DigitalOcean Harness Runtime vs Zipbox

DigitalOcean Harness Runtime costs $0.044 per vCPU-hour and Zipbox costs $0.00685 per vCPU-hour. DigitalOcean Harness Runtime runs Firecracker microVMs. Zipbox runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit.

Updated

DigitalOcean Harness Runtime

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
$5 credit for new DigitalOcean customers
Max session
Not listed

Zipbox

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

What is different

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

DigitalOcean Harness Runtime
Zipbox
vCPU, per hour
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.044
Zipbox: $0.00685
RAM, per GiB-hour
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.0095
Zipbox: Included
Storage
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Session volumes $0.05 per GiB-month
Zipbox: Free
Free tier
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $5 credit for new DigitalOcean customers
Zipbox: $25 credit after a one-time $5 top-up
Billing
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Active CPU time only
Zipbox: Bundled machine time
Largest sandbox
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Zipbox: 6 vCPU · 16 GiB
Snapshots
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime:
Zipbox: No
Pause and resume
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime:
Zipbox: No
SDKs
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Python
Zipbox: TypeScript, Python, Go, Rust
Integrations
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Claude Code, MCP
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
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.044
Zipbox: $0.00685
RAM, per GiB-hour
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.0095
Zipbox: Included
Storage
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Session volumes $0.05 per GiB-month
Zipbox: Free
Free tier
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $5 credit for new DigitalOcean customers
Zipbox: $25 credit after a one-time $5 top-up
Paid plan from
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Pay as you go
Zipbox: Pay as you go
Billing
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Active CPU time only
Zipbox: Bundled machine time

Limits

Max session
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Not listed
Zipbox: No limit
Idle stop
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: After 15 minutes
Zipbox: Not listed
Largest sandbox
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Zipbox: 6 vCPU · 16 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Up to 100
Zipbox: Not listed

Platform

Isolation
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Firecracker microVM
Zipbox: Firecracker microVM
GPU
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Not listed
Zipbox: Not listed
Snapshots
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime:
Zipbox: No
Pause and resume
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime:
Zipbox: No

Developer

SDKs
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Python
Zipbox: TypeScript, Python, Go, Rust
Integrations
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Claude Code, MCP
Zipbox: MCP, Claude Code, Claude Agent SDK, OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, LangChain

Trust

License
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Not listed
Zipbox: Not listed
BYOC
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: Not listed
Zipbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

DigitalOcean Harness Runtime
Zipbox
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.063
Zipbox: $0.007
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.126
Zipbox: $0.014
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
DigitalOcean Harness Runtime: $0.252
Zipbox: $0.027

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

DigitalOcean Harness Runtime fits when

  • You need snapshots.
  • You need pause and resume.
  • Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.
  • You need a sandbox larger than 6 vCPU · 16 GiB.

Zipbox fits when

  • 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 $0.126 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You want the larger free credit: $25 against $5.
  • You need a desktop in the sandbox.

More comparisons

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