UpCloud Balanced (1 GB) vs. Linode Nanode (1 GB)

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Same showdown, different day. Today I've spun up 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 or around the New York / New Jersey area. Without further ado, here's the results.

Overview

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Last Benchmarked Fri, 31 Oct 2025 00:00:52 GMT Wed, 29 Oct 2025 11:00:52 GMT
Linux Distro Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64
Kernel Version 6.8.0-63-generic 6.8.0-71-generic
MySQL Version 8.0.43-0ubuntu0.24.04.2 8.0.43-0ubuntu0.24.04.2
Redis Version 7.0.15 7.0.15
Location New York, NY Newark, NJ
Monthly Price €7.00 $5.00
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) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Vendor AuthenticAMD AuthenticAMD
Model Name AMD EPYC 9575F 64-Core Processor AMD EPYC 7601 32-Core Processor
Clock Speed (MHz) 3,295.42 2,200.00
CPU Cache Size (KB) 512.00 512.00
BogoMips 6,590.83 4,399.99
Events per Second 5,707.06 626.39
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.16 0.67
Average Latency (ms) 0.17 1.6
Maximum Latency (ms) 0.64 8.53
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.19 4.25

Memory

Memory Read

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Operations per second 7,834,164.30 1,992,468.11
Mebibytes per second 7,650.55 1,945.77
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 0.23 4.79
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

Memory Write

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Operations per second 7,903,681.50 2,048,078.98
Mebibytes per second 7,718.44 2,000.08
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 0.36 7.36
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

File I/O

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Reads per Second 3,730.38 1,569.23
Writes per Second 2,486.92 1,046.16
Fsyncs per Second 7,967.13 3,352.99
Read Mebibytes per Second 58.29 24.52
Written Mebibytes per Second 38.86 16.35
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.07 0.17
Maximum Latency (ms) 39.97 6.62
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.23 0.4

Mutex

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Minimum Latency (ms) 1,153.85 2,118.43
Average Latency (ms) 1,162.70 2,136.64
Maximum Latency (ms) 1,168.80 2,147.24
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1,170.65 2,159.29

MySQL

MySQL Read-only

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 24,839.00 4,513.00
Queries per second 248,390.00 45,130.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.29 1.69
Average Latency (ms) 0.4 2.21
Maximum Latency (ms) 7.06 14.39
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.56 2.48

MySQL Write-only

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 5,931.00 3,583.00
Queries per second 59,310.00 35,830.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.63 1.87
Average Latency (ms) 1.68 2.79
Maximum Latency (ms) 36.65 27.89
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 3.25 4.03

MySQL Read/Write

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 4,502.00 1,726.00
Queries per second 45,020.00 17,260.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.09 4.55
Average Latency (ms) 2.22 5.8
Maximum Latency (ms) 49.58 20.42
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 3.07 7.04

MySQL INSERT

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 7,380.00 6,224.00
Queries per second 73,800.00 62,240.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.5 1.13
Average Latency (ms) 1.35 1.6
Maximum Latency (ms) 119.93 9.35
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.22 2.03

MySQL Bulk INSERT

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 2,977,717.00 734,741.00
Queries per second 29,777,170.00 7,347,410.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0.01
Maximum Latency (ms) 173.9 693.48
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

MySQL SELECT

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 846,852.00 96,019.00
Queries per second 8,468,520.00 960,190.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.01 0.07
Average Latency (ms) 0.01 0.1
Maximum Latency (ms) 1.33 4.17
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.02 0.14

MySQL SELECT (Random Points)

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 14,803.00 5,082.00
Queries per second 148,030.00 50,820.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.17 0.71
Average Latency (ms) 0.67 1.97
Maximum Latency (ms) 6.04 13.24
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.97 2.61

MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 16,381.00 5,444.00
Queries per second 163,810.00 54,440.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.16 0.49
Average Latency (ms) 0.61 1.84
Maximum Latency (ms) 2.58 7.22
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.97 2.57

MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 8,491.00 5,363.00
Queries per second 84,910.00 53,630.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.47 1.08
Average Latency (ms) 1.18 1.86
Maximum Latency (ms) 44.18 7.65
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.67 2.86

MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 8,500.00 6,025.00
Queries per second 85,000.00 60,250.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.46 1.23
Average Latency (ms) 1.18 1.66
Maximum Latency (ms) 35.43 7.39
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.7 2.22

MySQL DELETE

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 289,704.00 32,847.00
Queries per second 2,897,040.00 328,470.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.01 0.07
Average Latency (ms) 0.03 0.3
Maximum Latency (ms) 56.6 13.38
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.03 1.64

Redis

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
PING_INLINE per Second 163,398.70 31,162.36
PING_MBULK per Second 170,357.75 32,414.91
SET per Second 163,666.12 32,488.63
GET per Second 154,559.50 31,979.53
INCR per Second 143,884.89 32,082.13
LPUSH per Second 154,083.20 31,847.13
RPUSH per Second 164,473.69 32,195.75
LPOP per Second 166,666.66 31,959.09
RPOP per Second 162,074.56 31,426.78
SADD per Second 171,232.88 32,030.75
HSET per Second 150,829.56 31,585.60
SPOP per Second 170,357.75 32,123.36
ZADD per Second 149,700.61 31,347.96
ZPOPMIN per Second 170,940.17 32,061.56
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second 87,719.30 19,459.04
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second 41,459.37 10,030.09
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second 26,997.84 6,825.94
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second 23,299.16 5,909.47
MSET (10 keys) per Second 138,696.25 29,931.16

Redis Average Latency (ms)

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
PING_INLINE0.201.05
PING_MBULK0.191.00
SET0.201.02
GET0.221.02
INCR0.231.02
LPUSH0.221.03
RPUSH0.211.02
LPOP0.211.04
RPOP0.211.05
SADD0.201.02
HSET0.221.04
SPOP0.201.01
ZADD0.231.05
ZPOPMIN0.201.01
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)0.411.70
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)0.863.22
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)1.334.67
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)1.535.25
MSET (10 keys)0.261.16

Conclusion

From the friendly robots:

The Linode Nanode (1 GB) instance shows strong performance in Redis operations, with high request rates and low latencies, but struggles with Redis LRANGE operations, which become significantly slower as the range size increases. The UpCloud Balanced (1 GB) instance excels in Redis operations, achieving much higher request rates and lower latencies compared to the Linode instance, although it also shows a decline in performance with larger LRANGE operations. The UpCloud instance has better CPU performance, with higher events per second and lower average latency, but both instances have similar file I/O and memory performance metrics. For CPU-intensive workloads and applications requiring high Redis throughput, the UpCloud instance is preferable, while the Linode instance might be more suitable for applications where Redis LRANGE operations are less critical.

From the friendly human:

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