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Daytona vs Hotcell
Hotcell has no usage fees: it runs on hardware you already have. Hotcell runs on your own machines, as Firecracker or Apple Virtualization microVMs or Docker containers, and keeps real API keys out of every sandbox.
At a glance
| Daytona | Hotcell | |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Linux container by default, with optional VM, Windows, macOS and GPU runtimes | Docker container, Firecracker microVM (Linux with KVM) or Apple Virtualization microVM (macOS) |
| Price | Disk is $0.000108 per GiB-hour after 5 GiB free. | Free and open source. You pay only for the hardware you run it on. |
| 2 vCPU, 4 GiB for an hour | $0.17 | $0 (your hardware) |
| Free tier | $200 of free compute, no card needed. | Free, Apache-2.0. |
| Longest session | No time limit by default. Idle sandboxes auto-stop after 15 minutes and archive after 7 days. | No limit; sandboxes run until you remove them. |
| Largest sandbox | 4 vCPU, 8 GB and 10 GB disk per organization by default | Whatever your machine has |
| Pause and persistence | Stopping keeps files but clears memory; archived sandboxes move to object storage. | Pause takes a memory snapshot on the microVM drivers, so processes survive resume. |
| Start time (published) | Under 90 ms advertised (container runtime). | About 210 ms on the container driver; about 2.6 s for a cold microVM, faster from a warm pool. |
| GPUs | Yes | No |
| Self-hosting | Enterprise bring-your-own-cloud only. The open-source repository was archived on 3 October 2026. | Yes, it only runs on your own hardware. Real API keys stay on the host; each sandbox gets a short-lived, spend-capped token. |
| SDKs | TypeScript, Python, Ruby, Go, Java | TypeScript, Python, plus CLI and REST |
| Real build benchmark | 0 of 7 phases | Not on the leaderboard |
On a real coding-agent build
The open-source ComputeSDK sandbox-dax benchmark runs OpenCode's provider benchmark in each sandbox: install packages and Bun, clone OpenCode, bun install, then bun typecheck. Results from the run of 30 October 2026:
- Daytona completed 0 of 7 phases; the run hit an API error, so this says nothing about speed.
- On a bare-metal Ryzen 9 5950X at 32 vCPU, the same workload's clone, install and typecheck took 35.4 s (58.5 s for all seven phases), in July 2026 with Hotcell's own harness.
Each provider is one run, and sandboxes report different CPU counts, so treat small gaps as noise. For what this build needs from a sandbox, and what isolation costs, see our benchmark write-up.
Which should you choose?
Choose Daytona if
- you need GPUs inside the sandbox
Choose Hotcell if
- you want no usage fees and already have a machine to run it on
- you need pause and resume that keeps memory, not just files
- your code and API keys must stay on your own hardware
- you want real API keys kept out of every sandbox
More comparisons
- E2B vs Daytona
- Modal vs Daytona
- Daytona vs Vercel Sandbox
- Daytona vs Blaxel
- Daytona vs Northflank
- E2B vs Hotcell
Sources
- Daytona: Daytona pricing
- Daytona: Daytona sandboxes docs
- Daytona: daytonaio/daytona (archived)
- Hotcell: Hotcell
- Hotcell: Hotcell benchmarks
- Hotcell: Our benchmark write-up
- Benchmark: ComputeSDK sandbox-dax results
Prices change often. We check them by hand and the benchmark refreshes on every build; if something here is out of date, tell us.
FAQs
Is Daytona cheaper than Hotcell?
Hotcell is cheaper. A sandbox with 2 vCPU and 4 GiB running for an hour costs about $0 there, against $0.17 on Daytona.
Which is faster, Daytona or Hotcell?
Daytona completed 0 of 7 phases; the run hit an API error, so this says nothing about speed. On a bare-metal Ryzen 9 5950X at 32 vCPU, the same workload's clone, install and typecheck took 35.4 s (58.5 s for all seven phases), in July 2026 with Hotcell's own harness. The workload is OpenCode's provider benchmark: clone, bun install and typecheck. Results are from ComputeSDK's run of 30 October 2026, one run each.
Can I self-host Daytona or Hotcell?
Daytona: Enterprise bring-your-own-cloud only. The open-source repository was archived on 3 October 2026. Hotcell: Yes, it only runs on your own hardware. Real API keys stay on the host; each sandbox gets a short-lived, spend-capped token.