DigitalOcean MicroVMs vs Zipbox

DigitalOcean MicroVMs costs $0.022 per vCPU-hour and Zipbox costs $0.00685 per vCPU-hour. DigitalOcean MicroVMs runs Firecracker microVMs. Zipbox runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit.

Updated

DigitalOcean MicroVMs

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
Not listed
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

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

DigitalOcean MicroVMs
Zipbox
vCPU, per hour
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.022
Zipbox: $0.00685
RAM, per GiB-hour
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.0085
Zipbox: Included
Storage
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.05 per GiB per month, charged when running or paused. Checkpoints are charged until deleted.
Zipbox: Free
Billing
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Per second
Zipbox: Bundled machine time
Largest sandbox
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Zipbox: 6 vCPU · 16 GiB
Snapshots
DigitalOcean MicroVMs:
Zipbox: No
Pause and resume
DigitalOcean MicroVMs:
Zipbox: No

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.022
Zipbox: $0.00685
RAM, per GiB-hour
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.0085
Zipbox: Included
Storage
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.05 per GiB per month, charged when running or paused. Checkpoints are charged until deleted.
Zipbox: Free
Free tier
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Zipbox: $25 credit after a one-time $5 top-up
Paid plan from
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Zipbox: Pay as you go
Billing
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Per second
Zipbox: Bundled machine time

Limits

Max session
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Zipbox: No limit
Idle stop
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: After 5 minutes
Zipbox: Not listed
Largest sandbox
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Zipbox: 6 vCPU · 16 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Zipbox: Not listed

Platform

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

Developer

SDKs
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Zipbox: TypeScript, Python, Go, Rust
Integrations
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Zipbox: MCP, Claude Code, Claude Agent SDK, OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, LangChain

Trust

License
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Zipbox: Not listed
BYOC
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Zipbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

DigitalOcean MicroVMs
Zipbox
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.039
Zipbox: $0.007
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.078
Zipbox: $0.014
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.156
Zipbox: $0.027

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

DigitalOcean MicroVMs fits when

  • You need snapshots.
  • You need pause and resume.
  • You need a sandbox larger than 6 vCPU · 16 GiB.
  • You need SOC 2 and HIPAA.

Zipbox fits when

  • You use MCP, Claude Code, the Claude Agent SDK, the OpenAI Agents SDK, the Vercel AI SDK or LangChain.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.014 against $0.078 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need a desktop in the sandbox.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

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