Buddy Sandboxes vs ix

Buddy Sandboxes costs $0.0144 per vCPU-hour and ix costs $0.0288 per vCPU-hour. Buddy Sandboxes runs full VMs and has no session limit. ix runs full VMs.

Updated

Buddy Sandboxes

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

ix

Isolation
Full VM
Free tier
None
Max session
Not listed

What is different

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

Buddy Sandboxes
ix
vCPU, per hour
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144
ix: $0.0288
RAM, per GiB-hour
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144
ix: $0.0108
Storage
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.00011 per GiB-hour
ix: $0.101 per GiB-month stored
Free tier
Buddy Sandboxes: $1 of usage credit every month
ix: None
Paid plan from
Buddy Sandboxes: $29 / month
ix: Pay as you go
Billing
Buddy Sandboxes: Per second
ix: Active CPU time only
Largest sandbox
Buddy Sandboxes: 12 vCPU · 24 GiB
ix: 100 vCPU · 256 GiB
SDKs
Buddy Sandboxes: TypeScript
ix: Python, TypeScript, Rust
Integrations
Buddy Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code
ix: MCP

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144
ix: $0.0288
RAM, per GiB-hour
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144
ix: $0.0108
Storage
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.00011 per GiB-hour
ix: $0.101 per GiB-month stored
Free tier
Buddy Sandboxes: $1 of usage credit every month
ix: None
Paid plan from
Buddy Sandboxes: $29 / month
ix: Pay as you go
Billing
Buddy Sandboxes: Per second
ix: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session
Buddy Sandboxes: No limit
ix: Not listed
Idle stop
Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed
ix: Not listed
Largest sandbox
Buddy Sandboxes: 12 vCPU · 24 GiB
ix: 100 vCPU · 256 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed
ix: Up to 100

Platform

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

Developer

SDKs
Buddy Sandboxes: TypeScript
ix: Python, TypeScript, Rust
Integrations
Buddy Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code
ix: MCP

Trust

License
Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed
ix: Not listed
BYOC
Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed
ix: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Buddy Sandboxes
ix
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.043
ix: $0.050
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.086
ix: $0.101
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.173
ix: $0.202

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Buddy Sandboxes fits when

  • You use Claude Code.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.086 against $0.101 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You need pause and resume.

ix fits when

  • You want to pay only for usage, with no plan fee.
  • Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.
  • You need a sandbox larger than 12 vCPU · 24 GiB.

More comparisons

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