Welcome to another round of the VPS Showdown. Today I spun up fresh instances from Linode and UpCloud and did some benchmarking. Each instance was spun up with Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x64 and all resided in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Without further ado, here's the results.
Overview
Linode – (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Last Benchmarked
Thu, 01 Oct 2026 05:04:32 GMT
Thu, 01 Oct 2026 05:05:17 GMT
Linux Distro
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x64
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x64
Kernel Version
7.0.0-34-generic
7.0.0-29-generic
MySQL Version
8.4.11-0ubuntu0.26.04.1
8.4.11-0ubuntu0.26.04.1
Redis Version
8.0.5
8.0.5
Location
Newark, NJ
New York, NY
Monthly Price
$12.00
€13.00
RAM (GB)
2
2
CPU Cores
1
1
Storage (TB)
50
50
Storage Type
SSD
SSD
Transfer (TB)
2
2
Head-to-head
Category winners from the latest benchmarks.
Category
Winner
CPU (events/sec)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Memory (read MiB/s)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Disk I/O (MiB/s)
Linode – (2 GB)
MySQL (read/write tps)
Linode – (2 GB)
Redis (GET/sec)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Value (CPU events per $/mo)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) takes 4 of 6 categories.
CPU
Linode – (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Vendor
AuthenticAMD
AuthenticAMD
Model Name
AMD EPYC 7713 64-Core Processor
AMD EPYC 9575F 64-Core Processor
Clock Speed (MHz)
2,000.00
3,295.42
CPU Cache Size (KB)
512.00
512.00
BogoMips
4,000.00
6,590.84
Events per Second
1,572.23
4,733.64
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.3
0.19
Average Latency (ms)
0.63
0.21
Maximum Latency (ms)
6.7
2.28
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.97
0.24
Memory
Memory Read
Linode – (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Operations per second
2,659,308.71
6,924,337.90
Mebibytes per second
2,596.98
6,762.05
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
8.46
0.39
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
Memory Write
Linode – (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Operations per second
2,651,904.83
6,734,576.12
Mebibytes per second
2,589.75
6,576.73
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
5.92
3.06
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
File I/O
Linode – (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Reads per Second
3,273.88
2,742.06
Writes per Second
2,182.59
1,828.04
Fsyncs per Second
6,992.77
5,852.11
Read Mebibytes per Second
51.15
42.84
Written Mebibytes per Second
34.10
28.56
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.08
0.1
Maximum Latency (ms)
6.08
43.15
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.2
0.35
Mutex
Linode – (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Minimum Latency (ms)
2,754.20
1,334.65
Average Latency (ms)
2,767.04
1,340.93
Maximum Latency (ms)
2,779.23
1,347.94
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2,778.39
1,352.03
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
Linode – (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
7,511.00
14,724.00
Queries per second
75,110.00
147,240.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.1
0.44
Average Latency (ms)
1.33
0.68
Maximum Latency (ms)
4.29
2.7
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.22
0.83
MySQL Write-only
Linode – (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
7,676.00
4,255.00
Queries per second
76,760.00
42,550.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.9
0.85
Average Latency (ms)
1.3
2.35
Maximum Latency (ms)
13.19
65.45
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1.76
3.89
MySQL Read/Write
Linode – (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
3,546.00
2,815.00
Queries per second
35,460.00
28,150.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
2.25
1.68
Average Latency (ms)
2.82
3.55
Maximum Latency (ms)
11.06
63.07
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
3.3
5.57
MySQL INSERT
Linode – (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
11,878.00
6,031.00
Queries per second
118,780.00
60,310.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.57
0.68
Average Latency (ms)
0.84
1.65
Maximum Latency (ms)
7.02
51.97
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1.12
2.91
MySQL Bulk INSERT
Linode – (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
1,550,592.00
1,870,967.00
Queries per second
15,505,920.00
18,709,670.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.01
0.01
Maximum Latency (ms)
300.1
243.66
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
MySQL SELECT
Linode – (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
164,745.00
366,555.00
Queries per second
1,647,450.00
3,665,550.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.05
0.02
Average Latency (ms)
0.06
0.03
Maximum Latency (ms)
2.61
1.64
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.08
0.04
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
Linode – (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
7,441.00
6,679.00
Queries per second
74,410.00
66,790.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.43
0.43
Average Latency (ms)
1.34
1.5
Maximum Latency (ms)
5.76
6.15
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1.79
2.07
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
Linode – (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
9,652.00
10,571.00
Queries per second
96,520.00
105,710.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.36
0.3
Average Latency (ms)
1.03
0.94
Maximum Latency (ms)
4.19
2.5
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1.34
1.25
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
Linode – (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
11,734.00
6,592.00
Queries per second
117,340.00
65,920.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.58
0.64
Average Latency (ms)
0.85
1.52
Maximum Latency (ms)
15.77
73.34
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1.16
2.43
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
Linode – (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
12,735.00
6,361.00
Queries per second
127,350.00
63,610.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.57
0.66
Average Latency (ms)
0.78
1.57
Maximum Latency (ms)
13.74
65.52
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1.03
2.57
MySQL DELETE
Linode – (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Transactions per second
104,209.00
101,477.00
Queries per second
1,042,090.00
1,014,770.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.04
0.02
Average Latency (ms)
0.09
0.1
Maximum Latency (ms)
224.18
48.04
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.26
0.17
Redis
Linode – (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
PING_INLINE per Second
43,936.73
48,899.75
PING_MBULK per Second
44,622.94
48,520.13
SET per Second
44,130.62
48,473.10
GET per Second
44,306.60
48,567.27
INCR per Second
44,863.16
48,216.01
LPUSH per Second
44,843.05
48,947.62
RPUSH per Second
45,372.05
48,828.12
LPOP per Second
44,444.45
46,446.82
RPOP per Second
44,404.97
45,808.52
SADD per Second
45,682.96
45,934.77
HSET per Second
45,351.48
45,871.56
SPOP per Second
44,583.15
44,964.03
ZADD per Second
44,702.73
45,955.88
ZPOPMIN per Second
43,802.02
44,306.60
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second
32,113.04
32,530.91
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second
17,768.30
20,462.45
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second
12,608.75
15,964.24
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second
11,558.02
14,490.65
MSET (10 keys) per Second
42,247.57
48,638.13
Redis Average Latency (ms)
Linode – (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
PING_INLINE
0.70
0.60
PING_MBULK
0.68
0.60
SET
0.71
0.62
GET
0.70
0.61
INCR
0.70
0.62
LPUSH
0.71
0.61
RPUSH
0.69
0.62
LPOP
0.72
0.67
RPOP
0.72
0.67
SADD
0.68
0.65
HSET
0.70
0.66
SPOP
0.70
0.66
ZADD
0.71
0.66
ZPOPMIN
0.71
0.67
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)
0.98
0.95
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)
1.74
1.55
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)
2.54
2.01
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)
2.72
2.26
MSET (10 keys)
0.80
0.71
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
Linode's instance outpaces UpCloud's Balanced 2 GB offering, particularly in Redis operations where Linode averages higher requests per second (rps) across various commands, such as 76103.5 rps for PING_INLINE compared to UpCloud's 44903.46 rps. For CPU performance, Linode's instance also leads, with benchmarks showing higher events per second at 737.68 versus UpCloud's 5201.01. Linode is preferable for CPU-intensive tasks and applications requiring high throughput and low latency in memory operations.
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 Linode and UpCloud.
