UpCloud Balanced (2 GB) vs. Vultr Cloud Compute (2 GB)
Same showdown, different day. Today I've spun up some brand new instance from UpCloud and Vultr and ran some benchmarks. All instances were spun up with 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 (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Wed, 13 May 2026 07:00:52 GMT | Mon, 11 May 2026 01:00:52 GMT |
| Linux Distro | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 |
| Kernel Version | 6.8.0-111-generic | 6.8.0-111-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 | €13.00 | $10.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 2 | 2 |
| CPU Cores | 1 | 1 |
| Storage (TB) | 50 | 50 |
| Storage Type | SSD | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 2 | 2 |
CPU
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | AuthenticAMD | GenuineIntel |
| Model Name | AMD EPYC 9575F 64-Core Processor | Intel Core Processor (Skylake, IBRS, no TSX) |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 3,295.48 | 3,792.00 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 512.00 | 16,384.00 |
| BogoMips | 6,590.95 | 7,583.99 |
| Events per Second | 5,025.21 | 1,497.65 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.18 | 0.62 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.2 | 0.67 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.35 | 3.23 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.22 | 0.75 |
Memory
Memory Read
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 5,932,400.60 | 5,638,269.82 |
| Mebibytes per second | 5,793.36 | 5,506.12 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.22 | 0.5 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 6,706,599.41 | 5,385,367.36 |
| Mebibytes per second | 6,549.41 | 5,259.15 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.56 | 0.21 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 3,214.64 | 3,342.02 |
| Writes per Second | 2,143.03 | 2,228.02 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 6,864.71 | 7,136.24 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 50.23 | 52.22 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 33.48 | 34.81 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.08 | 0.08 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 20.14 | 69.13 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.31 | 0.17 |
Mutex
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1,349.13 | 1,390.27 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1,353.60 | 1,401.13 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1,361.99 | 1,404.96 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1,352.03 | 1,401.61 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 19,090.00 | 8,117.00 |
| Queries per second | 190,900.00 | 81,170.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.31 | 0.97 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.52 | 1.23 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.34 | 4.59 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.64 | 1.93 |
MySQL Write-only
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,974.00 | 8,086.00 |
| Queries per second | 39,740.00 | 80,860.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.87 | 0.69 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.51 | 1.23 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 38.67 | 3.7 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5 | 1.76 |
MySQL Read/Write
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,830.00 | 3,265.00 |
| Queries per second | 28,300.00 | 32,650.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.29 | 2.06 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.53 | 3.06 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 56.72 | 11.17 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 6.32 | 4.1 |
MySQL INSERT
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,647.00 | 13,685.00 |
| Queries per second | 46,470.00 | 136,850.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.61 | 0.41 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.15 | 0.73 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 28.58 | 3.02 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.41 | 1.01 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,249,592.00 | 1,404,967.00 |
| Queries per second | 22,495,920.00 | 14,049,670.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0.01 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 207.34 | 484.61 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 645,161.00 | 194,919.00 |
| Queries per second | 6,451,610.00 | 1,949,190.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.02 | 0.05 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.26 | 1.41 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.02 | 0.08 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,546.00 | 7,178.00 |
| Queries per second | 85,460.00 | 71,780.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.13 | 0.41 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.17 | 1.39 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 172.57 | 4.98 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.58 | 2.39 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 11,562.00 | 7,813.00 |
| Queries per second | 115,620.00 | 78,130.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.22 | 0.33 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.86 | 1.28 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.07 | 4.94 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.27 | 2.81 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,711.00 | 14,061.00 |
| Queries per second | 47,110.00 | 140,610.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.73 | 0.39 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.12 | 0.71 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 30.41 | 5.95 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.96 | 1.06 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,393.00 | 13,286.00 |
| Queries per second | 53,930.00 | 132,860.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.48 | 0.39 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.85 | 0.75 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 39 | 46.16 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.43 | 1.03 |
MySQL DELETE
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 101,195.00 | 105,085.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,011,950.00 | 1,050,850.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.04 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.1 | 0.09 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 39.3 | 68.89 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.17 | 0.16 |
Redis
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 130,208.34 | 50,276.52 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 130,208.34 | 49,407.12 |
| SET per Second | 130,890.05 | 52,083.34 |
| GET per Second | 129,198.97 | 46,232.08 |
| INCR per Second | 128,534.70 | 48,309.18 |
| LPUSH per Second | 128,040.97 | 48,285.85 |
| RPUSH per Second | 126,582.27 | 47,103.16 |
| LPOP per Second | 124,688.28 | 48,947.62 |
| RPOP per Second | 127,226.46 | 48,804.29 |
| SADD per Second | 129,198.97 | 47,483.38 |
| HSET per Second | 133,511.34 | 43,975.38 |
| SPOP per Second | 139,275.77 | 48,030.74 |
| ZADD per Second | 130,039.02 | 47,214.35 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 129,701.68 | 50,864.70 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 55,524.71 | 28,176.95 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 28,785.26 | 14,255.17 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 18,942.98 | 10,387.45 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 17,038.68 | 8,116.22 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 108,225.10 | 34,602.07 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (2 GB) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.25 | 0.66 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.25 | 0.66 |
| SET | 0.26 | 0.64 |
| GET | 0.26 | 0.72 |
| INCR | 0.26 | 0.69 |
| LPUSH | 0.26 | 0.69 |
| RPUSH | 0.27 | 0.71 |
| LPOP | 0.27 | 0.69 |
| RPOP | 0.27 | 0.70 |
| SADD | 0.26 | 0.71 |
| HSET | 0.26 | 0.77 |
| SPOP | 0.24 | 0.69 |
| ZADD | 0.26 | 0.71 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.26 | 0.65 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.66 | 1.22 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.27 | 2.50 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 1.95 | 3.43 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 2.16 | 4.39 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.34 | 1.04 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
After analyzing the benchmark results from both UpCloud's "Balanced (2 GB)" and Vultr's "Cloud Compute (2 GB)" instances, it's clear that UpCloud provides superior performance, especially in Redis operations, file I/O, and memory operations, owing to its use of an AMD EPYC 9575F processor that appears to handle these tasks more efficiently compared to Vultr's Intel Xeon Processor (Skylake, IBRS). UpCloud instances show significantly higher RPS (requests per second) for Redis commands and superior latency across the board for Redis, CPU, file I/O, and memory operations. In contrast, Vultr instances have higher transfer costs but comparable CPU performance. For developers and sysadmins seeking optimal Redis performance, file I/O efficiency, and memory handling, UpCloud's instance is the better choice, particularly for CPU-intensive and I/O-heavy workloads. Vultr might be more appealing to those on a tighter budget given the comparable performance at a lower monthly cost.
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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