CreateOS Sandbox vs Browserless
Browserless is a good fit for teams that want an established headless-browser service with three engines and a self-host path through Docker. CreateOS Sandbox is the fit for agent workloads that run their own code for longer than the 60-minute session on Browserless's top self-serve plan.
Pricing at a Glance
CreateOS rates verified 17 October 2026. Browserless 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
Browserless
On annual billing, plans run Free (1k units), Prototyping $25 (20k units), Starter $140 (180k) and Scale $350 (500k), where one unit is up to 30 s of browser time; residential proxy costs 6 units/MB, as of 17 October 2026.
Where CreateOS Sandbox Fits Better
What CreateOS Sandbox brings to this matchup, with a plain note on where Browserless has the edge.
No time cap per sandbox; Browserless hosted sessions stop at 2 to 60 minutes depending on plan.
Per-second billing for the whole VM instead of 30-second units per connection.
Opt-in HTTPS ingress so an agent can serve an app it built.
Where Browserless is strong
A long-established browser fleet with Chrome, Firefox and WebKit, and a Docker image you can self-host, so teams can move between the cloud and their own Kubernetes without changing code.
Which to Pick
Pick CreateOS Sandbox if
- Tasks run past 60 minutes.
- The agent runs code, not only browser scripts.
- You want memory-state pause and fork.
Pick Browserless if
- You need Firefox or WebKit as well as Chrome.
- You want the option to self-host the same browser service later.
- You need PDF, screenshot and BrowserQL APIs.
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 | Browserless |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Headless Chrome, Firefox and WebKit with REST APIs and BrowserQL |
| Isolation | Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel, root filesystem and network identity | Not published; Enterprise offers dedicated or private fleets with network isolation |
| Session length | No lifetime cap; optional idle auto-pause from 60 s to 24 h, off by default | Max Free 2 min, Prototyping 15, Starter 30, Scale 60; Enterprise 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 | Runs browsers, not user code |
| 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; residential proxy 6 units/MB, datacenter 2 units/MB; 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 | Units of up to 30 s per connection: Free 1k units to Scale $350 (500k units), annual billing |
| Pause and resume | Pause saves disk, memory and CPU state; vCPU stops billing, memory and storage still bill | Session API keeps cookies, localStorage and cache for a TTL you set; reconnect holds a browser up to 5 minutes |
| Interfaces | SDKs in TypeScript, Go, Python, Rust, C# and Java (all but TypeScript pre-1.0), CLI, MCP server, REST API | Puppeteer, Playwright, REST APIs, BrowserQL, MCP server |
Common Questions
Can Browserless be self-hosted?
Yes. Browserless publishes a Docker image on GitHub under SSPL or a commercial license, with a commercial self-host license on Enterprise. CreateOS self-hosting exists only for Enterprise customers and is set up by the CreateOS team.
What is a Browserless unit?
One unit covers up to 30 seconds of browser time per connection. Annual plans range from 1k free units to 500k on Scale, with overage from $0.0020 down to $0.0015 per unit. CreateOS bills per second of sandbox runtime instead.
Which browsers can I use on Browserless and on CreateOS?
Browserless supports Chrome, Firefox and WebKit. CreateOS Sandbox's desktop:1 image ships Google Chrome on an XFCE desktop with a computer-use API, and no other browser is listed in its first-party images.
Sources
Checked 17 October 2026.
See CreateOS Sandbox for yourself
Book a demo, or explore the Sandbox and its pricing.