UpCloud Balanced (1 GB) vs. Vultr Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores)
Fresh benchmarks coming at ya. Today I've spun up some brand new instance from UpCloud and Vultr 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. Let's get into the numbers.
Overview
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Wed, 10 Jun 2026 03:00:58 GMT | Thu, 11 Jun 2026 09:00:52 GMT |
| Linux Distro | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 |
| Kernel Version | 6.8.0-111-generic | 6.8.0-124-generic |
| MySQL Version | 8.0.46-0ubuntu0.24.04.2 | 8.0.46-0ubuntu0.24.04.2 |
| Redis Version | 7.0.15 | 7.0.15 |
| Location | New York, NY | Newark, NJ |
| Monthly Price | €7.00 | $20.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 1 | 4 |
| CPU Cores | 1 | 2 |
| Storage (TB) | 25 | 80 |
| Storage Type | SSD | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 1 | 3 |
CPU
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | AuthenticAMD | GenuineIntel |
| Model Name | AMD EPYC 9575F 64-Core Processor | Intel Xeon Processor (Skylake, IBRS) |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 3,295.46 | 2,593.91 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 512.00 | 16,384.00 |
| BogoMips | 6,590.91 | 5,187.81 |
| Events per Second | 5,705.40 | 1,022.39 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.16 | 0.88 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.18 | 0.98 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.27 | 1.77 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.19 | 1.21 |
Memory
Memory Read
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 8,056,617.47 | 3,523,809.57 |
| Mebibytes per second | 7,867.79 | 3,441.22 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.28 | 0.22 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 7,635,465.92 | 3,568,203.77 |
| Mebibytes per second | 7,456.51 | 3,484.57 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 0.72 | 1.02 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 4,880.21 | 2,972.63 |
| Writes per Second | 3,253.44 | 1,981.75 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 10,411.32 | 6,347.81 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 76.25 | 46.45 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 50.83 | 30.96 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.05 | 0.09 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 25.28 | 17.12 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.19 | 0.33 |
Mutex
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1,094.52 | 899.28 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1,098.99 | 935.93 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1,105.13 | 969.92 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1,109.09 | 977.74 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 27,863.00 | 3,779.00 |
| Queries per second | 278,630.00 | 37,790.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.28 | 1.84 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.36 | 2.64 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.23 | 24.55 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.5 | 3.82 |
MySQL Write-only
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,234.00 | 4,044.00 |
| Queries per second | 82,340.00 | 40,440.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.51 | 1.4 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.21 | 2.47 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 109.78 | 13.46 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.7 | 3.3 |
MySQL Read/Write
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,658.00 | 1,798.00 |
| Queries per second | 56,580.00 | 17,980.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.02 | 3.86 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.77 | 5.56 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 29.92 | 27.33 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 2.43 | 6.91 |
MySQL INSERT
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 10,677.00 | 6,405.00 |
| Queries per second | 106,770.00 | 64,050.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.4 | 0.99 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.93 | 1.56 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 51.91 | 15.15 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.32 | 2.03 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,065,346.00 | 865,805.00 |
| Queries per second | 30,653,460.00 | 8,658,050.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 175.55 | 538.25 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 904,699.00 | 126,618.00 |
| Queries per second | 9,046,990.00 | 1,266,180.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.05 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.08 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.15 | 2.46 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.02 | 0.11 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 18,275.00 | 3,674.00 |
| Queries per second | 182,750.00 | 36,740.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.16 | 1.07 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.55 | 2.72 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.14 | 6.45 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.81 | 3.55 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 18,836.00 | 2,728.00 |
| Queries per second | 188,360.00 | 27,280.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.15 | 1.3 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.53 | 3.66 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.6 | 11.85 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.77 | 5 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 9,429.00 | 5,438.00 |
| Queries per second | 94,290.00 | 54,380.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.41 | 0.99 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.06 | 1.84 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 70.38 | 13.86 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.52 | 2.71 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 10,777.00 | 6,370.00 |
| Queries per second | 107,770.00 | 63,700.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.4 | 1.01 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.93 | 1.57 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 41.92 | 8.99 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.37 | 2.07 |
MySQL DELETE
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 318,714.00 | 51,180.00 |
| Queries per second | 3,187,140.00 | 511,800.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.05 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.03 | 0.19 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 74.81 | 6.11 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.03 | 1.39 |
Redis
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 174,216.03 | 49,677.10 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 171,232.88 | 45,372.05 |
| SET per Second | 170,357.75 | 45,392.64 |
| GET per Second | 179,856.11 | 53,163.21 |
| INCR per Second | 180,180.17 | 48,732.94 |
| LPUSH per Second | 168,634.06 | 50,327.12 |
| RPUSH per Second | 174,216.03 | 48,285.85 |
| LPOP per Second | 171,526.58 | 48,355.90 |
| RPOP per Second | 170,940.17 | 51,413.88 |
| SADD per Second | 166,666.66 | 48,332.53 |
| HSET per Second | 166,666.66 | 49,285.36 |
| SPOP per Second | 168,634.06 | 48,332.53 |
| ZADD per Second | 171,232.88 | 51,229.51 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 175,746.92 | 45,085.66 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 89,206.06 | 27,122.32 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 42,444.82 | 12,442.45 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 25,866.53 | 7,930.21 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 21,070.38 | 6,902.74 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 145,137.88 | 45,146.73 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.19 | 0.53 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.19 | 0.57 |
| SET | 0.20 | 0.57 |
| GET | 0.18 | 0.49 |
| INCR | 0.19 | 0.53 |
| LPUSH | 0.20 | 0.51 |
| RPUSH | 0.19 | 0.54 |
| LPOP | 0.20 | 0.54 |
| RPOP | 0.20 | 0.52 |
| SADD | 0.20 | 0.55 |
| HSET | 0.20 | 0.54 |
| SPOP | 0.20 | 0.54 |
| ZADD | 0.20 | 0.52 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.19 | 0.57 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.40 | 1.02 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 0.83 | 2.29 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 1.38 | 3.27 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 1.71 | 3.91 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.25 | 0.78 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
After analyzing the benchmark results from UpCloud's Balanced (1 GB) instance and Vultr's Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) instance, we find that the Vultr instance generally outperforms the UpCloud instance in terms of CPU and memory operations, particularly in CPU-intensive tasks like Redis operations and MySQL OLTP queries, due to its higher CPU frequency and dual-core architecture. However, UpCloud's single-core AMD EPYC processor still provides competitive performance, especially in I/O operations where file read/write and mutex latencies are comparable. UpCloud shines in memory-related operations where low latency and high throughput are maintained, suggesting it is well-suited for workloads that benefit from high I/O performance and moderate CPU capabilities. For users seeking a balance between cost and performance with a focus on memory and I/O, UpCloud's offering is a strong contender, while Vultr's instance is ideal for CPU-heavy, multi-threaded applications requiring higher throughput and lower latencies.
From the friendly human:
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