BoxLite Cloud vs Smol Machines

BoxLite Cloud costs $0.0504 per vCPU-hour and Smol Machines costs $0.05 per vCPU-hour. BoxLite Cloud runs microVMs. Smol Machines runs microVMs.

Updated

BoxLite Cloud

Isolation
MicroVM
Free tier
$100 credit
Max session
Not listed

Smol Machines

Isolation
MicroVM
Free tier
$100 credit, one time
Max session
Not listed

What is different

7 fields differ. The rest are the same or not listed.

BoxLite Cloud
Smol Machines
vCPU, per hour
BoxLite Cloud: $0.0504
Smol Machines: $0.05
RAM, per GiB-hour
BoxLite Cloud: $0.0144
Smol Machines: $0.0162
Storage
BoxLite Cloud: $0.00018 per GiB-hour
Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
Free tier
BoxLite Cloud: $100 credit
Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
Billing
BoxLite Cloud: Per second
Smol Machines: Active CPU time only
Largest sandbox
BoxLite Cloud: 4 vCPU · 32 GiB
Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
SDKs
BoxLite Cloud: Python, JavaScript, Go, Rust
Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
BoxLite Cloud: $0.0504
Smol Machines: $0.05
RAM, per GiB-hour
BoxLite Cloud: $0.0144
Smol Machines: $0.0162
Storage
BoxLite Cloud: $0.00018 per GiB-hour
Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
Free tier
BoxLite Cloud: $100 credit
Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
Paid plan from
BoxLite Cloud: Pay as you go
Smol Machines: Pay as you go
Billing
BoxLite Cloud: Per second
Smol Machines: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session
BoxLite Cloud: Not listed
Smol Machines: Not listed
Idle stop
BoxLite Cloud: After 15 minutes
Smol Machines: Not listed
Largest sandbox
BoxLite Cloud: 4 vCPU · 32 GiB
Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
BoxLite Cloud: Up to 1,000
Smol Machines: Up to 1,000

Platform

Isolation
BoxLite Cloud: MicroVM
Smol Machines: MicroVM
GPU
BoxLite Cloud: Not listed
Smol Machines: No
Snapshots
BoxLite Cloud: No
Smol Machines: No
Pause and resume
BoxLite Cloud:
Smol Machines:

Developer

SDKs
BoxLite Cloud: Python, JavaScript, Go, Rust
Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust
Integrations
BoxLite Cloud: Claude Code, MCP
Smol Machines: Not listed

Trust

License
BoxLite Cloud: Apache-2.0
Smol Machines: Apache-2.0
BYOC
BoxLite Cloud: Not listed
Smol Machines: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

BoxLite Cloud
Smol Machines
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
BoxLite Cloud: $0.079
Smol Machines: $0.082
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
BoxLite Cloud: $0.158
Smol Machines: $0.165
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
BoxLite Cloud: $0.317
Smol Machines: $0.330

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

BoxLite Cloud fits when

  • You use Claude Code or MCP.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.158 against $0.165 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.

Smol Machines fits when

  • Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.
  • You need a sandbox larger than 4 vCPU · 32 GiB.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

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