Which is better, Morph or AWS Lambda MicroVMs?
It depends on whether you need to branch a running machine. For agents that mostly wait on a model, Runtime is the cheapest of the three: $0.64 for the benchmark, against $1.67 on Morph and $4.20 on Lambda. It is still the cheapest with both CPUs busy. Its forks copy a live sandbox up to 100 times. Pick Morph for search across hundreds of branches of one live VM. Pick Lambda MicroVMs if your sandboxes must sit inside AWS.
At a glance
| Morph | AWS Lambda MicroVMs | Runtime | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Full virtual machines | Firecracker microVM | Firecracker microVM, own kernel |
| Price | $0.05 per MCU-hour: 1 vCPU, 4 GB or 16 GB of disk | $0.2522 an hour for 2 vCPUs and 4 GB | Measured CPU and reserved memory |
| Branching | Infinibranch: a running VM to hundreds of replicas | None | Forks: a running sandbox to up to 100 copies |
| Lifetime | Devboxes scale to zero and keep memory | State kept up to 8 hours | Pauses kept while you have credit |
| Plan | Developer free with no credit; Team $40, Scale $250 a month | None | None; prepaid credit from $10 |
Branching is the difference
Morph's reason to exist is branching a live machine, memory included, into many copies. It is for agents that search several paths from one state. Lambda MicroVMs have nothing like it. Each MicroVM starts from its image or its own snapshot. Runtime forks a running sandbox into up to 100 copies, with memory and processes.
Cost for the same job
2 vCPU and 4 GB (2 MCUs on Morph), 60 seconds, 20 CPU-seconds, 1,000 runs:
- Size
- 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 2 MCU × $0.05
- $1.67
- CPU
- 1,000 × 60 s × 2 × $0.0000276944
- $3.32
- Memory
- 1,000 × 60 s × 4 × $0.0000036667
- $0.88
- CPU
- 1,000 × 20 s / 3,600 × $0.025
- $0.14
- Memory
- 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0075
- $0.50
With both CPUs busy for the whole minute, the totals are $1.67 on Morph, $4.20 on Lambda, and $1.33 on Runtime.
Which one to pick
- Morph for search over many branches of one running machine.
- Lambda MicroVMs for AWS-native sandboxes.
- Runtime for the lowest price per run, with forks when a few branches are enough.
See Runtime vs Morph and Runtime vs AWS Lambda MicroVMs.
Runtime Cloud
Runtime costs 62% less than Morph and 85% less than Lambda MicroVMs on the benchmark above: 1,000 runs of a minute on 2 vCPU and 4 GiB, with 20 CPU-seconds of work each. Morph's MCU pricing keeps it well under Lambda. Runtime's measured CPU keeps it under both.
Sign in with npx withruntime login to start free. To bring code from Morph or
Lambda, follow the migration guide.
Sources
Morph rates were checked 25 October 2026. Lambda MicroVMs rates were checked 25 October 2026.
Facts on this page were checked on 26 October 2026.