DigitalOcean Harness Runtime vs Modal

DigitalOcean Harness Runtime costs $0.044 per vCPU-hour and Modal costs $0.070956 per vCPU-hour. DigitalOcean Harness Runtime runs Firecracker microVMs. Modal runs gVisor, offers GPUs and limits a session to 24 hours.

Updated Oct 14, 2026

DigitalOcean Harness Runtime

Managed microVM sandboxes for AI agents and their code.

Isolation: Firecracker microVM
Free tier: Not listed
Max session: Not listed

Visit site DigitalOcean Harness Runtime profile

Modal

Serverless compute with sandboxes and GPUs.

Isolation: gVisor
Free tier: $30 credit every month
Max session: 24 hours

Visit site Modal profile

What is different

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

Field

DigitalOcean Harness Runtime

Modal

vCPU, per hour: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.044; Modal: $0.070956
RAM, per GiB-hour: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.0095; Modal: $0.024012
Billing: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Active CPU time only; Modal: Per second
Isolation: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Firecracker microVM; Modal: gVisor
SDKs: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Python; Modal: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript, Go
Integrations: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Claude Code; Modal: Claude Agent SDK, Claude Code

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

DigitalOcean Harness Runtimedigitalocean.com/pricing/harness-runtimedigitalocean.com

Modalmodal.com/pricing

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.044; Modal: $0.070956
RAM, per GiB-hour: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.0095; Modal: $0.024012
Storage: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Session volumes $0.05 per GiB-month; Modal: Not listed
Free tier: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Not listed; Modal: $30 credit every month
Paid plan from: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Pay as you go; Modal: Pay as you go
Billing: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Active CPU time only; Modal: Per second

Limits

Max session: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Not listed; Modal: 24 hours
Idle stop: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: After 15 minutes; Modal: Not listed
Largest sandbox: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB; Modal: Not listed
Concurrent sandboxes: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Up to 100; Modal: Not listed

Platform

Isolation: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Firecracker microVM; Modal: gVisor
GPU: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Not listed; Modal:
Snapshots: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime:; Modal:
Pause and resume: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime:; Modal: Not listed

Developer

SDKs: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Python; Modal: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript, Go
Integrations: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Claude Code; Modal: Claude Agent SDK, Claude Code

Trust

License: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Not listed; Modal: Not listed
BYOC: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Not listed; Modal: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

DigitalOcean Harness Runtime

Modal

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.063; Modal: $0.119
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.126; Modal: $0.238
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.252; Modal: $0.476

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

DigitalOcean Harness Runtime fits when

You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
You want the lower list price: $0.126 against $0.238 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
You need pause and resume.
Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.

Modal fits when

You need GPUs.
You use the Claude Agent SDK.
You need a desktop in the sandbox.
You need SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and GDPR.

More comparisons

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DigitalOcean Harness Runtime

Modal

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

DigitalOcean Harness Runtime fits when

Modal fits when

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