Vercel Sandbox Alternative: 4 Options Compared

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The right Vercel Sandbox alternative depends on what your agent needs: Agent37 for low running costs and a choice of gVisor or full VMs, E2B for preserving running processes across a pause, Daytona for explicit workspace lifecycle controls, or Modal for workloads already using its compute platform. Start with the bill and the restart behavior your worker requires.

This comparison covers infrastructure for executing agent code. You can keep your frontend on Vercel while moving its workers elsewhere. We build Agent37, so our recommendation comes with a cost calculation you can inspect and clear reasons to choose another provider.

Prices and documentation checked October 24, 2026. Figures below exclude taxes and model or external tool charges.

Choose a Vercel Sandbox alternative by workload

A sandbox that looks cheap in a five-minute demo can become expensive when you retain hundreds of workspaces. A cheaper machine can also cost more overall if every restart repeats a large setup job. Pick the requirement that actually drives your deployment.

Your main requirement	Start by evaluating	What to test
Low infrastructure spend for persistent agent workers	Agent37 standard gVisor	Package compatibility, shared compute behavior, sleep policy
Docker or services needing their own Linux kernel	Agent37 full VM	Disk sizing, process supervision, cold boot recovery
Resume a paused interpreter with memory intact	E2B	Process state, external connections, plan limits
Container and VM workspace lifecycle controls	Daytona	Stop, pause, archive, and deletion behavior for your sandbox type
Sandbox execution alongside an existing Modal application	Modal	Resource requests, burst limits, runtime selection

These are starting recommendations, not benchmark rankings. Run the same checkout, dependency installation, tool calls, and tests on each finalist. Record successful jobs per dollar alongside latency. Matching the number of advertised vCPUs does not establish equal throughput.

What Vercel Sandbox already does

Make the decision against the current product. Vercel Sandbox runs isolated Firecracker microVMs, supports Docker and privileged system workloads, and accepts custom OCI images through Vercel Container Registry. Its SDK also works outside Vercel using access-token authentication. None of those capabilities requires changing your application host.

Persistence is now the default. On stop, the filesystem is automatically snapshotted; resuming boots a new session from saved files. Vercel provides onResume hooks for restarting background services. That is a different contract from keeping a live interpreter's memory across suspension. Check the persistence documentation against the SDK version you deploy.

The published session limits are 45 minutes on Hobby and 24 hours on Pro and Enterprise, with a five-minute default timeout. A new session resets that limit. A workspace can therefore outlive one session, but your application still needs to handle the boundary.

Staying is reasonable when project authentication, previews, and the existing Vercel workflow save your team more than a migration would. Leave because a measured requirement is unmet. Persistence or Docker support alone no longer establishes that case.

Agent37: lower running costs and two runtimes

Agent37 is worth testing when the recurring cost of keeping workers available is your main concern. You create persistent instances through the dashboard or API, execute commands, and manage their lifecycle separately from your frontend. The instance API provides create, start, stop, restart, and other management operations.

Choose standard gVisor for compatible agent processes that spend much of their time waiting on models and tools. Standard compute shares host resources. It cannot run a Docker daemon, so a Compose-based integration test needs a different runtime.

Choose a full VM when the workload needs Docker or its own Linux kernel. The VM documentation describes type: "vm", the Ubuntu template with Docker installed, and the funded-workspace requirement. VM compute costs 2.5 times standard compute; disk uses the same rate. Entrypoints do not run systemd, so plan process startup explicitly.

For 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, and 4 GB disk, the current pricing estimates $4.76 for 730 running hours on standard gVisor, or $11.36 on a full VM. These are metered resource estimates with no sandbox subscription or seat fee.

The disk size matters. The Ubuntu VM template defaults to 12 GB when you omit resources, making that default example $12.08 for 730 hours. Budget for your real image cache and repository rather than squeezing a build into the smallest illustrated disk.

An awake idle instance still bills compute. Stop it or enable auto-sleep to pause compute charges; retained disk continues billing. That tradeoff is straightforward to model, but it requires a lifecycle policy. Model tokens and tool usage remain separate.

Compare the bill for one real workload

Consider one worker with 2 vCPU and 4 GB RAM. Compare 60 aggregate running hours and 730 aggregate running hours in a 730-hour month. For storage, assume 4 GB of Agent37 allocated disk retained all month, or an average of 4 GB of Vercel snapshots stored for a full billing month. These storage mechanisms are different; this is an explicit budget assumption, not an assertion of identical capacity.

Vercel's iad1 rates are $0.128 per active CPU-hour, $0.0212 per provisioned GB-hour, and $0.08 per GB-month of snapshots. At an assumed 10% average utilization across two vCPUs, the calculation is hours × [(2 × 0.10 × $0.128) + (4 × $0.0212)] + $0.32. CPU waiting time is excluded; provisioned memory remains billable. See Vercel's pricing.

Runtime and assumption	60 running hours	730 running hours
Agent37 standard, 4 GB retained disk	$0.72	$4.76
Agent37 full VM, 4 GB retained disk	$1.26	$11.36
Vercel, 10% active CPU, 4 GB average snapshots	$6.94	$80.91
Vercel, 100% active CPU, same snapshots	$20.77	$249.10

The Vercel figures are gross resource usage before credits and plan charges. They exclude creation charges, network usage, and Drives storage or operations. Regional rates differ. Snapshot volume must be measured: installed packages and retained versions can push it above 4 GB.

Agent37's standard calculation is hours × [(2 × $0.80 + 4 × $0.70) / 730] + (4 × $0.09). Multiply only the compute term by 2.5 for a VM. The 60-hour examples assume the worker is stopped or asleep for the rest of the month while its disk stays allocated.

Now account for the plan. Vercel Pro has a $20 monthly platform fee including one deploying seat and $20 of usage credit. With no other usage or extras, the $6.94 resource scenario fits within that credit, leaving a $20 total base bill. It is not $26.94. If you already pay for Pro and have unused credit, that same sandbox can add no cash cost this month.

Likewise, 730 hours means aggregate runtime across sessions, not one uninterrupted Vercel process. These figures compare list rates and stated assumptions, not performance or reliability. Recalculate with your measured CPU activity, storage, and existing credits before making a budget decision.

E2B: when paused processes matter

E2B deserves a close look if your agent maintains an interpreter, loaded variables, or other useful state in memory. Its pause and resume documentation says both filesystem and memory are preserved, including running processes. Paused sandboxes remain until explicitly killed. That can avoid rebuilding application state between user interactions.

Memory retention still does not promise that an external database socket or expired credential will work after a long pause. Include reconnection and token refresh in your acceptance test. A resumed process must recover gracefully from changes outside its sandbox.

The E2B pricing page lists a free Hobby plan with $100 of one-time usage credit, one-hour sessions, and 20 concurrent sandboxes. Pro costs $150 per month plus usage, with 24-hour sessions and 100 included concurrent sandboxes. Higher concurrency is an add-on.

At the published 2 vCPU and 4 GiB rates, compute totals $0.1656 per running hour before plan fees or credits. That is $9.94 for 60 aggregate hours. CPU and RAM bill while the sandbox runs, including model waits. The advertised included disk is 10 GiB on Hobby or 20 GiB on Pro.

Choose it when the stateful execution model or SDK saves meaningful engineering work. For a fuller budget, our E2B pricing breakdown separates plan fees, usage, and concurrency choices.

Daytona and Modal: two different execution options

Daytona for workspace lifecycle controls

Daytona offers container and VM sandboxes with different lifecycle behavior. Its billing reference distinguishes stopped disk-only billing, VM-only pause, and container-only archive. Archived container sandboxes are not billed; separately retained snapshots can still incur storage charges. Those distinctions matter if your application holds many inactive customer environments.

Its published Linux compute rates are $0.0504 per vCPU-hour and $0.0162 per GiB-hour. A 2 vCPU, 4 GiB worker therefore has the same $0.1656 hourly compute subtotal as E2B's example. Daytona lists disk at $0.000108 per GiB-hour after the first 5 GiB free; add disk according to the workspace you reserve.

Review the sandbox lifecycle settings before deployment. Auto-stop and auto-pause behavior depends on sandbox type, and internal background work may not reset inactivity timers. Test a quiet but still-running job, not just repeated SDK requests.

Modal for an existing Modal application

Modal Sandboxes expose isolated command execution through SDKs and offer gVisor and VM runtimes. Its VM path supports Docker; GPU sandboxes use gVisor. Evaluate it when those capabilities fit a platform your team already operates.

Its resource billing model charges the higher of requested resources and actual usage. Requests establish a floor, while bursts can raise usage. Set upper limits and measure them. The CPU parameter uses physical cores, with one core corresponding to two vCPUs, so copying a competitor's CPU number directly can produce a misleading comparison.

That makes sizing part of the buying decision. Start from observed resource use, then compare the cost of completed jobs under realistic load.

Move one worker before migrating the fleet

Use a small production-like task as the migration unit. Keep its model, prompt, repository revision, and expected output fixed. This helps distinguish an infrastructure difference from a different agent decision.

Define the environment. List required packages, outbound destinations, disk paths, and any Docker dependency. Choose the runtime before creating an image. A dependency that requires kernel access can invalidate an otherwise attractive price comparison.

Define the state boundary. Separate repository files, conversation history, credentials, and in-memory work. Decide which must survive a stop and which can be rebuilt. Keep essential checkpoints durable and verify that another tenant cannot read them.

Exercise the lifecycle. Start the worker, interrupt it, resume it, and run the same task again. Check file checksums, service startup, exit status, timeouts, and reconnect behavior. Repeat with a failed network request and a full disk. Include the longest unattended gap your users will create.

Measure the whole job. Record setup time, successful task completion, CPU and memory use, retained storage, and charged runtime. Include failed attempts. Cheap idle infrastructure will not help if repeated setup dominates every request.

Prove cleanup. End the test, then inspect retained disks, snapshots, and any separately managed storage. A stopped process is not evidence that every associated meter stopped. Vercel specifically documents that snapshots can outlive a deleted sandbox.

For the lower-cost path, create an Agent37 sandbox, select the runtime your worker requires, and run that acceptance test. Start with one representative job and expand after the result holds up.

Frequently asked questions

Can I keep my app on Vercel?

Yes. Your application backend can call another provider's sandbox API. Treat authentication, job status, retries, and artifact transfer as explicit integration work. You do not need a frontend migration to compare worker infrastructure.

Does persistence mean a process runs forever?

No. Saved files, preserved memory, and uninterrupted execution are different requirements. Choose the contract your task needs and test recovery after an actual stop. A retained workspace name alone proves none of those behaviors.

Is the cheapest listed hourly rate always the best choice?

No. Included credit, plan fees, resource allocation, restart work, and failed jobs change the result. An existing allowance can make a small experiment free, while a larger deployment benefits from lower recurring rates.

Which Agent37 runtime should I test first?

Use standard gVisor for compatible code and agent harnesses. Use a full VM for Docker and workloads needing their own Linux kernel. Confirm compatibility and price the required resources before expanding the test.

Vercel Sandbox Alternative: 4 Options for Agent Workloads