DigitalOcean MicroVMs vs Railway Sandboxes

DigitalOcean MicroVMs costs $0.022 per vCPU-hour and Railway Sandboxes costs $0.069444 per vCPU-hour. DigitalOcean MicroVMs runs Firecracker microVMs. Railway Sandboxes runs full VMs.

Updated

DigitalOcean MicroVMs

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
Not listed
Max session
Not listed

Railway Sandboxes

Isolation
Full VM
Free tier
$5 trial credit for 30 days
Max session
Not listed

What is different

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

DigitalOcean MicroVMs
Railway Sandboxes
vCPU, per hour
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.022
Railway Sandboxes: $0.069444
RAM, per GiB-hour
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.0085
Railway Sandboxes: $0.069444
Billing
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Per second
Railway Sandboxes: Active CPU time only
Idle stop
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: After 5 minutes
Railway Sandboxes: After 30 minutes
Largest sandbox
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Railway Sandboxes: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
Isolation
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Firecracker microVM
Railway Sandboxes: Full VM

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.022
Railway Sandboxes: $0.069444
RAM, per GiB-hour
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.0085
Railway Sandboxes: $0.069444
Storage
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.05 per GiB per month, charged when running or paused. Checkpoints are charged until deleted.
Railway Sandboxes: Not listed
Free tier
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Railway Sandboxes: $5 trial credit for 30 days
Paid plan from
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Railway Sandboxes: $5 / month
Billing
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Per second
Railway Sandboxes: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Railway Sandboxes: Not listed
Idle stop
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: After 5 minutes
Railway Sandboxes: After 30 minutes
Largest sandbox
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Railway Sandboxes: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Railway Sandboxes: Up to 100

Platform

Isolation
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Firecracker microVM
Railway Sandboxes: Full VM
GPU
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Railway Sandboxes: Not listed
Snapshots
DigitalOcean MicroVMs:
Railway Sandboxes:
Pause and resume
DigitalOcean MicroVMs:
Railway Sandboxes: Not listed

Developer

SDKs
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Railway Sandboxes: TypeScript
Integrations
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Railway Sandboxes: Claude Code

Trust

License
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Railway Sandboxes: Not listed
BYOC
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Railway Sandboxes: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

DigitalOcean MicroVMs
Railway Sandboxes
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.039
Railway Sandboxes: $0.208
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.078
Railway Sandboxes: $0.417
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.156
Railway Sandboxes: $0.833

Compute only, at list rates.

Open the calculator

Which one fits

Based on the fields above

DigitalOcean MicroVMs fits when

  • You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.078 against $0.417 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need pause and resume.

Railway Sandboxes fits when

  • You want each sandbox to be a full VM.
  • You use Claude Code.
  • Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.
  • You need a sandbox larger than 16 vCPU · 32 GiB.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

Related