# Daytona vs Freestyle: pricing, plans and what each keeps

Freestyle's VM rates are about a fifth below Daytona's, so the 2 vCPU, 4 GiB benchmark is $2.25 on Freestyle against $2.76 on Daytona.

**Runtime beats both: 77% under Daytona and 72% under Freestyle.** One
thousand runs of a minute on 2 vCPU and 4 GiB, each with 20 CPU-seconds of
work, cost $2.76 on Daytona, $2.25 on Freestyle and $0.64 on Runtime. Daytona
and Freestyle charge for every core a sandbox holds; Runtime charges for the
cores' actual work.

## At a glance

|            | Daytona                                                 | Freestyle                                        | Runtime                                                  |
| ---------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------- |
| Isolation  | Containers by default; VM sandboxes as a separate class | Full Linux virtual machines                      | Firecracker microVM, own kernel, every sandbox           |
| CPU        | $0.0504 per allocated vCPU-hour                         | $0.04032 per allocated vCPU-hour                 | $0.025 per vCPU-hour of measured CPU, with a small floor |
| Memory     | $0.0162 per GiB-hour                                    | $0.0129 per GiB-hour                             | $0.0075 per reserved GiB-hour                            |
| Disk       | First 5 GiB free, then $0.000108 per GiB-hour           | $0.000086 per GiB-hour of the allocation         | Included while it runs                                   |
| Plan       | None published                                          | Free, Hobby $50, Pro $500 a month                | None; prepaid credit from $10                            |
| Free start | $200 of compute                                         | 200 vCPU-hours and 400 GiB-hours a month         | 100 sandbox hours, no card                               |
| Idle       | Stops after 15 idle minutes by default                  | Hibernates with memory; storage billed meanwhile | Pause keeps memory, 1 to 365 days                        |

## Free tiers compared

Daytona gives $200 of compute once. Freestyle's free plan renews 200 vCPU-hours
and 400 GiB-hours every month, but caps you at 10 VMs at once and 4 vCPUs and 8
GiB each; more takes Hobby at $50 or Pro at $500 a month. The Runtime trial is
100 sandbox hours with no card, and a paid account then runs 100 sandboxes at
once with no plan at all, after a first week at 50.

## Cost for the same job

1,000 runs of 60 seconds, 2 vCPU and 4 GiB, 20 CPU-seconds each; Freestyle's
default 32 GiB disk counted, Daytona's first 5 GiB free:

```
Daytona   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                                                  $2.76

Freestyle CPU    1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 2 × $0.04032           = $1.34
          Memory 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0129            = $0.86
          Disk   1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 32 × $0.000086         = $0.05
          Total                                                  $2.25

Runtime   CPU    1,000 × 20 s / 3,600 × $0.025                = $0.14
          Memory 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0075           = $0.50
          Total                                                  $0.64
```

Across 100,000 runs a month: $276.00 on Daytona, $224.99 on Freestyle,
$63.89 on Runtime. Kept busy for the whole minute, the totals read $2.76 on Daytona, $2.25 on Freestyle and $1.33 on Runtime.

## Which one to pick

- **Daytona** for GPUs, Windows sandboxes, an EU region, or $200 of free
  compute.
- **Freestyle** for VMs that fork while running, or 32 vCPUs in one VM on Pro.
- **Runtime** for the lowest bill of the three, a microVM for every sandbox,
  and Daytona code that runs through `withruntime/daytona` after changing one
  import.

Compare further with [Runtime vs Daytona](/docs/daytona-alternative) and
[Runtime vs Freestyle](/docs/freestyle-alternative).

## Sources

Daytona rates checked 23 September 2026; Freestyle rates checked 25 September 2026.

- [Daytona pricing](https://www.daytona.io/pricing), [Daytona sandboxes](https://www.daytona.io/docs/en/sandboxes)
- [Freestyle pricing](https://www.freestyle.sh/pricing), [Freestyle VM pricing and limits](https://www.freestyle.sh/docs/vms/pricing-and-limits)
- Runtime [pricing](/docs/pricing)

Facts on this page were checked on 25 September 2026.