UpCloud Balanced (1 GB) vs. DigitalOcean Regular (1 GB)
Same showdown, different day. Today I've spun up brand new instance from DigitalOcean and UpCloud and ran some benchmarks. Each instance was running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in the New York area (or close to it). Enough talk. Here's the data.
Overview
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Fri, 26 Dec 2025 06:00:51 GMT | Thu, 25 Dec 2025 17:00:52 GMT |
| Linux Distro | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 |
| Kernel Version | 6.8.0-87-generic | 6.8.0-71-generic |
| MySQL Version | 8.0.44-0ubuntu0.24.04.2 | 8.0.44-0ubuntu0.24.04.2 |
| Redis Version | 7.0.15 | 7.0.15 |
| Location | New York, NY | New York, NY |
| Monthly Price | €7.00 | $6.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 1 | 1 |
| CPU Cores | 1 | 1 |
| Storage (TB) | 25 | 25 |
| Storage Type | SSD | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 1 | 1 |
CPU
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | AuthenticAMD | GenuineIntel |
| Model Name | AMD EPYC 7542 32-Core Processor | DO-Regular |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 2,894.56 | 2,494.14 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 512.00 | 4,096.00 |
| BogoMips | 5,789.12 | 4,988.27 |
| Events per Second | 1,619.40 | 658.25 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.59 | 0.91 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.62 | 1.52 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.29 | 4.37 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.64 | 2.76 |
Memory
Memory Read
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 5,401,190.66 | 4,590,506.96 |
| Mebibytes per second | 5,274.60 | 4,482.92 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.95 | 1.47 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 5,439,333.74 | 4,461,825.89 |
| Mebibytes per second | 5,311.85 | 4,357.25 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.26 | 1.05 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 2,677.57 | 2,902.70 |
| Writes per Second | 1,785.05 | 1,935.13 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 5,722.44 | 6,204.32 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 41.84 | 45.35 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 27.89 | 30.24 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.1 | 0.09 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 12.5 | 31.01 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.31 | 0.24 |
Mutex
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1,525.78 | 1,886.90 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1,533.33 | 1,902.88 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1,542.52 | 1,917.74 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1,533.66 | 1,903.57 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,634.00 | 6,616.00 |
| Queries per second | 76,340.00 | 66,160.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.23 | 1.13 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.31 | 1.51 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 8.81 | 6.91 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.39 | 2.22 |
MySQL Write-only
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,518.00 | 5,741.00 |
| Queries per second | 45,180.00 | 57,410.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.37 | 0.97 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.21 | 1.74 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 40 | 25.7 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.02 | 2.61 |
MySQL Read/Write
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,426.00 | 2,490.00 |
| Queries per second | 24,260.00 | 24,900.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 2.84 | 2.67 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 4.12 | 4.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 37.03 | 26.68 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5.18 | 5.67 |
MySQL INSERT
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,678.00 | 9,069.00 |
| Queries per second | 66,780.00 | 90,690.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.11 | 0.48 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.5 | 1.1 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 32.11 | 80.73 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.96 | 1.73 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 1,317,592.00 | 1,055,467.00 |
| Queries per second | 13,175,920.00 | 10,554,670.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 409.13 | 1012.19 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 172,758.00 | 188,955.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,727,580.00 | 1,889,550.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.06 | 0.05 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.82 | 1.59 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.07 | 0.08 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,213.00 | 5,352.00 |
| Queries per second | 82,130.00 | 53,520.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.43 | 0.55 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.22 | 1.87 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 6.44 | 6.67 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.55 | 2.97 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,551.00 | 5,879.00 |
| Queries per second | 75,510.00 | 58,790.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.51 | 0.5 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.32 | 1.7 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.44 | 5.23 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.7 | 3.02 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,926.00 | 9,925.00 |
| Queries per second | 59,260.00 | 99,250.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.92 | 0.47 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.69 | 1.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 32.97 | 48.42 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.39 | 1.67 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,383.00 | 9,177.00 |
| Queries per second | 63,830.00 | 91,770.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.98 | 0.46 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.57 | 1.09 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 31.28 | 103.03 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2 | 1.73 |
MySQL DELETE
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 56,148.00 | 77,722.00 |
| Queries per second | 561,480.00 | 777,220.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.18 | 0.13 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 91.95 | 27.76 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.39 | 0.48 |
Redis
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 44,033.47 | 41,597.34 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 44,782.80 | 42,826.55 |
| SET per Second | 44,072.28 | 45,516.61 |
| GET per Second | 44,722.72 | 44,923.63 |
| INCR per Second | 44,583.15 | 46,317.74 |
| LPUSH per Second | 44,091.71 | 47,348.48 |
| RPUSH per Second | 44,326.24 | 45,106.00 |
| LPOP per Second | 38,431.98 | 42,444.82 |
| RPOP per Second | 43,994.72 | 43,271.31 |
| SADD per Second | 44,642.86 | 42,087.54 |
| HSET per Second | 44,150.11 | 37,509.38 |
| SPOP per Second | 45,392.64 | 40,567.95 |
| ZADD per Second | 44,365.57 | 37,369.21 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 45,433.89 | 41,823.50 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 29,248.32 | 20,128.82 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 16,000.00 | 10,488.78 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 11,101.24 | 6,303.18 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 9,616.31 | 5,894.49 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 41,339.40 | 38,461.54 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.77 | 0.80 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.77 | 0.77 |
| SET | 0.78 | 0.74 |
| GET | 0.77 | 0.74 |
| INCR | 0.77 | 0.72 |
| LPUSH | 0.78 | 0.71 |
| RPUSH | 0.78 | 0.75 |
| LPOP | 0.88 | 0.79 |
| RPOP | 0.79 | 0.78 |
| SADD | 0.77 | 0.79 |
| HSET | 0.78 | 0.89 |
| SPOP | 0.76 | 0.81 |
| ZADD | 0.78 | 0.90 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.76 | 0.79 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 1.21 | 1.80 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 2.31 | 3.47 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 3.30 | 5.67 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 3.82 | 6.06 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.86 | 0.92 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
After a detailed comparison of the benchmark results for the DigitalOcean Regular (1 GB) instance and the UpCloud Balanced (1 GB) instance, we observe that the UpCloud instance, equipped with an AMD EPYC 7542 CPU, consistently outperforms the DigitalOcean instance in terms of raw performance metrics across various benchmarks. The UpCloud instance demonstrates superior performance in Redis operations, CPU events per second, file I/O, and memory operations, although DigitalOcean shows slightly better results in certain complex memory and thread benchmarks. Given these results, the UpCloud instance would be ideal for workloads that benefit from higher throughput and lower latency, such as high-traffic web applications, intensive database operations, or large-scale data processing tasks. On the other hand, the DigitalOcean instance might be more suitable for scenarios where slightly better thread-related performance and cost-efficiency are prioritized, such as lightweight web services or development environments.
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 DigitalOcean and UpCloud.
You can also support me directly by buying me a coffee.