Sailboxes vs Shellbox

Sailboxes costs $0.015 per vCPU-hour and Shellbox costs $0.01 per vCPU-hour. Sailboxes runs full VMs and has no session limit. Shellbox runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit.

Updated Oct 23, 2026

Sailboxes

Persistent Linux VMs for long-horizon AI agents.

Isolation: Full VM
Free tier: $5 credit every month
Max session: No limit

Visit site Sailboxes profile

Shellbox

Linux microVMs for developers and AI agents, made and controlled over SSH.

Isolation: Firecracker microVM
Free tier: Not listed
Max session: No limit

Visit site Shellbox profile

What is different

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

Field

Sailboxes

Shellbox

vCPU, per hour: Sailboxes: $0.015; Shellbox: $0.01
RAM, per GiB-hour: Sailboxes: $0.008; Shellbox: Included
Storage: Sailboxes: $0.0007 per GiB-hour; Shellbox: A stopped box costs $0.50 per x1 slot per month
Billing: Sailboxes: Per second; Shellbox: Bundled machine time
Largest sandbox: Sailboxes: 8 vCPU · 256 GiB; Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: Sailboxes: Up to 5,000; Shellbox: Up to 16
Isolation: Sailboxes: Full VM; Shellbox: Firecracker microVM

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Sailboxesdocs.sailresearch.com/pricingdocs.sailresearch.com

Shellboxshellbox.dev/#pricingshellbox.dev

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: Sailboxes: $0.015; Shellbox: $0.01
RAM, per GiB-hour: Sailboxes: $0.008; Shellbox: Included
Storage: Sailboxes: $0.0007 per GiB-hour; Shellbox: A stopped box costs $0.50 per x1 slot per month
Free tier: Sailboxes: $5 credit every month; Shellbox: Not listed
Paid plan from: Sailboxes: Pay as you go; Shellbox: Pay as you go
Billing: Sailboxes: Per second; Shellbox: Bundled machine time

Limits

Max session: Sailboxes: No limit; Shellbox: No limit
Idle stop: Sailboxes: Not listed; Shellbox: After 2 minutes
Largest sandbox: Sailboxes: 8 vCPU · 256 GiB; Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: Sailboxes: Up to 5,000; Shellbox: Up to 16

Platform

Isolation: Sailboxes: Full VM; Shellbox: Firecracker microVM
GPU: Sailboxes: Not listed; Shellbox: Not listed
Snapshots: Sailboxes:; Shellbox:
Pause and resume: Sailboxes:; Shellbox:

Developer

SDKs: Sailboxes: Python, TypeScript, Rust; Shellbox: Not listed
Integrations: Sailboxes: Claude Code; Shellbox: Claude Code

Trust

License: Sailboxes: Not listed; Shellbox: Not listed
BYOC: Sailboxes: Not listed; Shellbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

Sailboxes

Shellbox

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: Sailboxes: $0.031; Shellbox: $0.010
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: Sailboxes: $0.062; Shellbox: $0.020
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: Sailboxes: $0.124; Shellbox: $0.040

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Sailboxes fits when

You want each sandbox to be a full VM.
You need SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA.

Shellbox fits when

You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
You want the lower list price: $0.020 against $0.062 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

Sailboxes

Shellbox

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

Sailboxes fits when

Shellbox fits when

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