Runtime

Daytona alternatives: agent sandboxes ranked by cost

Runtime is the cheapest Daytona alternative, 77% less per job, and every Runtime sandbox is a microVM rather than a container.

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: 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. Existing Daytona code runs after an import change. Rates checked 23 September 2026.

Estimated compute cost

77% less than Daytona77% less than E2B84% less than Modal

2 vCPUs · 4 GiB · 60 s a run · 20 CPU-seconds busy

1,000

Compute only, at list rates checked 23 September 2026 (Daytona pricing, E2B pricing, Modal pricing). Plan fees, network, taxes and free credits are left out. The worked example below shows the arithmetic.

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.
  • 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 9, level with E2B and Blaxel. Row-by-row working is on pricing, without plan fees, storage, network, credits or negotiated discounts.

# Provider Isolation CPU billed on 1,000 runs
1 Runtime 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 Fly Machines, performance-2x with 4 GB Firecracker microVM The machine's size while started $1.44
5 Morph, 2 MCUs Full virtual machines The machine's size in MCUs $1.67
6 Vercel Sandbox, iad1 (4 GB) Firecracker microVM, own kernel Active CPU $2.12
7 CodeSandbox SDK, a Nano VM Firecracker microVM The VM's size, by the minute rounded up $2.48
8 E2B Firecracker microVM, own kernel Allocated vCPUs $2.76
9 Daytona (the one you are replacing) Containers by default; VM class separate Allocated vCPUs $2.76
10 Blaxel (4 GB) Lightweight virtual machines Included with memory, active time $2.76
11 Fly Sprites (4 GB in use) Firecracker microVM Measured CPU $3.31
12 Modal Sandboxes (1 physical core) gVisor, a user-space kernel Requested or used, whichever is higher $3.97
13 Runloop, a MEDIUM devbox microVM, with a container inside 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):

TextRuntime  CPU    1,000 × 20 s / 3,600 × $0.025       = $0.14         Memory 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0075  = $0.50         Total                                         $0.64Daytona  CPU    1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 2 × $0.0504  = $1.68         Memory 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0162  = $1.08         Total                                         $2.76E2B      CPU    1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 2 × $0.0504  = $1.68         Memory 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0162  = $1.08         Total                                         $2.76Modal    CPU    1,000 × 60 s × 1 core × $0.00003942 = $2.37         Memory 1,000 × 60 s × 4 × $0.00000667      = $1.60         Total                                         $3.97

Now make the code work: 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. Runtime: a microVM per sandbox, CPU billed on use

Measured CPU at $0.025 per vCPU-hour, with a floor of a twentieth of a vCPU, and reserved memory at $0.0075 per GiB-hour. Each sandbox boots its own kernel in Firecracker, so there is no container class to opt out of. stop() in the withruntime/daytona layer pauses with memory, and start() resumes it where it was.

2. 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.

3. 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, and after 10 idle minutes a sandbox sleeps and comes back from its image without its files, unless they went to R2.

4. Fly Machines: a Firecracker VM at a flat hourly price

A performance-2x with 4 GB is $0.0861 an hour in iad, busy or not: $1.44 for the job in either case, against Daytona's $2.76. Machines run in 18 regions and keep files only on a volume.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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 VMs at once, the Scale plan costs $170 a month.

8. 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.

9. Blaxel: CPU folded into memory

$0.0000115 per GB-second while active, with cores assigned by memory size, and a job cost equal to Daytona's at 4 GB. Sandboxes enter standby on their own when connections close and wake in about 25 ms.

10. Fly Sprites: self-pausing sandboxes from Fly.io

$0.07 per CPU-hour, measured, and $0.04375 per GB-hour of memory in use, which puts the job at $3.31. A Sprite sleeps by itself and holds a 100 GB disk.

11. Modal Sandboxes: the GPU route

If GPUs are why you chose Daytona, Modal offers them too, beside its functions and scheduled jobs. It isolates with gVisor and charges the higher of requested and used CPU, $0.1419 per physical core-hour, for $3.97 on this job.

12. 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. SWE-Bench and other public benchmarks come built in, and it can deploy into your cloud account.

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 Daytona

New 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, like a PTY session, throws NotSupportedError up front and names the alternative.

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 trial and work out the monthly saving. Before your first top-up, run npx withruntime switch --from daytona to have that top-up matched with up to $100 of credit. Side-by-side pages: E2B vs Daytona, Daytona vs Modal and Daytona vs Vercel Sandbox; for the isolation difference, microVM vs container.

Sources

Rival rates checked 23 September 2026. Daytona's pricing page was read again on 25 September 2026.

Facts on this page were checked on 25 September 2026.

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