Linode Linode (4 GB) vs. Vultr Cloud Compute (1 GB)
My friend, I'm so glad you're here! Today I've spun up some brand new instance from Linode and Vultr 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 – (4 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:52 GMT | Sun, 31 May 2026 04:00:52 GMT |
| Linux Distro | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 |
| Kernel Version | 6.8.0-111-generic | 6.8.0-117-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 | Newark, NJ |
| Monthly Price | $24.00 | $5.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 4 | 1 |
| CPU Cores | 2 | 1 |
| Storage (TB) | 80 | 25 |
| Storage Type | SSD | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 4 | 1 |
CPU
| Linode – (4 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | AuthenticAMD | GenuineIntel |
| Model Name | AMD EPYC 7713 64-Core Processor | Intel Core Processor (Broadwell, no TSX, IBRS) |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,000.00 | 2,394.45 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 512.00 | 16,384.00 |
| BogoMips | 3,999.99 | 4,788.90 |
| Events per Second | 3,444.02 | 855.89 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.28 | 1.14 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.29 | 1.17 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.83 | 3.26 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.3 | 1.23 |
Memory
Memory Read
| Linode – (4 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 5,349,213.60 | 4,208,440.85 |
| Mebibytes per second | 5,223.84 | 4,109.81 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.16 | 0.66 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| Linode – (4 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 5,332,401.09 | 4,198,602.47 |
| Mebibytes per second | 5,207.42 | 4,100.20 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.25 | 0.23 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| Linode – (4 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 3,325.24 | 2,511.60 |
| Writes per Second | 2,216.89 | 1,674.40 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 7,095.98 | 5,361.38 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 51.96 | 39.24 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 34.64 | 26.16 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.08 | 0.1 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 13.12 | 2.8 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.22 | 0.3 |
Mutex
| Linode – (4 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 864.93 | 1,985.30 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 931.61 | 1,990.99 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 968.34 | 1,996.19 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 960.30 | 2,009.23 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| Linode – (4 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,919.00 | 5,210.00 |
| Queries per second | 59,190.00 | 52,100.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.29 | 1.74 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.69 | 1.92 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8 | 13.29 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.03 | 2 |
MySQL Write-only
| Linode – (4 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,152.00 | 5,112.00 |
| Queries per second | 51,520.00 | 51,120.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.22 | 1.46 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.94 | 1.95 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 24.88 | 7.48 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.52 | 2.48 |
MySQL Read/Write
| Linode – (4 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,609.00 | 2,334.00 |
| Queries per second | 26,090.00 | 23,340.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.83 | 3.59 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.83 | 4.28 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.83 | 13.2 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.74 | 5.09 |
MySQL INSERT
| Linode – (4 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,493.00 | 9,427.00 |
| Queries per second | 74,930.00 | 94,270.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.73 | 0.71 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.33 | 1.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 15.06 | 5.65 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.86 | 1.3 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| Linode – (4 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,754,467.00 | 1,026,342.00 |
| Queries per second | 17,544,670.00 | 10,263,420.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 418.75 | 502.73 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| Linode – (4 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 130,180.00 | 117,078.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,301,800.00 | 1,170,780.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.07 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.08 | 0.08 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.63 | 7.15 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.1 | 0.12 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| Linode – (4 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,212.00 | 5,768.00 |
| Queries per second | 82,120.00 | 57,680.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.33 | 0.58 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.22 | 1.73 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 11.27 | 5.37 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.3 | 2.22 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| Linode – (4 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,956.00 | 6,308.00 |
| Queries per second | 89,560.00 | 63,080.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.42 | 0.36 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.12 | 1.58 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.66 | 3.56 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.44 | 2.03 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| Linode – (4 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,381.00 | 8,507.00 |
| Queries per second | 73,810.00 | 85,070.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.81 | 0.75 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.35 | 1.17 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.43 | 17.31 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.76 | 1.64 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| Linode – (4 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,379.00 | 9,044.00 |
| Queries per second | 73,790.00 | 90,440.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.82 | 0.7 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.35 | 1.1 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 7.2 | 11.45 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.73 | 1.34 |
MySQL DELETE
| Linode – (4 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 58,502.00 | 62,368.00 |
| Queries per second | 585,020.00 | 623,680.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 0.07 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.17 | 0.16 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.26 | 8.24 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.14 | 0.97 |
Redis
| Linode – (4 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 44,444.45 | 34,916.20 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 42,158.52 | 34,626.04 |
| SET per Second | 43,725.41 | 34,904.02 |
| GET per Second | 43,084.88 | 35,460.99 |
| INCR per Second | 43,917.44 | 36,603.22 |
| LPUSH per Second | 44,169.61 | 35,855.14 |
| RPUSH per Second | 42,918.46 | 35,997.12 |
| LPOP per Second | 43,630.02 | 35,587.19 |
| RPOP per Second | 42,900.04 | 36,075.04 |
| SADD per Second | 43,066.32 | 33,818.06 |
| HSET per Second | 42,826.55 | 36,127.17 |
| SPOP per Second | 43,821.21 | 36,363.64 |
| ZADD per Second | 43,706.29 | 35,842.29 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 46,554.93 | 36,509.68 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 30,084.24 | 24,348.67 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 21,141.65 | 13,199.58 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 17,825.31 | 9,087.60 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 15,969.34 | 8,021.18 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 45,578.85 | 33,875.34 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| Linode – (4 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.58 | 0.93 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.61 | 0.94 |
| SET | 0.59 | 0.94 |
| GET | 0.60 | 0.92 |
| INCR | 0.59 | 0.90 |
| LPUSH | 0.58 | 0.92 |
| RPUSH | 0.60 | 0.91 |
| LPOP | 0.59 | 0.93 |
| RPOP | 0.60 | 0.92 |
| SADD | 0.60 | 0.99 |
| HSET | 0.60 | 0.91 |
| SPOP | 0.59 | 0.90 |
| ZADD | 0.59 | 0.92 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.55 | 0.90 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.89 | 1.38 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.25 | 2.55 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 1.50 | 3.78 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 1.59 | 4.25 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.57 | 1.02 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
The Linode instance outperforms the Vultr instance in almost every benchmark category, demonstrating superior CPU performance, memory operations, Redis commands, and MySQL operations, likely due to its higher CPU count and more robust RAM. Linode's instances also excel in file I/O operations, which indicates a faster and more consistent read/write throughput. While Vultr's instance has lower benchmark scores overall, it still provides acceptable performance for less demanding applications. Linode's higher specification and better performance metrics make it ideal for CPU-intensive, I/O-heavy workloads, or applications requiring high throughput and low latency, whereas Vultr's instance would be more suitable for simpler, less resource-intensive tasks given its lower cost and resource limits.
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 Vultr.
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