UpCloud Balanced (2 GB) vs. Vultr Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Same showdown, different day. Today I've got brand new instances from UpCloud and Vultr and ran some benchmarks. All instances were running Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x64 and were created in the New York area (or close to it). Without further ado, here's the results.
Overview
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Last Benchmarked
Thu, 01 Oct 2026 05:05:17 GMT
Tue, 01 Sep 2026 05:03:03 GMT
Linux Distro
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x64
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x64
Kernel Version
7.0.0-29-generic
7.0.0-29-generic
MySQL Version
8.4.11-0ubuntu0.26.04.1
8.4.11-0ubuntu0.26.04.1
Redis Version
8.0.5
8.0.5
Location
New York, NY
Newark, NJ
Monthly Price
€13.00
$5.00
RAM (GB)
2
1
CPU Cores
1
1
Storage (TB)
50
25
Storage Type
SSD
SSD
Transfer (TB)
2
1
Head-to-head
Category winners from the latest benchmarks.
Category
Winner
CPU (events/sec)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Memory (read MiB/s)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Disk I/O (MiB/s)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
MySQL (read/write tps)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Redis (GET/sec)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Value (CPU events per $/mo)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) takes 6 of 6 categories.
CPU
UpCloud – Balanced (2 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)
3,295.42
2,400.00
CPU Cache Size (KB)
512.00
16,384.00
BogoMips
6,590.84
4,799.99
Events per Second
4,733.64
747.20
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.19
1.23
Average Latency (ms)
0.21
1.34
Maximum Latency (ms)
2.28
4.19
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.24
1.61
Memory
Memory Read
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Operations per second
6,924,337.90
3,468,220.65
Mebibytes per second
6,762.05
3,386.93
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
0.39
2.53
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
Memory Write
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Operations per second
6,734,576.12
3,710,866.55
Mebibytes per second
6,576.73
3,623.89
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
3.06
0.76
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
File I/O
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Reads per Second
2,742.06
1,891.00
Writes per Second
1,828.04
1,260.60
Fsyncs per Second
5,852.11
4,039.68
Read Mebibytes per Second
42.84
29.55
Written Mebibytes per Second
28.56
19.70
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.1
0.14
Maximum Latency (ms)
43.15
6.15
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.35
0.33
Mutex
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Minimum Latency (ms)
1,334.65
2,212.92
Average Latency (ms)
1,340.93
2,218.18
Maximum Latency (ms)
1,347.94
2,222.25
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1,352.03
2,238.47
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second
14,724.00
4,645.00
Queries per second
147,240.00
46,450.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.44
1.76
Average Latency (ms)
0.68
2.15
Maximum Latency (ms)
2.7
6.84
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.83
2.97
MySQL Write-only
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second
4,255.00
3,815.00
Queries per second
42,550.00
38,150.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.85
1.64
Average Latency (ms)
2.35
2.62
Maximum Latency (ms)
65.45
21.48
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
3.89
3.55
MySQL Read/Write
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second
2,815.00
1,258.00
Queries per second
28,150.00
12,580.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.68
3.82
Average Latency (ms)
3.55
7.94
Maximum Latency (ms)
63.07
2585.43
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
5.57
8.58
MySQL INSERT
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second
6,031.00
4,318.00
Queries per second
60,310.00
43,180.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.68
1.13
Average Latency (ms)
1.65
2.31
Maximum Latency (ms)
51.97
41.5
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.91
4.18
MySQL Bulk INSERT
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second
1,870,967.00
800,273.00
Queries per second
18,709,670.00
8,002,730.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.01
0.01
Maximum Latency (ms)
243.66
573.78
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
MySQL SELECT
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second
366,555.00
99,416.00
Queries per second
3,665,550.00
994,160.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.02
0.07
Average Latency (ms)
0.03
0.1
Maximum Latency (ms)
1.64
3.29
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.04
0.15
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second
6,679.00
3,664.00
Queries per second
66,790.00
36,640.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.43
0.6
Average Latency (ms)
1.5
2.73
Maximum Latency (ms)
6.15
10.72
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.07
4.25
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second
10,571.00
5,031.00
Queries per second
105,710.00
50,310.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.3
0.67
Average Latency (ms)
0.94
1.98
Maximum Latency (ms)
2.5
12.72
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1.25
3.25
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second
6,592.00
5,894.00
Queries per second
65,920.00
58,940.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.64
1.05
Average Latency (ms)
1.52
1.69
Maximum Latency (ms)
73.34
17.67
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.43
2.39
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second
6,361.00
5,867.00
Queries per second
63,610.00
58,670.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.66
1.04
Average Latency (ms)
1.57
1.7
Maximum Latency (ms)
65.52
10.56
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.57
2.48
MySQL DELETE
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
Transactions per second
101,477.00
27,369.00
Queries per second
1,014,770.00
273,690.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.02
0.07
Average Latency (ms)
0.1
0.36
Maximum Latency (ms)
48.04
22.97
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.17
1.86
Redis
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
PING_INLINE per Second
48,899.75
29,316.92
PING_MBULK per Second
48,520.13
27,233.12
SET per Second
48,473.10
23,980.81
GET per Second
48,567.27
27,925.16
INCR per Second
48,216.01
29,316.92
LPUSH per Second
48,947.62
26,260.50
RPUSH per Second
48,828.12
27,292.58
LPOP per Second
46,446.82
28,810.14
RPOP per Second
45,808.52
27,517.89
SADD per Second
45,934.77
28,776.98
HSET per Second
45,871.56
28,490.03
SPOP per Second
44,964.03
25,746.65
ZADD per Second
45,955.88
27,987.69
ZPOPMIN per Second
44,306.60
28,176.95
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second
32,530.91
20,345.88
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second
20,462.45
10,920.61
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second
15,964.24
7,457.12
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second
14,490.65
7,261.64
MSET (10 keys) per Second
48,638.13
29,188.56
Redis Average Latency (ms)
UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
PING_INLINE
0.60
1.04
PING_MBULK
0.60
1.10
SET
0.62
1.29
GET
0.61
1.08
INCR
0.62
1.03
LPUSH
0.61
1.17
RPUSH
0.62
1.12
LPOP
0.67
1.07
RPOP
0.67
1.11
SADD
0.65
1.05
HSET
0.66
1.07
SPOP
0.66
1.18
ZADD
0.66
1.09
ZPOPMIN
0.67
1.07
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)
0.95
1.57
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)
1.55
2.84
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)
2.01
3.99
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)
2.26
4.07
MSET (10 keys)
0.71
1.15
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
The UpCloud Balanced (2 GB) instance outperforms the Vultr Cloud Compute (1 GB) instance across all benchmarks. The UpCloud instance achieves notably higher Redis RPS (requests per second) rates, such as 44903.46 RPS for PING_INLINE and 57339.45 RPS for RPUSH, while the Vultr instance shows significantly lower rates like 29316.92 RPS for PING_INLINE and 27292.58 RPS for RPUSH. The UpCloud instance is thus preferable for use cases requiring high throughput and low latency, such as real-time data processing and high-traffic web applications, while the Vultr instance, with its lower price, may be more suitable for budget-constrained applications with lower performance requirements.
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.
