Sandock vs Shellbox

Shellbox costs $0.01 per vCPU-hour. Sandock runs containers and limits a session to 8 hours. Shellbox runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit.

Updated Oct 23, 2026

Sandock

Docker sandboxes with persistent volumes for AI agents.

Isolation: Container
Free tier: None
Max session: 8 hours

Visit site Sandock 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

Sandock

Shellbox

Paid plan from: Sandock: $5 / month; Shellbox: Pay as you go
Max session: Sandock: 8 hours; Shellbox: No limit
Idle stop: Sandock: After 30 minutes; Shellbox: After 2 minutes
Largest sandbox: Sandock: 8 vCPU · 8 GiB; Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: Sandock: Up to 150; Shellbox: Up to 16
Isolation: Sandock: Container; Shellbox: Firecracker microVM
Integrations: Sandock: MCP; Shellbox: Claude Code

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Sandocksandock.ai/pricing

Shellboxshellbox.dev/#pricingshellbox.dev

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: Sandock: Not listed; Shellbox: $0.01
RAM, per GiB-hour: Sandock: Not listed; Shellbox: Included
Storage: Sandock: Not listed; Shellbox: A stopped box costs $0.50 per x1 slot per month
Free tier: Sandock: None; Shellbox: Not listed
Paid plan from: Sandock: $5 / month; Shellbox: Pay as you go
Billing: Sandock: Not listed; Shellbox: Bundled machine time

Limits

Max session: Sandock: 8 hours; Shellbox: No limit
Idle stop: Sandock: After 30 minutes; Shellbox: After 2 minutes
Largest sandbox: Sandock: 8 vCPU · 8 GiB; Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: Sandock: Up to 150; Shellbox: Up to 16

Platform

Isolation: Sandock: Container; Shellbox: Firecracker microVM
GPU: Sandock: Not listed; Shellbox: Not listed
Snapshots: Sandock: Not listed; Shellbox:
Pause and resume: Sandock:; Shellbox:

Developer

SDKs: Sandock: TypeScript; Shellbox: Not listed
Integrations: Sandock: MCP; Shellbox: Claude Code

Trust

License: Sandock: MIT; Shellbox: Not listed
BYOC: Sandock: Private / VPC deployment on Enterprise; Shellbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

Sandock

Shellbox

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: Sandock: Not listed; Shellbox: $0.010
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: Sandock: Not listed; Shellbox: $0.020
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: Sandock: Not listed; Shellbox: $0.040

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Sandock fits when

You want an open-source platform (MIT) that you can self-host.
You use MCP.
You need the sandboxes in your own cloud account.

Shellbox fits when

A session must run longer than 8 hours.
You want to pay only for usage, with no plan fee.
You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
You use Claude Code.

More comparisons

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Sandock

Shellbox

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

Sandock fits when

Shellbox fits when

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