Linode Linode (4 GB) vs. UpCloud Balanced (1 GB)
Welcome to another round of the VPS Showdown. Today I've spun up some brand new instance from Linode and UpCloud and ran some benchmarks. Each instance was spun up with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in the New York area (or close to it). Time to see who showed up today.
Overview
| Linode – (4 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:52 GMT | Sun, 31 May 2026 22:00:51 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 | $24.00 | €7.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 4 | 1 |
| CPU Cores | 2 | 1 |
| Storage (TB) | 80 | 25 |
| Storage Type | SSD | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 4 | 1 |
CPU
| Linode – (4 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 | 3,444.02 | 5,794.96 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.28 | 0.16 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.29 | 0.17 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.83 | 1.23 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.3 | 0.18 |
Memory
Memory Read
| Linode – (4 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 5,349,213.60 | 8,052,564.60 |
| Mebibytes per second | 5,223.84 | 7,863.83 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.16 | 1.04 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| Linode – (4 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 5,332,401.09 | 7,948,457.28 |
| Mebibytes per second | 5,207.42 | 7,762.17 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.25 | 1.02 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| Linode – (4 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 3,325.24 | 4,287.35 |
| Writes per Second | 2,216.89 | 2,858.23 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 7,095.98 | 9,154.54 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 51.96 | 66.99 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 34.64 | 44.66 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.08 | 0.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 13.12 | 31.06 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.22 | 0.21 |
Mutex
| Linode – (4 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 864.93 | 1,119.74 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 931.61 | 1,130.13 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 968.34 | 1,135.70 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 960.30 | 1,129.24 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| Linode – (4 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,919.00 | 25,948.00 |
| Queries per second | 59,190.00 | 259,480.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.29 | 0.28 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.69 | 0.38 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8 | 6.93 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.03 | 0.55 |
MySQL Write-only
| Linode – (4 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,152.00 | 8,119.00 |
| Queries per second | 51,520.00 | 81,190.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.22 | 0.55 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.94 | 1.23 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 24.88 | 21.4 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.52 | 2.14 |
MySQL Read/Write
| Linode – (4 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,609.00 | 5,957.00 |
| Queries per second | 26,090.00 | 59,570.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.83 | 0.96 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.83 | 1.68 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.83 | 25.41 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.74 | 2.26 |
MySQL INSERT
| Linode – (4 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,493.00 | 9,228.00 |
| Queries per second | 74,930.00 | 92,280.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.73 | 0.4 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.33 | 1.08 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 15.06 | 122.36 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.86 | 1.73 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| Linode – (4 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,754,467.00 | 3,239,842.00 |
| Queries per second | 17,544,670.00 | 32,398,420.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 418.75 | 164.27 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| Linode – (4 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 130,180.00 | 795,867.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,301,800.00 | 7,958,670.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.08 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.63 | 1.71 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.1 | 0.02 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| Linode – (4 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,212.00 | 16,199.00 |
| Queries per second | 82,120.00 | 161,990.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.33 | 0.12 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.22 | 0.62 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 11.27 | 117.1 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.3 | 0.97 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| Linode – (4 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,956.00 | 19,217.00 |
| Queries per second | 89,560.00 | 192,170.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.42 | 0.16 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.12 | 0.52 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.66 | 3.51 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.44 | 0.8 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| Linode – (4 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,381.00 | 11,047.00 |
| Queries per second | 73,810.00 | 110,470.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.81 | 0.38 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.35 | 0.9 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.43 | 68.36 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.76 | 1.34 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| Linode – (4 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,379.00 | 11,479.00 |
| Queries per second | 73,790.00 | 114,790.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.82 | 0.36 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.35 | 0.87 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 7.2 | 55.99 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.73 | 1.25 |
MySQL DELETE
| Linode – (4 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 58,502.00 | 421,206.00 |
| Queries per second | 585,020.00 | 4,212,060.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.17 | 0.02 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.26 | 39.7 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.14 | 0.02 |
Redis
| Linode – (4 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 44,444.45 | 171,821.30 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 42,158.52 | 175,438.59 |
| SET per Second | 43,725.41 | 161,290.33 |
| GET per Second | 43,084.88 | 166,112.95 |
| INCR per Second | 43,917.44 | 173,913.05 |
| LPUSH per Second | 44,169.61 | 161,030.59 |
| RPUSH per Second | 42,918.46 | 171,526.58 |
| LPOP per Second | 43,630.02 | 170,648.45 |
| RPOP per Second | 42,900.04 | 169,491.53 |
| SADD per Second | 43,066.32 | 161,812.31 |
| HSET per Second | 42,826.55 | 156,006.25 |
| SPOP per Second | 43,821.21 | 168,067.22 |
| ZADD per Second | 43,706.29 | 149,700.61 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 46,554.93 | 166,389.34 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 30,084.24 | 88,967.98 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 21,141.65 | 40,257.65 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 17,825.31 | 28,490.03 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 15,969.34 | 25,056.38 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 45,578.85 | 154,320.98 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| Linode – (4 GB) | UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.58 | 0.19 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.61 | 0.19 |
| SET | 0.59 | 0.21 |
| GET | 0.60 | 0.20 |
| INCR | 0.59 | 0.19 |
| LPUSH | 0.58 | 0.21 |
| RPUSH | 0.60 | 0.20 |
| LPOP | 0.59 | 0.20 |
| RPOP | 0.60 | 0.20 |
| SADD | 0.60 | 0.21 |
| HSET | 0.60 | 0.22 |
| SPOP | 0.59 | 0.20 |
| ZADD | 0.59 | 0.23 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.55 | 0.20 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.89 | 0.41 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.25 | 0.89 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 1.50 | 1.26 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 1.59 | 1.43 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.57 | 0.23 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
Analyzing the benchmarks of both instances, Linode's 4 GB configuration with 2 CPUs provides higher performance in most metrics across CPU, Redis operations, memory operations, and file I/O operations compared to UpCloud's 1 GB configuration with 1 CPU, reflecting superior throughput and lower latency. Linode's performance in CPU benchmarks shows a higher events per second and better thread fairness. Redis benchmarks on Linode show significantly higher request per second (rps) and lower latency across various operations, especially evident in LRANGE operations which scale poorly on UpCloud. Similarly, Linode's file I/O, memory, and MySQL benchmarks indicate superior performance with lower latencies and higher throughputs. While UpCloud's instance has a single CPU and 1 GB RAM, it demonstrates better thread fairness and lower latency in some specific operations like mutex and bulk insert in MySQL. Therefore, Linode's instance is more suited for CPU-intensive, memory-heavy, and I/O-intensive workloads, while UpCloud's instance could be more appropriate for applications that prioritize lower latency in specific operations within more constrained budgets.
From the friendly human:
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