What is the best alternative to Daytona?
It depends on whether you need GPUs, and on how much of each run your agent spends waiting. For agents that wait between model calls, Runtime gives the lowest bill, $0.64 for the job below against $2.76 on Daytona, and every sandbox is a microVM that pauses with its memory. If GPUs are why you chose Daytona, Modal is the closest swap. Pick Northflank to deploy into your own AWS, GCP or Azure account.
Why do teams leave Daytona?
Daytona's reasons to leave start with what a default sandbox is, and then how it is charged:
- The default is a container. A Daytona sandbox is a container unless you choose its VM class. On Runtime there is only one kind: a Firecracker microVM with its own Linux kernel, every time.
- Memory pause is VM-only. Pausing with memory, and memory snapshots, need Daytona's VM sandboxes. Any Runtime sandbox pauses with its files, memory and running processes, and a fork copies one while it runs.
- Idle vCPUs cost full price. Daytona charges $0.0504 per vCPU-hour for every allocated vCPU and $0.0162 per GiB-hour, E2B's rates exactly. An agent that waits 40 seconds of every minute pays for both vCPUs throughout.
- Disk bills while stopped. After the first 5 GiB, Daytona charges $0.000108 per GiB-hour whether the sandbox runs or not. A running Runtime sandbox includes its disk.
- Your own domain means your own proxy. Daytona's docs, read on 25 October 2026, serve previews on your domain through a preview proxy you deploy, and keep its OIDC single sign-on for Enterprise. A paid Runtime account adds a custom domain with one command, and SAML or OIDC sign-in is free.
- Keys in the agent's config. Daytona authenticates with an API key; an agent reaches Runtime after a person approves it in the browser.
Which alternatives are cheapest?
The table prices one job everywhere: 1,000 runs lasting 60 seconds each, on a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB sandbox that does 20 CPU-seconds of work per run and waits for the rest. Daytona sits at row 12, level with E2B and Blaxel. The row-by-row arithmetic is on pricing, without plan fees, storage, network, credits or negotiated discounts.
| # | Provider | Isolation | CPU billed on | 1,000 runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Runtime Cloud | Firecracker microVM, own kernel | Measured CPU, with a small floor | $0.64 |
| 2 | Northflank | microVMs for CPU work, gVisor for GPU work | Allocated vCPUs | $1.11 |
| 3 | Cloudflare Sandbox (2 vCPU, 6 GiB, 12 GB disk) | A container in its own VM | Active CPU | $1.35 |
| 4 | Prime Sandboxes (5 GiB disk) | microVM, own guest kernel | Allocated vCPUs while running | $1.52 |
| 5 | Fly Machines, performance-2x with 4 GB |
Firecracker microVM | The machine's size while started | $1.53 |
| 6 | Morph, 2 MCUs | Full virtual machines | The machine's size in MCUs | $1.67 |
| 7 | Vercel Sandbox, iad1 (4 GB) |
Firecracker microVM, own kernel | Active CPU | $2.12 |
| 8 | Freestyle (32 GiB disk) | Full Linux virtual machines | Allocated vCPUs | $2.25 |
| 9 | Fly Sprites (4 GB in use) | Firecracker microVM | Measured CPU | $2.40 |
| 10 | CodeSandbox SDK, a Nano VM | Firecracker microVM | The VM's size, by the minute rounded up | $2.48 |
| 11 | E2B | Firecracker microVM, own kernel | Allocated vCPUs | $2.76 |
| 12 | Daytona (the one you are replacing) | Containers by default; VM class separate | Allocated vCPUs | $2.76 |
| 13 | Blaxel (4 GB) | Lightweight virtual machines | Included with memory, active time | $3.45 |
| 14 | Modal Sandboxes (1 physical core) | gVisor, or a VM on request | Requested or used, whichever is higher | $3.97 |
| 15 | AWS Lambda MicroVMs, Arm | Firecracker microVM | Baseline vCPUs while running | $4.20 |
| 16 | Runloop, a MEDIUM devbox |
Hardware-isolated microVM | Allocated CPUs while running | $5.33 |
Cost for the same job
Runtime and Daytona, then E2B (identical rates, microVMs by default) and Modal (which, like Daytona, offers GPUs):
- CPU
- 1,000 × 20 s / 3,600 × $0.025
- $0.14
- Memory
- 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0075
- $0.50
- CPU
- 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 2 × $0.0504
- $1.68
- Memory
- 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0162
- $1.08
- CPU
- 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 2 × $0.0504
- $1.68
- Memory
- 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0162
- $1.08
- CPU
- 1,000 × 60 s × 1 core × $0.00003942
- $2.37
- Memory
- 1,000 × 60 s × 4 × $0.00000667
- $1.60
When both vCPUs stay busy for the whole minute, the bill reads $1.33 on Runtime, $2.76 on Daytona, $2.76 on E2B and $3.97 on Modal. Daytona and E2B charge the same either way, since both already bill every vCPU. A month of 100,000 waiting runs is $63.89 on Runtime and $276.00 on Daytona.
Where each alternative leaves a Daytona user
1. Northflank: lower rates for allocation billing
Northflank keeps Daytona's model of paying for what a sandbox holds, at $0.01667 per vCPU-hour and $0.00833 per GB-hour. That makes a fully busy job cheaper there than on Runtime, $1.11 to $1.33. It uses microVMs for CPU work and gVisor for GPU work, runs each sandbox as a service with a deployment plan and can deploy into your AWS, GCP or Azure account.
2. Cloudflare Sandbox: containers inside a VM, on Workers
Each container gets its own VM, with active CPU at $0.072 per vCPU-hour. The memory floor of 3 GiB per vCPU prices this job at 6 GiB. Calls come from a Worker on the Workers Paid plan. Public-beta filesystem snapshots can restore saved files after a stop; memory and processes restart.
3. Fly Machines: a Firecracker VM at a flat hourly price
A performance-2x with 4 GB is $0.0916704 an hour in iad, busy or not: $1.53
for the job in either case, against Daytona's $2.76. Machines run in 17 regions
and keep files only on a volume.
4. Morph: memory-carrying branches
Morph sells time in MCUs at $0.05 an hour, one MCU being 1 vCPU, 4 GB of memory or 16 GB of disk. Infinibranch forks a live machine and its memory into hundreds of replicas, from one prepared state.
5. Vercel Sandbox: cheaper while idle, dearer when busy
Firecracker microVMs billed on active CPU at $0.128 per hour and $0.0212 per
GB-hour in iad1. That beats Daytona for waiting agents ($2.12) and loses for
busy ones ($5.68). A stop keeps the filesystem but not the processes.
6. CodeSandbox SDK: sized VMs paid in credits
A Nano VM (2 cores, 4 GB) is $0.1486 an hour, charged by the minute and rounded up. Past 10 concurrent VMs, the Scale plan costs $170 a month.
7. E2B: Daytona's price, a microVM by default
E2B charges exactly what Daytona does, so there is no saving, but every sandbox is a Firecracker microVM. Hobby sessions stop at 1 hour; 24 hours needs Pro at $150 a month. The runtime is Apache-2.0, so it can be self-hosted.
8. Blaxel: CPU folded into memory
$0.0000115 per GB-second while active, with cores assigned by memory size, and an hourly price equal to Daytona's at 4 GB. Sandboxes enter standby on their own when connections close and wake in about 25 ms.
9. Fly Sprites: self-pausing sandboxes from Fly.io
$0.0385 per CPU-hour, measured, and $0.021875 per GB-hour of memory in use, which puts the job at $2.40. A Sprite sleeps by itself and holds a 100 GB disk.
10. Modal Sandboxes: the GPU route
If GPUs are why you chose Daytona, Modal offers them too, beside its functions. It isolates with gVisor, or a VM on request, and charges the higher of requested and used CPU, $0.1419 per physical core-hour, for $3.97 on this job.
11. Runloop: devboxes for evaluation
A container inside a microVM, at $0.108 per CPU-hour and $0.0252 per GB-hour plus disk, $5.33 here. Tools to evaluate models on your own workload come with it, and it can deploy into your cloud account.
Runtime Cloud
Runtime puts each sandbox in its own microVM and runs Daytona's workload for 77% less. At list rates, 1,000 one-minute runs of a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB sandbox come to $0.64 on Runtime against $2.76 on Daytona, which puts Runtime first in the table above; at 100,000 runs a month, $212 stays in the budget. Daytona meters every vCPU a sandbox holds, and Runtime meters the CPU the code uses. Rates checked 25 October 2026.
Measured CPU is $0.025 per vCPU-hour, with a floor of a twentieth of a vCPU,
and reserved memory is $0.0075 per GiB-hour. Each sandbox boots its own kernel
in Firecracker, so there is no container class to opt out of. Existing Daytona
code runs after an import change: stop() in the
withruntime/daytona layer pauses with memory, and start() resumes it where
it was.
Run npx withruntime login to start on free usage. The steps below, or the
migration guide given to a coding agent, carry an existing
Daytona project over.
How to switch from Daytona
The Daytona layer in Runtime's SDK covers sessions, files, git, snapshots built
from Daytona's Image, and the code interpreter. Swap the import and set
RUNTIME_API_KEY, or sign in once with npx withruntime login:
TypeScriptimport { Daytona } from "withruntime/daytona"; // was: from "@daytona/sdk"Pythonfrom withruntime.daytona import Daytona # was: from daytona import DaytonaNew sandboxes start with Daytona's defaults: 1 vCPU, 1 GiB of memory and a
3 GiB disk, pausing after 15 minutes without calls. Runtime runs Linux on CPUs,
so a GPU request throws NotSupportedError up front and names the
alternative; PTY sessions work as on Daytona.
A coding agent can do the port for you: the one instruction in migration has it change the calls on a branch, test on the free usage and work out the monthly saving. Credit you add within 30 days of signing up is matched, up to $1,000 in total. Side-by-side pages: E2B vs Daytona, Daytona vs Modal and Daytona vs Vercel Sandbox; for the isolation difference, microVM vs container.
Sources
Cloudflare sandbox lifetime, snapshot behavior checked 25 October 2026. Rival rates checked 25 October 2026. Daytona's pricing page was read again on 26 October 2026.
Runtime pricing and the Daytona comparison
Facts on this page were checked on 26 October 2026.