CreateOS Sandbox vs Tenki
Pick Tenki if you want full VMs with Docker and systemd that start fast from your own image, plus cheap GitHub Actions runners from the same vendor, and you need more than 30 concurrent sessions. Pick CreateOS Sandbox if you want lower per-hour rates, inbound closed until you open it, and named eu and us regions.
Pricing at a Glance
CreateOS rates verified 17 October 2026. Tenki 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
Tenki
- Compute
- $0.0504 /vCPU-hr
- Memory
- $0.0162 /GiB-hr
Tenki bills sandboxes per second at $0.0504 per core-hour, $0.0162 per GiB-hour and $0.000108 per GiB-hour of disk after 5 GiB free, with plans from $0 to $250 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 Tenki has the edge.
Lower list rates: $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour and $0.01159025 per GiB-hour, against Tenki's $0.0504 and $0.0162.
Inbound is closed until you enable an HTTPS URL; Tenki enables inbound and outbound networking by default.
Two named regions, eu and us, chosen at create time; Tenki does not publish its regions.
Where Tenki is strong
Tenki gives you real VMs with Docker and systemd that start in under a second from your own image (vendor-stated), because disks mount straight from Ceph on owned hardware, with memory snapshots, forks, egress allowlists and a pause that stops billing.
Which to Pick
Pick CreateOS Sandbox if
- Per-hour cost is the deciding factor at similar features.
- Sandboxes should accept no inbound traffic unless you ask.
- You need to know which region holds your sandbox.
Pick Tenki if
- You want GitHub Actions runners and agent sandboxes from one vendor.
- Your images need systemd, which Tenki documents.
- You need 100 concurrent sessions or VMs up to 16 cores / 64 GB on the Team plan.
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 | Tenki |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel, root filesystem and network identity | VM with its own kernel per session (hypervisor not named); disk and memory wiped on teardown |
| Pause and resume | Saves disk, memory and CPU state; vCPU stops billing while paused, memory and storage still bill | Pause stops compute billing and keeps memory and durable files; /tmp cleared, connections closed |
| Fork | Fork a paused sandbox into many independent copies, each with its own id and IP | Restore a disk and memory snapshot into new sessions |
| 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; outbound allowlist by domain or CIDR available |
| Inbound access | Closed by default; opt-in public HTTPS URL, plus API-authenticated shell and port tunnels | Enabled by default; preview URLs (20 per workspace), SSH and socket bridging over tunnels |
| Largest size | 8 vCPU / 16 GB on Enterprise (Pro 8 vCPU / 8 GB, Beginner 4 / 4, Free 1 / 1) | Starter 4 cores / 8 GB, Team 16 cores / 64 GB, larger on Enterprise |
| Concurrency | Free 1, Beginner 5, Pro 20, Enterprise 30; paused sandboxes count toward the cap | Starter 5, Team 100, Enterprise higher |
| 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: $0.0504/core-hr, $0.0162/GiB-hr, disk $0.000108/GiB-hr after 5 GiB free |
| SDKs and interfaces | TypeScript, Go, Python, Rust, C#, Java (all but TypeScript pre-1.0), CLI, MCP, REST | TypeScript, Python and Go SDKs, CLI, hosted MCP server |
Common Questions
Is Tenki cheaper than CreateOS Sandbox?
No, on list rates CreateOS Sandbox is lower. Tenki charges $0.0504 per core-hour and $0.0162 per GiB-hour; CreateOS Sandbox charges $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour and $0.01159025 per GiB-hour. Tenki stops compute billing on pause, while CreateOS keeps billing memory and storage during pause.
Is inbound networking open on a new Tenki session?
Yes. Tenki enables inbound and outbound networking by default and lets you disable either direction. CreateOS Sandbox leaves outbound open but keeps inbound closed until you set ingress_enabled for an HTTPS URL.
Does Tenki allow more concurrent sandboxes than CreateOS?
Yes on its paid plan. Tenki allows 5 concurrent sessions on Starter and 100 on Team, with more on Enterprise. CreateOS Sandbox allows 1, 5, 20 and 30 across Free, Beginner, Pro and Enterprise, and paused sandboxes count toward the cap.
Sources
Checked 17 October 2026.
See CreateOS Sandbox for yourself
Book a demo, or explore the Sandbox and its pricing.