows respectable performance, it lags behind in CPU-intensive and I/O-heavy workloads. The UpCloud instance also exhibits better file I/O performance, suggesting it might be more suitable for applications requiring frequent file access. For developers looking for cost-effective but high-performing VPS for web applications, caching solutions, or real-time data services, the UpCloud Balanced (1 GB) is the better choice due to its superior benchmarks. Conversely, for users needing a budget-friendly option with adequate but not exceptional performance, the Linode Nanode (1 GB) could still suffice.
From the friendly human:
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