Vultr Cloud Compute (1 GB) vs. UpCloud Balanced (1 GB)

vs.

New day, new benchmarks. Today I've spun up some brand new instance from UpCloud and Vultr and ran some benchmarks. Each instance was running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 and were created in the New York area (or close to it). Enough talk. Here's the data.

Overview

Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Last Benchmarked Wed, 18 Feb 2026 07:00:51 GMT Tue, 17 Feb 2026 12:00:52 GMT
Linux Distro Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x64
Kernel Version 6.8.0-100-generic 6.8.0-87-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 Newark, NJ New York, NY
Monthly Price $5.00 €7.00
RAM (GB) 1 1
CPU Cores 1 1
Storage (TB) 25 25
Storage Type SSD SSD
Transfer (TB) 1 1

CPU

Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Vendor GenuineIntel AuthenticAMD
Model Name Intel Core Processor (Haswell, no TSX, IBRS) AMD EPYC 9575F 64-Core Processor
Clock Speed (MHz) 2,400.00 3,295.46
CPU Cache Size (KB) 16,384.00 512.00
BogoMips 4,799.99 6,590.91
Events per Second 789.59 5,269.12
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.16 0.17
Average Latency (ms) 1.27 0.19
Maximum Latency (ms) 3.45 0.78
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.34 0.2

Memory

Memory Read

Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Operations per second 3,918,177.35 6,495,754.58
Mebibytes per second 3,826.35 6,343.51
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 0.23 5.62
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

Memory Write

Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Operations per second 3,908,567.36 6,653,943.56
Mebibytes per second 3,816.96 6,497.99
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 0.45 4.05
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

File I/O

Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Reads per Second 1,594.63 2,843.26
Writes per Second 1,063.09 1,895.51
Fsyncs per Second 3,407.62 6,077.14
Read Mebibytes per Second 24.92 44.43
Written Mebibytes per Second 16.61 29.62
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.16 0.09
Maximum Latency (ms) 32.52 130.72
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.42 0.29

Mutex

Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Minimum Latency (ms) 2,039.00 1,405.90
Average Latency (ms) 2,047.18 1,420.12
Maximum Latency (ms) 2,058.11 1,430.71
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2,045.74 1,427.08

MySQL

MySQL Read-only

Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second 4,857.00 20,293.00
Queries per second 48,570.00 202,930.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.84 0.32
Average Latency (ms) 2.06 0.49
Maximum Latency (ms) 8.4 6.79
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.18 0.62

MySQL Write-only

Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second 2,825.00 4,585.00
Queries per second 28,250.00 45,850.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.95 0.66
Average Latency (ms) 3.54 2.18
Maximum Latency (ms) 32.06 97.21
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 6.32 4.91

MySQL Read/Write

Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second 1,532.00 3,152.00
Queries per second 15,320.00 31,520.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 4.34 1.31
Average Latency (ms) 6.52 3.17
Maximum Latency (ms) 35 38.87
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 10.27 6.09

MySQL INSERT

Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second 4,892.00 7,436.00
Queries per second 48,920.00 74,360.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.12 0.44
Average Latency (ms) 2.04 1.34
Maximum Latency (ms) 19.75 47.68
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 3.96 1.96

MySQL Bulk INSERT

Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second 833,039.00 2,220,467.00
Queries per second 8,330,390.00 22,204,670.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0 0
Average Latency (ms) 0.01 0
Maximum Latency (ms) 655.03 240.79
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0 0

MySQL SELECT

Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second 102,586.00 716,229.00
Queries per second 1,025,860.00 7,162,290.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.07 0.01
Average Latency (ms) 0.1 0.01
Maximum Latency (ms) 2.33 3.14
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 0.13 0.02

MySQL SELECT (Random Points)

Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second 5,155.00 8,118.00
Queries per second 51,550.00 81,180.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.65 0.23
Average Latency (ms) 1.94 1.23
Maximum Latency (ms) 10.67 12.44
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.52 1.79

MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)

Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second 5,999.00 13,131.00
Queries per second 59,990.00 131,310.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.53 0.2
Average Latency (ms) 1.67 0.76
Maximum Latency (ms) 7.75 4.01
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 2.18 1.14

MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)

Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second 3,979.00 6,728.00
Queries per second 39,790.00 67,280.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.1 0.51
Average Latency (ms) 2.51 1.48
Maximum Latency (ms) 36.68 42.6
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 4.91 2.43

MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)

Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second 4,131.00 5,255.00
Queries per second 41,310.00 52,550.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 1.21 0.51
Average Latency (ms) 2.42 1.9
Maximum Latency (ms) 24.52 42.38
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 4.91 4.18

MySQL DELETE

Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second 30,696.00 259,230.00
Queries per second 306,960.00 2,592,300.00
Minimum Latency (ms) 0.08 0.01
Average Latency (ms) 0.32 0.04
Maximum Latency (ms) 51.16 67.05
95th Percentile Latency (ms) 1.76 0.04

Redis

Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
PING_INLINE per Second 33,715.44 87,719.30
PING_MBULK per Second 35,663.34 127,064.80
SET per Second 34,602.07 104,821.80
GET per Second 37,243.95 110,375.27
INCR per Second 35,310.73 125,786.16
LPUSH per Second 35,549.23 125,944.58
RPUSH per Second 35,739.81 133,511.34
LPOP per Second 36,818.85 134,228.19
RPOP per Second 35,460.99 128,534.70
SADD per Second 36,589.83 133,689.83
HSET per Second 36,114.12 127,713.92
SPOP per Second 37,299.52 142,247.52
ZADD per Second 35,511.36 143,884.89
ZPOPMIN per Second 37,009.62 152,905.20
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second 23,986.57 77,041.60
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second 12,658.23 31,836.99
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second 8,469.55 20,064.21
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second 7,245.33 19,708.32
MSET (10 keys) per Second 32,819.17 131,061.59

Redis Average Latency (ms)

Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB) UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
PING_INLINE0.990.43
PING_MBULK0.910.26
SET0.950.32
GET0.880.30
INCR0.930.27
LPUSH0.930.27
RPUSH0.930.25
LPOP0.910.25
RPOP0.940.26
SADD0.900.25
HSET0.910.26
SPOP0.880.23
ZADD0.930.24
ZPOPMIN0.890.22
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)1.390.47
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)2.661.14
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)4.011.83
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)4.621.86
MSET (10 keys)1.060.28

Conclusion

From the friendly robots:

In comparing the benchmarks for UpCloud and Vultr's 1 GB instances, UpCloud excels in Redis benchmarks with higher RPS rates and lower latency across various operations, showcasing superior performance in memory-intensive tasks. Vultr, while slightly cheaper, lags behind in both Redis and MySQL benchmarks, with higher latencies and lower throughput in file I/O operations. UpCloud's AMD EPYC processor, despite being part of a more expensive package, offers a more balanced performance, making it ideal for applications that demand high I/O speeds and low latency, such as web servers, database management systems, and real-time analytics. On the other hand, Vultr's instance might suffice for cost-sensitive applications with less demanding 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.

You can also support me directly by buying me a coffee.