Sandboxer vs StateSet Sandbox

StateSet Sandbox is an agent code-execution runtime where each sandbox is a Kubernetes pod, gVisor by default with Kata microVMs per sandbox, running as non-root. Sandboxer gives each sandbox a full VM with root, Docker and nested KVM, and its stop keeps memory and processes, while StateSet pause keeps only the durable workspace. Pick StateSet to self-host on your own Kubernetes or for very cheap preemptible shared capacity; pick Sandboxer for long-lived root machines that resume where they left off.

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

At a glance

Sandboxer and StateSet Sandbox compared
Capability	Sandboxer	StateSet Sandbox
Isolation	microVM Cloud Hypervisor, its own kernel	gVisor (Kubernetes pod) Default runtime is gVisor; Kata Containers microVM isolation is a per-sandbox option.
Full Linux with root	Ubuntu 24.04, sudo, systemd	Sandbox containers run as a non-root user with privilege escalation disabled and all capabilities dropped.
Docker inside	Preinstalled	Docker inside a sandbox is not documented.
Nested virtualization (/dev/kvm)		Not documented.
Pause and resume with memory	Running processes come back	Pause/resume (durable sandboxes only) keeps the workspace disk and recreation metadata, not process memory or REPL state.
Fork a sandbox	Copy-on-write disk copy that boots fresh	Fork captures a crash-consistent workspace checkpoint and restores it into a new sandbox; no process memory.
HTTPS URL per port	Private with a token, or public	partial Tunnels forward a live port with scoped tokens and expiry, private or public; docs mark recent tunnel changes as a 2.12.0 candidate not on every hosted deployment.
Longest session	No limit on paid plans Auto-stop is up to 30 days or off	24 h (45 min on Hobby) Max sandbox runtime 45 min on Hobby, 24 h on Pro/Team; durable sandboxes live 3 days on Pro, 7 days on Team.
Billing	Per second, flat rate per size Stopped sandboxes are free	per second, CPU + RAM Shared (Spot, preemptible): $0.0055/vCPU-h + $0.00075/GB-h. Dedicated: $0.128/vCPU-h + $0.0106/GB-h on Pro, billed on 50% of allocation. Plans $0/$49/$299 a month.
GPUs		Docs mention GPU requests have extra runtime and placement restrictions; no GPU product or price is listed.
Self-host or open source		Helm chart for your own Kubernetes (GKE, EKS, AKS profiles); the FAQ offers the hosted API or your own cluster.
Regions	US East (Virginia) and EU Central (Finland)	Hosted data is on Google Cloud; regions are not listed.

= not documented publicly.

Price for one 4 vCPU, 8 GB machine

Sandboxer

$0.036/hour

Flat per-second rate for the default size

StateSet Sandbox

$0.028/hour

shared class: 4 vCPU × $0.0055/h + 8 GB × $0.00075/h = $0.028/h on Spot capacity that can be preempted; dedicated 4 vCPU / 8 GB is $0.2984/h on Pro

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

Where StateSet Sandbox is strong

Self-hostable on your own Kubernetes with a maintained Helm chart and GKE, EKS and AKS profiles.
Choice of isolation per sandbox: gVisor by default, Kata microVMs as an option.
Shared Spot-backed sandboxes list at $0.028/h for 4 vCPU / 8 GB, billed per second.
Default-deny networking with an egress proxy and per-organization egress policy, plus a queryable audit log.

Where Sandboxer differs

StateSet sandboxes are non-root gVisor or Kata pods; Sandboxer sandboxes are full VMs with root, systemd, Docker and nested KVM.
StateSet pause keeps only the durable workspace, so processes restart; Sandboxer stop keeps memory and running processes.
StateSet caps runs at 24 h on Pro/Team (durable up to 7 days on Team); Sandboxer has no time limit on paid plans.
StateSet can be self-hosted; Sandboxer cannot.

Pick StateSet Sandbox if

You must run the sandbox control plane inside your own Kubernetes cluster.
Your workloads are short, retryable agent runs or CI jobs that suit cheap preemptible Spot capacity.
You want a locked-down non-root runtime with default-deny networking and egress policy.

Pick Sandboxer if

Your agent needs root, Docker or nested KVM inside the sandbox.
Sessions should stop and resume days later with running processes intact.
You want SSH, a public IPv6 address and any port as an HTTPS URL without managing infrastructure.

Sources

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

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