Smol Machines vs xShellz Agent Shell
Smol Machines costs $0.05 per vCPU-hour. Smol Machines runs microVMs. xShellz Agent Shell runs gVisor and has no session limit.
Updated
Smol Machines
- Isolation
- MicroVM
- Free tier
- $100 credit, one time
- Max session
- Not listed
xShellz Agent Shell
- Isolation
- gVisor
- Free tier
- Free plan, 1 box with 0.5 vCPU and 512 MB
- Max session
- No limit
What is different
10 fields differ. The rest are the same or not listed.
Smol Machines
xShellz Agent Shell
- RAM, per GiB-hour
- Smol Machines: $0.0162
- xShellz Agent Shell: Included
- Storage
- Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
- xShellz Agent Shell: Free
- Free tier
- Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
- xShellz Agent Shell: Free plan, 1 box with 0.5 vCPU and 512 MB
- Paid plan from
- Smol Machines: Pay as you go
- xShellz Agent Shell: $10 / month
- Billing
- Smol Machines: Active CPU time only
- xShellz Agent Shell: Bundled machine time
- Largest sandbox
- Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
- xShellz Agent Shell: 4 vCPU · 4 GiB
- Concurrent sandboxes
- Smol Machines: Up to 1,000
- xShellz Agent Shell: Up to 5
- Isolation
- Smol Machines: MicroVM
- xShellz Agent Shell: gVisor
- SDKs
- Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust, Go
- xShellz Agent Shell: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript, Go, Java, Ruby, Rust
- Integrations
- Smol Machines: MCP
- xShellz Agent Shell: MCP, Claude Code
Full comparison
18 fields, at each provider's list price
Smol Machinessmolmachines
xShellz Agent Shellxshellz
Pricing
- vCPU, per hour
- Smol Machines: $0.05
- xShellz Agent Shell: Not listed
- RAM, per GiB-hour
- Smol Machines: $0.0162
- xShellz Agent Shell: Included
- Storage
- Smol Machines: $0.0001 per GiB-hour
- xShellz Agent Shell: Free
- Free tier
- Smol Machines: $100 credit, one time
- xShellz Agent Shell: Free plan, 1 box with 0.5 vCPU and 512 MB
- Paid plan from
- Smol Machines: Pay as you go
- xShellz Agent Shell: $10 / month
- Billing
- Smol Machines: Active CPU time only
- xShellz Agent Shell: Bundled machine time
Limits
- Max session
- Smol Machines: Not listed
- xShellz Agent Shell: No limit
- Idle stop
- Smol Machines: Not listed
- xShellz Agent Shell: Not listed
- Largest sandbox
- Smol Machines: 32 vCPU · 32 GiB
- xShellz Agent Shell: 4 vCPU · 4 GiB
- Concurrent sandboxes
- Smol Machines: Up to 1,000
- xShellz Agent Shell: Up to 5
Platform
- Isolation
- Smol Machines: MicroVM
- xShellz Agent Shell: gVisor
- GPU
- Smol Machines: No
- xShellz Agent Shell: Not listed
- Snapshots
- Smol Machines:
- xShellz Agent Shell: Not listed
- Pause and resume
- Smol Machines:
- xShellz Agent Shell:
Developer
- SDKs
- Smol Machines: TypeScript, Python, Rust, Go
- xShellz Agent Shell: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript, Go, Java, Ruby, Rust
- Integrations
- Smol Machines: MCP
- xShellz Agent Shell: MCP, Claude Code
Trust
- License
- Smol Machines: Apache-2.0
- xShellz Agent Shell: Not listed
- BYOC
- Smol Machines: Not listed
- xShellz Agent Shell: Not listed
Hourly cost
One sandbox running for one hour
Smol Machines
xShellz Agent Shell
- 1 vCPU · 2 GiB
- Smol Machines: $0.082
- xShellz Agent Shell: Not listed
- 2 vCPU · 4 GiB
- Smol Machines: $0.165
- xShellz Agent Shell: Not listed
- 4 vCPU · 8 GiB
- Smol Machines: $0.330
- xShellz Agent Shell: Not listed
Compute only, at list rates.
Open the calculatorWhich one fits
Based on the fields above
Smol Machines fits when
- You want to pay only for usage, with no plan fee.
- You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
- You want an open-source platform (Apache-2.0) that you can self-host.
- You need snapshots.
xShellz Agent Shell fits when
- You use Claude Code.
- You need GDPR.
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