Linode Linode (4 GB) vs. Vultr High Performance Intel (2 GB)

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Same showdown, different day. Today I've spun up brand new instance from Linode and Vultr and did some benchmarking. Each instance was running 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) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Last Benchmarked Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:52 GMT Mon, 01 Jun 2026 07:00:52 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 $12.00
RAM (GB) 4 2
CPU Cores 2 1
Storage (TB) 80 50
Storage Type SSD NVMe
Transfer (TB) 4 3

CPU

Linode – (4 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Vendor AuthenticAMD GenuineIntel
Model Name AMD EPYC 7713 64-Core Processor Intel Xeon Processor (Cascadelake)
Clock Speed (MHz) 2,000.00 2,893.17
CPU Cache Size (KB) 512.00 16,384.00
BogoMips 3,999.99 5,786.33
Events per Second 3,444.02 1,048.47
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.28 0.83
Average Latency (ms) 0.29 0.95
Maximum Latency (ms) 4.83 5.25
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.3 1.21

Memory

Memory Read

Linode – (4 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Operations per second 5,349,213.60 4,854,174.96
Mebibytes per second 5,223.84 4,740.41
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 3.16 2.23
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

Memory Write

Linode – (4 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Operations per second 5,332,401.09 4,942,528.76
Mebibytes per second 5,207.42 4,826.69
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 3.25 4.94
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

File I/O

Linode – (4 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Reads per Second 3,325.24 4,132.87
Writes per Second 2,216.89 2,755.21
Fsyncs per Second 7,095.98 8,825.96
Read Mebibytes per Second 51.96 64.58
Written Mebibytes per Second 34.64 43.05
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.08 0.06
Maximum Latency (ms) 13.12 2.15
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.22 0.19

Mutex

Linode – (4 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Minimum Latency (ms) 864.93 1,776.90
Average Latency (ms) 931.61 1,797.61
Maximum Latency (ms) 968.34 1,811.62
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 960.30 1,803.47

MySQL

MySQL Read-only

Linode – (4 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Transactions per second 5,919.00 7,971.00
Queries per second 59,190.00 79,710.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.29 1.06
Average Latency (ms) 1.69 1.25
Maximum Latency (ms) 8 4.3
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.03 1.58

MySQL Write-only

Linode – (4 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Transactions per second 5,152.00 7,352.00
Queries per second 51,520.00 73,520.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.22 0.83
Average Latency (ms) 1.94 1.36
Maximum Latency (ms) 24.88 4.44
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.52 2

MySQL Read/Write

Linode – (4 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Transactions per second 2,609.00 3,189.00
Queries per second 26,090.00 31,890.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 2.83 2.31
Average Latency (ms) 3.83 3.13
Maximum Latency (ms) 8.83 15.9
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 4.74 4.18

MySQL INSERT

Linode – (4 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Transactions per second 7,493.00 13,921.00
Queries per second 74,930.00 139,210.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.73 0.43
Average Latency (ms) 1.33 0.71
Maximum Latency (ms) 15.06 3.82
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.86 0.97

MySQL Bulk INSERT

Linode – (4 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Transactions per second 1,754,467.00 1,230,217.00
Queries per second 17,544,670.00 12,302,170.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.01 0.01
Maximum Latency (ms) 418.75 357.55
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

MySQL SELECT

Linode – (4 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Transactions per second 130,180.00 207,049.00
Queries per second 1,301,800.00 2,070,490.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.05 0.04
Average Latency (ms) 0.08 0.05
Maximum Latency (ms) 4.63 2.95
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.1 0.07

MySQL SELECT (Random Points)

Linode – (4 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Transactions per second 8,212.00 6,025.00
Queries per second 82,120.00 60,250.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.33 0.49
Average Latency (ms) 1.22 1.66
Maximum Latency (ms) 11.27 4.45
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.3 2.35

MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)

Linode – (4 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Transactions per second 8,956.00 7,229.00
Queries per second 89,560.00 72,290.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.42 0.53
Average Latency (ms) 1.12 1.38
Maximum Latency (ms) 4.66 5.38
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.44 1.96

MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)

Linode – (4 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Transactions per second 7,381.00 12,590.00
Queries per second 73,810.00 125,900.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.81 0.44
Average Latency (ms) 1.35 0.79
Maximum Latency (ms) 8.43 6.03
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.76 1.23

MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)

Linode – (4 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Transactions per second 7,379.00 13,129.00
Queries per second 73,790.00 131,290.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.82 0.43
Average Latency (ms) 1.35 0.76
Maximum Latency (ms) 7.2 3.97
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.73 1.08

MySQL DELETE

Linode – (4 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
Transactions per second 58,502.00 111,517.00
Queries per second 585,020.00 1,115,170.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.04 0.04
Average Latency (ms) 0.17 0.09
Maximum Latency (ms) 8.26 10.16
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.14 0.18

Redis

Linode – (4 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
PING_INLINE per Second 44,444.45 43,252.59
PING_MBULK per Second 42,158.52 43,917.44
SET per Second 43,725.41 44,189.13
GET per Second 43,084.88 45,228.40
INCR per Second 43,917.44 44,662.79
LPUSH per Second 44,169.61 42,936.88
RPUSH per Second 42,918.46 42,955.32
LPOP per Second 43,630.02 39,339.10
RPOP per Second 42,900.04 43,572.98
SADD per Second 43,066.32 43,878.89
HSET per Second 42,826.55 43,010.75
SPOP per Second 43,821.21 43,497.17
ZADD per Second 43,706.29 42,034.47
ZPOPMIN per Second 46,554.93 44,052.86
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second 30,084.24 25,893.32
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second 21,141.65 13,837.00
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second 17,825.31 8,880.99
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second 15,969.34 8,015.39
MSET (10 keys) per Second 45,578.85 38,865.14

Redis Average Latency (ms)

Linode – (4 GB) Vultr – High Performance Intel (2 GB)
PING_INLINE0.580.75
PING_MBULK0.610.75
SET0.590.75
GET0.600.73
INCR0.590.73
LPUSH0.580.76
RPUSH0.600.77
LPOP0.590.86
RPOP0.600.76
SADD0.600.74
HSET0.600.76
SPOP0.590.75
ZADD0.590.78
ZPOPMIN0.550.74
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)0.891.30
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)1.252.56
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)1.503.99
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)1.594.43
MSET (10 keys)0.570.87

Conclusion

From the friendly robots:

After comparing the benchmarks from Linode's 4GB instance and Vultr's 2GB High Performance Intel instance, it's evident that Linode's instance provides significantly better performance in both CPU-intensive and I/O-heavy workloads, reflected in its higher Redis request rates and lower latencies across most benchmarks, as well as its superior file I/O and memory throughput metrics. Vultr's instance, while adequate for lighter workloads and offers competitive pricing, falls behind in benchmarks involving more complex operations and higher data throughput needs. Thus, Linode's instance is better suited for demanding applications requiring high CPU performance, fast I/O, and substantial memory operations, whereas Vultr's instance is more appropriate for less resource-intensive tasks or where cost is a primary concern.

From the friendly human:

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