CreateOS Sandbox vs Zeabur
Zeabur suits teams who want to deploy a full app, or a template such as n8n, onto a server they choose, including in Asia and China. CreateOS Sandbox suits agents that need a short-lived, isolated Linux machine per task, billed by the second and destroyed afterwards. If what you ship is a service that stays up, Zeabur fits; if it is code you run and throw away, CreateOS fits.
Pricing at a Glance
CreateOS rates verified 17 October 2026. Zeabur 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
Zeabur
Zeabur plans are Free $0, Dev $5/month, Pro $19/month and Team $79/month with 3 seats, plus a fixed monthly price per purchased server; no per-vCPU or per-GB rate is published, as of 17 October 2026.
Where CreateOS Sandbox Fits Better
What CreateOS Sandbox brings to this matchup, with a plain note on where Zeabur has the edge.
Per-second billing on published vCPU and GiB rates, compared with Zeabur's fixed monthly server prices.
Documented isolation: one Firecracker micro-VM per sandbox. Zeabur does not describe its isolation mechanism.
Pause keeps memory and CPU state as well as disk; Zeabur publishes volumes but no memory snapshot.
Copy live state: fork a paused sandbox into several running ones. Zeabur copies projects and templates, not a running environment.
Where Zeabur is strong
Very low setup cost for complete apps. Zeabur deploys from Git, a Docker image or a template onto a server you choose, and covers providers and regions in Asia and China that many platforms skip.
Which to Pick
Pick CreateOS Sandbox if
- Each agent task needs its own throwaway machine
- You want to pay by the second, only while code runs
- You need egress allowlists enforced outside the VM
Pick Zeabur if
- You want Heroku-style deploys onto cheap servers you choose
- You need hosting in China or elsewhere in Asia
- You deploy one-click templates such as n8n and keep them running
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 | Zeabur |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | API-created sandboxes for agent-written and untrusted code | Deploying web apps, APIs, databases and templates without managing servers |
| Isolation | Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel | Not published (deploys from Dockerfile or Docker image) |
| Ephemeral per-run environments | Yes. Create a sandbox per task by API, SDK, CLI or MCP and destroy it after | Not the model; services are long-running on monthly-billed servers |
| Pause and resume | Yes. Saves disk, memory and CPU state; vCPU stops billing while paused, memory and storage still bill | Not published; volumes for persistent data, no memory snapshot published |
| Outbound network | Open with no rules; deny-by-default once any rule exists (host, IP, CIDR, wildcard), enforced on the host outside the VM | Not published |
| 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 by default) | Monthly plan plus a fixed monthly price per server |
| Run untrusted code | Yes, the core use case; each sandbox is its own micro-VM | Not published as a use case |
Common Questions
Does Zeabur bill by the second?
Zeabur does not publish per-second compute billing. Its plans are monthly, and servers bought through it carry a fixed monthly price per server plan. CreateOS Sandbox bills per second while a sandbox runs, at $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour and $0.01159025 per GiB-hour.
Can I bring my own server to Zeabur and to CreateOS?
On Zeabur, yes: attach your own machine or connect an existing cluster, within your plan's server limit. CreateOS self-hosting and BYOC are for Enterprise customers only, onboarded by the CreateOS team rather than self-serve.
Which regions do Zeabur and CreateOS Sandbox cover?
Zeabur runs wherever the server you buy or bring sits, with filters for Asia, China, Europe, the Americas and Oceania. CreateOS Sandbox has two managed regions, eu and us, picked at create time.
Sources
Checked 17 October 2026.
See CreateOS Sandbox for yourself
Book a demo, or explore the Sandbox and its pricing.