Skip to content
sandboxer
Start free trial
Compare · Agent sandboxes

Sandboxer vs Runloop

Runloop sells Devboxes, VM-isolated cloud environments with blueprints, snapshots and suspend/resume, aimed at agent builders and evaluation. It differs from Sandboxer in per-resource usage pricing, a Pro plan needed for suspend/resume, and a VPC option for enterprises. Pick Runloop for enterprise VPC deployment and agent evaluation workflows; pick Sandboxer for a full VM with Docker and nested KVM.

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

At a glance

Sandboxer and Runloop compared
CapabilitySandboxerRunloop
IsolationmicroVM
Cloud Hypervisor, its own kernel
VM (technology not named)
Docs say Devboxes use virtual machine technology for isolation.
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
Suspend and resume exist and are listed on the Pro plan; the docs fetched do not say whether memory and processes are kept.
Fork a sandbox
Copy-on-write disk copy that boots fresh
partial
Snapshots exist on all plans; forking is not described.
HTTPS URL per port
Private with a token, or public
Longest sessionNo limit on paid plans
Auto-stop is up to 30 days or off
Not stated.
BillingPer second, flat rate per size
Stopped sandboxes are free
per second, CPU + memory + storage
$0.00003/CPU-s, $0.000007/GB-s; suspended devboxes pay storage only.
GPUs
Self-host or open sourcepartial
Deploy to VPC is an Enterprise feature.
RegionsUS 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
Runloop
$0.63/hour
4 vCPU × $0.108/h + 8 GB × $0.0252/h

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

Where Runloop is strong

  • Blueprints and snapshots for repeatable environments.
  • Enterprise deploy-to-VPC option.
  • Per-second usage billing with suspended devboxes costing no CPU or memory.
  • $50 trial credit, no card required.

Where Sandboxer differs

  • Runloop prices CPU and memory per resource and charges a $250/month Pro plan for suspend/resume, while Sandboxer prices fixed sizes by the hour.
  • The docs do not state root, Docker or nested virtualization.
  • Runloop offers VPC deployment; Sandboxer is hosted only.

Pick Runloop if

  • You need to deploy into your own VPC.
  • You run agent evaluations and want blueprint-based environments.
  • You want a trial without a card.

Pick Sandboxer if

  • Your workload needs a full Ubuntu VM with systemd, Docker preinstalled and nested KVM.
  • You want coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Pi, Kimi Code, Mistral Vibe) preinstalled and driven through a prompt API.
  • You want stop/resume that keeps memory and running processes, with sessions that can run with no time limit on a paid plan.

Sources

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

Other comparisons

Sandboxer vs E2B

Firecracker microVMs with memory-preserving pause and fork, and an open-source stack.

Compare
Sandboxer vs Daytona

Many sandbox classes, from containers to VMs, Windows and GPUs.

Compare
Sandboxer vs Modal

Massive scale and GPUs for short-lived sandboxes, gVisor by default.

Compare
Sandboxer vs Vercel Sandbox

Firecracker microVMs billed on active CPU, inside the Vercel platform.

Compare
All 169 comparisons