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Daytona vs Vercel Sandbox
Daytona is cheaper: about $0.17 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB, against $0.34 on Vercel Sandbox with the CPU busy all hour (Vercel Sandbox bills CPU only while it is busy, so idle time costs less there). Vercel Sandbox finished the latest build benchmark; Daytona didn't. Vercel Sandbox isolates more strongly by default, with a microVM with its own kernel. Daytona uses a shared-kernel container.
At a glance
| Daytona | Vercel Sandbox | |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Linux container by default, with optional VM, Windows, macOS and GPU runtimes | Firecracker microVM |
| Price | Disk is $0.000108 per GiB-hour after 5 GiB free. | CPU is billed only while busy ($0.128 per active CPU-hour); memory is billed for the whole time ($0.0212 per GB-hour). iad1 region rates; $0.60 per million creations. |
| 2 vCPU, 4 GiB for an hour | $0.17 | $0.34 if the CPU is busy all hour |
| Free tier | $200 of free compute, no card needed. | Hobby includes 5 active CPU-hours, 420 GB-hours and 5,000 creations a month. Pro uses its $20 monthly credit first. |
| Longest session | No time limit by default. Idle sandboxes auto-stop after 15 minutes and archive after 7 days. | 45 minutes on Hobby, 24 hours on Pro and Enterprise. Persistent sandboxes can resume. |
| Largest sandbox | 4 vCPU, 8 GB and 10 GB disk per organization by default | 4 vCPU, 8 GB on Hobby; 8 vCPU, 16 GB on Pro; 32 vCPU, 64 GB on Enterprise |
| Pause and persistence | Stopping keeps files but clears memory; archived sandboxes move to object storage. | Persistent by default, saved on stop; snapshots expire after 30 days by default. |
| Start time (published) | Under 90 ms advertised (container runtime). | "Starts in milliseconds"; no number published. |
| GPUs | Yes | No |
| Self-hosting | Enterprise bring-your-own-cloud only. The open-source repository was archived on 3 October 2026. | No. The SDK and CLI are open source; the runtime is Vercel-hosted. |
| SDKs | TypeScript, Python, Ruby, Go, Java | JavaScript/TypeScript, Python |
| Real build benchmark | 0 of 7 phases | 7 of 7 phases, 83.4 s |
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.
- Vercel Sandbox completed all seven phases in 83.4 s on a sandbox reporting 8 CPUs and about 16 GiB: clone 1.8 s, install 23.2 s, typecheck 40.1 s.
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
- price per hour matters most
- you need GPUs inside the sandbox
- your agents run for longer than 24 hours
Choose Vercel Sandbox if
- you want a separate kernel for each sandbox
- you want a sandbox that completed the latest real build benchmark
If neither fits because your code and API keys must stay on your own hardware, Hotcell runs sandboxes on machines you control, and Directionally Local sets it up with the Autopilot coding agent harness in one command. More options: E2B alternatives.
More comparisons
- E2B vs Daytona
- E2B vs Vercel Sandbox
- Modal vs Daytona
- Modal vs Vercel Sandbox
- Daytona vs Blaxel
- Daytona vs Northflank
Sources
- Daytona: Daytona pricing
- Daytona: Daytona sandboxes docs
- Daytona: daytonaio/daytona (archived)
- Vercel Sandbox: Vercel Sandbox pricing
- Vercel Sandbox: Vercel Sandbox docs
- 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 Vercel Sandbox?
Daytona is cheaper. A sandbox with 2 vCPU and 4 GiB running for an hour costs about $0.17 there, against $0.34 on Vercel Sandbox. Vercel Sandbox bills CPU only while it is busy, so idle sandboxes cost less there than this suggests.
Which is faster, Daytona or Vercel Sandbox?
Daytona completed 0 of 7 phases; the run hit an API error, so this says nothing about speed. Vercel Sandbox completed all seven phases in 83.4 s on a sandbox reporting 8 CPUs and about 16 GiB: clone 1.8 s, install 23.2 s, typecheck 40.1 s. 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.
Which has stronger isolation, Daytona or Vercel Sandbox?
Vercel Sandbox. It uses a microVM with its own kernel, while Daytona uses a shared-kernel container by default.
Can I self-host Daytona or Vercel Sandbox?
Daytona: Enterprise bring-your-own-cloud only. The open-source repository was archived on 3 October 2026. Vercel Sandbox: No. The SDK and CLI are open source; the runtime is Vercel-hosted.
Is there an alternative to Daytona and Vercel Sandbox that runs on my own hardware?
Yes. Hotcell is an open-source sandbox runtime (Apache-2.0) that runs Docker containers, Firecracker microVMs or Apple Virtualization microVMs on your own machines. Real API keys stay on the host, and each sandbox gets a short-lived, spend-capped token. Directionally Local sets it up together with the Autopilot coding agent harness with one command.