Josh Sherman
HEADS-UP:
A ton has changed since this post was originally published!
Why not check out the latest comparison?
Why not check out the latest comparison?
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 :)
- DigitalOcean, new accounts receive $100 in credit (good for 60 days).
- Linode, new accounts receive $100 in credit (good for 60 days).
- UpCloud, new accounts receive $25 in credit.
- Vultr, new accounts receive $100 in credit (good for 30 days).
Or if you’re feeling really generous, show off your favorite tech stack by picking up a shirt!
