Northflank Sandboxes vs Zipbox

Northflank Sandboxes costs $0.01667 per vCPU-hour and Zipbox costs $0.00685 per vCPU-hour. Northflank Sandboxes runs Cloud Hypervisor microVMs, offers GPUs and has no session limit. Zipbox 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

Zipbox

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

What is different

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

Northflank Sandboxes
Zipbox
vCPU, per hour
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.01667
Zipbox: $0.00685
RAM, per GiB-hour
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.00833
Zipbox: Included
Storage
Northflank Sandboxes: Persistent disk $0.11657 per GiB per month, also when paused. Ephemeral storage is free.
Zipbox: Free
Free tier
Northflank Sandboxes: Free Sandbox plan, up to $20 of resources a month, no card
Zipbox: $25 credit after a one-time $5 top-up
Billing
Northflank Sandboxes: Per second
Zipbox: Bundled machine time
Largest sandbox
Northflank Sandboxes: 20 vCPU · 40 GiB
Zipbox: 6 vCPU · 16 GiB
Isolation
Northflank Sandboxes: Cloud Hypervisor microVM
Zipbox: Firecracker microVM
Snapshots
Northflank Sandboxes:
Zipbox: No
Pause and resume
Northflank Sandboxes:
Zipbox: No
SDKs
Northflank Sandboxes: Python, JavaScript
Zipbox: TypeScript, Python, Go, Rust

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.01667
Zipbox: $0.00685
RAM, per GiB-hour
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.00833
Zipbox: Included
Storage
Northflank Sandboxes: Persistent disk $0.11657 per GiB per month, also when paused. Ephemeral storage is free.
Zipbox: Free
Free tier
Northflank Sandboxes: Free Sandbox plan, up to $20 of resources a month, no card
Zipbox: $25 credit after a one-time $5 top-up
Paid plan from
Northflank Sandboxes: Pay as you go
Zipbox: Pay as you go
Billing
Northflank Sandboxes: Per second
Zipbox: Bundled machine time

Limits

Max session
Northflank Sandboxes: No limit
Zipbox: No limit
Idle stop
Northflank Sandboxes: Not listed
Zipbox: Not listed
Largest sandbox
Northflank Sandboxes: 20 vCPU · 40 GiB
Zipbox: 6 vCPU · 16 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Northflank Sandboxes: Not listed
Zipbox: Not listed

Platform

Isolation
Northflank Sandboxes: Cloud Hypervisor microVM
Zipbox: Firecracker microVM
GPU
Northflank Sandboxes:
Zipbox: Not listed
Snapshots
Northflank Sandboxes:
Zipbox: No
Pause and resume
Northflank Sandboxes:
Zipbox: No

Developer

SDKs
Northflank Sandboxes: Python, JavaScript
Zipbox: TypeScript, Python, Go, Rust
Integrations
Northflank Sandboxes: Not listed
Zipbox: MCP, Claude Code, Claude Agent SDK, OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, LangChain

Trust

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

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Northflank Sandboxes
Zipbox
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.033
Zipbox: $0.007
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.067
Zipbox: $0.014
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Northflank Sandboxes: $0.133
Zipbox: $0.027

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 snapshots.
  • You need pause and resume.
  • You need the sandboxes in your own cloud account.

Zipbox fits when

  • You use MCP, Claude Code, the Claude Agent SDK, the OpenAI Agents SDK, the Vercel AI SDK or LangChain.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.014 against $0.067 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need a desktop in the sandbox.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

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