Sandboxer vs InstaVM

InstaVM is a cloud platform for AI agents that runs code in microVMs with their own kernel with snapshots, forking, share URLs for any port, egress policy controls and per-second billing. It is closest to Sandboxer in model; it advertises a free tier with credits and a $100/month Pro plan. Pick InstaVM for its free credits, egress allowlists and browser/desktop sessions; pick Sandboxer for a full Ubuntu VM with Docker, nested KVM and preinstalled coding agents.

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

At a glance

Sandboxer and InstaVM compared
Capability	Sandboxer	InstaVM
Isolation	microVM Cloud Hypervisor, its own kernel	microVM with its own kernel Own kernel, filesystem and network stack; real VMs not containers.
Full Linux with root	Ubuntu 24.04, sudo, systemd	partial Root in sandbox does not grant host access; desktop sandboxes include sudo; general session root not explicit.
Docker inside	Preinstalled
Nested virtualization (/dev/kvm)
Pause and resume with memory	Running processes come back	Pause running VMs, snapshot state and resume or clone; restore typically under 500 ms.
Fork a sandbox	Copy-on-write disk copy that boots fresh	Fork any sandbox and clone prepared VMs for parallel workers.
HTTPS URL per port	Private with a token, or public	Expose any VM port via share URL, public or private with access tokens; custom domains.
Longest session	No limit on paid plans Auto-stop is up to 30 days or off	no maximum stated Sessions end on kill or lifetime expiry; duration not given.
Billing	Per second, flat rate per size Stopped sandboxes are free	per second, vCPU and memory; no idle charges Volume storage $0.0002/GB-hour after 10 GB.
GPUs
Self-host or open source		partial CodeRunner for Mac provides local VM-level isolation; the cloud platform's self-hosting is not described.
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

InstaVM

$0.33/hour

4 vCPU × $0.000014/s × 3600 + 8 GB × $0.0000045/s × 3600 = 4 × $0.0504 + 8 × $0.0162

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

Where InstaVM is strong

Pause, snapshot, resume and fork of VMs, with restores typically under 500 ms.
Share URLs for any port, public or token-private, plus custom domains.
Egress allowlists by domain or CIDR on Pro, and agents are kept away from API keys.
Free tier with starting credits and no card required.

Where Sandboxer differs

Free and Pro tiers cap concurrency at 5 and 100; Sandboxer's plans scale from 100 to 2000.
InstaVM's plans list Python, JS and Bash as supported languages and its pages do not state Docker or nested KVM support; Sandboxer is a full Ubuntu VM with Docker and nested KVM.
Pro costs $100/month plus usage; Sandboxer's plan dollars come back as machine time.
Sandboxer ships coding agents preinstalled and an MCP server.

Pick InstaVM if

You want a free tier with starting credits and no card.
You need egress allowlists and want API keys kept away from agents.
You want browser and desktop sessions alongside VMs.

Pick Sandboxer if

You want a full Ubuntu 24.04 VM with Docker, systemd and nested KVM.
You want coding agents preinstalled and driven through a prompt API.
You want plans where every dollar returns as machine time and unlimited run length on paid plans.

Sources

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

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