Buddy Sandboxes vs DigitalOcean Harness Runtime

Buddy Sandboxes costs $0.0144 per vCPU-hour and DigitalOcean Harness Runtime costs $0.044 per vCPU-hour. Buddy Sandboxes runs full VMs and has no session limit. DigitalOcean Harness Runtime runs Firecracker microVMs.

Updated Oct 23, 2026

Buddy Sandboxes

Persistent Linux VMs that AI agents create and control through an API, SDK, CLI or MCP.

Isolation: Full VM
Free tier: $1 of usage credit every month
Max session: No limit

Visit site Buddy Sandboxes profile

DigitalOcean Harness Runtime

Managed microVM sandboxes for AI agents and their code.

Isolation: Firecracker microVM
Free tier: $5 credit for new DigitalOcean customers
Max session: Not listed

Visit site DigitalOcean Harness Runtime profile

What is different

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

Field

Buddy Sandboxes

DigitalOcean Harness Runtime

vCPU, per hour: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.044
RAM, per GiB-hour: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.0095
Storage: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.00011 per GiB-hour; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Session volumes $0.05 per GiB-month
Free tier: Buddy Sandboxes: $1 of usage credit every month; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $5 credit for new DigitalOcean customers
Paid plan from: Buddy Sandboxes: $29 / month; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Pay as you go
Billing: Buddy Sandboxes: Per second; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Active CPU time only
Largest sandbox: Buddy Sandboxes: 12 vCPU · 24 GiB; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Isolation: Buddy Sandboxes: Full VM; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Firecracker microVM
SDKs: Buddy Sandboxes: TypeScript; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Python
Integrations: Buddy Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Claude Code, MCP

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Buddy Sandboxesbuddy.works/docs/basics/billing-and-usage/gbminbuddy.works

DigitalOcean Harness Runtimedigitalocean.com/pricing/harness-runtimedigitalocean.com

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.044
RAM, per GiB-hour: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.0095
Storage: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.00011 per GiB-hour; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Session volumes $0.05 per GiB-month
Free tier: Buddy Sandboxes: $1 of usage credit every month; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $5 credit for new DigitalOcean customers
Paid plan from: Buddy Sandboxes: $29 / month; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Pay as you go
Billing: Buddy Sandboxes: Per second; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session: Buddy Sandboxes: No limit; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Not listed
Idle stop: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: After 15 minutes
Largest sandbox: Buddy Sandboxes: 12 vCPU · 24 GiB; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Up to 100

Platform

Isolation: Buddy Sandboxes: Full VM; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Firecracker microVM
GPU: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Not listed
Snapshots: Buddy Sandboxes:; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime:
Pause and resume: Buddy Sandboxes:; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime:

Developer

SDKs: Buddy Sandboxes: TypeScript; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Python
Integrations: Buddy Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Claude Code, MCP

Trust

License: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Not listed
BYOC: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

Buddy Sandboxes

DigitalOcean Harness Runtime

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.043; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.063
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.086; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.126
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.173; DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.252

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Buddy Sandboxes fits when

You want each sandbox to be a full VM.
You want the lower list price: $0.086 against $0.126 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
You need SOC 2 Type II and GDPR.

DigitalOcean Harness Runtime fits when

You want to pay only for usage, with no plan fee.
You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
You want the larger free credit: $5 against $1.
Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.

More comparisons

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Buddy Sandboxes

DigitalOcean Harness Runtime

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

Buddy Sandboxes fits when

DigitalOcean Harness Runtime fits when

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