CreateOS Sandbox vs Northflank
Pick Northflank if you are building a production AI product that needs sandboxes next to databases, CI/CD, GPUs and BYOC on one platform, at low per-vCPU rates. Pick CreateOS Sandbox if your agent workflow depends on pausing with memory intact and forking from that state, or on a documented outbound allowlist.
Pricing at a Glance
CreateOS rates verified 17 October 2026. Northflank 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
Northflank
- Compute
- $0.0167 /vCPU-hr
- Memory
- See below
Northflank bills per second at $0.01667 per vCPU-hour and $0.00833 per GB-hour, with egress at $0.06 per GB and GPUs from $0.80 per hour (L4) to $3.00 per hour (RTX PRO 6000), as of 17 October 2026.
Where CreateOS Sandbox Fits Better
What CreateOS Sandbox brings to this matchup, with a plain note on where Northflank has the edge.
Pause keeps disk, memory and CPU state; pausing a Northflank sandbox deletes ephemeral data and processes.
Fork a paused sandbox into many copies; Northflank documents no memory snapshot or fork.
Outbound rules by host, IP or CIDR enforced outside the VM; Northflank's sandbox docs do not publish an egress policy.
No per-GB egress fee (50 GiB budget per sandbox), where Northflank charges $0.06 per GB.
Where Northflank is strong
Northflank puts sandboxes inside a full platform: the same API also runs services, databases, cron jobs, CI/CD and GPUs (H100 at $2.74 per hour), on Northflank's cloud or in your own VPC, at low per-vCPU rates.
Which to Pick
Pick CreateOS Sandbox if
- Agents resume mid-task with processes still in memory.
- You branch many agents from one prepared state.
- Your review asks for a written egress policy.
Pick Northflank if
- You need GPUs such as H100 or A100 alongside your sandboxes.
- You want sandboxes, databases and CI/CD in your own cloud account.
- You need sizes up to 32 vCPU / 128 GB, or a lower per-vCPU list rate than CreateOS.
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 | Northflank |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel, root filesystem and network identity | CPU sandboxes in microVMs (Kata Containers per product page); GPU sandboxes under gVisor |
| Pause and resume | Saves disk, memory and CPU state; vCPU stops billing while paused, memory and storage still bill | Pause scales to zero and stops compute billing but deletes ephemeral data and processes; volumes survive |
| Fork | Fork a paused sandbox into many independent copies, each with its own id and IP | 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 in the sandbox docs |
| Inbound access | Closed by default; opt-in public HTTPS URL, plus API-authenticated shell and port tunnels | Ports declared per service, optionally public over HTTP |
| Largest size | 8 vCPU / 16 GB on Enterprise (Pro 8 vCPU / 8 GB, Beginner 4 / 4, Free 1 / 1) | Up to 32 vCPU / 128 GB on standard plans; GPU plans up to 8 x H100 |
| Session length | No lifetime cap; optional idle auto-pause from 60 s to 24 h, off by default | No forced time limit (vendor-stated) |
| 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: $0.01667/vCPU-hr, $0.00833/GB-hr, egress $0.06/GB |
| Self-host or BYOC | Enterprise only, onboarded by our team; not open source | BYOC in your own cloud account and VPC; not open source |
| GPU | No GPU shapes | Yes: L4, A100 40/80 GB, H100 80 GB, RTX PRO 6000 96 GB |
Common Questions
What happens to a Northflank sandbox when it is paused?
It scales to zero and compute billing stops, but ephemeral data and running processes are deleted; only attached volumes survive. A CreateOS Sandbox pause saves disk, memory and CPU state, stops vCPU billing, and keeps billing memory and storage.
Does Northflank offer GPU sandboxes?
Yes. Northflank lists L4, A100, H100 and RTX PRO 6000 GPUs, with H100 80 GB at $2.74 per hour, in GPU-enabled regions; GPU sandboxes run under gVisor rather than microVMs. CreateOS Sandbox offers no GPU shapes.
Is Northflank cheaper per vCPU-hour than CreateOS Sandbox?
Yes. Northflank lists $0.01667 per vCPU-hour and $0.00833 per GB-hour; CreateOS Sandbox lists $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour and $0.01159025 per GiB-hour. Northflank charges $0.06 per GB of egress, which CreateOS does not, so data-heavy jobs can narrow the gap.
Sources
Checked 17 October 2026.
See CreateOS Sandbox for yourself
Book a demo, or explore the Sandbox and its pricing.