CreateOS Sandbox vs Microsandbox
Pick microsandbox if you want own-kernel microVM sandboxes on a developer laptop today and an open-source runtime you can later move to your own infrastructure. Pick CreateOS Sandbox if you need a hosted sandbox you can sign up for now, with pause and fork that keep memory in the cloud.
The microsandbox managed cloud is in private beta by request; the open-source local runtime is available to anyone.
Pricing at a Glance
CreateOS rates verified 17 October 2026. microsandbox 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
microsandbox
- Compute
- $0.0500 /vCPU-hr
- Memory
- $0.0162 /GiB-hr
microsandbox's private-beta cloud meters per second at $0.05 per vCPU-hour and $0.0162 per GiB-hour beyond a monthly pool of computer-hours, with plans from $0 to $299 per month, as of 17 October 2026.
Where CreateOS Sandbox Fits Better
What CreateOS Sandbox brings to this matchup, with a plain note on where microsandbox has the edge.
Self-serve sign-up for a hosted cloud today, with a Free plan and no card; microsandbox's cloud is by request.
Hosted pause keeps memory and CPU state and fork copies it; microsandbox's cloud snapshots are disk-only.
Where microsandbox is strong
microsandbox runs the same own-kernel microVM on a laptop (macOS, Linux or Windows) with one command and no root daemon, then moves it unchanged to its managed cloud or your own VPC, and ships its performance measurements with the harnesses so anyone can rerun them.
Which to Pick
Pick CreateOS Sandbox if
- You need a hosted sandbox without waiting for beta access.
- Your agent forks from a paused state that includes memory.
Pick microsandbox if
- You want local microVM sandboxes on developer machines, including Windows.
- You want an Apache 2.0 runtime you can run in your own infrastructure.
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 | microsandbox |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel, root filesystem and network identity | microVM with its own guest kernel per sandbox, started as a child process with no root daemon |
| Pause and resume | Saves disk, memory and CPU state; vCPU stops billing while paused, memory and storage still bill | Cloud: disk snapshots of stopped persistent sandboxes; memory and process snapshots only locally |
| Fork | Fork a paused sandbox into many independent copies, each with its own id and IP | Disk snapshot restore into new microVMs; memory resume only locally with --full |
| 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 to the internet, with private, link-local and metadata destinations blocked; host allowlist or off |
| Concurrency | Free 1, Beginner 5, Pro 20, Enterprise 30; paused sandboxes count toward the cap | Cloud: Free 3, Builder 1,000, Teams 25,000 running at once |
| Billing | Per second: $0.03616363/vCPU-hr, $0.01159025/GiB-hr, storage $0.0001584/GB-hr; no egress fees, 50 GiB bandwidth budget per sandbox | Per second beyond a monthly computer-hour pool: $0.05/vCPU-hr, $0.0162/GiB-hr |
| Self-host or BYOC | Enterprise only, onboarded by our team; not open source | Open source under Apache 2.0, runs locally with no account; BYOC by evaluation |
Common Questions
Can I use the microsandbox cloud today?
Only by request. microsandbox's managed cloud is in private beta, while its open-source local runtime is free for anyone. CreateOS Sandbox is self-serve now: sign up for the Free plan with no card and run one sandbox up to 1 vCPU / 1 GB.
Do microsandbox cloud snapshots include memory?
Not yet. In the cloud, microsandbox supports disk snapshots of stopped persistent sandboxes and disk restore; full memory and process snapshots work only locally with --full. CreateOS Sandbox pause saves disk, memory and CPU state in its hosted cloud.
Does microsandbox run on Windows?
Yes, microsandbox's local runtime runs on macOS, Linux and Windows with one command. CreateOS Sandbox is a hosted service in eu and us regions; you call it from any OS through its SDKs, CLI or REST API rather than running VMs locally.
Sources
Checked 17 October 2026.
See CreateOS Sandbox for yourself
Book a demo, or explore the Sandbox and its pricing.