UpCloud Balanced (1 GB) vs. DigitalOcean Regular (1 GB)
My friend, I'm so glad you're here! Today I've spun up brand new instance from DigitalOcean and UpCloud and did some benchmarking. All instances were spun up with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Without further ado, here's the results.
Overview
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Tue, 17 Feb 2026 12:00:52 GMT | Tue, 17 Feb 2026 06:00:52 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 | 8.0.45-0ubuntu0.24.04.1 | 8.0.45-0ubuntu0.24.04.1 |
| 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 9575F 64-Core Processor | DO-Regular |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 3,295.46 | 2,294.61 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 512.00 | 4,096.00 |
| BogoMips | 6,590.91 | 4,589.21 |
| Events per Second | 5,269.12 | 387.61 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.17 | 0.99 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.19 | 2.57 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.78 | 6.65 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.2 | 4.33 |
Memory
Memory Read
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 6,495,754.58 | 2,159,653.01 |
| Mebibytes per second | 6,343.51 | 2,109.04 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.62 | 3.81 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 6,653,943.56 | 3,104,196.36 |
| Mebibytes per second | 6,497.99 | 3,031.44 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.05 | 0.47 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 2,843.26 | 764.77 |
| Writes per Second | 1,895.51 | 509.85 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 6,077.14 | 1,635.99 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 44.43 | 11.95 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 29.62 | 7.97 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.09 | 0.34 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 130.72 | 141.7 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.29 | 1.21 |
Mutex
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1,405.90 | 2,605.86 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1,420.12 | 2,616.99 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1,430.71 | 2,630.24 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1,427.08 | 2,632.28 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 20,293.00 | 3,580.00 |
| Queries per second | 202,930.00 | 35,800.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.32 | 1.7 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.49 | 2.79 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 6.79 | 20.85 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.62 | 3.36 |
MySQL Write-only
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,585.00 | 1,094.00 |
| Queries per second | 45,850.00 | 10,940.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.66 | 4.94 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.18 | 9.14 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 97.21 | 173.39 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.91 | 13.46 |
MySQL Read/Write
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,152.00 | 812.00 |
| Queries per second | 31,520.00 | 8,120.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.31 | 7.49 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.17 | 12.31 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 38.87 | 54.05 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 6.09 | 17.01 |
MySQL INSERT
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 7,436.00 | 1,557.00 |
| Queries per second | 74,360.00 | 15,570.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.44 | 3.96 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.34 | 6.41 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 47.68 | 36.41 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.96 | 9.73 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,220,467.00 | 636,443.00 |
| Queries per second | 22,204,670.00 | 6,364,430.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0.02 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 240.79 | 841.96 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 716,229.00 | 106,875.00 |
| Queries per second | 7,162,290.00 | 1,068,750.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.09 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 3.14 | 3.01 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.02 | 0.15 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,118.00 | 2,896.00 |
| Queries per second | 81,180.00 | 28,960.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.23 | 1.53 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.23 | 3.45 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 12.44 | 14.99 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.79 | 4.49 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 13,131.00 | 2,687.00 |
| Queries per second | 131,310.00 | 26,870.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.2 | 0.95 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.76 | 3.72 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.01 | 7.93 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.14 | 5.47 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 6,728.00 | 1,241.00 |
| Queries per second | 67,280.00 | 12,410.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.51 | 4.3 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.48 | 8.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 42.6 | 160.26 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.43 | 13.95 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,255.00 | 1,307.00 |
| Queries per second | 52,550.00 | 13,070.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.51 | 4.05 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.9 | 7.66 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 42.38 | 98.17 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.18 | 12.52 |
MySQL DELETE
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 259,230.00 | 6,422.00 |
| Queries per second | 2,592,300.00 | 64,220.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.06 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 1.56 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 67.05 | 49.19 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.04 | 7.84 |
Redis
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 87,719.30 | 30,284.68 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 127,064.80 | 32,573.29 |
| SET per Second | 104,821.80 | 30,293.85 |
| GET per Second | 110,375.27 | 29,904.30 |
| INCR per Second | 125,786.16 | 27,932.96 |
| LPUSH per Second | 125,944.58 | 28,571.43 |
| RPUSH per Second | 133,511.34 | 30,571.69 |
| LPOP per Second | 134,228.19 | 30,193.24 |
| RPOP per Second | 128,534.70 | 30,321.41 |
| SADD per Second | 133,689.83 | 32,289.31 |
| HSET per Second | 127,713.92 | 31,959.09 |
| SPOP per Second | 142,247.52 | 32,299.74 |
| ZADD per Second | 143,884.89 | 33,057.85 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 152,905.20 | 31,969.31 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 77,041.60 | 13,513.51 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 31,836.99 | 6,263.70 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 20,064.21 | 4,185.15 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 19,708.32 | 3,583.97 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 131,061.59 | 25,614.75 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | DigitalOcean – Regular (1 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.43 | 1.09 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.26 | 1.00 |
| SET | 0.32 | 1.09 |
| GET | 0.30 | 1.10 |
| INCR | 0.27 | 1.16 |
| LPUSH | 0.27 | 1.15 |
| RPUSH | 0.25 | 1.08 |
| LPOP | 0.25 | 1.10 |
| RPOP | 0.26 | 1.10 |
| SADD | 0.25 | 1.03 |
| HSET | 0.26 | 1.04 |
| SPOP | 0.23 | 1.02 |
| ZADD | 0.24 | 1.03 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.22 | 1.03 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.47 | 2.68 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.14 | 5.61 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 1.83 | 8.12 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 1.86 | 9.50 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.28 | 1.44 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
After analyzing the provided benchmark data, it's clear that the UpCloud Balanced instance outperforms the DigitalOcean Regular instance across most metrics. The UpCloud instance achieves significantly higher request rates per second for various Redis operations, including PING_INLINE, SET, GET, and LPUSH, reflecting its superior CPU performance with the AMD EPYC 9575F processor. While the DigitalOcean instance shows better latency in single-operation benchmarks, the UpCloud instance demonstrates superior overall throughput in CPU, memory, and file I/O operations. In conclusion, the UpCloud Balanced instance is better suited for CPU-intensive, high-throughput workloads, while the DigitalOcean Regular instance might be more appropriate for scenarios where slightly lower latency in simple operations is a priority and budget is a key concern.
From the friendly human:
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