Q4 is upon us! I’ve been busy moving recently, so I’ve admittedly not been as on top of the VPS news (or my Twitter account) in the last few weeks.
That being said, it looks like Lightsail is not offering container hosting, which I’m assuming is a bit more inline with their ECS/Fargate offering, but at first glance, seemed almost like a “Kubernetes Lite”. Seems worth exploring if you’re looking for a bit more of a managed container hosting than VPS provider.
As per the usual, this month, I spun up three instances for each provider and price point. All of them are running the latest LTS release of Ubuntu, 20.04, and the results were averaged together 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
in beta
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 7542 32-Core Processor
Linode – Instance #3
AMD EPYC 7601 32-Core Processor
UpCloud – All Instances
AMD EPYC 7542 32-Core Processor
Vultr – All Instances
Intel Core Processor (Broadwell, no TSX, IBRS)
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
CPU MHz
2,427.60
2,400.09
2,433.33
2,894.56
2,400.00
Cache Size (KB)
4,096.00
30,720.00
512.00
512.00
16,384.00
BogoMips
3,192.67
3,200.33
2,933.00
3,859.67
3,199.67
CPU
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
Events per Second
864.98
762.49
1,336.42
1,645.78
750.47
Minimum (ms)
1.00
1.22
0.69
0.58
1.19
Average (ms)
1.17
1.31
0.76
0.61
1.33
Maximum (ms)
8.36
1.99
5.13
1.84
9.83
Memory
Read
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
Ops per Second
3,572,018.32
525,094.90
3,257,610.27
5,443,740.64
3,160,149.98
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)
8.85
0.26
4.74
0.25
1.89
Write
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
Ops per Second
3,840,755.16
524,840.22
3,245,071.85
5,458,895.55
3,412,058.63
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)
2.61
0.23
4.38
0.26
4.17
File I/O
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
Reads per Second
1,475.64
936.80
1,872.29
2,676.67
1,603.73
Writes per Second
983.77
624.53
1,248.18
1,784.44
1,069.17
Fsyncs per Second
3,155.77
2,000.04
4,001.13
5,715.05
3,427.93
Minimum (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
Average (ms)
0.22
0.29
0.14
0.10
0.16
Maximum (ms)
15.82
13.30
24.53
4.59
9.63
MySQL
Read Only
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
Transactions per Second
4,785.67
5,033.33
4,740.33
8,681.00
4,252.00
Queries per Second
76,570.67
80,533.33
75,845.33
138,896.00
68,032.00
Minimum (ms)
1.51
1.71
1.45
0.95
1.73
Average (ms)
2.13
1.98
2.25
1.15
2.36
Maximum (ms)
18.57
42.41
61.87
7.34
17.32
Write Only
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
Transactions per Second
2,661.67
1,518.33
3,536.00
4,307.67
2,575.00
Queries per Second
15,970.00
9,110.00
21,216.00
25,846.00
15,450.00
Minimum (ms)
2.01
3.37
1.26
1.37
1.80
Average (ms)
7.63
6.70
3.41
2.32
3.90
Maximum (ms)
36.90
48.14
26.37
13.56
24.00
Read Write
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
Transactions per Second
1,184.67
982.67
1,682.33
2,560.33
1,382.33
Queries per Second
23,693.33
19,653.33
33,646.67
51,206.67
27,646.67
Minimum (ms)
4.75
5.70
3.65
2.55
4.24
Average (ms)
11.81
10.67
7.11
3.92
7.26
Maximum (ms)
44.44
128.74
37.39
20.63
25.75
Redis
DigitalOcean
Lightsail
Linode
UpCloud
Vultr
PING_INLINE
34,561.34
46,119.22
57,858.22
64,416.79
30,676.99
PING_BULK
32,585.28
45,865.34
55,723.43
61,405.69
27,607.51
SET
33,691.80
45,815.56
57,132.42
65,205.86
31,067.69
GET
32,942.03
45,766.73
53,910.09
63,533.23
32,357.03
INCR
36,212.92
45,436.86
56,634.37
64,378.15
33,026.75
LPUSH
36,571.11
46,448.13
47,823.12
68,459.30
34,695.14
RPUSH
37,028.23
46,239.52
49,486.92
67,737.06
34,698.65
LPOP
38,758.21
46,214.85
49,358.87
68,829.50
33,154.90
RPOP
38,661.11
46,177.15
52,368.67
67,438.36
31,309.55
SADD
36,448.16
45,503.80
56,497.52
64,806.34
29,638.20
HSET
34,827.98
46,397.70
50,105.15
68,495.53
32,705.29
SPOP
37,655.37
45,899.91
55,608.24
62,586.22
32,129.37
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)
20,856.34
29,433.81
24,200.93
30,885.21
22,669.87
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)
9,459.97
13,014.65
8,315.62
11,658.76
8,588.99
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)
6,329.31
9,196.73
5,977.94
9,131.08
6,599.13
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)
5,353.34
6,990.77
4,970.43
7,516.66
5,264.59
MSET (10 keys)
25,231.35
37,756.03
25,993.60
64,153.95
27,286.83
$6 VPS Showdown – DigitalOcean – Premium Intel vs. DigitalOcean – Premium AMD vs. Vultr – High Frequency”
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
in beta
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 – Instance #1
AMD EPYC-Rome Processor
Vultr – High Frequency – Instance #2
Intel Core Processor (Skylake, IBRS)
Vultr – High Frequency – Instance #3
Intel Core Processor (Skylake, IBRS)
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel
DigitalOcean – Premium AMD
Vultr – High Frequency
CPU MHz
2,494.12
1,997.50
3,628.48
Cache Size (KB)
4,096.00
512.00
11,093.33
BogoMips
3,325.67
2,664.00
4,792.67
CPU
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel
DigitalOcean – Premium AMD
Vultr – High Frequency
Events per Second
836.19
1,386.88
2,459.95
Minimum (ms)
0.95
0.64
0.50
Average (ms)
1.21
0.72
0.52
Maximum (ms)
9.39
1.93
3.31
Memory
Read
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel
DigitalOcean – Premium AMD
Vultr – High Frequency
Ops per Second
3,906,082.22
4,163,261.19
6,928,544.04
Minimum (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
Average (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
Maximum (ms)
7.10
2.18
0.90
Write
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel
DigitalOcean – Premium AMD
Vultr – High Frequency
Ops per Second
3,631,375.46
4,409,127.48
6,919,685.69
Minimum (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
Average (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
Maximum (ms)
9.90
0.92
0.77
File I/O
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel
DigitalOcean – Premium AMD
Vultr – High Frequency
Reads per Second
1,627.77
1,822.89
4,962.00
Writes per Second
1,085.18
1,215.26
3,307.98
Fsyncs per Second
3,480.43
3,891.47
10,590.86
Minimum (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
Average (ms)
0.16
0.14
0.05
Maximum (ms)
11.26
8.84
4.25
MySQL
Read Only
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel
DigitalOcean – Premium AMD
Vultr – High Frequency
Transactions per Second
4,293.00
5,198.67
10,250.67
Queries per Second
68,688.00
83,178.67
164,010.67
Minimum (ms)
1.36
1.40
0.80
Average (ms)
2.39
1.95
0.98
Maximum (ms)
17.06
13.44
7.62
Write Only
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel
DigitalOcean – Premium AMD
Vultr – High Frequency
Transactions per Second
2,255.67
4,231.00
10,502.00
Queries per Second
13,534.00
25,386.00
63,012.00
Minimum (ms)
1.46
1.00
0.53
Average (ms)
4.67
2.36
0.95
Maximum (ms)
34.94
20.74
27.52
Read Write
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel
DigitalOcean – Premium AMD
Vultr – High Frequency
Transactions per Second
1,096.67
1,763.67
4,571.00
Queries per Second
21,933.33
35,273.33
91,420.00
Minimum (ms)
3.89
3.04
1.46
Average (ms)
10.31
5.76
2.19
Maximum (ms)
68.09
107.87
16.31
Redis
DigitalOcean – Premium Intel
DigitalOcean – Premium AMD
Vultr – High Frequency
PING_INLINE
35,340.13
67,505.54
79,078.64
PING_BULK
35,192.55
61,217.93
79,693.07
SET
34,147.79
59,674.98
81,149.72
GET
32,426.24
64,395.15
77,358.60
INCR
34,002.39
70,349.46
79,418.35
LPUSH
34,257.75
63,562.58
85,193.69
RPUSH
35,517.98
68,218.34
82,988.97
LPOP
35,662.76
65,960.10
82,423.63
RPOP
36,228.40
67,357.58
82,602.84
SADD
36,660.18
71,925.16
78,795.08
HSET
35,476.25
66,075.10
82,428.01
SPOP
35,602.80
73,219.70
78,490.22
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)
19,921.24
30,241.94
45,230.99
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)
10,149.40
12,620.99
19,081.54
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)
6,552.57
8,504.68
13,544.66
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)
5,620.41
6,475.12
10,910.99
MSET (10 keys)
32,033.09
33,105.35
63,800.91
Conclusion
Not a ton of surprises this month with the results. Friendly reminder that you should always spin up multiple instances when setting up a new box to ensure you’re on the latest hardware. Some of the providers are hiding the processor information, so running your own benchmarks and factoring in your own needs is an absolutely must.
If you did happen to find this post helpful in your search for a new hosting provider, please use one of my referral links below to help a guy out 🙂
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)
