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Sandboxer vs SF Compute

SF Compute sells GPU capacity as reserved nodes (VMs, bare metal, managed Slurm) that you can sublease back when plans change. Sandboxer sells small per-second sandboxes with no GPUs. Pick SF Compute for large GPU training capacity; pick Sandboxer for agent sandboxes.

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

At a glance

Sandboxer and SF Compute compared
CapabilitySandboxerSF Compute
IsolationmicroVM
Cloud Hypervisor, its own kernel
Instance booted from a disk image on a GPU node
Orders are priced per node-hour for 8-GPU nodes.
Full Linux with root
Ubuntu 24.04, sudo, systemd
The startup script installs SSH keys for root; SSH via the sf CLI.
Docker inside
Preinstalled
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
Longest sessionNo limit on paid plans
Auto-stop is up to 30 days or off
BillingPer second, flat rate per size
Stopped sandboxes are free
Per node-hour for 8-GPU nodes; granularity not stated
Reserved capacity with resale.
GPUs
H100 and A100 SKUs are named in docs.
Self-host or open source
RegionsUS East (Virginia) and EU Central (Finland)Multiple sites (SKU prefixes like ams-1, iad-2, sea-3)
Not formally listed.

= not documented publicly.

Where SF Compute is strong

  • Reserved GPU capacity can be resold when unused.
  • VMs, bare metal and managed Slurm options.
  • Purchasing and SSH access via the sf CLI.
  • Public Ubuntu 24.04 with CUDA boot image.

Where Sandboxer differs

  • SF Compute sells 8-GPU nodes; Sandboxer sells small CPU sandboxes.
  • SF Compute has GPUs; Sandboxer has none.
  • SF Compute instances can take up to 10 minutes to download and boot before SSH is available.
  • SF Compute pricing is not fully published; Sandboxer prices are on its site.

Pick SF Compute if

  • You need multi-node GPU capacity you can later resell.
  • You want bare metal or Slurm.
  • You want reserved GPU capacity you can later sell back.

Pick Sandboxer if

  • You need a CPU sandbox with Docker, nested KVM and systemd that stops and resumes with running processes intact, and you do not need GPUs.
  • You want coding agents (Claude Code, Codex and others) preinstalled and driven through a prompt API with streamed events.
  • You want per-second billing with stopped sandboxes costing nothing and a flat $20 to $2000 monthly plan whose dollars return as machine time.

Sources

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

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