DigitalOcean MicroVMs vs Upstash Box

DigitalOcean MicroVMs costs $0.022 per vCPU-hour and Upstash Box costs $0.10 per vCPU-hour. DigitalOcean MicroVMs runs Firecracker microVMs. Upstash Box runs containers.

Updated

DigitalOcean MicroVMs

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
Not listed
Max session
Not listed

Upstash Box

Isolation
Container
Free tier
Free plan, 5 CPU hours per month
Max session
Not listed

What is different

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

DigitalOcean MicroVMs
Upstash Box
vCPU, per hour
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.022
Upstash Box: $0.10
RAM, per GiB-hour
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.0085
Upstash Box: Included
Storage
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.05 per GiB per month, charged when running or paused. Checkpoints are charged until deleted.
Upstash Box: $0.10 per GB per month, including snapshots. Included on Fixed.
Billing
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Per second
Upstash Box: Active CPU time only
Idle stop
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: After 5 minutes
Upstash Box: After 360 minutes
Largest sandbox
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Upstash Box: 8 vCPU · 16 GiB
Isolation
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Firecracker microVM
Upstash Box: Container

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.022
Upstash Box: $0.10
RAM, per GiB-hour
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.0085
Upstash Box: Included
Storage
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.05 per GiB per month, charged when running or paused. Checkpoints are charged until deleted.
Upstash Box: $0.10 per GB per month, including snapshots. Included on Fixed.
Free tier
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Upstash Box: Free plan, 5 CPU hours per month
Paid plan from
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Upstash Box: Pay as you go
Billing
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Per second
Upstash Box: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Upstash Box: Not listed
Idle stop
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: After 5 minutes
Upstash Box: After 360 minutes
Largest sandbox
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Upstash Box: 8 vCPU · 16 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Upstash Box: Up to 1,000

Platform

Isolation
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Firecracker microVM
Upstash Box: Container
GPU
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Upstash Box: Not listed
Snapshots
DigitalOcean MicroVMs:
Upstash Box:
Pause and resume
DigitalOcean MicroVMs:
Upstash Box:

Developer

SDKs
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Upstash Box: Python, TypeScript
Integrations
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Upstash Box: LangChain, Vercel AI SDK, Claude Code, MCP

Trust

License
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Upstash Box: Not listed
BYOC
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Upstash Box: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

DigitalOcean MicroVMs
Upstash Box
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.039
Upstash Box: $0.100
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.078
Upstash Box: $0.200
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.156
Upstash Box: $0.400

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.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.078 against $0.200 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need a sandbox larger than 8 vCPU · 16 GiB.

Upstash Box fits when

  • You use LangChain, the Vercel AI SDK, Claude Code or MCP.
  • Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.

More comparisons

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