Northflank Sandboxes vs Smol Machines

Northflank Sandboxes costs $0.01667 per vCPU-hour and Smol Machines costs $0.05 per vCPU-hour. Northflank Sandboxes runs microVMs, offers GPUs and has no session limit. Smol Machines runs microVMs.

Updated

Northflank Sandboxes

Isolation
MicroVM
Free tier
Not listed
Max session
No limit

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.

Northflank Sandboxes
Smol Machines
vCPU, per hour
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.01667
Smol Machines: $0.05
RAM, per GiB-hour
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.00833
Smol Machines: $0.0162
Storage
Northflank Sandboxes: Volumes $0.15 per GB per month, also when paused. Ephemeral storage is included.
Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
Billing
Northflank Sandboxes: Per second
Smol Machines: Active CPU time only
Largest sandbox
Northflank Sandboxes: 20 vCPU · 40 GiB
Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
GPU
Northflank Sandboxes:
Smol Machines: No
SDKs
Northflank Sandboxes: Python, JavaScript
Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.01667
Smol Machines: $0.05
RAM, per GiB-hour
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.00833
Smol Machines: $0.0162
Storage
Northflank Sandboxes: Volumes $0.15 per GB per month, also when paused. Ephemeral storage is included.
Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
Free tier
Northflank Sandboxes: Not listed
Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
Paid plan from
Northflank Sandboxes: Pay as you go
Smol Machines: Pay as you go
Billing
Northflank Sandboxes: Per second
Smol Machines: Active CPU time only

Limits

Max session
Northflank Sandboxes: No limit
Smol Machines: Not listed
Idle stop
Northflank Sandboxes: Not listed
Smol Machines: Not listed
Largest sandbox
Northflank Sandboxes: 20 vCPU · 40 GiB
Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Northflank Sandboxes: Not listed
Smol Machines: Up to 1,000

Platform

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

Developer

SDKs
Northflank Sandboxes: Python, JavaScript
Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust
Integrations
Northflank Sandboxes: Not listed
Smol Machines: Not listed

Trust

License
Northflank Sandboxes: Not listed
Smol Machines: Apache-2.0
BYOC
Northflank Sandboxes: Runs in your own cloud or VPC
Smol Machines: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Northflank Sandboxes
Smol Machines
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.033
Smol Machines: $0.082
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.067
Smol Machines: $0.165
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.133
Smol Machines: $0.330

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 want the lower list price: $0.067 against $0.165 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need the sandboxes in your own cloud account.
  • You need SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA.

Smol Machines fits when

  • You want an open-source platform (Apache-2.0) that you can self-host.
  • Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

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