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

vs.

My friend, I'm so glad you're here! Today I've spun up brand new instance from Linode and UpCloud and did some benchmarking. Each instance was running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and all resided in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Enough talk. Here's the data.

Overview

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Last Benchmarked Mon, 25 Aug 2025 19:00:53 GMT Mon, 25 Aug 2025 13:00:52 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 8.0.43-0ubuntu0.24.04.1 8.0.43-0ubuntu0.24.04.1
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 7713 64-Core Processor
Clock Speed (MHz) 3,295.45 2,000.00
CPU Cache Size (KB) 512.00 512.00
BogoMips 6,590.90 4,000.00
Events per Second 5,197.84 1,709.10
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.17 0.28
Average Latency (ms) 0.19 0.58
Maximum Latency (ms) 1.49 3.53
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.22 2.03

Memory

Memory Read

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Operations per second 6,990,244.41 5,389,227.66
Mebibytes per second 6,826.41 5,262.92
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 0.69 2.68
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

Memory Write

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Operations per second 6,855,048.18 5,415,718.29
Mebibytes per second 6,694.38 5,288.79
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 0.93 2.63
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

File I/O

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Reads per Second 4,115.12 2,297.45
Writes per Second 2,743.41 1,531.64
Fsyncs per Second 8,789.69 4,911.47
Read Mebibytes per Second 64.30 35.90
Written Mebibytes per Second 42.87 23.93
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.06 0.11
Maximum Latency (ms) 21.65 4.66
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.22 0.29

Mutex

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Minimum Latency (ms) 1,293.41 1,636.97
Average Latency (ms) 1,298.04 1,644.52
Maximum Latency (ms) 1,305.02 1,650.06
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1,304.21 1,648.20

MySQL

MySQL Read-only

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 21,643.00 7,736.00
Queries per second 216,430.00 77,360.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.29 1.18
Average Latency (ms) 0.46 1.29
Maximum Latency (ms) 6.72 5.12
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.65 1.47

MySQL Write-only

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 7,317.00 5,729.00
Queries per second 73,170.00 57,290.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.59 1.16
Average Latency (ms) 1.37 1.74
Maximum Latency (ms) 67.35 19.56
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.18 2.3

MySQL Read/Write

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 4,249.00 2,905.00
Queries per second 42,490.00 29,050.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.15 2.54
Average Latency (ms) 2.35 3.44
Maximum Latency (ms) 45.57 9.03
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 3.75 4.25

MySQL INSERT

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 8,829.00 8,887.00
Queries per second 88,290.00 88,870.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.44 0.67
Average Latency (ms) 1.13 1.12
Maximum Latency (ms) 40.83 6.15
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.67 1.42

MySQL Bulk INSERT

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 2,744,717.00 1,608,842.00
Queries per second 27,447,170.00 16,088,420.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0.01
Maximum Latency (ms) 179.6 340.01
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

MySQL SELECT

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 793,218.00 165,329.00
Queries per second 7,932,180.00 1,653,290.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.01 0.05
Average Latency (ms) 0.01 0.06
Maximum Latency (ms) 111.29 10.74
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.02 0.08

MySQL SELECT (Random Points)

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 13,589.00 9,736.00
Queries per second 135,890.00 97,360.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.18 0.37
Average Latency (ms) 0.73 1.03
Maximum Latency (ms) 3.88 4.34
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.16 1.32

MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 14,875.00 9,526.00
Queries per second 148,750.00 95,260.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.19 0.39
Average Latency (ms) 0.67 1.05
Maximum Latency (ms) 3.04 5.19
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.04 1.34

MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 8,322.00 8,339.00
Queries per second 83,220.00 83,390.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.48 0.7
Average Latency (ms) 1.2 1.2
Maximum Latency (ms) 50.42 5.67
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.89 1.58

MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 9,391.00 8,527.00
Queries per second 93,910.00 85,270.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.42 0.7
Average Latency (ms) 1.06 1.17
Maximum Latency (ms) 45.75 5.57
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.7 1.5

MySQL DELETE

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
Transactions per second 320,169.00 80,676.00
Queries per second 3,201,690.00 806,760.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.01 0.05
Average Latency (ms) 0.03 0.12
Maximum Latency (ms) 39.95 10.37
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.03 0.34

Redis

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
PING_INLINE per Second 146,627.56 47,528.52
PING_MBULK per Second 137,362.64 48,332.53
SET per Second 130,039.02 46,882.33
GET per Second 132,100.39 47,483.38
INCR per Second 140,646.97 44,228.22
LPUSH per Second 131,752.31 47,058.82
RPUSH per Second 144,092.22 46,948.36
LPOP per Second 134,952.77 45,829.52
RPOP per Second 158,227.84 46,598.32
SADD per Second 158,730.16 46,926.32
HSET per Second 157,232.70 47,192.07
SPOP per Second 163,132.14 47,778.31
ZADD per Second 156,739.81 43,535.05
ZPOPMIN per Second 159,235.66 47,393.37
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second 75,414.78 31,836.99
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second 38,240.92 17,771.46
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second 26,274.30 12,277.47
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second 19,860.97 10,720.41
MSET (10 keys) per Second 129,032.27 43,290.04

Redis Average Latency (ms)

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Linode – Nanode (1 GB)
PING_INLINE0.230.73
PING_MBULK0.240.72
SET0.260.74
GET0.250.73
INCR0.240.77
LPUSH0.260.74
RPUSH0.230.73
LPOP0.250.75
RPOP0.210.75
SADD0.210.74
HSET0.220.74
SPOP0.200.73
ZADD0.220.80
ZPOPMIN0.210.73
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)0.481.10
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)0.951.99
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)1.382.80
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)1.823.21
MSET (10 keys)0.280.81

Conclusion

From the friendly robots:

After analyzing the benchmark results for both Linode's Nanode (1 GB) and UpCloud's Balanced (1 GB), it's clear that UpCloud's instance outperforms Linode's in most metrics, especially in Redis operations, where it achieves significantly higher requests per second with lower latencies. UpCloud's CPU also shows higher events per second and better thread fairness. However, Linode's instance provides slightly better performance in file I/O operations and memory operations. Given these results, UpCloud's instance is better suited for workloads that benefit from high throughput and low latency, such as caching and high-speed data processing, while Linode's might be more appropriate for tasks that require efficient file and memory handling.

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 UpCloud.

You can also support me directly by buying me a coffee.