Sandboxer vs OpenComputer

OpenComputer from diggerhq is a platform where you define an agent as a TypeScript function and each session runs on its own durable Linux machine that hibernates when idle. It is open source (Apache-2.0) and bills pay-as-you-go by the second, with model calls passed through at API prices. Pick OpenComputer for a managed agent-as-code runtime or an inspectable codebase; pick Sandboxer for full Ubuntu VMs with coding agents ready.

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

At a glance

Sandboxer and OpenComputer compared
Capability	Sandboxer	OpenComputer
Isolation	microVM Cloud Hypervisor, its own kernel	own Linux machine per session (isolation technology not named)
Full Linux with root	Ubuntu 24.04, sudo, systemd
Docker inside	Preinstalled
Nested virtualization (/dev/kvm)
Pause and resume with memory	Running processes come back	partial Sessions hibernate when idle and resume where they left off; whether RAM and processes are kept is not stated.
Fork a sandbox	Copy-on-write disk copy that boots fresh
HTTPS URL per port	Private with a token, or public
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	pay-as-you-go: machine time per second plus model calls at API prices; Pro $20 and Max $200 per month prepaid credit at 10x Machine rates: $0.00315/min for 2 GB / 1 vCPU, $0.01260/min for 8 GB / 4 vCPU. No usage charge when idle.
GPUs
Self-host or open source		partial Repo is Apache-2.0; Enterprise plan offers your own cloud or VPC.
Regions	US East (Virginia) and EU Central (Finland)	many selectable regions (US, EU, APAC, others) for the agent runtime Per the agents docs region setting.

= not documented publicly.

Price for one 4 vCPU, 8 GB machine

Sandboxer

$0.036/hour

Flat per-second rate for the default size

OpenComputer

$0.76/hour

8 GB / 4 vCPU machine at $0.01260/min x 60 (burst size for agent sessions; excludes model calls)

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

Where OpenComputer is strong

Open source (Apache-2.0) with an Enterprise option to run in your own cloud or VPC.
Durable sessions that stream, can be steered mid-run, and hibernate and resume.
Region choice for the agent runtime (US, EU, Asia-Pacific and finer areas).
Schedules, MCP servers, secrets that the agent never sees, and a Slack coding agent built on the platform.

Where Sandboxer differs

OpenComputer bills machine time per second plus model calls, with prepaid plans ($20 and $200) that multiply credit; Sandboxer plans set concurrency and every plan dollar comes back as machine time.
Its docs focus on deploying agents as TypeScript functions; Sandboxer exposes a full VM with SSH, Docker and root.
Root, Docker, nested KVM and session limits are not stated in the pages read.
Sandboxer is not open source or self-hostable.

Pick OpenComputer if

You want to self-host or inspect the source (Apache-2.0).
You want to deploy agents as code with schedules and Slack-based triggers.
You need to choose a specific region.

Pick Sandboxer if

You want stopped sandboxes that cost nothing and plans where every dollar comes back as machine time.
You want a full Ubuntu 24.04 VM with root, Docker, nested KVM and SSH.
You want Claude Code, Codex and other agents preinstalled behind a prompt API.

Sources

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

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