DigitalOcean MicroVMs vs Sailboxes

DigitalOcean MicroVMs costs $0.022 per vCPU-hour and Sailboxes costs $0.015 per vCPU-hour. DigitalOcean MicroVMs runs Firecracker microVMs. Sailboxes runs full VMs and has no session limit.

Updated Oct 15, 2026

DigitalOcean MicroVMs

Lightweight virtual machines that run a container image in their own kernel and pause when idle.

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

Visit site DigitalOcean MicroVMs profile

Sailboxes

Persistent Linux VMs for long-horizon AI agents.

Isolation: Full VM
Free tier: $5 credit every month
Max session: No limit

Visit site Sailboxes profile

What is different

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

Field

DigitalOcean MicroVMs

Sailboxes

vCPU, per hour: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.022; Sailboxes: $0.015
RAM, per GiB-hour: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.0085; Sailboxes: $0.008
Storage: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.05 per GiB per month, charged when running or paused. Checkpoints are charged until deleted.; Sailboxes: $0.0007 per GiB-hour
Largest sandbox: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB; Sailboxes: 8 vCPU · 256 GiB
Isolation: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Firecracker microVM; Sailboxes: Full VM

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

DigitalOcean MicroVMsdocs.digitalocean.com/products/microvms/details/pricingdocs.digitalocean.com

Sailboxesdocs.sailresearch.com/pricingdocs.sailresearch.com

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.022; Sailboxes: $0.015
RAM, per GiB-hour: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.0085; Sailboxes: $0.008
Storage: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.05 per GiB per month, charged when running or paused. Checkpoints are charged until deleted.; Sailboxes: $0.0007 per GiB-hour
Free tier: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed; Sailboxes: $5 credit every month
Paid plan from: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed; Sailboxes: Pay as you go
Billing: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Per second; Sailboxes: Per second

Limits

Max session: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed; Sailboxes: No limit
Idle stop: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: After 5 minutes; Sailboxes: Not listed
Largest sandbox: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB; Sailboxes: 8 vCPU · 256 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed; Sailboxes: Up to 5,000

Platform

Isolation: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Firecracker microVM; Sailboxes: Full VM
GPU: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed; Sailboxes: Not listed
Snapshots: DigitalOcean MicroVMs:; Sailboxes:
Pause and resume: DigitalOcean MicroVMs:; Sailboxes:

Developer

SDKs: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed; Sailboxes: Python, TypeScript, Rust
Integrations: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed; Sailboxes: Claude Code

Trust

License: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed; Sailboxes: Not listed
BYOC: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed; Sailboxes: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

DigitalOcean MicroVMs

Sailboxes

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.039; Sailboxes: $0.031
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.078; Sailboxes: $0.062
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.156; Sailboxes: $0.124

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

DigitalOcean MicroVMs fits when

You want each sandbox in its own microVM.

Sailboxes fits when

You want each sandbox to be a full VM.
You use Claude Code.
You want the lower list price: $0.062 against $0.078 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
You need SOC 2 and HIPAA.

More comparisons

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DigitalOcean MicroVMs

Sailboxes

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

DigitalOcean MicroVMs fits when

Sailboxes fits when

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