CreateOS Sandbox vs Runloop

Runloop still sells devboxes, but its docs now include a migration guide to Freestyle, so confirm its roadmap before you commit. Pick Runloop if you want its evaluation and RL tooling, arm64 devboxes or a GPU option; pick CreateOS Sandbox if you want memory-preserving pause on every plan, no default lifetime cut-off and a lower published vCPU rate.

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All comparisons

Runloop's own docs publish a migration guide to Freestyle with a credit offer for Runloop customers and mark one of its products discontinued, while signup and pricing remain live.

Pricing at a glance

CreateOS rates verified 17 October 2026. Runloop 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

Runloop

Compute: $0.1080 /vCPU-hr
Memory: See below

Runloop bills devboxes per second at $0.108 per CPU-hour and $0.0252 per GB-hour of memory, with a free Basic plan plus usage and Pro at $250 per month plus usage, as of 17 October 2026.

Where CreateOS Sandbox fits better

What CreateOS Sandbox brings to this matchup, with a plain note on where Runloop has the edge.

Pause saves memory and CPU state as well as disk on every plan; Runloop suspend keeps disk only and needs Pro at $250 per month.
Lower published vCPU rate: $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour against Runloop's $0.108 per CPU-hour.
No default lifetime: sandboxes run until paused or destroyed, while Runloop devboxes default to a 1-hour lifetime unless configured.

Where Runloop is strong

Runloop wraps the sandbox in agent-specific tooling: blueprints, evaluation harnesses, gateways that hide credentials from the agent on AI and MCP calls, an optional GPU, and both arm64 and x86 devboxes.

Which to pick

Pick CreateOS Sandbox if

You want memory kept across pause without a $250 monthly plan.
Your agents run past an hour without reconfiguring lifetimes.
You want egress allowlists by IP and CIDR as well as hostname.

Pick Runloop if

You want evaluation and RL fine-tuning tooling from the same vendor and have confirmed its future.
You need arm64 devboxes.
You need custom sizes up to 16 CPU / 64 GiB.

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	Runloop
Isolation	Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel	Micro-VM plus container (vendor-stated)
Pause and resume	Saves disk, memory and CPU state; vCPU billing stops, memory and storage still bill	Suspend on Pro and above keeps disk and stops compute billing; no memory snapshots
Fork	Forks a paused sandbox into many independent copies	New devboxes from a disk snapshot; no live fork
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; allow all, deny all, or a hostname allowlist with wildcards
Largest size	8 vCPU / 16 GB on Enterprise; 8 vCPU / 8 GB on Pro	8 CPU / 32 GB predefined; custom up to 16 CPU / 64 GiB
Session length	No cap; optional idle auto-pause from 60 s to 24 h, off by default	1-hour default lifetime, configurable; idle policy can shut down or suspend
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: $0.108 per CPU-hour, $0.0252 per GB-hour; Pro $250/month

Common questions

Is Runloop still a safe choice for new projects?

Check first. Runloop's docs publish a guide for moving from Runloop to Freestyle, with a credit offer for Runloop customers, and its changelog shows one entry since November 2025. Signup and pricing are still live, and no shutdown notice appears on runloop.ai.

Does Runloop suspend keep memory like CreateOS pause?

No. Runloop suspend, available on Pro and above, keeps the disk and stops compute billing, and Runloop offers disk snapshots only. CreateOS Sandbox pause saves disk, memory and CPU state on every plan; vCPU stops billing, while memory and storage still bill.

How do Runloop and CreateOS Sandbox compare on CPU price?

Runloop lists $0.108 per CPU-hour and $0.0252 per GB-hour of memory, billed per second, with Pro at $250 per month. CreateOS Sandbox lists $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour and $0.01159025 per GiB-hour, also billed per second.

See CreateOS Sandbox for yourself

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