Shellbox vs Zipbox

Shellbox costs $0.01 per vCPU-hour and Zipbox costs $0.00685 per vCPU-hour. Shellbox runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit. Zipbox runs Firecracker microVMs and has no session limit.

Updated

Shellbox

Isolation
Firecracker microVM
Free tier
Not listed
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

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

Shellbox
Zipbox
vCPU, per hour
Shellbox: $0.01
Zipbox: $0.00685
Storage
Shellbox: A stopped box costs $0.50 per x1 slot per month
Zipbox: Free
Largest sandbox
Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Zipbox: 6 vCPU · 16 GiB
Snapshots
Shellbox:
Zipbox: No
Pause and resume
Shellbox:
Zipbox: No
Integrations
Shellbox: Claude Code
Zipbox: MCP, Claude Code, Claude Agent SDK, OpenAI Agents SDK, Vercel AI SDK, LangChain

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Shellbox: $0.01
Zipbox: $0.00685
RAM, per GiB-hour
Shellbox: Included
Zipbox: Included
Storage
Shellbox: A stopped box costs $0.50 per x1 slot per month
Zipbox: Free
Free tier
Shellbox: Not listed
Zipbox: $25 credit after a one-time $5 top-up
Paid plan from
Shellbox: Pay as you go
Zipbox: Pay as you go
Billing
Shellbox: Bundled machine time
Zipbox: Bundled machine time

Limits

Max session
Shellbox: No limit
Zipbox: No limit
Idle stop
Shellbox: After 2 minutes
Zipbox: Not listed
Largest sandbox
Shellbox: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Zipbox: 6 vCPU · 16 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes
Shellbox: Up to 16
Zipbox: Not listed

Platform

Isolation
Shellbox: Firecracker microVM
Zipbox: Firecracker microVM
GPU
Shellbox: Not listed
Zipbox: Not listed
Snapshots
Shellbox:
Zipbox: No
Pause and resume
Shellbox:
Zipbox: No

Developer

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

Trust

License
Shellbox: Not listed
Zipbox: Not listed
BYOC
Shellbox: Not listed
Zipbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Shellbox
Zipbox
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Shellbox: $0.010
Zipbox: $0.007
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Shellbox: $0.020
Zipbox: $0.014
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Shellbox: $0.040
Zipbox: $0.027

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Shellbox fits when

  • You need snapshots.
  • You need pause and resume.
  • You need a sandbox larger than 6 vCPU · 16 GiB.

Zipbox fits when

  • You use MCP, the Claude Agent SDK, the OpenAI Agents SDK, the Vercel AI SDK or LangChain.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.014 against $0.020 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
  • You need a desktop in the sandbox.

More comparisons

See all comparisons

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