Sandboxer vs Aptible

Aptible is a platform-as-a-service for regulated workloads: it runs Docker images as containers on shared or dedicated stacks, with managed databases and HIPAA and SOC 2 frameworks. Pick Aptible to host a compliant production app; pick Sandboxer for agent development machines.

Checked against Aptible's public docs on October 24, 2026. Sources are linked in the table and listed below.

At a glance

Sandboxer and Aptible compared
Capability	Sandboxer	Aptible
Isolation	microVM Cloud Hypervisor, its own kernel	Docker containers on shared or dedicated stacks Dedicated stacks are $499/month each; the Production plan includes one.
Full Linux with root	Ubuntu 24.04, sudo, systemd
Docker inside	Preinstalled	Containers run from Docker images.
Nested virtualization (/dev/kvm)
Pause and resume with memory	Running processes come back
Fork a sandbox	Copy-on-write disk copy that boots fresh
HTTPS URL per port	Private with a token, or public	partial Endpoints are $0.06/h each for web and TCP; per-port URLs for arbitrary processes not described.
Longest session	No limit on paid plans Auto-stop is up to 30 days or off
Billing	Per second, flat rate per size Stopped sandboxes are free	per GB of RAM per hour while provisioned General Purpose $0.08, CPU-Optimized $0.10, RAM-Optimized $0.05 per GB-hour; idle containers still billed.
GPUs
Self-host or open source		partial Self-hosting is listed on the Enterprise plan.
Regions	US East (Virginia) and EU Central (Finland)

= not documented publicly.

Price for one 4 vCPU, 8 GB machine

Sandboxer

$0.036/hour

Flat per-second rate for the default size

Aptible

$0.80/hour

CPU-Optimized profile (2 GB per CPU): 4 vCPU = 8 GB × $0.10/GB-h = $0.80/h; needs the $499/mo Production plan

List prices from each provider's pricing page, before free credits, plans and storage. This compares price only.

Where Aptible is strong

It includes HIPAA and SOC 2 on the Production plan, with HITRUST and PCI as Enterprise options (PCI self-hosted only).
Three container profiles offer 2, 4 or 8 GB per CPU.
Managed databases are available alongside apps.
Enterprise plans offer a 99.95% uptime SLA.

Where Sandboxer differs

Aptible hosts production containers; Sandboxer provides persistent VMs with root and systemd.
Aptible containers have ephemeral filesystems and a 10-second default stop timeout; Sandboxer disks persist.
Aptible bills per GB-hour from provisioning; Sandboxer's stopped machines cost nothing.
Aptible has an SLA on Enterprise; Sandboxer has none during early access.

Pick Aptible if

You must host regulated (HIPAA, SOC 2) workloads with managed databases.
You want a dedicated stack and an uptime SLA.
You need a self-hosted option on an enterprise plan.

Pick Sandboxer if

You need a full Ubuntu VM with root, systemd and Docker inside a microVM with its own kernel.
You want stop/resume that keeps running processes and memory, and forks from disk snapshots.
You want coding agents (Claude Code, Codex and others) preinstalled and driven through a prompt API.

Sources

Products change. If something here is out of date, email hello@sandboxer.com and we'll fix it. Aptible is a trademark of its owner. Sandboxer is an independent product and is not affiliated with Aptible.

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