Buddy Sandboxes vs Islo Machines

Buddy Sandboxes costs $0.0144 per vCPU-hour and Islo Machines costs $0.07 per vCPU-hour. Buddy Sandboxes runs full VMs and has no session limit. Islo Machines runs 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

Islo Machines

Persistent microVM computers for coding agents.

Isolation: MicroVM
Free tier: Starting credit, no card required
Max session: Not listed

Visit site Islo Machines profile

What is different

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

Field

Buddy Sandboxes

Islo Machines

vCPU, per hour: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144; Islo Machines: $0.07
RAM, per GiB-hour: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144; Islo Machines: $0.04
Storage: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.00011 per GiB-hour; Islo Machines: $0.0007 per GiB-hour
Free tier: Buddy Sandboxes: $1 of usage credit every month; Islo Machines: Starting credit, no card required
Paid plan from: Buddy Sandboxes: $29 / month; Islo Machines: Pay as you go
Isolation: Buddy Sandboxes: Full VM; Islo Machines: MicroVM
SDKs: Buddy Sandboxes: TypeScript; Islo Machines: Python, TypeScript, Go
Integrations: Buddy Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code; Islo Machines: Claude Code

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

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

Islo Machinesislo.dev/pricing

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144; Islo Machines: $0.07
RAM, per GiB-hour: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144; Islo Machines: $0.04
Storage: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.00011 per GiB-hour; Islo Machines: $0.0007 per GiB-hour
Free tier: Buddy Sandboxes: $1 of usage credit every month; Islo Machines: Starting credit, no card required
Paid plan from: Buddy Sandboxes: $29 / month; Islo Machines: Pay as you go
Billing: Buddy Sandboxes: Per second; Islo Machines: Per second

Limits

Max session: Buddy Sandboxes: No limit; Islo Machines: Not listed
Idle stop: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; Islo Machines: Not listed
Largest sandbox: Buddy Sandboxes: 12 vCPU · 24 GiB; Islo Machines: Not listed
Concurrent sandboxes: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; Islo Machines: Not listed

Platform

Isolation: Buddy Sandboxes: Full VM; Islo Machines: MicroVM
GPU: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; Islo Machines: Not listed
Snapshots: Buddy Sandboxes:; Islo Machines:
Pause and resume: Buddy Sandboxes:; Islo Machines:

Developer

SDKs: Buddy Sandboxes: TypeScript; Islo Machines: Python, TypeScript, Go
Integrations: Buddy Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code; Islo Machines: Claude Code

Trust

License: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; Islo Machines: Not listed
BYOC: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; Islo Machines: Agent computers run in your VPC.

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

Buddy Sandboxes

Islo Machines

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.043; Islo Machines: $0.150
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.086; Islo Machines: $0.300
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.173; Islo Machines: $0.600

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.
You want the lower list price: $0.086 against $0.300 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
You need SOC 2 Type II and GDPR.

Islo Machines fits when

You want to pay only for usage, with no plan fee.
You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
You need the sandboxes in your own cloud account.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

Buddy Sandboxes

Islo Machines

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

Buddy Sandboxes fits when

Islo Machines fits when

More comparisons

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