The verdict
UpCloud is a Finnish cloud infrastructure provider built around its proprietary MaxIOPS storage technology for consistently fast disk performance, with servers deployable in under 45 seconds and precise per-second billing.
The full picture
UpCloud is a Finnish cloud provider founded in Helsinki in 2012 that built its reputation on a single technical claim: MaxIOPS, its proprietary block storage architecture, is faster than the storage offered by competing clouds. Independent benchmarks have repeatedly supported that, showing UpCloud storage input and output substantially ahead of comparable instances at DigitalOcean, Linode and Vultr.
For database-heavy workloads, storage speed is often the actual bottleneck rather than CPU, which makes UpCloud a specific and defensible choice for anyone running MySQL, PostgreSQL or a write-heavy application. The platform also offers per-second billing, a 100% uptime SLA with real credits, private networking, floating IPs, managed databases, load balancers and a clean API.
The company is smaller than its competitors and prices slightly above them, with eleven or so data centres against DigitalOcean's fourteen and Vultr's thirty-two. Support is included and responsive, but as with every provider in this category, you are the systems administrator.
What you get
- MaxIOPS storage technology
- Servers deploy in under 45s
- Per-second billing precision
- Simple flat-rate API
- Managed Kubernetes
Every hosting type it sells
| Product | From | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud servers | $5/mo | General purpose, high CPU and high memory plans with MaxIOPS storage. |
| Managed databases | $18/mo | Managed MySQL, PostgreSQL and Redis with automatic failover. |
| Managed Kubernetes | Usage | Free control plane, pay for worker nodes. |
| Object storage | $5/mo | S3-compatible storage with regional placement. |
| Load balancers | Usage | Managed layer four and seven load balancing. |
Plans & pricing
- 1 vCPU
- 1 GB RAM
- 2 vCPU
- 4 GB RAM
What the price actually costs you
- Slightly more expensive than DigitalOcean or Hetzner for equivalent specifications.
- Per-second billing means short-lived workloads cost almost nothing.
- The 100% uptime SLA pays 50 times the value of affected downtime, which is unusually strong.
- A free trial credit is available for new accounts.
Technical specification
| Control panel | UpCloud control panel, full API, CLI and Terraform provider |
|---|---|
| Storage | MaxIOPS distributed block storage, independently benchmarked as fastest in class |
| Virtualisation | KVM with dedicated and general purpose plans |
| Billing | Per-second billing with no minimum commitment |
| Networking | Private SDN networking, floating IPs, IPv6 included |
| Backups | Manual and scheduled backups, plus snapshots |
| Operating systems | Linux distributions, Windows Server, and custom image upload |
| Locations | Helsinki, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Madrid, Warsaw, Chicago, New York, San Jose, Singapore, Sydney |
| Support | 24/7 support included at no extra charge |
| Uptime SLA | 100% uptime SLA with 50x compensation for downtime |
Performance in practice
MaxIOPS is the reason to be here. In benchmark after benchmark, UpCloud storage delivers several times the input and output operations of standard cloud block storage, which translates directly into faster database queries and quicker page generation for anything write-heavy. CPU performance is competitive rather than exceptional, and the network is well-peered across its regions. If your bottleneck is disk, this is the provider that fixes it.
Infrastructure & support
Support channels
- 24/7 ticket system
- Email support
- Phone support (business hours)
Data centers
- Finland
- Germany
- Netherlands
- United States
- Singapore
- Australia
- Poland
Security & compliance
- Private SDN networking isolating traffic between your servers
- Firewall rules configurable per server through the panel and API
- ISO 27001 certified and GDPR compliant, with EU data residency
- Scheduled backups and snapshots with restore
- Two-factor authentication on the account
- Operating system hardening remains your responsibility
Moving a site in
Self-service, with custom image upload and snapshot restore making moves from other clouds straightforward. There is no managed migration service.
The trade-off
In its favour
- Very fast storage performance
- Precise, fair per-second billing
- Quick server deployment
Worth knowing
- Smaller global footprint than hyperscalers
- Best suited to technical users
Who should look elsewhere
- Anyone wanting managed hosting, cPanel or email
- Buyers optimising purely on price, where Hetzner and Contabo are cheaper
- Workloads needing many global regions
- Non-technical users
The company behind it
| Ownership | Privately held, Finnish owned |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Helsinki, Finland |
| Founded | 2012 |
| Scale | Data centres across Europe, North America, Asia and Australia |
| Notable | MaxIOPS storage architecture, independently benchmarked as category-leading |
How it got here
- 2012 Founded in Helsinki with a focus on storage performance.
- 2015 Introduces MaxIOPS distributed block storage.
- 2018 Expands into Asia-Pacific and North America.
- 2021 Launches managed databases and managed load balancers.
- 2023 Adds managed Kubernetes and expands the object storage product.
Common questions
What is MaxIOPS?
UpCloud's proprietary storage layer engineered for consistently high disk I/O performance.
The bottom line
The cloud to pick when disk speed is your bottleneck, which for database-driven applications it very often is. Pay a small premium over DigitalOcean and get storage that is measurably faster, plus a 100% SLA that actually compensates. Bring your own systems administration.