UpCloud Balanced (1 GB) vs. Vultr Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Same showdown, different day. Today I've spun up brand new instance from UpCloud and Vultr to run some benchmarks on. 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, 22 May 2026 11:00:52 GMT
Thu, 21 May 2026 23:00:52 GMT
Linux Distro
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64
Kernel Version
6.8.0-111-generic
6.8.0-117-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
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 9575F 64-Core Processor
Intel Core Processor (Broadwell, no TSX, IBRS)
Clock Speed (MHz)
3,295.45
2,394.45
CPU Cache Size (KB)
512.00
16,384.00
BogoMips
6,590.90
4,788.90
Events per Second
5,248.20
859.04
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.18
1.14
Average Latency (ms)
0.19
1.16
Maximum Latency (ms)
1.79
2.42
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.2
1.25
Memory
Memory Read
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Operations per second
6,801,282.43
4,179,696.98
Mebibytes per second
6,641.88
4,081.74
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
2.29
0.23
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
Memory Write
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Operations per second
5,773,502.12
4,151,553.00
Mebibytes per second
5,638.19
4,054.25
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
3.02
0.59
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
File I/O
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Reads per Second
3,347.40
2,403.90
Writes per Second
2,231.60
1,602.60
Fsyncs per Second
7,151.99
5,132.41
Read Mebibytes per Second
52.30
37.56
Written Mebibytes per Second
34.87
25.04
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.08
0.11
Maximum Latency (ms)
45.95
3.04
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.25
0.32
Mutex
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Minimum Latency (ms)
1,448.88
2,066.64
Average Latency (ms)
1,453.66
2,071.43
Maximum Latency (ms)
1,458.86
2,075.26
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1,453.01
2,082.91
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second
186.00
5,409.00
Queries per second
1,860.00
54,090.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.33
1.74
Average Latency (ms)
54.83
1.85
Maximum Latency (ms)
1519.77
13.71
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
320.17
2
MySQL Write-only
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second
7.00
4,997.00
Queries per second
70.00
49,970.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1299.84
1.47
Average Latency (ms)
1584.29
2
Maximum Latency (ms)
1904.57
10.54
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1903.57
2.61
MySQL Read/Write
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second
1.00
2,422.00
Queries per second
10.00
24,220.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
16296.58
3.55
Average Latency (ms)
16296.58
4.13
Maximum Latency (ms)
16296.58
12.42
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
16224.31
4.82
MySQL INSERT
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second
92.00
9,166.00
Queries per second
920.00
91,660.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.47
0.71
Average Latency (ms)
110.5
1.09
Maximum Latency (ms)
255.29
6.03
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
204.11
1.39
MySQL Bulk INSERT
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second
2,307,842.00
937,763.00
Queries per second
23,078,420.00
9,377,630.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0.01
Maximum Latency (ms)
293.41
661.15
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
MySQL SELECT
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second
613,969.00
117,346.00
Queries per second
6,139,690.00
1,173,460.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.01
0.07
Average Latency (ms)
0.02
0.08
Maximum Latency (ms)
211.08
7.11
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.02
0.11
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second
36.00
5,731.00
Queries per second
360.00
57,310.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
132
0.62
Average Latency (ms)
280.61
1.74
Maximum Latency (ms)
683.5
6.81
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
411.96
2.18
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second
33.00
6,416.00
Queries per second
330.00
64,160.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
107.87
0.47
Average Latency (ms)
311.59
1.56
Maximum Latency (ms)
710.24
4.83
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
493.24
2
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second
756.00
8,258.00
Queries per second
7,560.00
82,580.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.6
0.72
Average Latency (ms)
13.32
1.21
Maximum Latency (ms)
591.87
35.33
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
82.96
1.79
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second
22.00
8,930.00
Queries per second
220.00
89,300.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
288.94
0.71
Average Latency (ms)
468.04
1.12
Maximum Latency (ms)
695.61
20.29
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
612.21
1.39
MySQL DELETE
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second
128.00
50,174.00
Queries per second
1,280.00
501,740.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
18.77
0.07
Average Latency (ms)
77.86
0.2
Maximum Latency (ms)
170.32
18.49
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
116.8
1.1
Redis
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
PING_INLINE per Second
93,370.68
36,643.46
PING_MBULK per Second
114,285.71
37,230.08
SET per Second
72,254.34
36,724.20
GET per Second
57,636.89
36,982.25
INCR per Second
114,547.53
36,941.26
LPUSH per Second
54,054.05
36,483.04
RPUSH per Second
121,951.22
37,091.99
LPOP per Second
76,745.97
36,643.46
RPOP per Second
102,145.05
36,764.71
SADD per Second
89,445.44
37,523.45
HSET per Second
93,720.71
36,995.93
SPOP per Second
92,081.03
37,565.74
ZADD per Second
81,900.09
37,009.62
ZPOPMIN per Second
99,601.60
34,916.20
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second
48,473.10
23,557.13
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second
17,497.81
12,960.08
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second
14,285.71
9,176.00
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second
10,760.79
7,776.65
MSET (10 keys) per Second
91,074.68
31,017.37
Redis Average Latency (ms)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
PING_INLINE
0.40
0.89
PING_MBULK
0.30
0.88
SET
0.55
0.90
GET
0.70
0.89
INCR
0.30
0.89
LPUSH
0.74
0.91
RPUSH
0.29
0.89
LPOP
0.51
0.91
RPOP
0.35
0.90
SADD
0.42
0.88
HSET
0.40
0.89
SPOP
0.40
0.87
ZADD
0.44
0.90
ZPOPMIN
0.37
0.96
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)
0.80
1.40
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)
2.31
2.57
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)
2.73
3.74
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)
3.65
4.36
MSET (10 keys)
0.43
1.09
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
Upon analyzing the benchmark results for both the UpCloud Balanced (1 GB) and Vultr Cloud Compute (1 GB) instances, it is evident that UpCloud delivers slightly superior performance in most metrics, particularly with higher throughput rates and lower latencies in both CPU and memory operations. UpCloud's instance with an AMD EPYC processor showcases higher Redis request rates per second and lower latencies across various Redis commands, as well as better file I/O and CPU performance. Vultr, on the other hand, exhibits more affordable pricing but lags behind in raw performance metrics, especially evident in Redis and MySQL benchmarks where it shows lower request rates per second and higher latencies. Given these results, UpCloud is better suited for CPU-intensive and I/O-heavy workloads where high performance is crucial, while Vultr offers a more cost-effective option for applications where performance requirements are less stringent.
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.