Have had some requests for some comparisons of different plans (like the
dedicated CPU offerings) and different price points, but considering it’s the
last month of the quarter, I figured I would just stay the course and stick to
the same comparisons as I’ve done the past few months. Next month though,
probably going to venture into those higher price points.
As with previous months, I’ve spun up 3 instances of the different servers with
each provider in or around the New York / Newark area. All instances are running
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, and the results have been averaged where applicable.
$5 VPS Showdown – DigitalOcean vs. Lightsail vs. Linode vs. UpCloud vs. Vultr
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 | 8.0.25 | 8.0.25 | 8.0.25 | 8.0.25 | 8.0.25 |
| 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 7601 32-Core Processor |
| UpCloud – All Instances | AMD EPYC 7542 32-Core Processor |
| Vultr – All Instances | Intel Xeon Processor (Cascadelake) |
| DigitalOcean | Lightsail | Linode | UpCloud | Vultr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU MHz | 1,799.30 | 2,400.07 | 2,199.99 | 2,894.56 | 2,992.97 |
| Cache Size (KB) | 4,096.00 | 30,720.00 | 512.00 | 512.00 | 16,384.00 |
| BogoMips | 2,398.33 | 3,200.33 | 2,933.00 | 3,859.67 | 3,990.33 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean | Lightsail | Linode | UpCloud | Vultr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Events per Second | 579.50 | 765.17 | 1,282.51 | 1,644.29 | 1,159.35 |
| Minimum (ms) | 1.66 | 1.24 | 0.74 | 0.58 | 0.83 |
| Average (ms) | 1.72 | 1.31 | 0.78 | 0.61 | 0.86 |
| Maximum (ms) | 3.43 | 1.97 | 7.46 | 1.50 | 3.07 |
Memory
Read
| DigitalOcean | Lightsail | Linode | UpCloud | Vultr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ops per Second | 3,028,796.46 | 528,470.08 | 3,855,375.89 | 5,313,943.65 | 5,225,973.84 |
| 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) | 1.77 | 0.83 | 4.58 | 0.21 | 3.20 |
Write
| DigitalOcean | Lightsail | Linode | UpCloud | Vultr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ops per Second | 3,051,791.86 | 527,556.99 | 3,791,851.61 | 5,362,736.68 | 5,350,339.20 |
| 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) | 0.45 | 1.44 | 4.66 | 2.48 | 0.69 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean | Lightsail | Linode | UpCloud | Vultr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 1,557.14 | 733.52 | 1,746.47 | 2,590.50 | 4,491.28 |
| Writes per Second | 1,038.08 | 489.00 | 1,164.29 | 1,726.96 | 2,994.14 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 3,331.27 | 1,571.30 | 3,734.90 | 5,532.60 | 9,584.67 |
| Minimum (ms) | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Average (ms) | 0.20 | 0.39 | 0.15 | 0.10 | 0.06 |
| Maximum (ms) | 6.71 | 25.04 | 18.21 | 136.05 | 4.45 |
MySQL
Read Only
| DigitalOcean | Lightsail | Linode | UpCloud | Vultr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transactions per Second | 3,621.67 | 4,836.00 | 4,471.33 | 8,655.33 | 7,433.67 |
| Queries per Second | 57,946.67 | 77,376.00 | 71,541.33 | 138,485.33 | 118,938.67 |
| Minimum (ms) | 2.33 | 1.73 | 1.73 | 0.90 | 1.12 |
| Average (ms) | 2.76 | 2.08 | 2.23 | 1.15 | 1.35 |
| Maximum (ms) | 16.87 | 94.36 | 17.01 | 7.20 | 8.78 |
Write Only
| DigitalOcean | Lightsail | Linode | UpCloud | Vultr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transactions per Second | 2,433.33 | 1,289.33 | 3,321.67 | 4,055.33 | 9,340.00 |
| Queries per Second | 14,600.00 | 7,736.00 | 19,930.00 | 24,332.00 | 56,040.00 |
| Minimum (ms) | 2.38 | 3.99 | 1.30 | 1.36 | 0.64 |
| Average (ms) | 5.05 | 7.85 | 3.09 | 2.46 | 1.07 |
| Maximum (ms) | 22.36 | 53.49 | 37.00 | 67.87 | 9.93 |
Read Write
| DigitalOcean | Lightsail | Linode | UpCloud | Vultr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transactions per Second | 1,110.00 | 961.00 | 1,559.67 | 2,433.00 | 3,517.67 |
| Queries per Second | 22,200.00 | 19,220.00 | 31,193.33 | 48,660.00 | 70,353.33 |
| Minimum (ms) | 6.19 | 5.86 | 3.70 | 2.53 | 1.93 |
| Average (ms) | 10.17 | 10.55 | 6.42 | 4.11 | 2.84 |
| Maximum (ms) | 37.61 | 153.69 | 37.23 | 18.52 | 13.85 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean | Lightsail | Linode | UpCloud | Vultr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 31,321.81 | 45,279.26 | 53,038.87 | 91,612.89 | 54,399.38 |
| PING_BULK | 31,388.09 | 45,579.10 | 48,817.15 | 85,102.33 | 54,122.74 |
| SET | 31,746.21 | 45,676.67 | 54,116.46 | 93,236.28 | 53,711.57 |
| GET | 31,212.82 | 45,404.39 | 49,745.06 | 91,722.67 | 54,161.61 |
| INCR | 31,028.71 | 45,615.99 | 52,427.04 | 93,392.34 | 52,833.81 |
| LPUSH | 32,804.12 | 46,144.24 | 50,364.47 | 94,858.82 | 54,919.74 |
| RPUSH | 32,215.59 | 45,649.88 | 53,942.99 | 96,094.63 | 55,508.63 |
| LPOP | 31,792.49 | 45,779.14 | 51,078.38 | 95,333.75 | 56,160.31 |
| RPOP | 31,961.26 | 45,785.96 | 53,176.69 | 95,541.77 | 55,650.24 |
| SADD | 31,447.43 | 45,781.99 | 52,482.62 | 93,387.17 | 54,817.13 |
| HSET | 33,573.78 | 45,402.24 | 50,972.40 | 95,423.15 | 55,487.93 |
| SPOP | 31,178.13 | 45,168.32 | 51,004.89 | 90,492.90 | 53,441.03 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 21,667.77 | 29,715.84 | 25,226.33 | 32,915.21 | 35,981.83 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 8,752.40 | 13,050.86 | 8,052.69 | 12,226.61 | 14,981.38 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 6,225.06 | 9,497.50 | 5,757.70 | 9,049.19 | 11,589.24 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 4,692.28 | 7,725.40 | 4,715.61 | 7,205.90 | 9,426.26 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 24,675.52 | 37,482.70 | 25,601.50 | 47,373.31 | 48,912.94 |
$6 VPS Showdown – DigitalOcean – Premium Intel vs. DigitalOcean – Premium AMD vs. Vultr – High Frequency6 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 | 2,494.11 | 2,000.00 | 3,800.02 |
| Cache Size (KB) | 4,096.00 | 512.00 | 16,384.00 |
| BogoMips | 3,325.67 | 2,666.33 | 5,135.67 |
CPU
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD | Vultr – High Frequency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Events per Second | 703.82 | 1,304.16 | 1,201.75 |
| Minimum (ms) | 1.00 | 0.69 | 0.80 |
| Average (ms) | 1.42 | 0.77 | 0.83 |
| Maximum (ms) | 12.55 | 3.10 | 1.74 |
Memory
Read
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD | Vultr – High Frequency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ops per Second | 3,040,001.26 | 4,150,398.70 | 5,640,276.75 |
| Minimum (ms) | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Average (ms) | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Maximum (ms) | 9.83 | 0.43 | 0.35 |
Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD | Vultr – High Frequency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ops per Second | 3,015,517.11 | 4,149,695.06 | 5,713,067.62 |
| Minimum (ms) | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Average (ms) | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Maximum (ms) | 7.27 | 1.60 | 0.32 |
File I/O
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD | Vultr – High Frequency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reads per Second | 904.49 | 1,781.14 | 4,364.67 |
| Writes per Second | 602.99 | 1,187.43 | 2,909.78 |
| Fsyncs per Second | 1,930.94 | 3,803.58 | 9,316.09 |
| Minimum (ms) | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Average (ms) | 0.31 | 0.15 | 0.06 |
| Maximum (ms) | 106.09 | 11.52 | 4.41 |
MySQL
Read Only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD | Vultr – High Frequency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transactions per Second | 3,406.00 | 5,740.33 | 8,126.67 |
| Queries per Second | 54,496.00 | 91,845.33 | 130,026.67 |
| Minimum (ms) | 1.89 | 1.36 | 1.01 |
| Average (ms) | 2.93 | 1.75 | 1.23 |
| Maximum (ms) | 27.19 | 10.97 | 7.90 |
Write Only
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD | Vultr – High Frequency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transactions per Second | 1,019.00 | 4,211.67 | 8,680.00 |
| Queries per Second | 6,114.00 | 25,270.00 | 52,080.00 |
| Minimum (ms) | 2.34 | 0.99 | 0.66 |
| Average (ms) | 10.03 | 2.37 | 1.16 |
| Maximum (ms) | 56.10 | 17.24 | 9.28 |
Read Write
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD | Vultr – High Frequency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transactions per Second | 754.67 | 2,004.67 | 3,499.33 |
| Queries per Second | 15,093.33 | 40,093.33 | 69,986.67 |
| Minimum (ms) | 5.25 | 2.81 | 1.94 |
| Average (ms) | 13.44 | 5.03 | 2.87 |
| Maximum (ms) | 65.62 | 24.73 | 17.20 |
Redis
| DigitalOcean – Premium Intel | DigitalOcean – Premium AMD | Vultr – High Frequency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| PING_INLINE | 27,926.22 | 74,406.33 | 55,053.49 |
| PING_BULK | 26,319.03 | 69,982.68 | 53,894.11 |
| SET | 26,923.84 | 76,226.10 | 55,691.13 |
| GET | 27,076.41 | 74,713.18 | 55,566.06 |
| INCR | 26,662.02 | 75,894.22 | 55,948.75 |
| LPUSH | 27,441.24 | 67,680.69 | 57,828.93 |
| RPUSH | 27,875.79 | 69,406.69 | 57,446.24 |
| LPOP | 28,045.12 | 69,109.52 | 57,619.54 |
| RPOP | 27,042.15 | 67,764.32 | 57,746.11 |
| SADD | 27,292.80 | 72,691.74 | 56,198.25 |
| HSET | 26,637.65 | 66,209.80 | 57,122.93 |
| SPOP | 27,099.96 | 74,334.34 | 54,609.27 |
| LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements) | 15,903.82 | 32,205.84 | 38,706.26 |
| LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements) | 7,182.29 | 12,373.71 | 16,072.82 |
| LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements) | 5,145.26 | 8,235.09 | 11,018.43 |
| LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements) | 4,161.05 | 6,591.25 | 8,825.60 |
| MSET (10 keys) | 19,609.74 | 37,835.20 | 48,745.51 |
Conclusion
This month is interesting as it really felt like the results were a bit more all
of the place than they have been in recent months. As always, these results are
just my findings, and it’s always good to do your own exploration, and factor in
the needs of your website or application into the decision of which VPS provider
you should go with.
That said, if you did find this post helpful and you are going to pull the
trigger on a new hosting provider, it would be fantastic if you’d use one of my
referral links below!
