Buddy Sandboxes vs Phonebox

Buddy Sandboxes costs $0.0144 per vCPU-hour. Buddy Sandboxes runs full VMs and has no session limit. Phonebox limits a session to 3 hours.

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

Phonebox

Cloud Android phones that AI agents control through their screens.

Isolation: Not listed
Free tier: $2 starter credit, one time, no card
Max session: 3 hours

Visit site Phonebox profile

What is different

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

Field

Buddy Sandboxes

Phonebox

Free tier: Buddy Sandboxes: $1 of usage credit every month; Phonebox: $2 starter credit, one time, no card
Paid plan from: Buddy Sandboxes: $29 / month; Phonebox: Pay as you go
Billing: Buddy Sandboxes: Per second; Phonebox: Bundled machine time
Max session: Buddy Sandboxes: No limit; Phonebox: 3 hours
Integrations: Buddy Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code; Phonebox: MCP

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

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

Phoneboxphonebox.dev/pricingphonebox.dev

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144; Phonebox: Not listed
RAM, per GiB-hour: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144; Phonebox: Not listed
Storage: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.00011 per GiB-hour; Phonebox: Not listed
Free tier: Buddy Sandboxes: $1 of usage credit every month; Phonebox: $2 starter credit, one time, no card
Paid plan from: Buddy Sandboxes: $29 / month; Phonebox: Pay as you go
Billing: Buddy Sandboxes: Per second; Phonebox: Bundled machine time

Limits

Max session: Buddy Sandboxes: No limit; Phonebox: 3 hours
Idle stop: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; Phonebox: After 5 minutes
Largest sandbox: Buddy Sandboxes: 12 vCPU · 24 GiB; Phonebox: Not listed
Concurrent sandboxes: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; Phonebox: Up to 5

Platform

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

Developer

SDKs: Buddy Sandboxes: TypeScript; Phonebox: TypeScript
Integrations: Buddy Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code; Phonebox: MCP

Trust

License: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; Phonebox: Not listed
BYOC: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; Phonebox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

Buddy Sandboxes

Phonebox

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.043; Phonebox: Not listed
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.086; Phonebox: Not listed
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.173; Phonebox: Not listed

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Buddy Sandboxes fits when

A session must run longer than 3 hours.
You use Claude Code.
You need snapshots.
You need SOC 2 Type II and GDPR.

Phonebox fits when

You want to pay only for usage, with no plan fee.
You want the larger free credit: $2 against $1.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

Buddy Sandboxes

Phonebox

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

Buddy Sandboxes fits when

Phonebox fits when

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