Islo Sandboxes vs Smol Machines

Islo Sandboxes costs $0.07 per vCPU-hour and Smol Machines costs $0.05 per vCPU-hour. Islo Sandboxes runs microVMs. Smol Machines runs microVMs.

Updated

Islo Sandboxes

Isolation
MicroVM
Free tier
Starting credit, no card required
Max session
Not listed

Smol Machines

Isolation
MicroVM
Free tier
$100 credit, one time
Max session
Not listed

What is different

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

Islo Sandboxes
Smol Machines
vCPU, per hour
Islo Sandboxes: $0.07
Smol Machines: $0.05
RAM, per GiB-hour
Islo Sandboxes: $0.04
Smol Machines: $0.0162
Storage
Islo Sandboxes: $0.0007 per GiB-hour
Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
Free tier
Islo Sandboxes: Starting credit, no card required
Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
Billing
Islo Sandboxes: Per second
Smol Machines: Active CPU time only
Snapshots
Islo Sandboxes:
Smol Machines: No
SDKs
Islo Sandboxes: Python, TypeScript, Go
Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Islo Sandboxes: $0.07
Smol Machines: $0.05
RAM, per GiB-hour
Islo Sandboxes: $0.04
Smol Machines: $0.0162
Storage
Islo Sandboxes: $0.0007 per GiB-hour
Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
Free tier
Islo Sandboxes: Starting credit, no card required
Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
Paid plan from
Islo Sandboxes: Pay as you go
Smol Machines: Pay as you go
Billing
Islo Sandboxes: Per second
Smol Machines: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session
Islo Sandboxes: Not listed
Smol Machines: Not listed
Idle stop
Islo Sandboxes: Not listed
Smol Machines: Not listed
Largest sandbox
Islo Sandboxes: Not listed
Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Islo Sandboxes: Not listed
Smol Machines: Up to 1,000

Platform

Isolation
Islo Sandboxes: MicroVM
Smol Machines: MicroVM
GPU
Islo Sandboxes: Not listed
Smol Machines: No
Snapshots
Islo Sandboxes:
Smol Machines: No
Pause and resume
Islo Sandboxes:
Smol Machines:

Developer

SDKs
Islo Sandboxes: Python, TypeScript, Go
Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust
Integrations
Islo Sandboxes: Claude Code
Smol Machines: Not listed

Trust

License
Islo Sandboxes: Not listed
Smol Machines: Apache-2.0
BYOC
Islo Sandboxes: Agent computers run in your VPC.
Smol Machines: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Islo Sandboxes
Smol Machines
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Islo Sandboxes: $0.150
Smol Machines: $0.082
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Islo Sandboxes: $0.300
Smol Machines: $0.165
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Islo Sandboxes: $0.600
Smol Machines: $0.330

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Islo Sandboxes fits when

  • You use Claude Code.
  • You need snapshots.
  • You need the sandboxes in your own cloud account.

Smol Machines fits when

  • You want an open-source platform (Apache-2.0) that you can self-host.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.165 against $0.300 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

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