New month with new observations when looking at DigitalOcean vs. Linode vs. Vultr. Even though each provider uses the same Linux kernel version, they all have different patch numbers and dates. Vultr offering the most recent, Linode second, and DigitalOcean with a version seemingly from nearly a year ago.
Suspect that each provider has their own flavor of Linux kernel to support their own hardware. From an end user’s perspective, this isn’t even noticed in terms of system function and stability.
Similar to last month, I spun up three instances with each VPS provider and ran my metrics. Finally, where appropriate, I average the results.
Overview – DigitalOcean vs. Linode vs. Vultr
Linux Distro
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Kernel Version
5.15.0
MySQL Version
8.0.36
Redis Version
6.0.16
DigitalOcean
Linode
Vultr
Location
New York 1
Newark, NJ
New York (NJ)
Monthly Price
$6/month
$5/month
$5/month
Hourly Price
$0.009/hour
$0.0075/hour
$0.007/hour
RAM
1 GB
1 GB
1 GB
CPU
1 Core
1 Core
1 Core
Storage
25 GB
25 GB
25 GB
Storage Type
SSD
SSD
SSD
Transfer
1 TB
1 TB
1 TB
Transfer Overage
$0.01/GB
$0.01/GB
$0.01/GB
Backups
$1.2/month
$2/month
$1/month
CPU Info
Model Name
DigitalOcean – All
DO-Regular
Linode – Instance #1
AMD EPYC 7713 64-Core Processor
Linode – Instance #2
AMD EPYC 7642 48-Core Processor
Linode – Instance #3
AMD EPYC 7713 64-Core Processor
Vultr – Instance #1
Intel Core Processor (Broadwell, no TSX, IBRS)
Vultr – Instance #2
Intel Core Processor (Broadwell, no TSX, IBRS)
Vultr – Instance #3
Intel Core Processor (Haswell, no TSX, IBRS)
DigitalOcean
Linode
Vultr
CPU MHz
2,361.12
2,100.00
2,400.00
Cache Size (KB)
4,096.00
512.00
16,384.00
BogoMips
NaN
2,666.33
3,199.67
CPU
DigitalOcean
Linode
Vultr
Events per Second
971.22
2,808.26
832.67
Minimum (ms)
0.91
0.39
1.02
Average (ms)
1.04
0.40
1.20
Maximum (ms)
11.24
3.89
4.50
Memory
Read
DigitalOcean
Linode
Vultr
Ops per Second
3,720,266.68
5,309,869.34
4,012,520.88
Minimum (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
Average (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
Maximum (ms)
3.21
3.46
0.42
Write
DigitalOcean
Linode
Vultr
Ops per Second
3,741,704.82
5,340,109.36
3,980,842.98
Minimum (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
Average (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
Maximum (ms)
2.18
3.99
0.46
File I/O
DigitalOcean
Linode
Vultr
Reads per Second
1,202.13
3,471.04
1,928.35
Writes per Second
801.41
2,313.99
1,285.53
Fsyncs per Second
2,568.90
7,411.87
4,120.38
Minimum (ms)
0.00
0.00
0.00
Average (ms)
0.23
0.08
0.14
Maximum (ms)
45.05
6.80
203.83
MySQL
Read Only
DigitalOcean
Linode
Vultr
Transactions per Second
4,437.33
6,669.00
4,292.33
Queries per Second
70,997.33
106,704.00
68,677.33
Minimum (ms)
1.49
1.15
1.68
Average (ms)
2.35
1.50
2.33
Maximum (ms)
41.88
13.90
24.15
Write Only
DigitalOcean
Linode
Vultr
Transactions per Second
1,958.33
6,453.00
3,368.33
Queries per Second
11,750.00
38,718.00
20,210.00
Minimum (ms)
2.03
0.73
1.46
Average (ms)
5.30
1.55
2.97
Maximum (ms)
66.80
26.81
24.50
Read Write
DigitalOcean
Linode
Vultr
Transactions per Second
807.67
2,806.00
1,478.67
Queries per Second
16,153.33
56,120.00
29,573.33
Minimum (ms)
5.88
2.11
3.76
Average (ms)
78.38
3.58
6.77
Maximum (ms)
431.88
19.61
35.40
Redis
DigitalOcean
Linode
Vultr
PING_INLINE
31,682.55
49,533.43
24,486.06
PING_BULK
28,844.91
46,922.36
23,509.21
SET
32,012.88
50,590.68
24,371.38
GET
31,351.21
48,426.05
24,576.17
INCR
31,981.92
47,763.54
25,099.43
LPUSH
33,966.66
51,102.19
26,350.20
RPUSH
33,105.93
51,376.45
25,529.62
LPOP
32,521.71
49,615.00
26,318.95
RPOP
32,952.75
49,189.72
25,863.66
SADD
31,728.51
49,013.99
24,822.19
HSET
33,668.89
52,227.45
26,198.89
SPOP
30,508.22
47,750.51
23,058.04
LRANGE_100 (first 100 elements)
17,910.73
22,149.37
17,926.04
LRANGE_300 (first 300 elements)
8,079.97
9,899.08
8,202.66
LRANGE_500 (first 500 elements)
6,009.81
7,470.36
6,269.88
LRANGE_600 (first 600 elements)
4,781.04
6,352.23
5,462.09
MSET (10 keys)
30,648.87
60,110.55
29,793.72
Conclusion
Things were a bit more all over the place this month, with Linode putting up the best metrics overall. While running my scripts, one of the DigitalOcean instances was definitely lagging behind all of the others. More than likely, this negatively impacted some of the metrics.
Hopefully you found this post helpful in your quest for a hosting provider. These results are my own, so it’s always a good idea to do your own independent research as well. If nothing else, spin up a few instances to ensure you’re getting the best CPU available.
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)
