Vultr Cloud Compute (1 GB) vs. UpCloud Balanced (1 GB)
Same showdown, different day. Today I spun up fresh instances from UpCloud and Vultr and did some benchmarking. All instances were running Ubuntu 26.04 LTS x64 and all resided in or around the New York / New Jersey area. Let's get into the numbers.
Overview
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Last Benchmarked
Tue, 01 Sep 2026 05:03:03 GMT
Tue, 01 Sep 2026 05:02:17 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
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
Head-to-head
Category winners from the latest benchmarks.
Category
Winner
CPU (events/sec)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Memory (read MiB/s)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Disk I/O (MiB/s)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Redis (GET/sec)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Value (CPU events per $/mo)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB) takes 5 of 5 categories.
CPU
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Vendor
GenuineIntel
AuthenticAMD
Model Name
Intel Core Processor (Broadwell, no TSX, IBRS)
AMD EPYC 9575F 64-Core Processor
Clock Speed (MHz)
2,400.00
3,295.48
CPU Cache Size (KB)
16,384.00
512.00
BogoMips
4,799.99
6,590.95
Events per Second
747.20
4,898.03
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.23
0.18
Average Latency (ms)
1.34
0.2
Maximum Latency (ms)
4.19
7.04
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1.61
0.24
Memory
Memory Read
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Operations per second
3,468,220.65
7,698,703.48
Mebibytes per second
3,386.93
7,518.27
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
2.53
0.28
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
Memory Write
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Operations per second
3,710,866.55
7,771,474.55
Mebibytes per second
3,623.89
7,589.33
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
0.76
0.27
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
File I/O
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Reads per Second
1,891.00
3,874.04
Writes per Second
1,260.60
2,582.69
Fsyncs per Second
4,039.68
8,274.31
Read Mebibytes per Second
29.55
60.53
Written Mebibytes per Second
19.70
40.35
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.14
0.07
Maximum Latency (ms)
6.15
29.08
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.33
0.21
Mutex
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Minimum Latency (ms)
2,212.92
1,206.99
Average Latency (ms)
2,218.18
1,212.44
Maximum Latency (ms)
2,222.25
1,217.09
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2,238.47
1,213.57
MySQL
MySQL Read-only
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
4,645.00
0.00
Queries per second
46,450.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.76
0
Average Latency (ms)
2.15
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
6.84
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.97
0
MySQL Write-only
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
3,815.00
0.00
Queries per second
38,150.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.64
0
Average Latency (ms)
2.62
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
21.48
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
3.55
0
MySQL Read/Write
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
1,258.00
0.00
Queries per second
12,580.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
3.82
0
Average Latency (ms)
7.94
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
2585.43
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
8.58
0
MySQL INSERT
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
4,318.00
0.00
Queries per second
43,180.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.13
0
Average Latency (ms)
2.31
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
41.5
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
4.18
0
MySQL Bulk INSERT
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
800,273.00
0.00
Queries per second
8,002,730.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.01
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
573.78
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0
0
MySQL SELECT
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
99,416.00
0.00
Queries per second
994,160.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.07
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.1
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
3.29
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
0.15
0
MySQL SELECT (Random Points)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
3,664.00
0.00
Queries per second
36,640.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.6
0
Average Latency (ms)
2.73
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
10.72
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
4.25
0
MySQL SELECT (Random Ranges)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
5,031.00
0.00
Queries per second
50,310.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.67
0
Average Latency (ms)
1.98
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
12.72
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
3.25
0
MySQL UPDATE (Indexed)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
5,894.00
0.00
Queries per second
58,940.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.05
0
Average Latency (ms)
1.69
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
17.67
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.39
0
MySQL UPDATE (Non-Indexed)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
5,867.00
0.00
Queries per second
58,670.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
1.04
0
Average Latency (ms)
1.7
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
10.56
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
2.48
0
MySQL DELETE
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
Transactions per second
27,369.00
0.00
Queries per second
273,690.00
0.00
Minimum Latency (ms)
0.07
0
Average Latency (ms)
0.36
0
Maximum Latency (ms)
22.97
0
95th Percentile Latency (ms)
1.86
0
Redis
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
PING_INLINE per Second
29,316.92
36,589.83
PING_MBULK per Second
27,233.12
50,301.81
SET per Second
23,980.81
53,191.49
GET per Second
27,925.16
54,200.54
INCR per Second
29,316.92
53,219.80
LPUSH per Second
26,260.50
54,644.81
RPUSH per Second
27,292.58
53,163.21
LPOP per Second
28,810.14
54,525.63
RPOP per Second
27,517.89
55,218.11
SADD per Second
28,776.98
52,438.39
HSET per Second
28,490.03
54,704.60
SPOP per Second
25,746.65
54,704.60
ZADD per Second
27,987.69
56,116.72
ZPOPMIN per Second
28,176.95
51,572.98
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) per Second
20,345.88
44,722.72
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) per Second
10,920.61
27,886.22
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) per Second
7,457.12
21,862.70
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) per Second
7,261.64
17,173.28
MSET (10 keys) per Second
29,188.56
52,438.39
Redis Average Latency (ms)
Vultr – Cloud Compute (1 GB)
UpCloud – Balanced (1 GB)
PING_INLINE
1.04
0.90
PING_MBULK
1.10
0.58
SET
1.29
0.57
GET
1.08
0.55
INCR
1.03
0.56
LPUSH
1.17
0.56
RPUSH
1.12
0.57
LPOP
1.07
0.57
RPOP
1.11
0.56
SADD
1.05
0.57
HSET
1.07
0.55
SPOP
1.18
0.54
ZADD
1.09
0.55
ZPOPMIN
1.07
0.58
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)
1.57
0.73
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)
2.84
1.15
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)
3.99
1.47
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)
4.07
1.84
MSET (10 keys)
1.15
0.67
Conclusion
From the friendly robots:
Based on the benchmark results, the UpCloud Balanced (1 GB) instance outperforms the Vultr Cloud Compute (1 GB) instance in both Redis and CPU benchmarks. The UpCloud instance achieves higher RPS rates across various Redis commands, such as 54200.54 RPS for GET compared to Vultr's 27925.16 RPS, and significantly lower latencies, with Vultr averaging around 1.1 ms more per command. The UpCloud instance also records better CPU performance, evident from its higher events per second (4898.03 vs. 747.2) and lower average latency (0.2 ms vs. 1.34 ms). Therefore, the UpCloud instance is better suited for CPU-intensive and high-throughput use cases, while the Vultr instance may be more appropriate for budget-conscious users prioritizing cost over raw performance.
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.
