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Vercel Sandbox vs Northflank
Northflank is cheaper: about $0.067 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; Northflank didn't.
At a glance
| Vercel Sandbox | Northflank | |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker microVM | MicroVM for CPU sandboxes, gVisor for GPU sandboxes |
| Price | 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. | $0.01667 per vCPU-hour and $0.00833 per GB-hour. In your own cloud (BYOC), $0.02083 per node vCPU-hour and memory isn't billed. |
| 2 vCPU, 4 GiB for an hour | $0.34 if the CPU is busy all hour | $0.067 |
| Free tier | Hobby includes 5 active CPU-hours, 420 GB-hours and 5,000 creations a month. Pro uses its $20 monthly credit first. | A free Sandbox tier with up to $20 a month of resources, no card needed. |
| Longest session | 45 minutes on Hobby, 24 hours on Pro and Enterprise. Persistent sandboxes can resume. | No time limits; sandboxes run until deleted. |
| Largest sandbox | 4 vCPU, 8 GB on Hobby; 8 vCPU, 16 GB on Pro; 32 vCPU, 64 GB on Enterprise | Plans listed up to 8 vCPU and 16 GB, with custom plans available |
| Pause and persistence | Persistent by default, saved on stop; snapshots expire after 30 days by default. | Ephemeral by default, with volumes up to 64 TB and pause and resume. |
| Start time (published) | "Starts in milliseconds"; no number published. | Under 1 s; 0.8 s with a cached image. |
| GPUs | No | Yes |
| Self-hosting | No. The SDK and CLI are open source; the runtime is Vercel-hosted. | Bring your own cloud on AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Oracle or bare metal; enterprise customers can self-host the control plane. |
| SDKs | JavaScript/TypeScript, Python | JavaScript, Python, plus REST and CLI |
| Real build benchmark | 7 of 7 phases, 83.4 s | 0 of 7 phases |
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:
- 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.
- Northflank completed 0 of 7 phases; the benchmark's account was disabled, so this says nothing about speed.
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 Vercel Sandbox if
- you want a sandbox that completed the latest real build benchmark
Choose Northflank if
- price per hour matters most
- you need GPUs inside the sandbox
- your agents run for longer than 24 hours
- you may need to run it in your own cloud or data center
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 Vercel Sandbox
- E2B vs Northflank
- Modal vs Vercel Sandbox
- Modal vs Northflank
- Daytona vs Vercel Sandbox
- Daytona vs Northflank
Sources
- Vercel Sandbox: Vercel Sandbox pricing
- Vercel Sandbox: Vercel Sandbox docs
- Northflank: Northflank pricing
- Northflank: Northflank sandboxes
- 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 Vercel Sandbox cheaper than Northflank?
Northflank is cheaper. A sandbox with 2 vCPU and 4 GiB running for an hour costs about $0.067 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, Vercel Sandbox or Northflank?
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. Northflank completed 0 of 7 phases; the benchmark's account was disabled, so this says nothing about speed. 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, Vercel Sandbox or Northflank?
Both use a microVM with its own kernel by default. Vercel Sandbox: Firecracker microVM. Northflank: MicroVM for CPU sandboxes, gVisor for GPU sandboxes.
Can I self-host Vercel Sandbox or Northflank?
Vercel Sandbox: No. The SDK and CLI are open source; the runtime is Vercel-hosted. Northflank: Bring your own cloud on AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Oracle or bare metal; enterprise customers can self-host the control plane.
Is there an alternative to Vercel Sandbox and Northflank 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.