CreateOS Sandbox vs Daytona
Pick Daytona if you need GPUs, Windows desktops, or a large pooled compute quota from one vendor. Pick CreateOS Sandbox if you want every sandbox to be a micro-VM with memory-preserving pause and fork, and outbound access you control from the first sandbox rather than by account tier.
Pricing at a glance
CreateOS rates verified 17 October 2026. Daytona 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
Lower compute rate- Compute
- $0.0362 /vCPU-hr
- Memory
- $0.0116 /GiB-hr
- No egress fees, 50 GiB bandwidth budget
- vCPU stops billing while paused
Daytona
- Compute
- $0.0504 /vCPU-hr
- Memory
- $0.0162 /GiB-hr
Daytona bills per second at $0.0504 per vCPU-hour and $0.0162 per GiB-hour, with storage at $0.000108 per GiB-hour after 5 GiB free and GPUs such as H100 from $2.27 per hour preemptible, as of 17 October 2026.
Where CreateOS Sandbox fits better
What CreateOS Sandbox brings to this matchup, with a plain note on where Daytona has the edge.
- Every sandbox is a Firecracker micro-VM, so pause with memory and fork work on all of them. On Daytona those features need the VM class, not the default container class.
- Outbound access does not depend on account tier: open with no rules, deny-by-default once you add one. Daytona restricts egress on Tier 1 and 2.
- Lower published per-second rates: $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour and $0.01159025 per GiB-hour, against Daytona's $0.0504 and $0.0162.
Where Daytona is strong
Daytona offers the widest runtime menu behind one API: containers by default, full Linux VMs with fork and memory snapshots, Windows desktops, and GPUs from RTX 4090 up to B300 and AMD MI355X, with SDKs in Python, TypeScript, Go, Ruby and Java.
Which to pick
Pick CreateOS Sandbox if
- You want VM isolation and memory pause as the default, without choosing a sandbox class.
- You are on a new account and need open outbound access on day one.
- Your agent code is in Rust or C#.
Pick Daytona if
- You need a GPU sandbox, anywhere from an RTX 4090 to a B300.
- You need Windows desktops for computer-use agents.
- You want capacity set by a pooled vCPU quota rather than a sandbox count.
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 | Daytona |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel | Container by default (dedicated namespaces, hard limits); Linux VM and Windows classes with their own kernel; GPU containers |
| Pause and resume | Saves disk, memory and CPU state; vCPU billing stops, memory and storage still bill | VM sandboxes pause with memory snapshots; containers stop with disk kept or archive to object storage |
| Fork | Forks a paused sandbox into many independent copies | VM sandboxes only; containers use filesystem snapshots instead |
| Outbound network default | Open with no rules; deny-by-default once any host, IP, CIDR or wildcard rule exists, enforced on the host outside the VM | Open on Tier 3 and above, restricted on Tier 1 and 2; block all, CIDR or domain allow lists, or a proxy |
| Inbound access | Closed by default; opt-in HTTPS URL | Preview URLs on any HTTP port, authenticated by default; optional public flag; SSH |
| Largest size | 8 vCPU / 16 GB on Enterprise; 8 vCPU / 8 GB on Pro | Default 1 vCPU / 1 GB; organization maximum 4 vCPU / 8 GB per sandbox, higher via custom limits |
| Concurrency | 1 / 5 / 20 / 30 by plan (Free to Enterprise); paused sandboxes count | Pooled by tier: 10 vCPU on Tier 1 up to 500 vCPU on Tier 4, custom above |
| Session length | No cap; optional idle auto-pause from 60 s to 24 h, off by default | No maximum lifetime published; auto-stop after 15 minutes idle by default |
| Billing | Per second: $0.03616363/vCPU-hr, $0.01159025/GiB-hr, $0.0001584/GB-hr storage; no egress fees, 50 GiB bandwidth budget per sandbox | Per second: $0.0504 per vCPU-hour, $0.0162 per GiB-hour; first 5 GiB storage free; egress not published |
| GPU | No GPU | Yes: B300, B200, MI355X, H200, H100, RTX PRO 6000, RTX 5090, RTX 4090 |
Common questions
Does Daytona or CreateOS Sandbox support pausing with memory?
Both do, with a difference in scope. On Daytona, pause, resume and memory snapshots apply to VM sandboxes, while container sandboxes stop with their disk kept. On CreateOS Sandbox every sandbox is a micro-VM, and pause saves disk, memory and CPU state. vCPU stops billing while paused; memory and storage still bill.
Is outbound internet open on a new Daytona account?
Not fully. Daytona restricts outbound traffic on Tier 1 and 2, keeping essential services such as package registries reachable, and opens it on Tier 3 and above. CreateOS Sandbox is open on every plan until you add a rule, after which only listed hosts, IPs or CIDRs pass.
Which should I use for GPU work, Daytona or CreateOS Sandbox?
Daytona. It offers on-demand and preemptible GPU sandboxes including B300, B200, H200, H100 and RTX 4090. CreateOS Sandbox has no GPU shapes, so it suits CPU workloads such as agent tool calls, tests and builds.
How do Daytona and CreateOS Sandbox prices compare?
Daytona lists $0.0504 per vCPU-hour and $0.0162 per GiB-hour, billed per second, with the first 5 GiB of storage free. CreateOS Sandbox lists $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour and $0.01159025 per GiB-hour, also per second. Daytona gives $200 in free compute; the CreateOS Free plan starts with 500 credits.
Sources
Checked 17 October 2026.
See CreateOS Sandbox for yourself
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