Modal vs Zipbox

Modal costs $0.070956 per vCPU-hour and Zipbox costs $0.00685 per vCPU-hour. Modal runs gVisor, offers GPUs and limits a session to 24 hours. Zipbox runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit.

Updated

Modal

Isolation
gVisor
Free tier
$30 credit every month
Max session
24 hours

Zipbox

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
$25 credit after a one-time $5 top-up
Max session
No limit

What is different

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

Modal
Zipbox
vCPU, per hour
Modal: $0.070956
Zipbox: $0.00685
RAM, per GiB-hour
Modal: $0.024012
Zipbox: Included
Free tier
Modal: $30 credit every month
Zipbox: $25 credit after a one-time $5 top-up
Billing
Modal: Per second
Zipbox: Bundled machine time
Max session
Modal: 24 hours
Zipbox: No limit
Isolation
Modal: gVisor
Zipbox: Firecracker microVM
Snapshots
Modal:
Zipbox: No
SDKs
Modal: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript, Go
Zipbox: TypeScript, Python, Go, Rust
Integrations
Modal: Claude Agent SDK, Claude Code, LangChain
Zipbox: MCP, Claude Code, Claude Agent SDK, OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, LangChain

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Modal: $0.070956
Zipbox: $0.00685
RAM, per GiB-hour
Modal: $0.024012
Zipbox: Included
Storage
Modal: Not listed
Zipbox: Free
Free tier
Modal: $30 credit every month
Zipbox: $25 credit after a one-time $5 top-up
Paid plan from
Modal: Pay as you go
Zipbox: Pay as you go
Billing
Modal: Per second
Zipbox: Bundled machine time

Limits

Max session
Modal: 24 hours
Zipbox: No limit
Idle stop
Modal: Not listed
Zipbox: Not listed
Largest sandbox
Modal: Not listed
Zipbox: 6 vCPU · 16 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Modal: Not listed
Zipbox: Not listed

Platform

Isolation
Modal: gVisor
Zipbox: Firecracker microVM
GPU
Modal:
Zipbox: Not listed
Snapshots
Modal:
Zipbox: No
Pause and resume
Modal: Not listed
Zipbox: No

Developer

SDKs
Modal: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript, Go
Zipbox: TypeScript, Python, Go, Rust
Integrations
Modal: Claude Agent SDK, Claude Code, LangChain
Zipbox: MCP, Claude Code, Claude Agent SDK, OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, LangChain

Trust

License
Modal: Not listed
Zipbox: Not listed
BYOC
Modal: Not listed
Zipbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Modal
Zipbox
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Modal: $0.119
Zipbox: $0.007
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Modal: $0.238
Zipbox: $0.014
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Modal: $0.476
Zipbox: $0.027

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Modal fits when

  • You need GPUs.
  • You want the larger free credit: $30 against $25.
  • You need snapshots.
  • You need SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and GDPR.

Zipbox fits when

  • A session must run longer than 24 hours.
  • You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
  • You use MCP, the OpenAI Agents SDK or the Vercel AI SDK.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.014 against $0.238 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.

More comparisons

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