Which is better, Daytona or Modal?
It depends on GPUs and on what your team already runs. For CPU agents that mostly wait on a model, Runtime is the cheapest of the three: $0.64 for the job below, against $2.76 on Daytona and $3.97 on Modal. Each sandbox is a Firecracker microVM, and a pause keeps memory and processes. Pick Daytona for GPU or Windows machines or an EU region. Pick Modal for GPU sandboxes beside your Modal functions, endpoints and scheduled jobs.
At a glance
| Daytona | Modal Sandboxes | Runtime | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Containers by default; VM sandboxes as a separate class | gVisor, a user-space kernel, or a VM with its own kernel; GPU sandboxes need gVisor | Firecracker microVM, own kernel, every sandbox |
| CPU | $0.0504 per allocated vCPU-hour | $0.1419 per physical core-hour (2 vCPUs), request or use | $0.025 per vCPU-hour of measured CPU, with a small floor |
| Memory | $0.0162 per GiB-hour | $0.0240 per GiB-hour, request or use | $0.0075 per reserved GiB-hour |
| Plan fee | None published | Starter $0 with $30 a month of compute; Team $250 a month | None; prepaid credit from $10 |
| Free start | $200 of compute | $30 of compute a month on Starter | 100 free hours of a 1 GB machine in the first 30 days, no card |
| Idle behaviour | Stops after 15 idle minutes by default | Up to 24 hours a session; snapshots carry state past it | Pause keeps files, memory and processes while you have credit |
| GPUs | GPU sandboxes; Windows machines too | GPU sandboxes | CPUs only |
| Agent sign-in | API key | API key | Browser approval; no key in the agent's config |
Which is cheaper, Daytona or Modal?
Daytona, at every load, for this size. Two allocated vCPUs on Daytona are $0.1008 an hour ($0.0504 each). Modal counts the pair as one physical core at $0.1419 an hour, charged on the request or the use, whichever is larger. On memory, Daytona asks $0.0162 per GiB-hour and Modal $0.0240. Neither discounts a sandbox that sits idle while it waits for a model reply.
Runtime does: it bills the CPU the code uses, at $0.025 per vCPU-hour, and only a floor of a twentieth of a vCPU while nothing runs.
Cost for the same job
1,000 runs on 2 vCPU and 4 GiB, which is one physical core in Modal's terms. Every run is 60 seconds long and spends 20 CPU-seconds computing.
- 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
- CPU
- 1,000 × 20 s / 3,600 × $0.025
- $0.14
- Memory
- 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0075
- $0.50
At 100,000 runs a month, that is $276.00 on Daytona, $396.60 on Modal and $63.89 on Runtime. If both CPUs are busy for the whole minute, the job costs $1.33 on Runtime, $2.76 on Daytona and $3.97 on Modal, because only Runtime's figure depended on load in the first place. Plan fees, disk, network and free credit are not included.
Container, gVisor or microVM?
Three different answers. Daytona's standard sandbox is a container, with a
separate VM class for pausing with memory and taking memory snapshots. Modal
runs a sandbox under gVisor, described by its project as an application
kernel that "intercepts application system calls and acts as the guest
kernel", or, with runtime="vm", in a VM with its own kernel; GPU sandboxes
need gVisor. Runtime boots every sandbox as a Firecracker microVM with its own
Linux kernel, so any sandbox can pause with its memory and there is no class
to select. Background: microVM vs container
and Firecracker vs gVisor.
Which one to pick
- Daytona if Windows machines, an EU region alongside the US, or $200 of free compute matter to you.
- Modal if your team already builds on Modal functions, web endpoints and scheduled jobs and wants sandboxes in the same SDK.
- Runtime if you want a microVM for every sandbox at 77% below Daytona's price and 84% below Modal's, pause and forks that keep memory and running processes, and an agent that connects with no API key. Runtime runs Linux on CPUs; both rivals offer GPU sandboxes.
Runtime Cloud
Neither rival charges less while an agent waits; Runtime does, and the same job comes out 77% below Daytona and 84% below Modal. 1,000 one-minute runs of a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB sandbox cost $2.76 on Daytona, $3.97 on Modal and $0.64 on Runtime. Runtime's CPU charge follows the code's actual use, and each sandbox is a Firecracker microVM with a kernel of its own. Rates checked 25 October 2026.
Begin on the free usage with npx withruntime login. Daytona and Modal
Sandboxes code each has a drop-in import, described in the migration
guide.
Moving to Runtime
For Daytona the change is the import line:
TypeScriptimport { Daytona } from "withruntime/daytona"; // was: from "@daytona/sdk"Pythonfrom withruntime.daytona import Daytona # was: from daytona import DaytonaAfter that, Daytona's stop() pauses the sandbox with files and memory, and
start() resumes it. Modal code is rewritten call by call, without needing an
App: modal.Sandbox.create(app=...) to Sandbox.create(), sb.exec(*args)
to exec, Sandbox.from_name to Sandbox.getOrCreate(name):
Pythonfrom withruntime import Sandboxwith Sandbox.create() as box: box.files.write("/workspace/invoice.py", "print(sum([125, 250, 375]))\n") print(box.exec("python3 /workspace/invoice.py", check=True).stdout)Credit you add within 30 days of signing up is matched, up to $1,000 in total. The one instruction in migration has a coding agent do the port on a branch and test it on the free usage. Longer comparisons: Runtime vs Daytona, Runtime vs Modal.
Sources
Daytona and Modal pricing pages rechecked 25 October 2026; the rest checked 25 October 2026.
- Daytona pricing, Daytona sandboxes, Daytona on microVMs, pause and fork
- Modal pricing, Modal resources and billing, Modal Sandboxes, Modal security
- gVisor documentation, read 26 October 2026
- Runtime pricing and security
Facts on this page were checked on 26 October 2026.