DigitalOcean MicroVMs vs Vercel Sandbox

DigitalOcean MicroVMs costs $0.022 per vCPU-hour and Vercel Sandbox costs $0.128 per vCPU-hour. DigitalOcean MicroVMs runs Firecracker microVMs. Vercel Sandbox runs Firecracker microVMs and limits a session to 24 hours.

Updated

DigitalOcean MicroVMs

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
Not listed
Max session
Not listed

Vercel Sandbox

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
5 CPU-hours every month
Max session
24 hours

What is different

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

DigitalOcean MicroVMs
Vercel Sandbox
vCPU, per hour
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.022
Vercel Sandbox: $0.128
RAM, per GiB-hour
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.0085
Vercel Sandbox: $0.0212
Storage
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.05 per GiB per month, charged when running or paused. Checkpoints are charged until deleted.
Vercel Sandbox: On Pro, snapshots $0.08 per GB-month and drives $0.05 per GB-month (beta).
Billing
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Per second
Vercel Sandbox: Active CPU time only
Largest sandbox
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Vercel Sandbox: 8 vCPU · 16 GiB

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.022
Vercel Sandbox: $0.128
RAM, per GiB-hour
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.0085
Vercel Sandbox: $0.0212
Storage
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.05 per GiB per month, charged when running or paused. Checkpoints are charged until deleted.
Vercel Sandbox: On Pro, snapshots $0.08 per GB-month and drives $0.05 per GB-month (beta).
Free tier
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: 5 CPU-hours every month
Paid plan from
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: $20 / month
Billing
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Per second
Vercel Sandbox: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: 24 hours
Idle stop
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: After 5 minutes
Vercel Sandbox: Not listed
Largest sandbox
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Vercel Sandbox: 8 vCPU · 16 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: Up to 10,000

Platform

Isolation
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Firecracker microVM
Vercel Sandbox: Firecracker microVM
GPU
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: Not listed
Snapshots
DigitalOcean MicroVMs:
Vercel Sandbox:
Pause and resume
DigitalOcean MicroVMs:
Vercel Sandbox:

Developer

SDKs
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript
Integrations
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, Claude Code

Trust

License
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: Not listed
BYOC
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Vercel Sandbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

DigitalOcean MicroVMs
Vercel Sandbox
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.039
Vercel Sandbox: $0.170
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.078
Vercel Sandbox: $0.341
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.156
Vercel Sandbox: $0.682

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

DigitalOcean MicroVMs fits when

  • You want the lower list price: $0.078 against $0.341 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need a sandbox larger than 8 vCPU · 16 GiB.

Vercel Sandbox fits when

  • You use the Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, the OpenAI Agents SDK, the Vercel AI SDK or Claude Code.
  • Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.
  • You need SOC 2 Type II.

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