CreateOS Sandbox vs Dedalus Labs
Dedalus Labs suits long-lived agents that work in bursts over days, since idle machines cost nothing and the root filesystem survives sleep. CreateOS Sandbox suits agents that must wake with processes and memory intact, need host-enforced egress rules or a public HTTPS URL, or benefit from lower per-hour running rates.
The Dedalus homepage still shows a Join waitlist button, while its pricing page lists self-serve plans.
Pricing at a Glance
CreateOS rates verified 17 October 2026. Dedalus Labs 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
Dedalus Labs
- Compute
- $0.0454 /vCPU-hr
- Memory
- $0.0146 /GiB-hr
Dedalus Machines bill vCPU at $0.04536 and memory at $0.01458 per GiB per hour while running (per its FAQ example), storage at $0.0001 per GiB-hour, with idle time free; Pro is $20/month with $20 credit, as of 17 October 2026.
Where CreateOS Sandbox Fits Better
What CreateOS Sandbox brings to this matchup, with a plain note on where Dedalus Labs has the edge.
Pause keeps RAM, processes and CPU state; a sleeping Dedalus machine loses RAM, processes, IP, SSH sessions and port forwards.
Running rates of $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour and $0.01159025 per GiB-hour, below Dedalus's $0.04536 and $0.01458.
A documented egress default with host-enforced allowlists once any rule exists; Dedalus does not publish an egress default.
Opt-in public HTTPS URL per sandbox; Dedalus does not publish public URLs.
Where Dedalus Labs is strong
Its per-hour vCPU and memory rates are among the lower published ones for agent VMs, idle machines cost nothing, and the filesystem survives sleep, which suits agents that work in bursts over days.
Which to Pick
Pick CreateOS Sandbox if
- Your agent must resume mid-process after a pause.
- You need public HTTPS ingress to a service in the sandbox.
- You want allowlist egress rules with a documented default.
Pick Dedalus Labs if
- Your agent sits idle most of the time and you want idle hours to be free.
- You need up to 16 vCPU and 64 GiB on the Pro plan.
- You want GPU support, which Dedalus states it offers.
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 | Dedalus Labs |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel | Full VM per machine on the Dedalus Hypervisor, built on Cloud Hypervisor |
| Pause and resume | Pause saves disk, memory and CPU state; vCPU stops billing, memory and storage still bill | Root filesystem persists across sleep; RAM, processes, IP and SSH sessions do not; auto-sleep after 5 idle minutes by default |
| Fork | Yes, fork a paused sandbox into many independent copies | Not published |
| 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 | Not published |
| Inbound access | Closed by default; opt-in public HTTPS URL | Port forwards (lost on sleep); public URLs not published |
| Largest size | 8 vCPU / 16 GB on Enterprise; 8 vCPU / 8 GB on Pro | Hobby 4 vCPU / 16 GiB; Pro 16 vCPU / 64 GiB; Enterprise custom |
| Concurrency | 1 / 5 / 20 / 30 by plan; paused sandboxes count toward the cap | Max machines: Hobby 5, Pro 20, Enterprise unlimited |
| Session length | No cap; idle auto-pause 60 s to 24 h, off by default | No imposed session limits (vendor-stated) |
| Billing | Per second: $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour, $0.01159025 per GiB-hour, storage $0.0001584 per GB-hour; no egress fees, 50 GiB bandwidth budget per sandbox | Per second while running at $0.04536 per vCPU-hour and $0.01458 per GiB-hour; idle free |
| GPU | No GPU shapes | GPU support for ML workloads (vendor-stated); models and pricing not published |
Common Questions
What survives when a Dedalus machine sleeps?
The root filesystem does, including /home, /root, /etc, /usr/local and /var. RAM, processes, IP and MAC, SSH sessions, port forwards and /tmp do not. A paused CreateOS sandbox keeps disk, memory and CPU registers, so processes continue on resume.
Do idle Dedalus machines cost money?
Idle compute is free on Dedalus: CPU and RAM bill only while running, and storage bills at $0.0001 per GiB-hour. A paused CreateOS sandbox stops vCPU billing, but its memory and storage are still charged.
Does Dedalus Labs offer GPUs?
Dedalus states GPU support for ML workloads, without publishing GPU models or pricing. CreateOS Sandbox offers no GPU shapes, so GPU work inside an agent machine points to Dedalus or another provider.
Can I bring my own cloud to Dedalus?
Yes, on Enterprise, though Dedalus does not offer self-hosting. CreateOS Sandbox offers both self-hosting and BYOC on Enterprise, onboarded into the managed data plane by our team.
Sources
Checked 17 October 2026.
See CreateOS Sandbox for yourself
Book a demo, or explore the Sandbox and its pricing.