# Fly Sprites vs Morph: pricing, snapshots and limits Sprites checkpoint a persistent VM's filesystem and bill measured use; Morph snapshots memory and disk and bills MCUs for a VM's size. **Runtime takes Morph's memory snapshots and Sprites' metered CPU and prices the result 81% below Sprites and 62% below Morph.** 1,000 one-minute runs of a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB sandbox cost $3.31 on Fly Sprites, $1.67 on Morph and $0.64 on Runtime. A Runtime snapshot or fork holds a running sandbox's memory, and its CPU rate is about a third of Sprites'. Rates checked 23 September 2026. ## At a glance | | Fly Sprites | Morph | Runtime | | ---------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | | Isolation | Firecracker microVM | Full virtual machines | Firecracker microVM, own kernel | | CPU | $0.07 per CPU-hour of measured CPU | $0.05 per MCU-hour for the machine's size | $0.025 per vCPU-hour of measured CPU, with a small floor | | Memory | $0.04375 per GB-hour of memory in use | Inside the MCU: 4 GB per MCU | $0.0075 per reserved GiB-hour | | Snapshots | The filesystem, copy-on-write, in about a second | Memory and disk; branches to many replicas | Files, memory and running processes | | Pause | Automatic; memory kept in a warm pause, dropped when cold | Devboxes scale to zero and keep their memory | Keeps files, memory and processes, 1 to 365 days | | Plan fee | None required; optional monthly plans | Free with no credit; Developer $40 and Team $250 a month | None; prepaid credit from $10 | | Free start | $30 of trial credit | 1,000 MCUs with the $40 Developer plan | 50 sandbox hours, no card | | At once | Not stated on the pricing page | 8 devboxes free, 32 on Developer, 128 on Team | 100 sandboxes on a paid account to start | ## Which one keeps a machine's state? They save different things. A Sprite snapshot is of the filesystem: Fly says it takes about a second, is copy-on-write so it stores only what changed, and rolls the disk back to that point. Running processes are not in it. A paused Sprite keeps its memory only while the pause is warm; once it goes cold, memory is dropped and processes start fresh on the next wake, which takes 1 to 2 seconds. Open TCP connections do not survive either kind of pause. A Morph snapshot holds the machine's memory and disk, and Infinibranch starts hundreds of parallel replicas from one running machine. Snapshot storage is billed in MCUs: one MCU covers 5 TB-hours of snapshot, and Morph's example keeps an 8 vCPU, 8 GB, 8 GB-disk machine for $0.12 a month. Runtime keeps the whole machine in each case. A pause keeps files, memory and processes for the retention you set, a snapshot starts new sandboxes later, and a fork makes 1 to 10 running copies at once. See [what a sandbox snapshot is](/glossary/sandbox-snapshot) and [what a sandbox fork is](/glossary/sandbox-fork). ## Cost for the same job Priced for 1,000 runs of 60 seconds on 2 vCPU and 4 GiB, each with 20 CPU-seconds of work. The Sprite is charged for all 4 GB throughout the minute. Morph counts 2 vCPUs and 4 GB as 2 MCUs an hour. ``` Sprites CPU 1,000 × 20 s / 3,600 × $0.07 = $0.39 Memory 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.04375 = $2.92 Total $3.31 Morph Size 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 2 MCU × $0.05 = $1.67 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 ``` That is $330.56 on Sprites, $166.67 on Morph and $63.89 on Runtime for 100,000 runs a month. If both CPUs are busy for the whole minute, it is $1.33 on Runtime, $5.25 on Sprites and $1.67 on Morph. Of the two rivals Morph is cheaper at both loads, because a Sprite's memory rate is high; at 1 GB in use a Sprite would pay $1.12. Plan fees, included credit, storage, network and free credit are excluded. ## Which one to pick | You want | Best fit | | ------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------- | | One lasting computer with a 100 GB disk, cheap while asleep | Fly Sprites | | Fast rollbacks of the filesystem | Fly Sprites | | An agent that searches by branching into hundreds of replicas | Morph | | Snapshots and forks with memory and processes, measured CPU | Runtime | Runtime also keeps a pause for as long as you set, 1 to 365 days, and has no plan fee. ## Moving to Runtime The pattern both rivals serve, set a machine up once and start from it later, looks like this on Runtime: ```python check from withruntime import Runtime runtime = Runtime() with runtime.sandboxes.create() as base: base.exec("pip install --quiet requests") snapshot = base.snapshot(name="with-requests", retention_days=7) with runtime.sandboxes.create(snapshot=snapshot["id"]) as copy: print(copy.exec("python3 -c 'import requests; print(requests.__version__)'").stdout) runtime.snapshots.delete(snapshot["id"]) ``` Sprites calls port directly: `client.createSprite(name)` to `Sandbox.create()`, `sprite.execFile(cmd, args)` to `exec([cmd, ...args])`. `npx withruntime compare --from fly` or `--from morph` reprices what you ran, and `npx withruntime switch --from fly` before the first top-up matches it with credit, up to $100. The [migration](/docs/migrate) guide's one instruction lets a coding agent handle the port on a branch and test it on the free trial. More: [Runtime vs Fly.io](/docs/fly-alternative), [Runtime vs Morph](/docs/morph-alternative). ## Sources Rates checked 23 September 2026; the Sprites, Sprites lifecycle and Morph pricing pages read 25 September 2026. - [Fly.io pricing](https://fly.io/pricing/), [Sprites](https://fly.io/sprites/), [Sprites lifecycle](https://docs.fly.io/sprites/concepts/lifecycle/) - [Morph Cloud pricing](https://cloud.morph.so/web/pricing), [Morph Devboxes](https://cloud.morph.so/web/product/devboxes), [Morph snapshots](https://cloud.morph.so/docs/documentation/instances/creating-snapshot) - Runtime [pricing](/docs/pricing) and [Python SDK](/docs/python) Facts on this page were checked on 25 September 2026.