Linode Nanode (1 GB) vs. UpCloud Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores)
Same showdown, different day. Today I've spun up some brand new instance from Linode and UpCloud to run some benchmarks on. All instances were running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and all resided in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Time to see who showed up today.
Overview
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Fri, 29 May 2026 15:00:53 GMT | Thu, 28 May 2026 17:00:52 GMT |
| Linux Distro | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 |
| Kernel Version | 6.8.0-111-generic | 6.8.0-111-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 | €52.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 1 | 8 |
| CPU Cores | 1 | 4 |
| Storage (TB) | 25 | 160 |
| Storage Type | SSD | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 1 | 5 |
CPU
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | AuthenticAMD | AuthenticAMD |
| Model Name | AMD EPYC 7642 48-Core Processor | AMD EPYC 9575F 64-Core Processor |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,300.00 | 3,295.46 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 512.00 | 512.00 |
| BogoMips | 4,599.99 | 6,590.91 |
| Events per Second | 1,022.23 | 5,556.97 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.61 | 0.17 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.98 | 0.18 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.4 | 0.78 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.39 | 0.19 |
Memory
Memory Read
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 5,296,233.64 | 7,754,345.65 |
| Mebibytes per second | 5,172.10 | 7,572.60 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.05 | 0.11 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 5,154,651.90 | 7,640,039.61 |
| Mebibytes per second | 5,033.84 | 7,460.98 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.06 | 0.11 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 2,055.76 | 5,449.77 |
| Writes per Second | 1,370.51 | 3,633.18 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 4,389.22 | 11,630.88 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 32.12 | 85.15 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 21.41 | 56.77 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.13 | 0.05 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 12.79 | 29.58 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.35 | 0.24 |
Mutex
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1,633.32 | 246.76 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1,644.62 | 325.48 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1,653.29 | 414.66 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1,648.20 | 411.96 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,575.00 | 16,928.00 |
| Queries per second | 75,750.00 | 169,280.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.22 | 0.34 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.32 | 0.59 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.67 | 23.06 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.42 | 0.78 |
MySQL Write-only
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,800.00 | 5,184.00 |
| Queries per second | 58,000.00 | 51,840.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.15 | 0.87 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.72 | 1.93 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 12.35 | 22.86 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.39 | 2.66 |
MySQL Read/Write
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,955.00 | 3,565.00 |
| Queries per second | 29,550.00 | 35,650.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.64 | 1.36 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.38 | 2.8 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 22.69 | 25.63 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.41 | 3.89 |
MySQL INSERT
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,921.00 | 6,778.00 |
| Queries per second | 89,210.00 | 67,780.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.65 | 0.57 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.12 | 1.47 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.92 | 23.28 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.42 | 2.07 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,288,467.00 | 3,381,074.00 |
| Queries per second | 12,884,670.00 | 33,810,740.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 398.24 | 164.15 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 170,179.00 | 570,285.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,701,790.00 | 5,702,850.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.06 | 0.02 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 7.27 | 0.69 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.08 | 0.03 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,819.00 | 14,629.00 |
| Queries per second | 78,190.00 | 146,290.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.42 | 0.15 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.28 | 0.68 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 6.03 | 4.68 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.64 | 1.06 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,328.00 | 14,171.00 |
| Queries per second | 73,280.00 | 141,710.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.3 | 0.19 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.36 | 0.7 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.97 | 14 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.76 | 1.16 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,603.00 | 5,892.00 |
| Queries per second | 86,030.00 | 58,920.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.69 | 0.7 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.16 | 1.7 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 6.97 | 16.99 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.7 | 2.43 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,719.00 | 6,107.00 |
| Queries per second | 77,190.00 | 61,070.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.65 | 0.65 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.29 | 1.64 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 54.76 | 15.97 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.73 | 2.3 |
MySQL DELETE
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 80,451.00 | 148,404.00 |
| Queries per second | 804,510.00 | 1,484,040.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.12 | 0.07 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 16.14 | 25.33 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.42 | 0.07 |
Redis
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 44,052.86 | 213,219.61 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 44,563.28 | 191,570.88 |
| SET per Second | 44,072.28 | 184,842.88 |
| GET per Second | 44,345.89 | 235,849.06 |
| INCR per Second | 42,535.09 | 241,545.89 |
| LPUSH per Second | 41,545.49 | 253,807.11 |
| RPUSH per Second | 37,299.52 | 240,384.61 |
| LPOP per Second | 43,327.55 | 242,130.77 |
| RPOP per Second | 43,103.45 | 159,489.64 |
| SADD per Second | 43,994.72 | 220,264.31 |
| HSET per Second | 43,956.04 | 257,069.41 |
| SPOP per Second | 44,130.62 | 250,626.58 |
| ZADD per Second | 42,390.84 | 259,067.36 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 43,159.26 | 259,067.36 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 28,843.38 | 137,362.64 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 15,153.81 | 59,311.98 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 10,595.47 | 37,188.55 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 9,122.42 | 27,166.53 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 40,112.31 | 209,643.61 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| Linode – Nanode (1 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (8 GB, 4 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.78 | 0.13 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.77 | 0.14 |
| SET | 0.78 | 0.17 |
| GET | 0.77 | 0.11 |
| INCR | 0.80 | 0.11 |
| LPUSH | 0.82 | 0.10 |
| RPUSH | 0.90 | 0.11 |
| LPOP | 0.80 | 0.11 |
| RPOP | 0.80 | 0.19 |
| SADD | 0.78 | 0.12 |
| HSET | 0.79 | 0.12 |
| SPOP | 0.77 | 0.10 |
| ZADD | 0.81 | 0.10 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.79 | 0.10 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 1.23 | 0.23 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 2.38 | 0.49 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 3.44 | 0.73 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 3.96 | 0.97 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.88 | 0.17 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
After analyzing the benchmark data from both the Linode Nanode (1 GB) and the UpCloud Balanced (8 GB, 4 cores) instances, it is clear that the UpCloud Balanced instance excels in most metrics, particularly in CPU performance, memory operations, and Redis throughput, which is reflected in higher RPS values and significantly lower latencies across various benchmarks. The UpCloud instance's superior performance is largely due to its more powerful AMD EPYC 9575F 64-Core Processor compared to the Nanode's single-core AMD EPYC 7642. While the Linode Nanode instance shows respectable performance, particularly in its file I/O and memory transfer rates, it falls short in CPU, memory operations, and Redis throughput. The UpCloud instance is better suited for high-demand applications that require substantial multi-core processing power, such as large-scale databases, intensive analytics, and high-concurrency tasks. Conversely, the Nanode would be more appropriate for less resource-intensive workloads like basic web hosting, lightweight development environments, or when budget constraints are a primary concern.
From the friendly human:
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