microsandbox vs E2B

Open-source, local-first microVM runtime and library for running untrusted workloads on your own machine or servers. For teams that want self-hosted hardware isolation with no vendor. microsandbox is free software you run yourself, so it has no hourly price; E2B lists $0.166 an hour for a 2 vCPU / 4 GiB sandbox.

localmicrovmopen-sourceself-hosted

Verified 11 Nov 2026

Visit microsandbox Compare with E2B and others

microsandbox against E2B, line by line

E2B baseline sources

Field	-E2B (baseline)	+microsandbox	Change
2 vCPU + 4 GiB, per hour	$0.166 (source: E2B Pricing)	not published	microsandbox: no figure
vCPU, per hour	$0.0504 (source: E2B Pricing)	not published	microsandbox: no figure
Memory, per GiB-hour	$0.0162 (source: E2B Pricing)	not published	microsandbox: no figure
Billed on	wall clock (source: E2B Pricing)	free (OSS) (source: microsandbox (GitHub))	differs
Isolation	Firecracker microVM (source: E2B homepage)	microVM (source: microsandbox (GitHub))	differs
Cold start	not published	100 ms (source: microsandbox (GitHub))	E2B: no figure
Max session	1 h (Hobby), 24 h (Pro) (source: E2B Pricing)	not published	microsandbox: no figure
Persistence	state kept, pause/resume, memory kept, fork (source: E2B homepage)	state kept, memory kept (source: microsandbox (GitHub))	differs
Self-host	Yes, Apache-2.0 (source: E2B runtime (GitHub))	Yes, Apache-2.0 (source: microsandbox (GitHub))	same
Your own cloud (BYOC)	Yes (source: E2B homepage)	not published	microsandbox: no figure
GPU	No (source: E2B Pricing)	not published	microsandbox: no figure
SDKs	Python, JavaScript/TypeScript (source: E2B Pricing)	TypeScript, Rust, Python, Go, Ruby (source: microsandbox (GitHub))	differs
SOC 2	Type II (source: E2B homepage)	not published	microsandbox: no figure
Free tier	Hobby: $0 plan fee, one-time $100 usage credit, 10 concurrent sandboxes, 1-hour sessions. (source: E2B Pricing)	Free open-source software (Apache-2.0). (source: microsandbox (GitHub))	differs

Prices are list prices for one hour of a 2 vCPU / 4 GiB sandbox: 2 × the vCPU rate + 4 × the memory rate. Each value links to the page it came from; not published means the vendor states no figure. How we compare.

Pick microsandbox instead of E2B when

you want a published start time: microsandbox states 100 ms (a vendor claim), and E2B publishes no figure.
you want to run the sandbox layer yourself under a Apache-2.0 licence (E2B's runtime is Apache-2.0 and self-hostable too).
you are prototyping: Free open-source software (Apache-2.0).

Stay on E2B when

you need a SOC 2 report: E2B states Type II, and microsandbox states none in our data.
you want managed cloud, your own cloud account and self-hosting from one vendor: E2B offers all three, with BYOC on its Enterprise plan, and microsandbox offers one of them.

All microsandbox facts

Source per value

Isolation Isolation technology the vendor states for each sandbox.: microVM 1
Other isolation options Alternative runtimes the vendor offers besides the default (e.g. VM runtime, gVisor for GPU).: Not published
Deployment Managed cloud service, self-hosted software, or both.: self-hosted 1
Billing basis What the meter counts: wall-clock allocated resources, active CPU only, requests/plan quota, session-hours, or free software.: free (OSS) 1
vCPU price $/vCPU-hr Published on-demand CPU rate normalised to USD per vCPU-hour (per-second rates multiplied by 3,600; per-core rates divided by vCPUs per core where the vendor defines it). Lowest public tier, default region. 0 means the vendor states no separate CPU charge.: Not published
Memory price $/GiB-hr Published memory rate normalised to USD per GiB-hour (GB treated as GiB where the vendor does not distinguish). 0 means the vendor states memory is free.: Not published
Sandbox from $/sandbox-hr Smallest published per-sandbox hourly price, where the vendor publishes one.: Not published
Paid plan from $/mo Cheapest paid platform plan fee (before usage).: Not published
Free tier A free plan, free monthly allowance or sign-up credit exists.: Yes 1
Free tier detail What the free tier or credit includes, as published.: Free open-source software (Apache-2.0). 1
Cold start ms Vendor-published create/boot time in milliseconds (a vendor claim, not our benchmark). Only filled when the vendor publishes a number; see startup_claim for percentile and conditions.: 100 1
Resume time ms Vendor-published resume-from-pause/standby/snapshot time in milliseconds.: Not published
Startup claim The vendor's startup/resume wording with conditions, quoted or closely paraphrased.: "Average boot times under 100 milliseconds" (guest boot, M1) 1
Max session length Longest single sandbox session by plan, as published.: Not published
Persistence / snapshots Filesystem state can be kept between runs (snapshots, persistent disks, volumes).: Yes 1
Pause / resume A sandbox can be paused, suspended, hibernated or put in standby and resumed later.: Not published
Memory state kept Pause/hibernate preserves running memory state, not only the filesystem.: Yes 1
Fork / branch A running or snapshotted sandbox can be cloned into new sandboxes.: Not published
GPU GPU sandboxes are offered.: Not published
Self-host Can run on your own hardware or cluster (open source or licensed).: Yes 1
BYOC / VPC Vendor-managed deployment inside your own cloud account.: Not published
Open source Core sandbox runtime is published under an open-source licence.: Yes 1
Licence Open-source licence of the runtime, if any.: Apache-2.0 1
SDKs / languages Official SDK languages (or supported execution languages where noted).: TypeScript, Rust, Python, Go, Ruby 1
Regions Published regions or region count.: Local: macOS (Apple Silicon), Linux (KVM), Windows (WHP) 1
Max vCPU per sandbox vCPU Largest published vCPU count per sandbox on any self-serve or enterprise plan.: Not published
Max memory per sandbox GiB Largest published memory per sandbox.: Not published
Concurrency Published concurrent sandbox limits by plan.: Not published
SOC 2 SOC 2 status as stated by the vendor.: Not published
HIPAA Vendor offers HIPAA-compliant usage/BAA (on any plan).: Not published
2 vCPU + 4 GiB per hour $/hr Hourly list price of one 2 vCPU / 4 GiB sandbox: 2 x the vCPU rate + 4 x the memory rate, from the two published rates. Left empty for self-hosted software and for vendors without both rates. Vendors that bill CPU only while busy (Vercel, Cloudflare, Upstash, Tensorlake, AWS AgentCore) cost less for idle agents than this shows.: Not published
Price vs E2B x E2B The 2 vCPU + 4 GiB hourly price divided by E2B's own ($0.1656 at $0.000014/vCPU-s and $0.0000045/GiB-s). Under 1 is cheaper than E2B.: Not published
Status Preview, experimental, beta, sunset or self-hosting caveats the vendor documents.: Not published

Pricing model: open-source
From: $0.00
Pricing note: Free; you pay for your own hardware. Project labels itself beta. Checked 2026-11-09.

Sources

microsandbox (GitHub) accessed 2026-11-09

microsandbox in the E2B comparisons

Self-hosted E2B alternativesWhich E2B alternatives can I run on my own hardware or cluster? 9 listed.
E2B alternatives with microVM or VM isolationWhich E2B alternatives give each sandbox its own kernel? 26 listed.

Compare with other E2B alternatives

All 41

Docker vs E2B no comparable hourly price, microVM
OpenSandbox vs E2B no comparable hourly price, Firecracker microVM
Northflank vs E2B $0.067/hr, 0.4x E2B, Cloud Hypervisor microVM
Agent vs E2B no comparable hourly price, pluggable (gVisor/Kata)
AWS Lambda MicroVMs vs E2B no comparable hourly price, Firecracker microVM

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