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Sandboxer vs Trigger.dev

Trigger.dev runs TypeScript tasks on managed workers (machine presets up to 8 vCPU/16 GB) and bills per second only while tasks execute. It is a task and workflow platform, not an interactive machine. Pick it for durable background jobs; pick Sandboxer for a full VM.

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

At a glance

Sandboxer and Trigger.dev compared
CapabilitySandboxerTrigger.dev
IsolationmicroVM
Cloud Hypervisor, its own kernel
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
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
no inherent limit
maxDuration is measured in CPU seconds per attempt and must be set in config; wait time excluded.
BillingPer second, flat rate per size
Stopped sandboxes are free
per second of compute plus per run
Small 1x $0.0000338/s; Medium 1x $0.000085/s; Large 2x $0.00068/s; $0.000025 per run.
GPUs
Self-host or open source
Open source under Apache 2.0 and self-hostable.
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
Trigger.dev
$1.22/hour
large-1x preset (4 vCPU / 8 GB) × $0.00034/s × 3600, plus $0.000025 per run

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

Where Trigger.dev is strong

  • Open source (Apache 2.0) and self-hostable.
  • Compute is billed only while tasks execute; waits over 5 s are not billed.
  • Presets from 0.25 vCPU to 8 vCPU/16 GB.

Where Sandboxer differs

  • Trigger.dev tasks are code run on managed workers; Sandboxer provides a whole Ubuntu VM with root.
  • Trigger.dev has a 10 GB disk per machine preset; Sandboxer default is 50 GB.
  • Docs fetched do not describe pause/resume of machines or public ports.

Pick Trigger.dev if

  • You need durable TypeScript background jobs and workflows.
  • You want an open-source task platform to self-host.
  • You want compute billed only during execution.

Pick Sandboxer if

  • You need a full Ubuntu 24.04 VM with root, systemd, Docker and nested KVM rather than a container or job runner.
  • You want stop to save memory and disk and resume to bring running processes back, with stopped sandboxes costing nothing.
  • You want coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and others) preinstalled and driven through a prompt API, with per-second billing.

Sources

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 If something here is out of date, email hello@sandboxer.com and we'll fix it.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

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