It’s that time again! Been extremely busy on my end, so it’s more of the same at the moment in terms of what’s covered.
Something notable that I had missed last month is that UpCloud is now offering managed database hosting along with their VPS and other products (block and object storage). In terms of product offering, UpCloud seems to be positioning themselves similarly to DigitalOcean. Hopefully Linode will drop their managed database offering soon as well!
At the moment, I’m not doing any sort of benchmarks of managed databases, or storage options, but as more providers are offering them, it’s only a matter of time before I try to work them in.
As always, for this post I spun up 3 server instances with each of the providers for each of the price points / server instance types. Each instance is in or around the New York area, running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, and the results are 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
8.0.26
8.0.26
8.0.26
8.0.26
8.0.26
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
Yes
No
2FA/MFA
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
One-click Apps
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Custom Images
Yes
No
Yes
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 – Instance #1
AMD EPYC 7601 32-Core Processor
Linode – Instance #2
AMD EPYC 7601 32-Core Processor
Linode – Instance #3
AMD EPYC 7542 32-Core Processor
UpCloud – All Instances
AMD EPYC 7542 32-Core Processor
Vultr – Instance #1
Intel Core Processor (Haswell, no TSX, IBRS)
Vultr – Instance #2
Intel Core Processor (Broadwell, no TSX, IBRS)
Vultr – Instance #3
Intel Core Processor (Broadwell, no TSX, IBRS)
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
CPU MHz
2,164.71
2,400.04
2,433.32
2,894.56
2,400.01
Cache Size (KB)
4,096.00
30,720.00
512.00
512.00
16,384.00
BogoMips
3,129.33
3,200.33
3,399.67
3,859.67
3,200.00
CPU
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
Events per Second
747.89
757.23
1,387.23
1,633.55
678.68
Minimum (ms)
1.28
1.26
0.69
0.58
1.24
Average (ms)
1.41
1.32
0.73
0.61
1.48
Maximum (ms)
5.38
15.85
5.58
2.19
14.78
Memory
Read
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
Ops per Second
3,380,952.96
524,143.88
4,225,085.70
5,424,861.11
3,183,969.58
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)
2.86
1.67
5.08
0.24
8.49
Write
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
Ops per Second
3,285,602.14
523,789.84
4,128,127.17
5,440,134.12
2,922,177.40
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)
0.50
1.63
5.22
1.53
9.20
File I/O
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
Reads per Second
1,314.50
886.07
2,456.45
2,603.93
1,220.54
Writes per Second
876.31
590.70
1,637.61
1,735.94
813.68
Fsyncs per Second
2,807.43
1,898.01
5,250.37
5,560.02
2,611.70
Minimum (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
Average (ms)
0.22
0.30
0.13
0.10
0.23
Maximum (ms)
46.46
11.37
40.37
4.90
21.40
MySQL
Read Only
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
Transactions per Second
3,763.00
4,835.00
5,439.00
8,785.00
3,346.67
Queries per Second
60,208.00
77,360.00
87,024.00
140,560.00
53,546.67
Minimum (ms)
1.96
1.78
1.54
0.92
1.82
Average (ms)
2.92
2.07
2.14
1.14
3.07
Maximum (ms)
15.89
31.22
20.88
6.15
31.22
Write Only
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
Transactions per Second
2,442.67
1,515.00
4,498.67
3,938.33
2,007.67
Queries per Second
14,656.00
9,090.00
26,992.00
23,630.00
12,046.00
Minimum (ms)
1.74
3.44
1.19
1.38
1.76
Average (ms)
4.78
6.60
2.79
2.54
5.33
Maximum (ms)
44.63
43.49
79.63
14.16
40.89
Read Write
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
Transactions per Second
1,081.33
1,072.33
1,950.00
2,550.67
1,168.33
Queries per Second
21,626.67
21,446.67
39,000.00
51,013.33
23,366.67
Minimum (ms)
4.85
5.54
3.51
2.49
4.44
Average (ms)
10.25
9.34
6.30
3.92
8.67
Maximum (ms)
148.45
95.48
43.69
19.25
46.86
Redis
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
PING_INLINE
33,889.92
45,641.61
65,578.49
97,093.48
24,918.57
PING_BULK
30,180.68
45,762.20
59,109.29
91,254.88
26,119.91
SET
33,428.57
45,968.17
63,904.73
97,923.86
29,481.21
GET
31,707.36
45,699.96
62,604.12
95,743.29
30,559.63
INCR
33,380.57
45,817.69
63,740.64
98,196.74
29,976.92
LPUSH
34,098.85
46,154.53
51,301.34
92,984.65
32,165.27
RPUSH
33,994.59
45,394.09
58,265.23
94,169.08
26,538.46
LPOP
30,228.60
46,037.01
57,973.10
94,178.12
28,646.03
RPOP
31,716.22
45,931.48
60,829.32
96,495.35
30,499.68
SADD
31,847.63
45,779.54
65,301.82
98,947.01
30,171.54
HSET
33,427.71
46,108.02
58,450.81
90,688.01
31,115.74
SPOP
31,280.50
45,902.48
62,553.73
92,627.36
29,736.13
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)
19,692.46
29,476.16
25,105.66
37,220.57
16,533.61
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)
8,288.01
12,952.61
8,815.29
11,423.61
8,113.43
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)
6,366.42
7,355.17
6,352.32
9,007.23
5,682.81
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)
4,954.29
7,647.08
5,236.89
7,399.72
4,442.71
MSET (10 keys)
25,143.52
37,807.54
29,731.07
48,960.45
19,897.51
$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
8.0.26
8.0.26
8.0.26
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
1,999.98
3,696.03
Cache Size (KB)
4,096.00
512.00
16,384.00
BogoMips
3,325.67
2,666.33
4,928.00
CPU
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel
DigitalOcean – Premium AMD
Vultr – High Frequency
Events per Second
1,014.71
1,389.73
1,190.38
Minimum (ms)
0.95
0.64
0.82
Average (ms)
0.98
0.72
0.84
Maximum (ms)
1.98
2.00
3.23
Memory
Read
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel
DigitalOcean – Premium AMD
Vultr – High Frequency
Ops per Second
4,637,948.26
4,373,115.32
5,666,726.41
Minimum (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
Average (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
Maximum (ms)
1.49
1.48
0.18
Write
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel
DigitalOcean – Premium AMD
Vultr – High Frequency
Ops per Second
4,556,453.67
4,424,005.85
5,676,311.45
Minimum (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
Average (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
Maximum (ms)
0.33
1.57
0.19
File I/O
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel
DigitalOcean – Premium AMD
Vultr – High Frequency
Reads per Second
2,064.73
1,814.94
4,630.33
Writes per Second
1,376.49
1,209.94
3,086.87
Fsyncs per Second
4,407.83
3,877.79
9,883.13
Minimum (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
Average (ms)
0.13
0.14
0.06
Maximum (ms)
17.79
10.26
3.30
MySQL
Read Only
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel
DigitalOcean – Premium AMD
Vultr – High Frequency
Transactions per Second
6,759.33
5,603.67
8,230.33
Queries per Second
108,149.33
89,658.67
131,685.33
Minimum (ms)
1.19
1.34
1.05
Average (ms)
1.48
1.80
1.21
Maximum (ms)
10.74
10.00
9.02
Write Only
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel
DigitalOcean – Premium AMD
Vultr – High Frequency
Transactions per Second
4,199.67
3,989.33
9,051.00
Queries per Second
25,198.00
23,936.00
54,306.00
Minimum (ms)
0.92
0.97
0.64
Average (ms)
2.41
2.52
1.11
Maximum (ms)
35.52
28.35
8.00
Read Write
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel
DigitalOcean – Premium AMD
Vultr – High Frequency
Transactions per Second
1,895.00
1,779.00
3,629.00
Queries per Second
37,900.00
35,580.00
72,580.00
Minimum (ms)
2.78
3.07
1.95
Average (ms)
5.29
5.65
2.76
Maximum (ms)
28.40
24.40
15.23
Redis
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel
DigitalOcean – Premium AMD
Vultr – High Frequency
PING_INLINE
48,896.24
72,865.45
58,318.89
PING_BULK
48,205.10
69,670.99
57,219.60
SET
49,447.03
69,459.65
57,952.57
GET
48,881.95
74,505.11
56,980.32
INCR
49,535.29
75,156.46
58,164.65
LPUSH
50,238.27
62,164.98
59,562.19
RPUSH
49,056.47
65,504.12
59,419.26
LPOP
46,836.13
66,430.65
59,727.67
RPOP
46,094.68
68,510.71
59,457.98
SADD
47,890.99
77,081.70
58,298.11
HSET
50,070.68
64,864.00
60,661.98
SPOP
48,165.59
71,700.96
57,158.15
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)
32,096.40
32,816.66
39,683.80
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)
13,309.17
12,245.98
16,478.80
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)
9,487.99
8,171.39
11,110.74
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)
7,876.34
6,697.81
9,281.92
MSET (10 keys)
40,195.91
38,049.76
48,248.26
Conclusion
Fairly consistent with previous months, with UpCloud dominating most of the benchmarks for the standard (five dollar) instances and Vultr doing the same for the premium (six dollar) instances.
Obviously these benchmarks are my own and YMMV so you should factor in yourapplication’s needs and even run your own benchmarks before choosing a provider. Also, I still recommend spinning up a few instances with a provider to ensure you get the latest and greatest CPU offering they have. Seems like this isn’t usually the case these days, but I personally wouldn’t risk it.
If you found these benchmarks helpful and they helped you to find a new hosting home, 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)
Vultr, new accounts also receive $100 in credit (good for only 14 days)
UpCloud, new accounts receive €25 in credit (yes, that’s in Euros)
