DigitalOcean Harness Runtime vs Freestyle VMs

DigitalOcean Harness Runtime costs $0.044 per vCPU-hour and Freestyle VMs costs $0.04032 per vCPU-hour. DigitalOcean Harness Runtime runs Firecracker microVMs. Freestyle VMs runs full VMs.

Updated

DigitalOcean Harness Runtime

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
Not listed
Max session
Not listed

Freestyle VMs

Isolation
Full VM
Free tier
Free plan, $0 forever
Max session
Not listed

What is different

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

DigitalOcean Harness Runtime
Freestyle VMs
vCPU, per hour
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.044
Freestyle VMs: $0.04032
RAM, per GiB-hour
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.0095
Freestyle VMs: $0.0129
Storage
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Session volumes $0.05 per GiB-month
Freestyle VMs: $0.000086 per GiB-hour
Paid plan from
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Pay as you go
Freestyle VMs: $50 / month
Billing
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Active CPU time only
Freestyle VMs: Per second
Largest sandbox
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Freestyle VMs: 32 vCPU · 64 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Up to 100
Freestyle VMs: Up to 400
Isolation
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Firecracker microVM
Freestyle VMs: Full VM
SDKs
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Python
Freestyle VMs: JavaScript

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.044
Freestyle VMs: $0.04032
RAM, per GiB-hour
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.0095
Freestyle VMs: $0.0129
Storage
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Session volumes $0.05 per GiB-month
Freestyle VMs: $0.000086 per GiB-hour
Free tier
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Not listed
Freestyle VMs: Free plan, $0 forever
Paid plan from
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Pay as you go
Freestyle VMs: $50 / month
Billing
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Active CPU time only
Freestyle VMs: Per second

Limits

Max session
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Not listed
Freestyle VMs: Not listed
Idle stop
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: After 15 minutes
Freestyle VMs: Not listed
Largest sandbox
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Freestyle VMs: 32 vCPU · 64 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Up to 100
Freestyle VMs: Up to 400

Platform

Isolation
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Firecracker microVM
Freestyle VMs: Full VM
GPU
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Not listed
Freestyle VMs: Not listed
Snapshots
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime:
Freestyle VMs:
Pause and resume
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime:
Freestyle VMs:

Developer

SDKs
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Python
Freestyle VMs: JavaScript
Integrations
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Not listed
Freestyle VMs: OpenAI Agents SDK, Claude Agent SDK

Trust

License
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Not listed
Freestyle VMs: Not listed
BYOC
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Not listed
Freestyle VMs: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

DigitalOcean Harness Runtime
Freestyle VMs
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.063
Freestyle VMs: $0.066
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.126
Freestyle VMs: $0.132
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.252
Freestyle VMs: $0.264

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

DigitalOcean Harness Runtime fits when

  • You want to pay only for usage, with no plan fee.
  • You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.126 against $0.132 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.

Freestyle VMs fits when

  • You want each sandbox to be a full VM.
  • You use the OpenAI Agents SDK or the Claude Agent SDK.
  • You need a desktop in the sandbox.
  • You need a sandbox larger than 16 vCPU · 32 GiB.

More comparisons

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