exe.dev vs Shellbox

exe.dev costs $0.0525 per vCPU-hour and Shellbox costs $0.01 per vCPU-hour. exe.dev runs full VMs. Shellbox runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit.

Updated

exe.dev

Isolation
Full VM
Free tier
7-day trial with a paid ChatGPT subscription
Max session
Not listed

Shellbox

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
Not listed
Max session
No limit

What is different

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

exe.dev
Shellbox
vCPU, per hour
exe.dev: $0.0525
Shellbox: $0.01
Storage
exe.dev: $0.08 per GiB per month of extra disk
Shellbox: A stopped box costs $0.50 per x1 slot per month
Paid plan from
exe.dev: $15 / month
Shellbox: Pay as you go
Largest sandbox
exe.dev: 32 vCPU · 64 GiB
Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Isolation
exe.dev: Full VM
Shellbox: Firecracker microVM
Integrations
exe.dev: Claude Code, MCP
Shellbox: Claude Code

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
exe.dev: $0.0525
Shellbox: $0.01
RAM, per GiB-hour
exe.dev: Included
Shellbox: Included
Storage
exe.dev: $0.08 per GiB per month of extra disk
Shellbox: A stopped box costs $0.50 per x1 slot per month
Free tier
exe.dev: 7-day trial with a paid ChatGPT subscription
Shellbox: Not listed
Paid plan from
exe.dev: $15 / month
Shellbox: Pay as you go
Billing
exe.dev: Bundled machine time
Shellbox: Bundled machine time

Limits

Max session
exe.dev: Not listed
Shellbox: No limit
Idle stop
exe.dev: Not listed
Shellbox: After 2 minutes
Largest sandbox
exe.dev: 32 vCPU · 64 GiB
Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
exe.dev: Not listed
Shellbox: Up to 16

Platform

Isolation
exe.dev: Full VM
Shellbox: Firecracker microVM
GPU
exe.dev: Not listed
Shellbox: Not listed
Snapshots
exe.dev: Not listed
Shellbox:
Pause and resume
exe.dev: Not listed
Shellbox:

Developer

SDKs
exe.dev: Not listed
Shellbox: Not listed
Integrations
exe.dev: Claude Code, MCP
Shellbox: Claude Code

Trust

License
exe.dev: Not listed
Shellbox: Not listed
BYOC
exe.dev: Enterprise plan
Shellbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

exe.dev
Shellbox
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
exe.dev: $0.053
Shellbox: $0.010
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
exe.dev: $0.105
Shellbox: $0.020
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
exe.dev: $0.210
Shellbox: $0.040

Compute only, at list rates.

Open the calculator

Which one fits

Based on the fields above

exe.dev fits when

  • You want each sandbox to be a full VM.
  • You use MCP.
  • You need the sandboxes in your own cloud account.
  • You need a sandbox larger than 16 vCPU · 32 GiB.

Shellbox fits when

  • You want to pay only for usage, with no plan fee.
  • You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.020 against $0.105 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need snapshots.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

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