Northflank Sandboxes vs Shellbox

Northflank Sandboxes costs $0.01667 per vCPU-hour and Shellbox costs $0.01 per vCPU-hour. Northflank Sandboxes runs Cloud Hypervisor microVMs, offers GPUs and has no session limit. Shellbox runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit.

Updated

Northflank Sandboxes

Isolation
Cloud Hypervisor microVM
Free tier
Free Sandbox plan, up to $20 of resources a month, no card
Max session
No limit

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.

Northflank Sandboxes
Shellbox
vCPU, per hour
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.01667
Shellbox: $0.01
RAM, per GiB-hour
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.00833
Shellbox: Included
Storage
Northflank Sandboxes: Persistent disk $0.11657 per GiB per month, also when paused. Ephemeral storage is free.
Shellbox: A stopped box costs $0.50 per x1 slot per month
Billing
Northflank Sandboxes: Per second
Shellbox: Bundled machine time
Largest sandbox
Northflank Sandboxes: 20 vCPU · 40 GiB
Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Isolation
Northflank Sandboxes: Cloud Hypervisor microVM
Shellbox: Firecracker microVM

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.01667
Shellbox: $0.01
RAM, per GiB-hour
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.00833
Shellbox: Included
Storage
Northflank Sandboxes: Persistent disk $0.11657 per GiB per month, also when paused. Ephemeral storage is free.
Shellbox: A stopped box costs $0.50 per x1 slot per month
Free tier
Northflank Sandboxes: Free Sandbox plan, up to $20 of resources a month, no card
Shellbox: Not listed
Paid plan from
Northflank Sandboxes: Pay as you go
Shellbox: Pay as you go
Billing
Northflank Sandboxes: Per second
Shellbox: Bundled machine time

Limits

Max session
Northflank Sandboxes: No limit
Shellbox: No limit
Idle stop
Northflank Sandboxes: Not listed
Shellbox: After 2 minutes
Largest sandbox
Northflank Sandboxes: 20 vCPU · 40 GiB
Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Northflank Sandboxes: Not listed
Shellbox: Up to 16

Platform

Isolation
Northflank Sandboxes: Cloud Hypervisor microVM
Shellbox: Firecracker microVM
GPU
Northflank Sandboxes:
Shellbox: Not listed
Snapshots
Northflank Sandboxes:
Shellbox:
Pause and resume
Northflank Sandboxes:
Shellbox:

Developer

SDKs
Northflank Sandboxes: Python, JavaScript
Shellbox: Not listed
Integrations
Northflank Sandboxes: Not listed
Shellbox: Claude Code

Trust

License
Northflank Sandboxes: Not listed
Shellbox: Not listed
BYOC
Northflank Sandboxes: Runs in your own cloud or VPC
Shellbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Northflank Sandboxes
Shellbox
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.033
Shellbox: $0.010
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.067
Shellbox: $0.020
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.133
Shellbox: $0.040

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Northflank Sandboxes fits when

  • You need GPUs.
  • You need the sandboxes in your own cloud account.
  • You need a sandbox larger than 16 vCPU · 32 GiB.
  • You need SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA.

Shellbox fits when

  • You use Claude Code.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.020 against $0.067 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

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