Buddy Sandboxes vs Thunder Sandboxes

Buddy Sandboxes costs $0.0144 per vCPU-hour and Thunder Sandboxes costs $0.051 per vCPU-hour. Buddy Sandboxes runs full VMs and has no session limit. Thunder Sandboxes runs Firecracker microVMs, offers GPUs and has no session limit.

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

Thunder Sandboxes

Isolated, short-lived sandboxes for agents, GPU optional.

Isolation: Firecracker microVM
Free tier: Not listed
Max session: No limit

Visit site Thunder Sandboxes profile

What is different

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

Field

Buddy Sandboxes

Thunder Sandboxes

vCPU, per hour: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144; Thunder Sandboxes: $0.051
RAM, per GiB-hour: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144; Thunder Sandboxes: $0.016
Storage: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.00011 per GiB-hour; Thunder Sandboxes: $0.00012 per GiB-hour
Isolation: Buddy Sandboxes: Full VM; Thunder Sandboxes: Firecracker microVM
SDKs: Buddy Sandboxes: TypeScript; Thunder Sandboxes: Python

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

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

Thunder Sandboxesthundercompute.com/pricingthundercompute.com

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144; Thunder Sandboxes: $0.051
RAM, per GiB-hour: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144; Thunder Sandboxes: $0.016
Storage: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.00011 per GiB-hour; Thunder Sandboxes: $0.00012 per GiB-hour
Free tier: Buddy Sandboxes: $1 of usage credit every month; Thunder Sandboxes: Not listed
Paid plan from: Buddy Sandboxes: $29 / month; Thunder Sandboxes: Not listed
Billing: Buddy Sandboxes: Per second; Thunder Sandboxes: Per second

Limits

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

Platform

Isolation: Buddy Sandboxes: Full VM; Thunder Sandboxes: Firecracker microVM
GPU: Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed; Thunder Sandboxes:
Snapshots: Buddy Sandboxes:; Thunder Sandboxes: Not listed
Pause and resume: Buddy Sandboxes:; Thunder Sandboxes: Not listed

Developer

SDKs: Buddy Sandboxes: TypeScript; Thunder Sandboxes: Python
Integrations: Buddy Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code; Thunder Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code

Trust

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

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

Buddy Sandboxes

Thunder Sandboxes

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.043; Thunder Sandboxes: $0.083
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.086; Thunder Sandboxes: $0.166
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: Buddy Sandboxes: $0.173; Thunder Sandboxes: $0.332

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 want the lower list price: $0.086 against $0.166 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
You need snapshots.
You need pause and resume.

Thunder Sandboxes fits when

You need GPUs.
You want each sandbox in its own microVM.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

Buddy Sandboxes

Thunder Sandboxes

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

Buddy Sandboxes fits when

Thunder Sandboxes fits when

More comparisons

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