Sandboxer vs Tinfoil

Tinfoil runs AI workloads and Docker containers in hardware-encrypted enclaves (AMD SEV or Intel TDX, with NVIDIA confidential GPUs), with remote attestation so users can verify the code. Its focus is verifiable privacy, not general dev machines. Pick Tinfoil for confidential inference; pick Sandboxer for general agent sandboxes.

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

At a glance

Sandboxer and Tinfoil compared
Capability	Sandboxer	Tinfoil
Isolation	microVM Cloud Hypervisor, its own kernel	Hardware-encrypted enclaves (AMD SEV / Intel TDX) GPU workloads run in NVIDIA confidential-computing enclaves; remote attestation.
Full Linux with root	Ubuntu 24.04, sudo, systemd
Docker inside	Preinstalled	Runs any Docker image, pinned by SHA256 digest.
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 session	No limit on paid plans Auto-stop is up to 30 days or off	no limit stated Containers are never preempted (dedicated vCPUs and GPUs); no session limit stated. Ephemeral disk is lost when an instance stops.
Billing	Per second, flat rate per size Stopped sandboxes are free	per hour for CPU, memory and GPU GPUs require a monthly commitment; storage billed in GB-hours; rates not public.
GPUs		1 or 8 GPUs; access must be enabled per organization.
Self-host or open source		partial Tinfoil says its API and software are open source; the hosted enclave service is theirs.
Regions	US East (Virginia) and EU Central (Finland)

= not documented publicly.

Where Tinfoil is strong

Remote attestation lets users verify what runs in the enclave.
It supports confidential NVIDIA GPUs, 1 or 8 per container.
Any Docker image runs, with encrypted persistent volumes (currently in beta).
The site lists SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and HIPAA.

Where Sandboxer differs

Tinfoil proves privacy through enclaves and attestation; Sandboxer offers VM isolation without attestation.
Tinfoil has GPUs; Sandboxer has none today.
Tinfoil runs Docker images as containers; Sandboxer gives a full VM where you run Docker yourself.
Tinfoil prices are not public; Sandboxer list prices are.

Pick Tinfoil if

You need confidential, attestable inference or GPU workloads.
Compliance requires that even the provider cannot see data.
You want to run a prebuilt Docker image as a verifiable service.

Pick Sandboxer if

You need a full Ubuntu VM with root, systemd and Docker inside a microVM with its own kernel.
You want stop/resume that keeps running processes and memory, and forks from disk snapshots.
You want coding agents (Claude Code, Codex and others) preinstalled and driven through a prompt API.

Sources

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

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