Cheap VPS tiers used to be a race to the bottom. Now they're a buyer's market, and according to joshtronic.com, the comparison at the $3.50 mark between Amazon Lightsail and Vultr is closer than the price suggests — with one big surprise on memory.
The setup was deliberately matched: 512 MB RAM, 1 vCPU, 20 GB SSD. The transfer allowance is where the two diverge on paper — Lightsail ships 1 TB, Vultr ships 0.5 TB — but performance is where things get interesting.
What happened:
- Both providers offer 512 MB RAM, 1 core and 20 GB SSD at $3.50.
- Lightsail includes 1 TB transfer; Vultr includes 0.5 TB.
- Lightsail's processor clocked around 2,400 MHz on both hosts.
- Lightsail won on CPU events per second and max execution time.
- Vultr trounced Lightsail on memory read and write throughput.
The headline numbers
CPU performance went to Lightsail. Across events per second, minimum, average and maximum execution times, the Lightsail instance finished ahead. The maximum execution time gap was particularly large — 1.59 ms versus 9.67 ms on Vultr — which matters for short, latency-sensitive tasks.
Memory told the opposite story. Vultr delivered over three times the operations per second on both reads and writes. Max latency was higher on Vultr, but throughput is what most small workloads actually feel.
Where the two trade blows
File I/O was close, with Vultr edging ahead on reads, writes and fsyncs per second. MySQL was a rare Lightsail win in the memory-heavy category, where it posted higher transactions-per-second and queries-per-second numbers than Vultr.
The takeaway from the post: pick by workload. CPU-bound batch jobs lean Lightsail. Memory-heavy caches or databases lean Vultr. They're not interchangeable, even at the same price.
Our analysis
The interesting story here isn't the winner — it's how uneven the two services are. A provider can be slower on CPU and dramatically faster on memory, and both numbers can be true at the same time. That makes generic "X is faster than Y" claims almost useless for picking a host. Workload matters more than benchmark screenshots.
There is also a subtle market signal in the post: the author notes that hosting has trended toward lower price floors over time, and that more sub-$5 providers will probably enter these comparisons soon. If you build tooling or benchmarks for cheap tiers, the lineup will keep shifting.
What to watch: providers that win on memory but lose on CPU — and vice versa — are signs of different underlying hardware generations. That mismatch tends to widen over time as one provider refreshes and the other doesn't.
A practical scenario
Say you are spinning up a small Node.js API to handle webhook ingestion for a side project. Bursts are short, mostly CPU work, and the data set fits in 512 MB. Based on these results, Lightsail's CPU edge would matter more than Vultr's memory edge, and you'd also get double the transfer allowance.
Now flip it: you're running a Redis-style cache or a small in-memory store. Memory throughput dominates. Vultr's three-times-the-ops number is the one that matters, and the lower transfer cap probably won't bite you.
Bottom line
At $3.50, Lightsail and Vultr are not interchangeable. Match the provider to the workload, not the other way around. And expect the cheap tier to keep getting more crowded.
Key takeaways
- Lightsail wins on CPU performance, Vultr wins on memory throughput — even at the same $3.50 price point.
- File I/O is close, with Vultr slightly ahead and Lightsail taking the MySQL transactions-per-second crown.
- Pick your provider by workload: CPU-bound jobs favor Lightsail, memory-heavy caches favor Vultr.
- Expect the sub-$5 VPS market to keep getting more crowded as price floors trend lower.
Frequently asked questions
Is Lightsail faster than Vultr at the $3.50 tier?
Not across the board. Lightsail is faster on CPU-bound work, but Vultr delivers roughly three times the memory read and write throughput.
Which is better for a memory-heavy workload like Redis?
Vultr, based on these results. Its memory operations per second are more than three times Lightsail's.
Which is better for a CPU-bound API or batch job?
Lightsail. It won on CPU events per second and had a much lower maximum execution time (1.59 ms vs. 9.67 ms on Vultr).
Do both providers offer the same specs at $3.50?
Yes on compute and storage — 512 MB RAM, 1 vCPU, 20 GB SSD — but transfer differs, with Lightsail at 1 TB and Vultr at 0.5 TB.
Can a generic "X is faster than Y" claim help me pick a VPS?
Not really. This comparison shows a provider can win on one dimension and lose on another, so workload-specific benchmarks matter more than headline rankings.