UpCloud Balanced (2 GB) vs. Vultr Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores)
Same showdown, different day. Today I've spun up brand new instance from UpCloud and Vultr to run some benchmarks on. Each instance was running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Enough talk. Here's the data.
Overview
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Last Benchmarked | Wed, 13 May 2026 07:00:52 GMT | Mon, 11 May 2026 14:00:52 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 | $20.00 |
| RAM (GB) | 2 | 4 |
| CPU Cores | 1 | 2 |
| Storage (TB) | 50 | 80 |
| Storage Type | SSD | SSD |
| Transfer (TB) | 2 | 3 |
CPU
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | AuthenticAMD | GenuineIntel |
| Model Name | AMD EPYC 9575F 64-Core Processor | Intel Core Processor (Skylake, IBRS, no TSX) |
| Clock Speed (MHz) | 3,295.48 | 3,792.06 |
| CPU Cache Size (KB) | 512.00 | 16,384.00 |
| BogoMips | 6,590.95 | 7,584.11 |
| Events per Second | 5,025.21 | 1,499.48 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.18 | 0.62 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.2 | 0.67 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.35 | 2.83 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.22 | 0.74 |
Memory
Memory Read
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 5,932,400.60 | 6,934,927.69 |
| Mebibytes per second | 5,793.36 | 6,772.39 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.22 | 0.29 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
Memory Write
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Operations per second | 6,706,599.41 | 6,985,095.21 |
| Mebibytes per second | 6,549.41 | 6,821.38 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1.56 | 0.35 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
File I/O
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 3,214.64 | 7,963.30 |
| Writes per Second | 2,143.03 | 5,308.87 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 6,864.71 | 16,991.77 |
| Read Mebibytes per Second | 50.23 | 124.43 |
| Written Mebibytes per Second | 33.48 | 82.95 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.08 | 0.03 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 20.14 | 4.6 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.31 | 0.12 |
Mutex
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1,349.13 | 584.40 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1,353.60 | 590.17 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 1,361.99 | 596.53 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1,352.03 | 601.29 |
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 19,090.00 | 9,520.00 |
| Queries per second | 190,900.00 | 95,200.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.31 | 0.89 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.52 | 1.05 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 5.34 | 2.89 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.64 | 1.34 |
MySQL Write-only
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 3,974.00 | 9,609.00 |
| Queries per second | 39,740.00 | 96,090.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.87 | 0.67 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.51 | 1.04 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 38.67 | 3.83 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 5 | 1.34 |
MySQL Read/Write
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,830.00 | 4,403.00 |
| Queries per second | 28,300.00 | 44,030.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 1.29 | 1.68 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 3.53 | 2.27 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 56.72 | 16.08 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 6.32 | 2.86 |
MySQL INSERT
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,647.00 | 16,748.00 |
| Queries per second | 46,470.00 | 167,480.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.61 | 0.4 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.15 | 0.6 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 28.58 | 2.24 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 4.41 | 0.78 |
MySQL Bulk INSERT
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 2,249,592.00 | 2,103,967.00 |
| Queries per second | 22,495,920.00 | 21,039,670.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 207.34 | 219.72 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0 | 0 |
MySQL SELECT
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 645,161.00 | 213,392.00 |
| Queries per second | 6,451,610.00 | 2,133,920.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.03 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.02 | 0.05 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 2.26 | 0.67 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.02 | 0.06 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 8,546.00 | 9,584.00 |
| Queries per second | 85,460.00 | 95,840.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.13 | 0.32 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.17 | 1.04 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 172.57 | 2.86 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.58 | 1.73 |
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 11,562.00 | 8,392.00 |
| Queries per second | 115,620.00 | 83,920.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.22 | 0.42 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.86 | 1.19 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 4.07 | 5.16 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 1.27 | 2.48 |
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 4,711.00 | 15,380.00 |
| Queries per second | 47,110.00 | 153,800.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.73 | 0.4 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 2.12 | 0.65 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 30.41 | 2.85 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.96 | 0.89 |
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 5,393.00 | 15,844.00 |
| Queries per second | 53,930.00 | 158,440.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.48 | 0.39 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 1.85 | 0.63 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 39 | 2.35 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 3.43 | 0.87 |
MySQL DELETE
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per second | 101,195.00 | 145,838.00 |
| Queries per second | 1,011,950.00 | 1,458,380.00 |
| Minimum Latency (ms) | 0.01 | 0.03 |
| Average Latency (ms) | 0.1 | 0.07 |
| Maximum Latency (ms) | 39.3 | 1.4 |
| 95th Percentile Latency (ms) | 0.17 | 0.08 |
Redis
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE per Second | 130,208.34 | 83,402.84 |
| PING_MBULK per Second | 130,208.34 | 83,612.04 |
| SET per Second | 130,890.05 | 83,752.09 |
| GET per Second | 129,198.97 | 83,472.46 |
| INCR per Second | 128,534.70 | 81,300.81 |
| LPUSH per Second | 128,040.97 | 84,602.37 |
| RPUSH per Second | 126,582.27 | 82,508.25 |
| LPOP per Second | 124,688.28 | 85,910.65 |
| RPOP per Second | 127,226.46 | 84,317.03 |
| SADD per Second | 129,198.97 | 85,397.09 |
| HSET per Second | 133,511.34 | 83,056.48 |
| SPOP per Second | 139,275.77 | 81,300.81 |
| ZADD per Second | 130,039.02 | 85,984.52 |
| ZPOPMIN per Second | 129,701.68 | 86,505.19 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second | 55,524.71 | 52,438.39 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second | 28,785.26 | 26,954.18 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second | 18,942.98 | 19,466.62 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second | 17,038.68 | 16,923.34 |
| MSET (10 keys) per Second | 108,225.10 | 83,542.19 |
Redis Average Latency (ms)
| UpCloud – Balanced (2 GB) | Vultr – Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) | |
|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 0.25 | 0.31 |
| PING_MBULK | 0.25 | 0.31 |
| SET | 0.26 | 0.31 |
| GET | 0.26 | 0.31 |
| INCR | 0.26 | 0.32 |
| LPUSH | 0.26 | 0.31 |
| RPUSH | 0.27 | 0.31 |
| LPOP | 0.27 | 0.31 |
| RPOP | 0.27 | 0.32 |
| SADD | 0.26 | 0.30 |
| HSET | 0.26 | 0.32 |
| SPOP | 0.24 | 0.32 |
| ZADD | 0.26 | 0.30 |
| ZPOPMIN | 0.26 | 0.30 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 0.66 | 0.51 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 1.27 | 1.05 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 1.95 | 1.49 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 2.16 | 1.60 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 0.34 | 0.32 |
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
Based on the benchmark results, UpCloud's Balanced (2 GB) instance outperforms Vultr's Cloud Compute (4 GB, 2 Cores) instance in Redis operations, MySQL OLTP tasks, and CPU operations, likely due to the higher CPU model (AMD EPYC 9575F vs. Intel Core Processor) and dedicated CPU core. UpCloud shows higher RPS and lower average latencies across most benchmarks, especially in memory-intensive and CPU-bound tasks. Vultr's instance, while having more RAM and two CPU cores, lags behind in raw performance metrics, possibly due to less powerful CPU architecture and fewer dedicated cores. Ideal use cases for UpCloud's instance would be CPU-intensive workloads and tasks requiring high memory bandwidth, while Vultr's instance might be more suitable for less demanding tasks that can benefit from its higher RAM and cost-effectiveness.
From the friendly human:
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