CreateOS Sandbox vs Zipbox
Pick zipbox if you are one developer handing a coding agent root on a cheap cloud machine through a browser, with an email inbox, domain and edge-injected keys included. Pick CreateOS Sandbox if your product needs to create many sandboxes from code, restrict egress, or fork a prepared machine.
Pricing at a Glance
CreateOS rates verified 17 October 2026. zipbox 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
zipbox
zipbox bills per second from a prepaid balance at $0.0068 per hour for 1 vCPU / 2 GB up to $0.0548 per hour for 6 vCPU / 16 GB ($5 to $40 per month always on), with paused boxes at $0, as of 17 October 2026.
Where CreateOS Sandbox Fits Better
What CreateOS Sandbox brings to this matchup, with a plain note on where zipbox has the edge.
Create and control sandboxes by REST, CLI, MCP or SDKs in six languages; zipbox documents no public API or SDK for creating boxes.
Egress allowlists by host, IP, CIDR or wildcard, enforced on the host; zipbox does not publish allowlist controls.
Fork a paused sandbox into many copies; zipbox does not publish a fork feature.
Pause keeps memory and processes; zipbox pause archives the disk and does not state that processes survive.
Where zipbox is strong
zipbox gives each agent a full identity, with an email inbox, a public domain and wallets, and swaps API keys in at the network edge so the box only holds placeholders. An agent can sign up for services and ship to a live URL on its own.
Which to Pick
Pick CreateOS Sandbox if
- Your backend creates and destroys sandboxes per user or per task.
- You must limit which hosts the agent can reach.
- You need SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 reports for a security review.
Pick zipbox if
- You want a single always-on agent box from $5 a month.
- Your agent needs its own email address and public subdomain.
- You prefer driving the machine from a browser terminal.
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 | zipbox |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker micro-VM with its own guest kernel | Firecracker micro-VM under KVM with its own kernel (vendor-stated) |
| Pause and resume | Saves disk, memory and CPU state; vCPU billing stops, memory and storage still bill | Archives the disk and stops billing; restore boots the same disk; process survival not stated |
| Fork | Forks a paused sandbox into many independent copies | 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 | Internet-connected by default; allowlist controls not published; API keys injected at the edge |
| Inbound access | Closed by default; opt-in HTTPS URL | name.zbox.sh over HTTPS; SSH by public key (IPv6 only) |
| Largest size | 8 vCPU / 16 GB on Enterprise; 8 vCPU / 8 GB on Pro | 6 vCPU / 16 GB / 320 GB; bigger on request |
| Concurrency | 1 / 5 / 20 / 30 by plan (Free to Enterprise); paused sandboxes count | Not published |
| Session length | No cap; optional idle auto-pause from 60 s to 24 h, off by default | No timeout published; boxes run while the balance is positive |
| 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 from $0.0068/hr (1 vCPU / 2 GB) to $0.0548/hr (6 vCPU / 16 GB); paused $0 |
| SDKs and interfaces | TypeScript, Go, Python, Rust, C#, Java (all but TypeScript pre-1.0), CLI, MCP, REST | Browser dashboard and terminal; no public create API or SDK documented |
Common Questions
Can I create zipbox machines from my own code?
Not from what zipbox documents. It offers a browser dashboard, a browser terminal and an in-box CLI for keys, with no public API or SDK for creating boxes. CreateOS Sandbox is built to be driven by code, through REST, a CLI, an MCP server and SDKs in six languages.
How does zipbox pricing compare with CreateOS Sandbox?
zipbox sells bundled sizes per second, from $0.0068 an hour for 1 vCPU / 2 GB to $0.0548 an hour for 6 vCPU / 16 GB, and paused boxes cost nothing. CreateOS bills $0.03616363 per vCPU-hour and $0.01159025 per GiB-hour, and memory and storage still bill while paused. zipbox is cheaper for one always-on box.
Does zipbox keep API keys off the machine?
Yes. zipbox swaps API keys in at the network edge, so the box only holds placeholders. CreateOS Sandbox makes no such claim; it controls where traffic can go through egress rules enforced on the host outside the VM.
Sources
Checked 17 October 2026.
See CreateOS Sandbox for yourself
Book a demo, or explore the Sandbox and its pricing.