CreateOS Sandbox vs BrowserCloud
BrowserCloud is the simpler move for teams with existing headless-Chrome scripts: swap the endpoint and keep the code, with PDF and screenshot APIs on the same credits. CreateOS Sandbox is the stronger choice when the workload is agent code that needs a full VM, named regions and a published isolation model.
Pricing at a Glance
CreateOS rates verified 17 October 2026. BrowserCloud pricing as published on 17 October 2026. Rates billed per GB rather than per GiB, or as bundled sizes, are quoted as published rather than converted.
CreateOS Sandbox
- Compute
- $0.0362 /vCPU-hr
- Memory
- $0.0116 /GiB-hr
BrowserCloud
One browser hour costs 1,000 credits and PDFs or screenshots 5 credits each, on plans from Free (1,000 credits) and Hobby at $19/month up to Business at $249/month, as of 17 October 2026.
Where CreateOS Sandbox Fits Better
What CreateOS Sandbox brings to this matchup, with a plain note on where BrowserCloud has the edge.
Two named regions, eu and us, chosen per sandbox at create time; BrowserCloud does not publish its regions.
Each sandbox is its own Firecracker micro-VM with a separate guest kernel and network identity.
Control-plane actions such as create, pause, fork and egress changes are logged and kept 90 days.
Where BrowserCloud is strong
Moving existing Puppeteer or Playwright scripts is close to an endpoint swap, and PDF and screenshot HTTP APIs come with the same credits as browser time.
Which to Pick
Pick CreateOS Sandbox if
- Agents run code beyond browser scripts.
- You need to know where workloads run and how they are isolated.
- Sessions would exceed the 15 minutes BrowserCloud allows on its free plan.
Pick BrowserCloud if
- You have working Puppeteer or Playwright scripts and want to stop running Chrome servers.
- You need PDF and screenshot endpoints at 5 credits each.
- A free tier of one browser hour per month covers your testing.
Head-to-Head Comparison
Every dimension side by side, checked on 17 October 2026 against each vendor's own docs and pricing pages. "Not published" means we could not find it on the vendor's pages, not that the feature is missing.
| Dimension | CreateOS Sandbox | BrowserCloud |
|---|---|---|
| What you get (browser vs full Linux machine) | Full Linux micro-VM; the desktop:1 image adds an XFCE desktop, Google Chrome and a computer-use API | Hosted headless browsers plus HTTP APIs for scraping, PDFs and screenshots |
| Isolation | Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel, root filesystem and network identity | Isolated containers with dedicated CPUs per browser (vendor-stated) |
| Session length | No lifetime cap; optional idle auto-pause from 60 s to 24 h, off by default | Up to 15 minutes per session on Free; other plans not published |
| Run arbitrary code | Yes: exec, shell, files and managed processes; devbox:1 ships Python 3.12, Node.js 24, Go, Rust and Docker | Puppeteer and Playwright scripts and HTTP tasks; general code execution not published |
| Outbound network | Open with no rules; deny-by-default once any host, IP, CIDR or wildcard rule exists, enforced on the host outside the VM | Open web; datacenter (12 credits/MB) and residential (80 credits/MB) proxies; allowlist controls not published |
| Billing | Per second: $0.03616363/vCPU-hr, $0.01159025/GiB-hr, storage $0.0001584/GB-hr; no per-GB egress price, 50 GiB bandwidth budget per sandbox | Credit plans: 1 browser hour = 1,000 credits; Free 1,000 credits up to Business $249/mo for 3,000,000 |
| Pause and resume | Pause saves disk, memory and CPU state; vCPU stops billing, memory and storage still bill | Stateful sessions keep contexts across operations and reconnections (vendor-stated); limits not published |
| Interfaces | SDKs in TypeScript, Go, Python, Rust, C# and Java (all but TypeScript pre-1.0), CLI, MCP server, REST API | Puppeteer, Playwright, Python, JavaScript, PHP, Java and C# (per homepage), HTTP API |
Common Questions
Is this BrowserCloud the same as other products with that name?
No. This comparison covers browsercloud.io, a hosted headless browser for Puppeteer and Playwright. Several unrelated products share the BrowserCloud name, so check the domain before relying on pricing or limits you find elsewhere.
Does BrowserCloud limit session length?
On the Free plan, sessions run up to 15 minutes; limits for paid plans are not published, and its marketing page also mentions unlimited sessions. CreateOS sandboxes have no lifetime cap on any plan.
How are BrowserCloud browsers isolated?
BrowserCloud states it runs isolated containers with dedicated CPUs per browser and publishes no further detail. CreateOS runs each sandbox in a Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel, root filesystem and network identity.
Sources
Checked 17 October 2026.
See CreateOS Sandbox for yourself
Book a demo, or explore the Sandbox and its pricing.