CodeSandbox Alternatives

Novita AI bills a 2 vCPU + 4 GiB hour at $0.11664 with no monthly fee, 21.5% below the $0.14860 on-demand Nano VM hour on CodeSandbox’s $170 Scale plan; stay on Scale if you need 250 concurrent VMs rather than Novita’s 100, or sessions beyond 24 h.

Updated · 15 sources · Methodology

NeedPickWhy
Lowest example costNovita AI$0.11664 / h2
Long sessionsDaytonaNo fixed limit, like CodeSandbox; 24 h on E2B Pro, Novita AI, Modal and Vercel Pro91
Most concurrent sandboxesVercel Sandbox10,000 · Pro6

Capabilities and serving conditions

ProviderConcurrent sandboxes (compared plan)Maximum session lengthStartup claim (vendor-reported)
CodeSandbox1250 · ScaleNo fixed limit11–3 s · new sandbox from template; checked 202614
Novita AI2100 · Paid24 h · Paid<200 ms · average launch; checked 2026
E2B3100 · Pro24 h · Pro~150 ms · sandbox spin-up; 2025 case study8
Daytona4No sandbox count; Tier 2 pool of 100 vCPU / 200 GiB7No fixed limit9<90 ms · container sandbox creation; checked 202694
Modal5100 · Starter · shared container limit524 h10<1 s · cold start; checked 202611
Vercel Sandbox610,000 · Pro24 h · Prop75 <1 s · snapshot restore; 2026 blog12

Prices and request cost

ProviderCPU ($/vCPU-hour)Memory ($/GiB-hour)Monthly plan fee2 vCPU + 4 GiB for 1 h
CodeSandbox · Scale · Nano113——$170$0.14860
Novita AI · Paid2$0.03528$0.01152$0$0.11664
E2B · Pro3$0.0504$0.0162$150$0.16560
Daytona · Tier 24$0.0504$0.0162$0$0.16560
Modal · Starter · non-preemptible5$0.070956$0.024012$0$0.23796
Vercel Sandbox · Pro · iad16$0.128$0.0227633$20$0.34705
One running hour: 2 vCPU + 4 GiB; compute only
Novita AI$0.11664
CodeSandbox$0.14860
E2B$0.16560
Daytona$0.16560
Modal$0.23796
Vercel Sandbox$0.34705

Options, strengths and limitations

  1. Novita AI

    Direct CPU and memory rates replace VM-credit bundles, with no monthly sandbox subscription.2

    CPU ($/vCPU-hour)
    0.03528
    Monthly fee ($)
    0
    Concurrent sandboxes (compared plan)
    100

    Strengths

    Bills $0.03528 per vCPU-hour and $0.01152 per GiB-hour by the second, with no monthly plan to prepay like CodeSandbox Scale’s $170.21

    Limitations

    Paid concurrency stops at 100 sandboxes versus CodeSandbox Scale’s 250 VMs, paid sessions end at 24 h where CodeSandbox lists no session limit, and each sandbox is capped at 8 vCPU and 8 GB.21

  2. Daytona

    A shared CPU/memory pool supports variable sandbox sizes rather than a fixed VM-credit allowance.7

    CPU ($/vCPU-hour)
    0.0504
    Monthly fee ($)
    0
    Tier 2 resource pool
    100 vCPU / 200 GiB

    Strengths

    Pay-as-you-go Tier 2 charges no monthly plan fee, unlike CodeSandbox Scale’s $170.41

    Limitations

    Tier 2 requires a linked card and $25 top-up; its 100 vCPU / 200 GiB shared pool is not a promise of 100 sandboxes at any size.7

  3. E2B

    Pro combines a fixed subscription with separately metered sandbox resources, unlike the CodeSandbox credit-hour bundle.3

    CPU ($/vCPU-hour)
    0.0504
    Monthly fee ($)
    150
    Concurrent sandboxes (compared plan)
    100

    Strengths

    Pro supports longer sessions and custom CPU and memory allocation.3

    Limitations

    The 24 h session allowance and 100 concurrent sandboxes require Pro at $150/month; Hobby allows 1 h and 20 concurrent sandboxes.3

  4. Modal

    Physical-core and memory metering replaces a bundled VM-credit plan; the sandbox rate is separate from Functions.5

    CPU ($/vCPU-hour)
    0.070956
    Monthly fee ($)
    0
    Concurrent sandboxes (compared plan)
    100

    Strengths

    Starter adds $30 of compute credit every month with no plan fee.5

    Limitations

    Sandbox CPU uses non-preemptible physical-core rates; each allocation starts at 0.125 physical cores, and the cheaper Functions rate does not apply here.5

  5. Vercel Sandbox

    Active CPU billing changes the economics of I/O-heavy jobs compared with consuming bundled VM-credit hours.6

    CPU ($/vCPU-hour)
    0.128
    Monthly fee ($)
    20
    Concurrent sandboxes (compared plan)
    10,000

    Strengths

    Pro lists 10,000 concurrent sandboxes, 40 times CodeSandbox Scale’s 250 VMs.61

    Limitations

    The 10,000 concurrency and 24 h duration limits are Pro limits; this comparison adds a $20 monthly plan and uses the iad1 active-CPU rate.6

Original product baseline

CodeSandbox Scale costs $170/month and includes 160 hours of monthly VM credits and 250 concurrent VMs; on-demand use of the Nano VM (2 vCPU + 4 GiB) costs $0.1486 per hour. Together AI, which owns CodeSandbox, now labels the CodeSandbox SDK deprecated and points new integrations to its together-sandbox SDK.11315

Methodology and sources

Vercel publishes memory at $0.0212/GB-hour. For a common GiB basis, 1 GiB = 1.073741824 GB: the converted rate is $0.0227633/GiB-hour and 2 active vCPU + 4 GiB costs $0.34705/hour before plan fees.

Hourly examples assume 2 vCPU + 4 GiB allocated and continuously active for 1 hour, excluding storage, network, plan fees and credits. Modal physical cores count as 2 vCPU each at non-preemptible sandbox rates; Vercel uses its iad1 active-CPU rate at full utilization. CodeSandbox prices whole VM sizes rather than separate CPU and memory rates, so its row uses the Nano VM (2 vCPU + 4 GiB): 10 credits per hour at $0.01486 per on-demand credit, or $0.1486/hour, which the pricing page rounds to $0.15. Startup figures are vendor-reported and measure different events, so no fastest-start winner is assigned. Startup labels give a dated source’s year, or 2026 when an undated page was checked.

These CodeSandbox replacement costs are resource-charge estimates, not measured invoices. Novita AI publishes the comparison from the cited public documentation.

Alternatives to CodeSandbox are ordered by the 2 vCPU + 4 GiB continuously active hourly example, then by monthly plan fee; E2B and Daytona have equal compute rates. Concurrency counts, shared CPU pools and startup claims are not interchangeable ranking measures.

  1. CodeSandbox · pricing and capacity
  2. Novita AI · pricing and capacity
  3. E2B · pricing and capacity
  4. Daytona · pricing and capacity
  5. Modal · pricing and capacity
  6. Vercel Sandbox · pricing and capacity
  7. Daytona · Tier 2 resource and creation limits
  8. E2B · Manus case study (2025)
  9. Daytona · Sandboxes documentation
  10. Modal · Sandboxes guide
  11. Modal · Sandboxes product page
  12. Vercel · Optimizing snapshot restores (2026)
  13. CodeSandbox · SDK pricing and VM credits
  14. CodeSandbox · SDK core concepts
  15. Together AI · Code sandbox legacy SDK

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