Railway Sandboxes vs Shellbox

Railway Sandboxes costs $0.069444 per vCPU-hour and Shellbox costs $0.01 per vCPU-hour. Railway Sandboxes runs full VMs and has no session limit. Shellbox runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit.

Updated

Railway Sandboxes

Isolation
Full VM
Free tier
$5 trial credit for 30 days
Max session
No limit

Shellbox

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
Not listed
Max session
No limit

What is different

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

Railway Sandboxes
Shellbox
vCPU, per hour
Railway Sandboxes: $0.069444
Shellbox: $0.01
RAM, per GiB-hour
Railway Sandboxes: $0.069444
Shellbox: Included
Paid plan from
Railway Sandboxes: $5 / month
Shellbox: Pay as you go
Billing
Railway Sandboxes: Active CPU time only
Shellbox: Bundled machine time
Idle stop
Railway Sandboxes: After 30 minutes
Shellbox: After 2 minutes
Largest sandbox
Railway Sandboxes: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Railway Sandboxes: Up to 100
Shellbox: Up to 16
Isolation
Railway Sandboxes: Full VM
Shellbox: Firecracker microVM

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Railway Sandboxes: $0.069444
Shellbox: $0.01
RAM, per GiB-hour
Railway Sandboxes: $0.069444
Shellbox: Included
Storage
Railway Sandboxes: Not listed
Shellbox: A stopped box costs $0.50 per x1 slot per month
Free tier
Railway Sandboxes: $5 trial credit for 30 days
Shellbox: Not listed
Paid plan from
Railway Sandboxes: $5 / month
Shellbox: Pay as you go
Billing
Railway Sandboxes: Active CPU time only
Shellbox: Bundled machine time

Limits

Max session
Railway Sandboxes: No limit
Shellbox: No limit
Idle stop
Railway Sandboxes: After 30 minutes
Shellbox: After 2 minutes
Largest sandbox
Railway Sandboxes: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Railway Sandboxes: Up to 100
Shellbox: Up to 16

Platform

Isolation
Railway Sandboxes: Full VM
Shellbox: Firecracker microVM
GPU
Railway Sandboxes: Not listed
Shellbox: Not listed
Snapshots
Railway Sandboxes:
Shellbox:
Pause and resume
Railway Sandboxes: Not listed
Shellbox:

Developer

SDKs
Railway Sandboxes: TypeScript
Shellbox: Not listed
Integrations
Railway Sandboxes: Claude Code
Shellbox: Claude Code

Trust

License
Railway Sandboxes: Not listed
Shellbox: Not listed
BYOC
Railway Sandboxes: Not listed
Shellbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Railway Sandboxes
Shellbox
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Railway Sandboxes: $0.208
Shellbox: $0.010
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Railway Sandboxes: $0.417
Shellbox: $0.020
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Railway Sandboxes: $0.833
Shellbox: $0.040

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Railway Sandboxes fits when

  • You want each sandbox to be a full VM.
  • Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.
  • You need a sandbox larger than 16 vCPU · 32 GiB.
  • You need SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and GDPR.

Shellbox fits when

  • You want to pay only for usage, with no plan fee.
  • You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.020 against $0.417 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need pause and resume.

More comparisons

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