UpCloud Balanced (1 GB) vs. Vultr Cloud Compute (1 GB)

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Same showdown, different day. Today I've spun up brand new instance from UpCloud and Vultr and did some benchmarking. Each instance was spun up with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in the New York area (or close to it). Let's get into the numbers.

Overview

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Last Benchmarked Fri, 26 Dec 2025 06:00:51 GMT Tue, 23 Dec 2025 19:00:51 GMT
Linux Distro Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64
Kernel Version 6.8.0-87-generic 6.8.0-90-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 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) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Vendor AuthenticAMD GenuineIntel
Model Name AMD EPYC 7542 32-Core Processor Intel Core Processor (Broadwell, no TSX, IBRS)
Clock Speed (MHz) 2,894.56 2,400.00
CPU Cache Size (KB) 512.00 16,384.00
BogoMips 5,789.12 4,799.99
Events per Second 1,619.40 774.49
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.59 1.13
Average Latency (ms) 0.62 1.29
Maximum Latency (ms) 1.29 3.64
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.64 1.55

Memory

Memory Read

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Operations per second 5,401,190.66 3,563,144.39
Mebibytes per second 5,274.60 3,479.63
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 0.95 2.33
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

Memory Write

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Operations per second 5,439,333.74 3,578,279.14
Mebibytes per second 5,311.85 3,494.41
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 0.26 1.36
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

File I/O

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Reads per Second 2,677.57 1,893.29
Writes per Second 1,785.05 1,262.20
Fsyncs per Second 5,722.44 4,041.52
Read Mebibytes per Second 41.84 29.58
Written Mebibytes per Second 27.89 19.72
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.1 0.14
Maximum Latency (ms) 12.5 7.93
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.31 0.35

Mutex

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Minimum Latency (ms) 1,525.78 2,405.08
Average Latency (ms) 1,533.33 2,423.84
Maximum Latency (ms) 1,542.52 2,436.20
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1,533.66 2,449.36

MySQL

MySQL Read-only

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second 7,634.00 4,627.00
Queries per second 76,340.00 46,270.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.23 1.69
Average Latency (ms) 1.31 2.16
Maximum Latency (ms) 8.81 14.35
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.39 3.13

MySQL Write-only

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second 4,518.00 3,192.00
Queries per second 45,180.00 31,920.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.37 1.88
Average Latency (ms) 2.21 3.13
Maximum Latency (ms) 40 32.5
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 3.02 4.57

MySQL Read/Write

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second 2,426.00 1,733.00
Queries per second 24,260.00 17,330.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 2.84 3.98
Average Latency (ms) 4.12 5.77
Maximum Latency (ms) 37.03 15.77
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 5.18 8.28

MySQL INSERT

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second 6,678.00 5,038.00
Queries per second 66,780.00 50,380.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.11 1.29
Average Latency (ms) 1.5 1.98
Maximum Latency (ms) 32.11 20.82
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.96 2.76

MySQL Bulk INSERT

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second 1,317,592.00 800,273.00
Queries per second 13,175,920.00 8,002,730.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.01 0.01
Maximum Latency (ms) 409.13 783.86
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

MySQL SELECT

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second 172,758.00 100,060.00
Queries per second 1,727,580.00 1,000,600.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.05 0.07
Average Latency (ms) 0.06 0.1
Maximum Latency (ms) 2.82 9.15
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.07 0.15

MySQL SELECT (Random Points)

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second 8,213.00 4,470.00
Queries per second 82,130.00 44,700.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.43 0.68
Average Latency (ms) 1.22 2.23
Maximum Latency (ms) 6.44 9.2
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.55 3.55

MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second 7,551.00 4,738.00
Queries per second 75,510.00 47,380.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.51 0.65
Average Latency (ms) 1.32 2.11
Maximum Latency (ms) 3.44 8.72
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.7 3.68

MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second 5,926.00 4,344.00
Queries per second 59,260.00 43,440.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.92 1.12
Average Latency (ms) 1.69 2.3
Maximum Latency (ms) 32.97 37
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.39 3.96

MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second 6,383.00 5,409.00
Queries per second 63,830.00 54,090.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.98 1.08
Average Latency (ms) 1.57 1.85
Maximum Latency (ms) 31.28 13.01
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2 2.52

MySQL DELETE

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second 56,148.00 34,310.00
Queries per second 561,480.00 343,100.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.05 0.07
Average Latency (ms) 0.18 0.29
Maximum Latency (ms) 91.95 6.95
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.39 1.82

Redis

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
PING_INLINE per Second 44,033.47 33,670.04
PING_MBULK per Second 44,782.80 32,948.93
SET per Second 44,072.28 32,829.94
GET per Second 44,722.72 34,411.56
INCR per Second 44,583.15 36,258.16
LPUSH per Second 44,091.71 32,435.94
RPUSH per Second 44,326.24 34,891.84
LPOP per Second 38,431.98 31,938.68
RPOP per Second 43,994.72 31,605.56
SADD per Second 44,642.86 32,679.74
HSET per Second 44,150.11 33,840.95
SPOP per Second 45,392.64 34,411.56
ZADD per Second 44,365.57 34,542.32
ZPOPMIN per Second 45,433.89 34,176.35
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second 29,248.32 22,084.81
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second 16,000.00 10,593.22
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second 11,101.24 7,519.93
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second 9,616.31 5,956.28
MSET (10 keys) per Second 41,339.40 29,594.55

Redis Average Latency (ms)

UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
PING_INLINE0.770.97
PING_MBULK0.770.98
SET0.780.99
GET0.770.95
INCR0.770.91
LPUSH0.781.01
RPUSH0.780.95
LPOP0.881.04
RPOP0.791.04
SADD0.771.00
HSET0.780.98
SPOP0.760.95
ZADD0.780.96
ZPOPMIN0.760.96
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)1.211.53
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)2.313.20
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)3.304.53
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)3.825.63
MSET (10 keys)0.861.17

Conclusion

From the friendly robots:

When comparing the benchmark results of the UpCloud Balanced (1 GB) and Vultr Cloud Compute (1 GB) instances, it is evident that UpCloud generally performs better in CPU-intensive and I/O-heavy workloads, showcasing higher Redis throughput, lower latency for most operations, and better file I/O performance. The Vultr instance, while competitive in specific areas like bulk MySQL inserts and having a slightly lower monthly cost, falls short in Redis operations, file I/O, and memory performance. Therefore, UpCloud is recommended for developers needing robust performance in memory- and I/O-intensive applications, whereas Vultr might be more suited for simpler tasks where cost is a primary concern.

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 UpCloud and Vultr.

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