CreateOS Sandbox vs Ubicloud
Ubicloud suits teams that want cheap VMs or GitHub Actions runners, or want to run their own open-source cloud on rented bare metal under AGPL-3.0. CreateOS Sandbox suits teams that want a hosted sandbox API for agent code, with memory pause, fork and outbound allowlists already built. If self-hosting from source matters, Ubicloud has it; CreateOS self-hosting is enterprise-only and team-onboarded.
Pricing at a Glance
CreateOS rates verified 17 October 2026. Ubicloud 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
Ubicloud
Standard VMs in Germany run from $0.00104 per minute (standard-2, 2 vCPU, 8 GB, $41.89 per month) to $0.03117 per minute (standard-60), burstable from $0.00026 per minute, metered per minute and billed monthly, as of 17 October 2026.
Where CreateOS Sandbox Fits Better
What CreateOS Sandbox brings to this matchup, with a plain note on where Ubicloud has the edge.
Pause with memory and CPU state, then fork; Ubicloud boots new VMs from machine images of a disk.
Per-second billing, against Ubicloud's per-minute metering.
Hostname egress allowlists that become deny-by-default once set, enforced outside the VM.
Two images built for agents: devbox:1 with coding-agent CLIs and desktop:1 with Chrome.
Where Ubicloud is strong
An open-source (AGPL-3.0) cloud you can self-host on bare metal, with managed prices several times below hyperscalers and per-minute metering.
Which to Pick
Pick CreateOS Sandbox if
- You want a hosted sandbox API instead of running a control plane
- You need pause that keeps memory, and fork
- You want SDKs in TypeScript, Go, Python, Rust, C# or Java for sandbox control
Pick Ubicloud if
- You want to self-host an open-source cloud on your own bare metal
- You want cheap GitHub Actions runners or managed PostgreSQL
- You need VMs up to 60 vCPU and 240 GB
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 | Ubicloud |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel | Full VM (Cloud Hypervisor) with Linux namespaces; nftables firewalls |
| Create and destroy by API | Yes: REST API, CLI, SDKs for TypeScript, Go, Python, Rust, C# and Java (all but TypeScript pre-1.0), and an MCP server with create, exec and destroy tools | API, CLI and Terraform provider (not re-verified); open-source control plane |
| Memory snapshot (pause and resume) | Yes: pause saves disk, memory and CPU state; vCPU stops billing while paused, memory and storage still bill | No memory snapshot found; machine images capture a VM disk |
| Fork | Yes: fork a paused sandbox into new, independent sandboxes | No live fork published; new VMs boot from machine images |
| Outbound network controls | 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; nftables firewall rules configurable |
| Billing granularity | Per second while running, no minimums: $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour, $0.01159025 per GiB-hour | Per-minute metering, billed monthly |
| Largest size | 8 vCPU / 16 GB on Enterprise (8 / 8 Pro, 4 / 4 Beginner, 1 / 1 Free) | standard-60: 60 vCPU, 240 GB, 1,200 GB storage |
| GPU | No GPU shapes | Not published on the pricing page |
Common Questions
Can I self-host Ubicloud, and can I self-host CreateOS?
Ubicloud, yes: it is open source under AGPL-3.0 and runs on bare metal. CreateOS self-hosting and BYOC are enterprise-only, onboarded by the CreateOS team into its managed data plane; there is no open-source or self-serve install.
How does Ubicloud price egress?
Each VM gets 0.625 TB of monthly egress per 2 vCPUs, then pays $3 per TB, with ingress and same-region traffic free. CreateOS has no egress fees and a 50 GiB outbound budget per sandbox by default, with recharges paid from credit.
Which regions does Ubicloud run in?
Three: eu-central-h1 on Hetzner in Falkenstein, eu-north-h1 on Hetzner in Helsinki, and us-east-a2 on Leaseweb in Manassas, Virginia. CreateOS runs sandboxes in two managed regions, eu and us, chosen at create time.
Sources
Checked 17 October 2026.
See CreateOS Sandbox for yourself
Book a demo, or explore the Sandbox and its pricing.