Sandbox as a Service vs Shellbox
Sandbox as a Service costs $0.045 per vCPU-hour and Shellbox costs $0.01 per vCPU-hour. Sandbox as a Service runs full VMs and limits a session to 24 hours. Shellbox runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit.
Updated
Sandbox as a Service
- Isolation
- Full VM
- Free tier
- $5 credit
- Max session
- 24 hours
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.
Sandbox as a Service
Shellbox
- vCPU, per hour
- Sandbox as a Service: $0.045
- Shellbox: $0.01
- Max session
- Sandbox as a Service: 24 hours
- Shellbox: No limit
- Largest sandbox
- Sandbox as a Service: 8 vCPU · 16 GiB
- Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
- Concurrent sandboxes
- Sandbox as a Service: Up to 20
- Shellbox: Up to 16
- Isolation
- Sandbox as a Service: Full VM
- Shellbox: Firecracker microVM
- Integrations
- Sandbox as a Service: MCP
- Shellbox: Claude Code
Full comparison
18 fields, at each provider's list price
Sandbox as a Servicesandbox-as-a-service
Shellboxshellbox
Pricing
- vCPU, per hour
- Sandbox as a Service: $0.045
- Shellbox: $0.01
- RAM, per GiB-hour
- Sandbox as a Service: Included
- Shellbox: Included
- Storage
- Sandbox as a Service: Not listed
- Shellbox: A stopped box costs $0.50 per x1 slot per month
- Free tier
- Sandbox as a Service: $5 credit
- Shellbox: Not listed
- Paid plan from
- Sandbox as a Service: Pay as you go
- Shellbox: Pay as you go
- Billing
- Sandbox as a Service: Bundled machine time
- Shellbox: Bundled machine time
Limits
- Max session
- Sandbox as a Service: 24 hours
- Shellbox: No limit
- Idle stop
- Sandbox as a Service: Not listed
- Shellbox: After 2 minutes
- Largest sandbox
- Sandbox as a Service: 8 vCPU · 16 GiB
- Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
- Concurrent sandboxes
- Sandbox as a Service: Up to 20
- Shellbox: Up to 16
Platform
- Isolation
- Sandbox as a Service: Full VM
- Shellbox: Firecracker microVM
- GPU
- Sandbox as a Service: Not listed
- Shellbox: Not listed
- Snapshots
- Sandbox as a Service:
- Shellbox:
- Pause and resume
- Sandbox as a Service: Not listed
- Shellbox:
Developer
- SDKs
- Sandbox as a Service: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript
- Shellbox: Not listed
- Integrations
- Sandbox as a Service: MCP
- Shellbox: Claude Code
Trust
- License
- Sandbox as a Service: Not listed
- Shellbox: Not listed
- BYOC
- Sandbox as a Service: Not listed
- Shellbox: Not listed
Hourly cost
One sandbox running for one hour
Sandbox as a Service
Shellbox
- 1 vCPU · 2 GiB
- Sandbox as a Service: $0.045
- Shellbox: $0.010
- 2 vCPU · 4 GiB
- Sandbox as a Service: $0.090
- Shellbox: $0.020
- 4 vCPU · 8 GiB
- Sandbox as a Service: $0.180
- Shellbox: $0.040
Compute only, at list rates.
Open the calculatorWhich one fits
Based on the fields above
Sandbox as a Service fits when
- You want each sandbox to be a full VM.
- You use MCP.
Shellbox fits when
- A session must run longer than 24 hours.
- You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
- You use Claude Code.
- You want the lower list price: $0.020 against $0.090 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
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