Smol Machines vs StateSet Sandbox

Smol Machines costs $0.05 per vCPU-hour and StateSet Sandbox costs $0.0055 per vCPU-hour. Smol Machines runs microVMs. StateSet Sandbox runs gVisor and limits a session to 24 hours.

Updated

Smol Machines

Isolation
MicroVM
Free tier
$100 credit, one time
Max session
Not listed

StateSet Sandbox

Isolation
gVisor
Free tier
$25 trial credit, no card
Max session
24 hours

What is different

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

Smol Machines
StateSet Sandbox
vCPU, per hour
Smol Machines: $0.05
StateSet Sandbox: $0.0055
RAM, per GiB-hour
Smol Machines: $0.0162
StateSet Sandbox: $0.00075
Free tier
Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
StateSet Sandbox: $25 trial credit, no card
Billing
Smol Machines: Active CPU time only
StateSet Sandbox: Per second
Concurrent sandboxes
Smol Machines: Up to 1,000
StateSet Sandbox: Up to 200
Isolation
Smol Machines: MicroVM
StateSet Sandbox: gVisor
SDKs
Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust, Go
StateSet Sandbox: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript
Integrations
Smol Machines: MCP
StateSet Sandbox: Claude Code, MCP

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

Pricing

vCPU, per hour
Smol Machines: $0.05
StateSet Sandbox: $0.0055
RAM, per GiB-hour
Smol Machines: $0.0162
StateSet Sandbox: $0.00075
Storage
Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
StateSet Sandbox: Not listed
Free tier
Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
StateSet Sandbox: $25 trial credit, no card
Paid plan from
Smol Machines: Pay as you go
StateSet Sandbox: Pay as you go
Billing
Smol Machines: Active CPU time only
StateSet Sandbox: Per second

Limits

Max session
Smol Machines: Not listed
StateSet Sandbox: 24 hours
Idle stop
Smol Machines: Not listed
StateSet Sandbox: Not listed
Largest sandbox
Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
StateSet Sandbox: Not listed
Concurrent sandboxes
Smol Machines: Up to 1,000
StateSet Sandbox: Up to 200

Platform

Isolation
Smol Machines: MicroVM
StateSet Sandbox: gVisor
GPU
Smol Machines: No
StateSet Sandbox: Not listed
Snapshots
Smol Machines:
StateSet Sandbox:
Pause and resume
Smol Machines:
StateSet Sandbox:

Developer

SDKs
Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust, Go
StateSet Sandbox: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript
Integrations
Smol Machines: MCP
StateSet Sandbox: Claude Code, MCP

Trust

License
Smol Machines: Apache-2.0
StateSet Sandbox: Not listed
BYOC
Smol Machines: Not listed
StateSet Sandbox: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Smol Machines
StateSet Sandbox
1 vCPU · 2 GiB
Smol Machines: $0.082
StateSet Sandbox: $0.007
2 vCPU · 4 GiB
Smol Machines: $0.165
StateSet Sandbox: $0.014
4 vCPU · 8 GiB
Smol Machines: $0.330
StateSet Sandbox: $0.028

Compute only, at list rates.

Open the calculator

Which one fits

Based on the fields above

Smol Machines fits when

  • You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
  • You want an open-source platform (Apache-2.0) that you can self-host.
  • You want the larger free credit: $100 against $25.
  • Your code waits a lot: CPU is billed only while it is in use.

StateSet Sandbox fits when

  • You use Claude Code.
  • You want the lower list price: $0.014 against $0.165 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.

More comparisons

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