Buddy Sandboxes vs DigitalOcean MicroVMs

Buddy Sandboxes costs $0.0144 per vCPU-hour and DigitalOcean MicroVMs costs $0.022 per vCPU-hour. Buddy Sandboxes runs full VMs and has no session limit. DigitalOcean MicroVMs runs Firecracker microVMs.

Updated

Buddy Sandboxes

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

DigitalOcean MicroVMs

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
Not listed
Max session
Not listed

What is different

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

Buddy Sandboxes
DigitalOcean MicroVMs
vCPU, per hour
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.022
RAM, per GiB-hour
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.0085
Storage
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.00011 per GiB-hour
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.05 per GiB per month, charged when running or paused. Checkpoints are charged until deleted.
Largest sandbox
Buddy Sandboxes: 12 vCPU · 24 GiB
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Isolation
Buddy Sandboxes: Full VM
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Firecracker microVM

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.022
RAM, per GiB-hour
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.0085
Storage
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.00011 per GiB-hour
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.05 per GiB per month, charged when running or paused. Checkpoints are charged until deleted.
Free tier
Buddy Sandboxes: $1 of usage credit every month
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Paid plan from
Buddy Sandboxes: $29 / month
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Billing
Buddy Sandboxes: Per second
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Per second

Limits

Max session
Buddy Sandboxes: No limit
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Idle stop
Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: After 5 minutes
Largest sandbox
Buddy Sandboxes: 12 vCPU · 24 GiB
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed

Platform

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

Developer

SDKs
Buddy Sandboxes: TypeScript
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Integrations
Buddy Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed

Trust

License
Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
BYOC
Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Buddy Sandboxes
DigitalOcean MicroVMs
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.043
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.039
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.086
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.078
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.173
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.156

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 use MCP or Claude Code.
  • You need SOC 2 Type II and GDPR.

DigitalOcean MicroVMs fits when

  • You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.078 against $0.086 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need a sandbox larger than 12 vCPU · 24 GiB.
  • You need SOC 2 and HIPAA.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

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