Buddy Sandboxes vs Freestyle VMs

Buddy Sandboxes costs $0.0144 per vCPU-hour and Freestyle VMs costs $0.04032 per vCPU-hour. Buddy Sandboxes runs full VMs and has no session limit. Freestyle VMs runs full VMs and offers GPUs.

Updated

Buddy Sandboxes

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

Freestyle VMs

Isolation
Full VM
Free tier
Free plan, $0 forever
Max session
Not listed

What is different

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

Buddy Sandboxes
Freestyle VMs
vCPU, per hour
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144
Freestyle VMs: $0.04032
RAM, per GiB-hour
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144
Freestyle VMs: $0.0129
Storage
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.00011 per GiB-hour
Freestyle VMs: $0.000086 per GiB-hour
Free tier
Buddy Sandboxes: $1 of usage credit every month
Freestyle VMs: Free plan, $0 forever
Paid plan from
Buddy Sandboxes: $29 / month
Freestyle VMs: $50 / month
Largest sandbox
Buddy Sandboxes: 12 vCPU · 24 GiB
Freestyle VMs: 32 vCPU · 64 GiB
SDKs
Buddy Sandboxes: TypeScript
Freestyle VMs: JavaScript
Integrations
Buddy Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code
Freestyle VMs: OpenAI Agents SDK, Claude Agent SDK, Claude Code

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144
Freestyle VMs: $0.04032
RAM, per GiB-hour
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144
Freestyle VMs: $0.0129
Storage
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.00011 per GiB-hour
Freestyle VMs: $0.000086 per GiB-hour
Free tier
Buddy Sandboxes: $1 of usage credit every month
Freestyle VMs: Free plan, $0 forever
Paid plan from
Buddy Sandboxes: $29 / month
Freestyle VMs: $50 / month
Billing
Buddy Sandboxes: Per second
Freestyle VMs: Per second

Limits

Max session
Buddy Sandboxes: No limit
Freestyle VMs: Not listed
Idle stop
Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed
Freestyle VMs: Not listed
Largest sandbox
Buddy Sandboxes: 12 vCPU · 24 GiB
Freestyle VMs: 32 vCPU · 64 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed
Freestyle VMs: Up to 400

Platform

Isolation
Buddy Sandboxes: Full VM
Freestyle VMs: Full VM
GPU
Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed
Freestyle VMs:
Snapshots
Buddy Sandboxes:
Freestyle VMs:
Pause and resume
Buddy Sandboxes:
Freestyle VMs:

Developer

SDKs
Buddy Sandboxes: TypeScript
Freestyle VMs: JavaScript
Integrations
Buddy Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code
Freestyle VMs: OpenAI Agents SDK, Claude Agent SDK, Claude Code

Trust

License
Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed
Freestyle VMs: Not listed
BYOC
Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed
Freestyle VMs: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Buddy Sandboxes
Freestyle VMs
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.043
Freestyle VMs: $0.066
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.086
Freestyle VMs: $0.132
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.173
Freestyle VMs: $0.264

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Buddy Sandboxes fits when

  • You use MCP.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.086 against $0.132 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need SOC 2 Type II and GDPR.

Freestyle VMs fits when

  • You need GPUs.
  • You use the OpenAI Agents SDK or the Claude Agent SDK.
  • You need a desktop in the sandbox.
  • You need a sandbox larger than 12 vCPU · 24 GiB.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

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