Linode vs Digital Ocean: A Three-Round VPS Benchmark Showdown

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A few days ago, Digital Ocean announced new pricing tiers for their VPSes (affectionately called Droplets). I’ve been a fan of Digital Ocean’s offerings for a long time. Compared to other popular VPS provider Linode, there seemed like there was only one choice as Digital Ocean’s pricing ran 2x for almost everything.

Now that they’re the same price, I think it’s about time they faceoff in a set of sysbench benchmark tests.

Both providers offer the standard set of plans, though each has unique offerings as well. Linode provides “high memory” options ranging from 16GB to 200GB of RAM, whereas Digital Ocean offers “high CPU” choices, advertising similar vCPU quantites but backed by compute-oriented hardware. We’ll leave those specific offerings off the table for now and just point a few standard VPSes from each provider at each other and see who comes out on top.

The results are broken down into each RAM category: 1GB, 4GB, and 8GB, comparing each provider’s offerings for each tier individually. The best scores for each cateogry and test are in bold.

Before I begin, I want to give special thanks to Josh Sherman. He came up with a great $5 comparison list back in February 2017 that served as inspiration for this post.

The Loadouts

We’ll be testing the following configurations from each provider:

Digital Ocean

RAM vCPUs Storage Transfer Price
1GB 1 25GB 1TB $5.00/month or $0.007/hour
4GB 2 80GB 4TB $20/month or $0.030/hour
8GB 4 160GB 5TB $40/month or $0.060/hour

Linode

RAM vCPUs Storage Transfer Price
1GB 1 20GB 1TB $5.00/month or $0.007/hour
4GB 2 48GB 3TB $20/month or $0.030/hour
8GB 4 96GB 4TB $40/month or $0.060/hour

Deployment Notes

Prepatory commands

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade -y
apt-get install apache2 apache2-utils mysql-server mysql-client speedtest-cli sysbench -y

During Linode provisioning, each VPS had trouble connecting to security.ubuntu.com via IPv6 so I had to edit etc/gai.conf to force IPV4 by uncommenting this line:

#precedence ::ffff:0:0/96 100

CPU Info

cat /proc/cpuinfo

Digital Ocean

RAM Model MHz Cache BogoMips
1GB Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2650 v4 2.20Ghz 30MB 4400
4GB Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2650 v4 2.20Ghz 30MB 4400
8GB Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2650L v3 1.80Ghz 30MB 3600

Linode

RAM Model MHz Cache BogoMips
1GB Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2680 v3 2.50Ghz 16MB 5001
4GB Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2680 v2 2.80Ghz 16MB 5602
8GB Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2680 v3 2.50Ghz 16MB 5001

The Results

1GB — $5.00/month

CPU

sysbench --test=cpu run
  Linode Digital Ocean
Number of Events 10,000 10,000
Total Time 12.6051s 16.5311s
Event Execution 12.6017s 16.5197s
Minimum Request 1.24ms 1.16ms
Average Request 1.26ms 1.65ms
Maximum Request 3.05ms 29.83ms1
p95 1.29ms 2.00ms

Memory

Read
sysbench --test=memory run
  Linode Digital Ocean
Number of Events 104,857,600 104,857,600
Total Time 49.9387s 226.27s
Execution Time 41.3406s 176.5801s
Minimum Request 0.00ms 0.00ms
Average Request 0.00ms 0.00ms
Maximum Request 14.56ms 36.81ms
95th Percentile 0.00ms 0.00ms
Operations/Second 2,099,725/sec 463,417/sec
MB/Second 2,050.02 MB/sec 453.34 MB/sec

Write

sysbench --test=memory --memory-oper=write run
  Linode Digital Ocean
Number of Events 104,857,600 104,857,600
Total Time 50.0363s 226.0851s
Execution Time 41.4121s 176.1462s
Minimum Request 0.00ms 0.00ms
Average Request 0.00ms 0.00ms
Maximum Request 3.67ms 41.21ms
95th Percentile 0.00ms 0.00ms
Operations/Second 2,095,630/sec 463,797/sec
MB/Second 2,046 MB/sec 453 MB/sec

File I/O

sysbench --test=fileio prepare
sysbench --test=fileio --file-test-mode=rndrw run
sysbench --test=fileio cleanup
  Linode Digital Ocean
Number of Events 10,000 10,000
Total Time 5.1085s 2.1141s
Execution Time 3.0602s 0.6239s
Minimum Request 0.00ms 0.01ms
Average Request 0.31ms 0.06ms
Maximum Request 52.63ms 11.99ms
95th Percentile 0.40ms 0.13ms
Requests/Second 1,957/sec 4,730/sec
MB/Second 30.586 MB/sec 73.909 MB/sec

Apps: Apache

ab -kc 1000 -n 10000 http://127.0.0.1/
  Linode Digital Ocean
Concurrency Level 1000 1000
Time Taken (seconds) 7.024s 7.051s
Completed Requests 10,000 10,000
Failed Requests 377 108
Requests/sec (mean) 1,423.65 1,418.22
Time per request (mean) 702.418ms 705.108ms
Transfer Rate 15,560 KB/sec 15,934 KB/sec

Apps: MySQL

mysql -uroot -e "CREATE DATABASE sbtest;"
sysbench --test=oltp --oltp-table-size=1000000 --mysql-user=root prepare
sysbench --test=oltp --oltp-table-size=1000000 --mysql-user=root run
sysbench --test=oltp --oltp-table-size=1000000 --mysql-user=root cleanup
  Linode Digital Ocean
Number of Queries 210,000 210,000
Total Time 44.5271s 64.2293s
Execution Time 44.4597s 64.0938s
Minimum Request 2.02ms 2.85ms
Average Request 4.45ms 6.41ms
Maximum Request 545.68ms1 67.22ms
95th Percentile 5.39ms 13.86ms
Read/Write Requests/sec 4,267.07/sec 2,958.15/sec
Transactions/sec 224.58/sec 155.69/sec
Other Operations/sec 449.17/sec 311.38/sec

Apps: Speedtest

speedtest-cli --server=5479
  Linode Digital Ocean
Distance 30.81km 3618.50km2
Ping 49.611ms 33.425ms
Download 1040.06 Mbit/sec 1,392.52 Mbit/sec
Upload 387.06 Mbit/sec 258.02 Mbit/sec

4GB — $20.00/month

CPU

sysbench --test=cpu run
  Linode Digital Ocean
Number of Events 10,000 10,000
Total Time 12.4283s 13.22173s
Event Execution 12.4257s 13.2114s
Minimum Request 1.16ms 1.16ms
Average Request 1.24ms 1.32ms
Maximum Request 4.47ms 4.49ms
p95 1.51ms 1.64ms

Memory

Read
sysbench --test=memory run
  Linode Digital Ocean
Number of Events 104,857,600 104,857,600
Total Time 46.0665s 178.6187s
Execution Time 38.1407s 138.1447s
Minimum Request 0.00ms 0.00ms
Average Request 0.00ms 0.00ms
Maximum Request 2.42ms 5.29ms
95th Percentile 0.00ms 0.00ms
Operations/Second 2,276,220/sec 587,047/sec
MB/Second 2,222.87 MB/sec 573.29 MB/sec

Write

sysbench --test=memory --memory-oper=write run
  Linode Digital Ocean
Number of Events 104,857,600 104,857,600
Total Time 45.3632s 191.1536s
Execution Time 37.5572s 148.0344s
Minimum Request 0.00ms 0.00ms
Average Request 0.00ms 0.00ms
Maximum Request 5.98ms 17.05ms
95th Percentile 0.00ms 0.00ms
Operations/Second 2,311,510.22/sec 548,551.45/sec
MB/Second 2,257.33 MB/sec 535.68 MB/seec

File I/O

sysbench --test=fileio prepare
sysbench --test=fileio --file-test-mode=rndrw run
sysbench --test=fileio cleanup
  Linode Digital Ocean
Number of Events 10,000 10,000
Total Time 1.6893s 1.6235s
Execution Time 0.0930s 0.1605s
Minimum Request 0.00ms 0.00ms
Average Request 0.01ms 0.02ms
Maximum Request 0.11ms 4.19ms
95th Percentile 0.02ms 0.03ms
Requests/Second 5,919.56/sec 6,159.62/sec
MB/Second 92.493 MB/sec 96.244 MB/sec

Apps: Apache

ab -kc 1000 -n 10000 http://127.0.0.1/
  Linode Digital Ocean
Concurrency Level 1000 1000
Time Taken (seconds) 2.426s 5.902s
Completed Requests 10,000 10,000
Failed Requests 301 292
Requests/sec (mean) 4,121.64/sec 1,694.42
Time per request (mean) 242.622ms 590.172ms
Transfer Rate 45,405.85 KB/sec 18,697.41 KB/sec

Apps: MySQL

mysql -uroot -e "CREATE DATABASE sbtest;"
sysbench --test=oltp --oltp-table-size=1000000 --mysql-user=root prepare
sysbench --test=oltp --oltp-table-size=1000000 --mysql-user=root run
sysbench --test=oltp --oltp-table-size=1000000 --mysql-user=root cleanup
  Linode Digital Ocean
Number of Queries 210,000 210,000
Total Time 36.16s 55.3371s
Execution Time 36.1036s 55.2440s
Minimum Request 2.25ms 2.27ms
Average Request 3.61ms 5.52ms
Maximum Request 359.96ms 1141.29ms1
95th Percentile 4.83ms 10.45ms
Read/Write Requests/sec 5,254.43/sec 3,433.50/sec
Transactions/sec 276.55/sec 180.71/sec
Other Operations/sec 553.10/sec 361.42/sec

Apps: Speedtest

speedtest-cli --server=5479
  Linode Digital Ocean
Distance 30.81km 4101.95km2
Ping 66.529ms 5.036ms
Download 1,432.71 Mbit/sec 1118.17 Mbit/sec
Upload 344.86 Mbit/sec 314.71 Mbit/sec

8GB — $40.00/month

CPU

sysbench --test=cpu run
  Linode Digital Ocean
Number of Events 10,000 10,000
Total Time 13.7149s 15.0707s
Event Execution 13.7105s 15.0640s
Minimum Request 1.24ms 1.47ms
Average Request 1.37ms 1.51ms
Maximum Request 2.94ms 3.28ms
p95 1.50ms 1.52ms

Memory

Read
sysbench --test=memory run
  Linode Digital Ocean
Number of Events 104,857,600 104,857,600
Total Time 55.1697s 196.5439s
Execution Time 45.6143s 151.9530s
Minimum Request 0.00ms 0.00ms
Average Request 0.00ms 0.00ms
Maximum Request 11.02ms 2.03ms
95th Percentile 0.00ms 0.00ms
Operations/Second 1,900,637.74/sec 533,501.80/sec
MB/Second 1,856.09 MB/sec 521 MB/sec

Write

sysbench --test=memory --memory-oper=write run
  Linode Digital Ocean
Number of Events 104,857,600 104,857,600
Total Time 62.5355s 202.5272s
Execution Time 51.6640s 156.6225s
Minimum Request 0.00ms 0.00ms
Average Request 0.00ms 0.00ms
Maximum Request 4.36ms 2.22ms
95th Percentile 0.00ms 0.00ms
Operations/Second 1,676.770.31/sec 517,745.73/sec
MB/Second 1,637.47 MB/sec 505.61 MB/sec

File I/O

sysbench --test=fileio prepare
sysbench --test=fileio --file-test-mode=rndrw run
sysbench --test=fileio cleanup
  Linode Digital Ocean
Number of Events 10,000 10,000
Total Time 2.1398s 1.1296s
Execution Time 0.0854s 0.1273s
Minimum Request 0.00ms 0.00ms
Average Request 0.01ms 0.01ms
Maximum Request 0.07ms 0.13ms
95th Percentile 0.01ms 0.03ms
Requests/Second 4,673.39/sec 8,852.78/sec
MB/Second 73.022 MB/sec 138.32 MB/sec

Apps: Apache

ab -kc 1000 -n 10000 http://127.0.0.1/
  Linode Digital Ocean
Concurrency Level 1000 1000
Time Taken (seconds) 5.778s 5.803s
Completed Requests 10,000 10,000
Failed Requests 450 332
Requests/sec (mean) 1,730.67/sec 1,723.18/sec
Time per request (mean) 577.811ms 580.323ms
Transfer Rate 18,733.09 KB/sec 18,946.15 KB/sec

Apps: MySQL

mysql -uroot -e "CREATE DATABASE sbtest;"
sysbench --test=oltp --oltp-table-size=1000000 --mysql-user=root prepare
sysbench --test=oltp --oltp-table-size=1000000 --mysql-user=root run
sysbench --test=oltp --oltp-table-size=1000000 --mysql-user=root cleanup
  Linode Digital Ocean
Number of Queries 210,000 210,000
Total Time 38.8435s 38.5574s
Execution Time 38.7863s 38.4869s
Minimum Request 2.06ms 2.75ms
Average Request 3.88ms 3.85ms
Maximum Request 46.47ms 304.95ms1
95th Percentile 5.29ms 4.71ms
Read/Write Requests/sec 4,891.42/sec 4,927.71/sec
Transactions/sec 257.44/sec 259.35/sec
Other Operations/sec 514.89/sec 518.71/sec

Apps: Speedtest

speedtest-cli --server=5479
  Linode Digital Ocean
Distance 30.81km 4101.95km2
Ping 63.279ms 55.343ms
Download 1,635.88 Mbit/sec 824.12 Mbit/sec
Upload 275.91 Mbit/sec 262.63 Mbit/sec

Conclusion

Comparing both sets of VPSes against each other yielded mixed results. The Linoe VPSes ran away with the win in most categories, with Digital Ocean ending up the underdog winner. For CPU performance, both providers were pretty well in line. I wouldn’t consider at 1.08x difference enough to warrant a migration or decision based on that stat alone. If Digital Ocean’s High CPU offerings were in play, I would be surprised if they didn’t take the cake.

Moving into the Memory tests, though, we see much larger gaps between the two. Linode was frequently ahead by as much at 4.5x, though the gap started to close as the VPSes increased in size. Raw bits/sec as well as time to execute were several times better. There’s not much else to say here.

File IO was where we started seeing some mixed results, with Digital Ocean coming out as the leader. For the 1GB and 8GB VPSes, Digital Ocean ran away with the win in bytes/second, while Linode barely squeaked through.

Looking at application benchmarks, the MySQL tests were surprising, given the file I/O results. Apache seemed to line up with what we saw in terms of CPU performance and both providers had sexy-fast networks though Linode came out on top two out of three times.

At the end of the day, unless you’re running highend workloads, these general purpose VPSes are likely to perform just about the same. Compute tasks are better served by offerings that are designed to be utilized for that purpose. If you need every bit of RAW in-memory power you can muster, Linode will likely offer better results overall.

The race to the bottom continues with Digital Ocean halfing their prices and I’m glad to see it happen. Given that there’s still on-paper desparities between each provider, it made sense and I’m surprised they didn’t do it sooner.

I look forward to testing these again in the future in hopes that backed by new/better hardware, Digital Ocean can surpass Linode and further boost the VPS wars that end up benefiting the consumer even more.

Expect more tests that include other providers like Vultur, Media Temple, Dreamhost, Lightsail, and more, perhaps even a mega comparo!

Disclaimer : The FTC requires I state that links in this article may be monetized.

  1. A possible statistical outlier that would need to be reviewed and possibly re-tested. 2 3 4
  2. The geographic location doesn’t match up with the ping and the location Digital Ocean says the server was located. My guess is based on Geo IP lookup, the IP is registered in Canada and threw this number off. 2 3