Buddy Sandboxes vs Zipbox

Buddy Sandboxes costs $0.0144 per vCPU-hour and Zipbox costs $0.00685 per vCPU-hour. Buddy Sandboxes runs full VMs and has no session limit. Zipbox runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit.

Updated

Buddy Sandboxes

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

Zipbox

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
$25 credit after a one-time $5 top-up
Max session
No limit

What is different

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

Buddy Sandboxes
Zipbox
vCPU, per hour
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144
Zipbox: $0.00685
RAM, per GiB-hour
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144
Zipbox: Included
Storage
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.00011 per GiB-hour
Zipbox: Free
Free tier
Buddy Sandboxes: $1 of usage credit every month
Zipbox: $25 credit after a one-time $5 top-up
Paid plan from
Buddy Sandboxes: $29 / month
Zipbox: Pay as you go
Billing
Buddy Sandboxes: Per second
Zipbox: Bundled machine time
Largest sandbox
Buddy Sandboxes: 12 vCPU · 24 GiB
Zipbox: 6 vCPU · 16 GiB
Isolation
Buddy Sandboxes: Full VM
Zipbox: Firecracker microVM
Snapshots
Buddy Sandboxes:
Zipbox: No
Pause and resume
Buddy Sandboxes:
Zipbox: No
SDKs
Buddy Sandboxes: TypeScript
Zipbox: TypeScript, Python, Go, Rust
Integrations
Buddy Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code
Zipbox: MCP, Claude Code, Claude Agent SDK, OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, LangChain

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144
Zipbox: $0.00685
RAM, per GiB-hour
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.0144
Zipbox: Included
Storage
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.00011 per GiB-hour
Zipbox: Free
Free tier
Buddy Sandboxes: $1 of usage credit every month
Zipbox: $25 credit after a one-time $5 top-up
Paid plan from
Buddy Sandboxes: $29 / month
Zipbox: Pay as you go
Billing
Buddy Sandboxes: Per second
Zipbox: Bundled machine time

Limits

Max session
Buddy Sandboxes: No limit
Zipbox: No limit
Idle stop
Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed
Zipbox: Not listed
Largest sandbox
Buddy Sandboxes: 12 vCPU · 24 GiB
Zipbox: 6 vCPU · 16 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed
Zipbox: Not listed

Platform

Isolation
Buddy Sandboxes: Full VM
Zipbox: Firecracker microVM
GPU
Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed
Zipbox: Not listed
Snapshots
Buddy Sandboxes:
Zipbox: No
Pause and resume
Buddy Sandboxes:
Zipbox: No

Developer

SDKs
Buddy Sandboxes: TypeScript
Zipbox: TypeScript, Python, Go, Rust
Integrations
Buddy Sandboxes: MCP, Claude Code
Zipbox: MCP, Claude Code, Claude Agent SDK, OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, LangChain

Trust

License
Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed
Zipbox: Not listed
BYOC
Buddy Sandboxes: Not listed
Zipbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Buddy Sandboxes
Zipbox
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.043
Zipbox: $0.007
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.086
Zipbox: $0.014
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Buddy Sandboxes: $0.173
Zipbox: $0.027

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 need snapshots.
  • You need pause and resume.
  • You need a sandbox larger than 6 vCPU · 16 GiB.

Zipbox fits when

  • You want to pay only for usage, with no plan fee.
  • You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
  • You use the Claude Agent SDK, the OpenAI Agents SDK, the Vercel AI SDK or LangChain.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.014 against $0.086 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.

More comparisons

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