Alibaba Cloud vs UpCloud

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We have tested 8 VPS plans from Alibaba Cloud and UpCloud. We'll show which one is best based on a detailed performance analysis, on features and prices.


Alibaba Cloud

Alibaba

Alibaba Cloud was founded as a VPS provider in 2009.
It is headquartered in China.
It offers VPS, Database, Storage and Networking hosting products.

It has datacenters in:
  • Australia
  • China
  • Germany
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Japan
  • Malaysia
  • Philippines
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Singapore
  • South Korea
  • Thailand
  • United Arab Emirates
  • United Kingdom
  • United States

UpCloud

UpCloud

UpCloud was founded as a VPS provider in 2013.
It is headquartered in Finland.
It offers VPS hosting products.

It has datacenters in:
  • Australia
  • Finland
  • Germany
  • Netherlands
  • Poland
  • Singapore
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • United Kingdom
  • United States

VPS Plans

Plan Name Monthly Price CPU cores Memory (GB) Disk Space (GB) Data Transfer (GB) Latest trial
1GB 1core 7.00€ 1 1.0 25 1000 Oct 18 2023
2GB 1core 13.00€ 1 2.0 50 2000 Mar 06 2024
4GB 2 cores 26.00€ 2 4.0 80 4000 Dec 05 2023
ecs.c6e.large $41.32 2 4.0 40 0 Jan 02 2023
High Memory 8GB 40.00€ 2 8.0 100 2000 Jan 17 2023
8GB 4 cores 52.00€ 4 8.0 160 5000 Sep 03 2023
ecs.c7a.large $58.32 2 4.0 40 0 Oct 16 2023
16GB 6 cores 96.00€ 6 16.0 320 6000 Jan 21 2024

Compare specs for all plans from all providers

Performance Grades

To summarize the performance of each VPS plan, we generated grades based on the various tests that were run: web, sysbench, endurance and remote timing tests. Each grade focuses on one aspect of the VPS speed or stability (cpu, disk IO, network IO...) and is made of one or more metrics measured during the tests.

Grades are evenly distributed between A and F. A is best, F is worst.

Follow the letter links to find the test results backing the grade.

How are grades calculated?

Screen all VPS from Alibaba Cloud and UpCloud
Plan Name Web Perf Raw CPU Power Perf Stability Disk IO Perf Network Perf
1GB 1core
7.00€
E E D E D
2GB 1core
13.00€
D E C E D
4GB 2 cores
26.00€
B C A D D
ecs.c6e.large
$41.32
C D C F F
High Memory 8GB
40.00€
D D D D D
8GB 4 cores
52.00€
D C C D C
ecs.c7a.large
$58.32
C D B F F
16GB 6 cores
96.00€
B B A D C
Show Price Weighted Grades   

Features and Datacenters

This list is a subset of the features each provider may offer.

UpCloud Alibaba Cloud
Backups  Yes Yes
Block storage  Yes Yes
Object storage  Yes Yes
Load balancer  Yes Yes
DDoS protection  No Yes
Hourly Billing  Yes Mixed
SSH Keys Setup  Yes Yes
Total Number of Datacenters  13 24
Number of Datacenter Continents  4 4
Compare more Alibaba Cloud and UpCloud Features

CPUs

These are the CPUs we have seen in Alibaba Cloud and UpCloud instances in the past 18 months.

Alibaba Cloud UpCloud
All Alibaba Cloud CPUs by plan All UpCloud CPUs by plan
AMD EPYC 7T83 64-Core Processor
Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum 8269CY CPU @ 2.50GHz
AMD EPYC 7542 32-Core Processor
AMD EPYC 7543 32-Core Processor

Performance Consistency

The provider consistency score shows how much variation can be expected between 2 servers of the same type at the same provider. A high consistency score (>65) means the performance of all servers of the provider is consistent over many trials and many plans.

Providers who don't have enough data yet at VPSBenchmarks don't have a consistency score.

Alibaba Cloud UpCloud
Consistency Score 45 47

Screenshots


VPS Instance Provisioning Time

This is the average time it took to create an instance for Alibaba Cloud and UpCloud from instance order to instance accepting connections.

All VPS provisioning times

Alibaba Cloud UpCloud
Number of instance creations in sample 2 12
Average provisioning time 45s 56s

Performance in Depth...

These are some of the test results that are used to determine the grades above.

Web Response Times

We ran a database intensive web application at various levels of load on cloud servers from Alibaba Cloud and UpCloud. This is the average response time measured locally on the VPS for each plan we tested.



Local Response Time per Plan

Lower is better


Maximum HTTP Load

We ran a database intensive web application at various levels of load on cloud servers from Alibaba Cloud and UpCloud. This is the maximum rate of HTTP requests that each server handled without timing out.



Maximum HTTP request rate

Higher is better


During the Web Test, we collect response time metrics, rate metrics and CPU metrics. All of those are measured locally on the VPS running the web server. All metrics can be compared on the Web Performance Comparison page.

Sysbench CPU Performance

We ran the full suite of Sysbench tests on VPS plans of Alibaba Cloud and UpCloud. These are the Sysbench CPU test results:



Rate of operations

Higher is better


Sysbench Disk IO Performance

We ran the full suite of Sysbench tests on VPS plans of Alibaba Cloud and UpCloud. These are the Sysbench Disk IO Random Read test results:



Rate of operations

Higher is better

Sysbench test results are also available for random disk IO tests, sequential disk IO tests and memory tests.
Review and compare all Sysbench numbers on the Sysbench Comparison page for Alibaba Cloud and UpCloud.

Network Transfers

We have performed large file transfers from the Alibaba Cloud and UpCloud VPS and we measured the speed of downloads and uploads.

The transfers involve multiple files, 10 threads and last for at least 10 seconds at maximum speed. The transfers are repeated 3 times from different servers and only the fastest transfer is reported here.


Download Speed per Plan

Higher is better

Network Transfers measurements including download and upload speeds can be compared for Alibaba Cloud and UpCloud on the Network Transfers Comparison page.

Sustained CPU Endurance Tests

We pushed the CPU of those VPS plans hard for 24 hours straight.

This test shows how fast the VPS can go for long periods of time, how stable the performance is and it also gives clues on how overallocated the VPSs may be.

Throughput variations of the endurance test over 24 hours. The coefficient of variation is the standard deviation of the test throughput divided by its average value. Low variations mean that resources allocated to the server were stable for the duration of the test and there was little contention.


Ops/hour coefficient of variation

Lower is better

Review and compare endurance test results for Alibaba Cloud and UpCloud on the Sustained CPU Endurance Comparison page.

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Run VPSBenchmarks on your own servers

With "Private Trials", the same benchmarks that run on all VPS at vpsbenchmarks.com will run on the servers of your choice. The results are private and you will be able to compare them to any other public benchmark on this website.

Run your first Private Trial for just $4.



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