Which is better, Daytona or Northflank?
It depends on how busy your CPUs are and where the sandboxes must live. For agents that wait on models, Runtime has the lowest bill: $0.64 for this job, against $1.11 on Northflank and $2.76 on Daytona, with no service to set up first. Pick Northflank when every CPU stays busy, since its low rates then beat Runtime, or for GPUs and sandboxes in your own AWS, GCP or Azure account. Pick Daytona for Windows machines.
At a glance
| Daytona | Northflank | Runtime | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Containers by default; VM sandboxes as a separate class | microVMs for CPU workloads, gVisor for GPU workloads | Firecracker microVM, own kernel, every sandbox |
| CPU | $0.0504 per allocated vCPU-hour | $0.01667 per allocated vCPU-hour | $0.025 per vCPU-hour of measured CPU, with a small floor |
| Memory | $0.0162 per GiB-hour | $0.00833 per GB-hour | $0.0075 per reserved GiB-hour |
| Plan fee | None published | None published for compute | None; prepaid credit from $10 |
| Free start | $200 of compute | 2 services, 2 jobs and 1 database free | 100 free hours of a 1 GB machine in the first 30 days, no card |
| Sandbox model | A sandbox from the SDK | A service with a deployment plan | A sandbox, created in one call |
| Where it runs | US and EU | Northflank's regions, or your own AWS, GCP or Azure | One US region |
| GPUs | GPU sandboxes; Windows machines too | L4, A100, H100 and others, billed by the second | CPUs only |
Why is Northflank cheaper than Daytona?
The two bill the same way: every vCPU and every GB the sandbox holds, for as long as it runs, busy or waiting. Only the rates differ. Northflank charges $0.01667 a vCPU-hour, about a third of Daytona's $0.0504, and $0.00833 a GB-hour, about half of Daytona's $0.0162 per GiB-hour. So the same sandbox costs 60% less on Northflank at every level of use.
Runtime counts differently. It bills measured CPU at $0.025 a vCPU-hour, with a floor of a twentieth of a vCPU, so an agent that waits on a model most of the minute pays for a small share of its CPUs. That makes Runtime the cheapest of the three for agent work. A job that keeps every CPU busy for the whole run is the exception: there Northflank's allocated rate is lower than Runtime's measured one.
Cost for the same job
1,000 runs of a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB sandbox (4 GB on Northflank). Each run lasts 60 seconds and keeps the CPU busy for 20 CPU-seconds: an agent that mostly waits for a model.
- 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 × $0.01667
- $0.556
- Memory
- 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.00833
- $0.555
- 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, $111.10 on Northflank and $63.89 on Runtime. With both CPUs busy for the whole minute, it is $1.33 on Runtime against $2.76 on Daytona and $1.11 on Northflank, so for work that uses every CPU all the time Northflank costs less than Runtime. Disk, network, plan fees and free allowances are left out.
What does it take to start a sandbox?
- Daytona:
daytona.create()from its SDK returns a sandbox. - Northflank: a sandbox is a service. You create it with a deployment plan, and Northflank runs it in its own microVM.
- Runtime:
Sandbox.create()returns a running sandbox, with no service, project or plan to set up.
TypeScriptimport { Sandbox } from "withruntime";const box = await Sandbox.create();try { await box.files.write("/workspace/invoice.py", "print(sum([125, 250, 375]))\n"); console.log((await box.exec("python3 /workspace/invoice.py", { check: true })).stdout);} finally { await box.stop();}Which one to pick
- Pick Daytona for Windows machines, GPU sandboxes from the same SDK, or the $200 free start.
- Pick Northflank for jobs that keep every CPU busy, GPUs billed by the second, or sandboxes in your own AWS, GCP or Azure account beside databases and services on one platform.
- Pick Runtime for agents that wait on models: a microVM per sandbox at 77% below Daytona's price and 42% below Northflank's, pause and forks that keep memory and running processes, and one call to start.
Runtime Cloud
Runtime runs the same job for 77% less than Daytona and 42% less than Northflank. 1,000 one-minute runs of a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB sandbox cost $2.76 on Daytona, $1.11 on Northflank and $0.64 on Runtime, because Runtime bills the CPU your code uses rather than the CPUs it holds. A Runtime sandbox is one call, with no service or project to set up. Rates checked 25 October 2026.
Sign in with npx withruntime login to run a real job on the free usage. If
your code calls Daytona today, the migration guide swaps it
in one step.
Switch from either one
From Daytona, Runtime's SDK runs your code after one import change:
TypeScriptimport { Daytona } from "withruntime/daytona"; // was: from "@daytona/sdk"Pythonfrom withruntime.daytona import Daytona # was: from daytona import DaytonaFrom Northflank, replace the service with a sandbox: create, exec, files and
stop each map to one call in the
migration table. Or give your coding agent the
one instruction in migration: it switches the project on a
branch, tests it on the free usage and reports the monthly saving.
npx withruntime compare --from northflank prices the sandboxes you ran at
Northflank's published rates, and credit you add within 30 days of signing up is matched, up to $1,000 in total. The full
side-by-sides are Runtime vs Daytona and
Runtime vs Northflank.
Sources
Daytona pricing and Northflank sandboxes pages rechecked 26 October 2026; the rest checked 25 October 2026.
- Northflank pricing, Northflank sandboxes, Sandboxes on Northflank
- Daytona pricing, Daytona sandboxes
- Runtime pricing and speed
Facts on this page were checked on 26 October 2026.