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VPS Showdown - May 2021 - DigitalOcean vs. Lightsail vs. Linode vs. UpCloud vs. Vultr
Switching things up a small bit this month. Last month, I had introduced a "$6
VPS Showdown" as a separate post alongside my existing $5 post. This was all
well and good, but best as I can figure, there's no reason to have them split
out, as most folks probably want to see all of the data.
That said, I still think it's important to only compare similarly priced plans,
so you won't see the $5 and $6 instances directly compared with each other.
Instead, I've included both price points with their own sections. To make things
easier, you can simply jump down to either the $5 VPS
Showdown or the $6 VPS Showdown.
As per usual, I've spun up 3 instances with each provider (and their respective
price points). Each instance is running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and where applicable,
the results have been averaged to give you a general sense of performance.
$5 VPS Showdown
Overview
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
Location
New York 1
Virginia, Zone A
Newark, NJ
US-NYC1
New York (NJ)
Distro
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Kernel
5.4.0
5.4.0
5.4.0
5.4.0
5.4.0
MySQL
8.0.23
8.0.23
8.0.23
8.0.23
8.0.23
Redis
5.0.7
5.0.7
5.0.7
5.0.7
5.0.7
Base Price
$5/month
$5/month
$5/month
$5/month
$5/month
Hourly Price
$0.007/hour
$0.007/hour
$0.0075/hour
$0.007/hour
$0.007/hour
RAM
1 GB
1 GB
1 GB
1 GB
1 GB
CPU
1 Core
1 Core
1 Core
1 Core
1 Core
Storage
25 GB
40 GB
25 GB
25 GB
25 GB
Storage Type
SSD
SSD
SSD
SSD
SSD
Transfer
1 TB
2 TB
1 TB
1 TB
1 TB
Transfer Overage
$0.01/GB
$0.09/GB
$0.01/GB
$0.01/GB
$0.01/GB
Backups
$1/month
$2/month
$2/month
$1/month
$1/month
DNS
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Firewall
Yes
Yes
in beta
Yes
Yes
Load Balancer
$10/month
$18/month
$10/month
No
$10/month
Block Storage
$0.1/GB
$0.1/GB
$0.1/GB
$0.223/GB
$0.1/GB
Object Storage
$5/month
$0.023/GB
$5/month
$5/month
$5/month
Managed Databases
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
2FA/MFA
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
One-click Apps
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Custom Images
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
Kubernetes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Container Registry
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
CPU Info
Model Name
DigitalOcean - All Instances
DO-Regular
Lightsail - All Instances
Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2676 v3 @ 2.40GHz
Linode - All Instances
AMD EPYC 7542 32-Core Processor
UpCloud - All Instances
AMD EPYC 7542 32-Core Processor
Vultr - All Instances
Intel Core Processor (Haswell, no TSX, IBRS)
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
CPU MHz
1,963.48
2,400.04
2,900.00
2,894.56
2,400.00
Cache Size (KB)
4,096.00
30,720.00
512.00
512.00
16,384.00
BogoMips
2,728.33
3,200.33
3,866.33
3,859.67
3,199.67
CPU
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
Events per Second
696.99
761.33
1,645.95
1,635.48
662.77
Minimum (ms)
1.40
1.21
0.58
0.58
1.38
Average (ms)
1.54
1.31
0.61
0.61
1.51
Maximum (ms)
5.25
6.52
3.88
1.92
11.47
Memory
Read
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
Ops per Second
3,315,175.33
527,911.12
5,250,619.35
5,398,017.24
3,069,091.88
Minimum (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
Average (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
Maximum (ms)
2.06
0.17
2.60
0.27
3.13
Write
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
Ops per Second
3,510,497.08
526,812.88
5,190,983.92
5,371,477.25
2,987,360.95
Minimum (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
Average (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
Maximum (ms)
1.57
0.22
3.53
0.67
7.16
File I/O
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
Reads per Second
1,356.06
817.80
2,338.31
2,662.30
1,365.83
Writes per Second
904.00
545.19
1,558.83
1,774.87
910.54
Fsyncs per Second
2,901.01
1,748.91
4,997.20
5,690.37
2,920.50
Minimum (ms)
0.01
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
Average (ms)
0.23
0.32
0.11
0.10
0.20
Maximum (ms)
13.65
41.22
58.19
133.30
12.32
MySQL
Read Only
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
Transactions per Second
4,643.00
5,176.33
8,094.67
8,858.00
3,591.00
Queries per Second
74,288.00
82,821.33
129,514.67
141,728.00
57,456.00
Minimum (ms)
1.92
1.68
0.93
0.90
1.92
Average (ms)
2.49
1.93
1.24
1.13
2.78
Maximum (ms)
22.30
27.02
110.35
7.48
14.27
Write Only
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
Transactions per Second
2,239.00
1,442.00
6,969.00
4,641.67
2,090.33
Queries per Second
13,434.00
8,652.00
41,814.00
27,850.00
12,542.00
Minimum (ms)
2.44
3.41
0.66
1.22
2.07
Average (ms)
6.18
6.96
1.44
2.15
4.78
Maximum (ms)
35.41
59.37
53.52
14.84
31.35
Read Write
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
Transactions per Second
1,309.00
1,032.67
3,104.00
2,686.00
1,058.33
Queries per Second
26,180.00
20,653.33
62,080.00
53,720.00
21,166.67
Minimum (ms)
5.98
5.85
1.80
2.34
5.30
Average (ms)
10.84
9.68
3.22
3.72
9.44
Maximum (ms)
50.35
128.18
58.93
19.18
41.61
Redis
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
PING_INLINE
34,158.97
45,581.01
95,575.44
93,880.35
27,927.56
PING_BULK
35,171.11
45,767.07
88,335.55
84,351.31
26,515.50
SET
35,504.24
46,062.45
96,692.92
95,391.84
28,560.04
GET
35,372.77
45,934.79
90,543.39
90,336.09
28,457.47
INCR
34,702.08
45,823.12
94,885.24
93,927.28
27,844.39
LPUSH
36,272.62
46,097.12
85,201.26
91,759.09
30,956.17
RPUSH
36,288.41
46,133.48
87,854.16
90,311.62
30,174.17
LPOP
36,228.73
46,282.36
85,161.00
89,588.37
29,930.76
RPOP
37,447.90
46,007.52
88,155.76
93,205.77
28,717.52
SADD
35,859.08
45,942.80
94,588.94
90,279.98
27,963.67
HSET
37,568.88
46,168.76
85,945.16
89,156.58
28,150.19
SPOP
36,388.22
46,020.70
93,958.80
89,820.91
27,934.61
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)
24,164.89
29,911.32
36,566.38
37,671.70
19,458.95
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)
9,681.56
13,074.87
11,383.59
18,431.89
7,953.20
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)
6,629.92
9,427.29
8,560.18
11,761.22
5,994.16
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)
5,493.09
7,705.43
7,192.11
9,504.71
4,714.00
MSET (10 keys)
33,405.66
38,159.56
48,219.36
45,518.23
21,873.29
$6 VPS Showdown
Overview
DigitalOcean - Premium Intel
DigitalOcean - Premium AMD
Vultr - High Frequency
Location
New York 1
New York 1
New York (NJ)
Distro
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Kernel
5.4.0
5.4.0
5.4.0
MySQL
8.0.23
8.0.23
8.0.23
Redis
5.0.7
5.0.7
5.0.7
Base Price
$6/month
$6/month
$6/month
Hourly Price
$0.009/hour
$0.009/hour
$0.009/hour
RAM
1 GB
1 GB
1 GB
CPU
1 Core
1 Core
1 Core
Storage
25 GB
25 GB
25 GB
Storage Type
NVMe
NVMe
NVMe
Transfer
1 TB
1 TB
1 TB
Transfer Overage
$0.01/GB
$0.01/GB
$0.01/GB
Backups
$1.2/month
$1.2/month
$1.2/month
DNS
Yes
Yes
Yes
Firewall
Yes
Yes
Yes
Load Balancer
$10/month
$10/month
$10/month
Block Storage
$0.1/GB
$0.1/GB
$0.1/GB
Object Storage
$5/month
$5/month
$5/month
Managed Databases
Yes
Yes
No
2FA/MFA
Yes
Yes
Yes
One-click Apps
Yes
Yes
Yes
Custom Images
Yes
Yes
Yes
Kubernetes
Yes
Yes
No
Container Registry
Yes
Yes
No
CPU Info
Model Name
DigitalOcean - Premium Intel - All Instances
DO-Premium-Intel
DigitalOcean - Premium AMD - All Instances
DO-Premium-AMD
Vultr - High Frequency - All Instances
Intel Core Processor (Skylake, IBRS)
DigitalOcean - Premium Intel
DigitalOcean - Premium AMD
Vultr - High Frequency
CPU MHz
2,494.13
2,000.00
3,696.00
Cache Size (KB)
4,096.00
512.00
16,384.00
BogoMips
3,325.67
2,666.33
4,928.33
CPU
DigitalOcean - Premium Intel
DigitalOcean - Premium AMD
Vultr - High Frequency
Events per Second
868.63
1,229.89
1,444.94
Minimum (ms)
0.96
0.65
0.64
Average (ms)
1.16
0.81
0.69
Maximum (ms)
7.64
5.18
3.75
Memory
Read
DigitalOcean - Premium Intel
DigitalOcean - Premium AMD
Vultr - High Frequency
Ops per Second
4,032,827.03
3,554,174.05
6,803,441.34
Minimum (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
Average (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
Maximum (ms)
0.29
2.96
0.28
Write
DigitalOcean - Premium Intel
DigitalOcean - Premium AMD
Vultr - High Frequency
Ops per Second
3,948,708.68
3,515,080.73
6,751,933.46
Minimum (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
Average (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
Maximum (ms)
0.85
0.35
0.23
File I/O
DigitalOcean - Premium Intel
DigitalOcean - Premium AMD
Vultr - High Frequency
Reads per Second
1,832.24
1,754.21
4,869.97
Writes per Second
1,221.50
1,169.47
3,246.61
Fsyncs per Second
3,915.21
3,747.21
10,399.57
Minimum (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
Average (ms)
0.14
0.16
0.05
Maximum (ms)
16.29
12.17
5.91
MySQL
Read Only
DigitalOcean - Premium Intel
DigitalOcean - Premium AMD
Vultr - High Frequency
Transactions per Second
4,520.00
4,936.00
8,618.33
Queries per Second
72,320.00
78,976.00
137,893.33
Minimum (ms)
1.54
1.26
0.84
Average (ms)
2.25
2.03
1.16
Maximum (ms)
12.83
13.37
10.00
Write Only
DigitalOcean - Premium Intel
DigitalOcean - Premium AMD
Vultr - High Frequency
Transactions per Second
2,620.33
3,804.67
8,990.67
Queries per Second
15,722.00
22,828.00
53,944.00
Minimum (ms)
1.50
0.89
0.53
Average (ms)
3.97
2.79
1.12
Maximum (ms)
25.94
29.24
11.03
Read Write
DigitalOcean - Premium Intel
DigitalOcean - Premium AMD
Vultr - High Frequency
Transactions per Second
1,254.33
1,690.00
3,528.67
Queries per Second
25,086.67
33,800.00
70,573.33
Minimum (ms)
4.11
2.63
1.68
Average (ms)
8.02
6.11
2.86
Maximum (ms)
30.62
39.07
15.06
Redis
DigitalOcean - Premium Intel
DigitalOcean - Premium AMD
Vultr - High Frequency
PING_INLINE
29,871.99
63,126.30
57,486.09
PING_BULK
30,250.42
59,998.44
57,772.40
SET
30,594.50
64,297.83
59,630.48
GET
30,074.63
61,978.92
59,209.70
INCR
31,286.54
63,492.01
58,580.68
LPUSH
35,215.61
60,764.37
61,294.53
RPUSH
34,281.56
63,075.04
57,103.91
LPOP
33,903.54
60,858.60
57,033.13
RPOP
35,265.89
62,998.84
57,504.45
SADD
35,881.75
63,127.90
60,220.60
HSET
37,409.87
60,345.44
60,581.80
SPOP
34,674.72
60,710.17
55,281.25
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)
22,984.12
28,873.73
39,431.25
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)
9,573.41
10,361.22
16,499.61
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)
6,939.46
7,113.84
11,677.03
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)
5,370.87
5,468.40
9,763.26
MSET (10 keys)
30,383.42
32,822.84
50,799.39
Conclusion
At the $5 price point, Linode and UpCloud are really starting to give each other
a run for their money while Vultr is continuing to shine at the premium price
point.
As always, your mileage may vary, so it's always best to factor in your own
needs and even run your own benchmarks yourself. If you happened to find this
post helpful in your quest for a new hosting provider, please use one of my
referral links below.
If you have found these posts informative and helpful in searching for a new
hosting provider, please consider using one of the links below when signing up:
DigitalOcean, new accounts receive $200 in credit (good for 60 days)
Linode, new accounts receive $100 in credit (also good for 60 days)
UpCloud, new accounts receive €25 in credit (yes, that’s in Euros)
Vultr, new accounts also receive $100 in credit (good for only 14 days)
