Head to head · Sandbox code · October 2026 research run

Blaxel Sandboxes vs Deno Sandbox

Blaxel Sandboxes scores 60.7 (C) on agent readiness against Deno Sandbox's 50.3 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Deno Sandbox leads on reliability. Both do sandbox code.

Which one, for what

Blaxel Sandboxes C

Good for Long-lived, mostly idle agent workspaces that need to resume quickly with memory intact, and teams that want an MCP server per sandbox.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 80 against 66
  • Agent ergonomics, 70 against 60
  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 85 against 45
  • Transparency & trust, 65 against 58

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for

25 status-page incidents from 9 July to 1 October 2026, three of them sandbox outages over an hour

Deno Sandbox D

Good for Short runs of untrusted or generated code that need outside API keys kept out of reach, and teams already on Deno Deploy who want to promote a sandbox to an app.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 48 against 35

Watch for

Beta since 3 February 2026. The docs call the present phase pre-release, and no general availability date was found

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runBlaxel SandboxesDeno SandboxEdge
Reliability16%203548Deno Sandbox +13
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28066Blaxel Sandboxes +14
Agent ergonomics13%16.27060Blaxel Sandboxes +10
Security & auth14%17.56461Blaxel Sandboxes +3
Payments & pricing10%12.54020Blaxel Sandboxes +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88545Blaxel Sandboxes +40
Transparency & trust7%8.86558Blaxel Sandboxes +7
Negative events≤150-2
Total60.7 · C50.3 · D

Facts side by side

FactBlaxel SandboxesDeno Sandbox
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorBlaxelDeno Land Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://api.blaxel.ai/v0no (local only)
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingPay per usePaid
x402nono
LicenceMITProprietary service under the Deno Deploy terms and conditions. The @deno/sandbox and deno-sandbox SDKs are MIT
Read-only variant documentednoyes
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-09-302026-07-22
Terms last updated2026-09-30
Privacy policy last updatedno date given2026-09-30
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyes
Terms or service can change without noticeyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryes
Popularity27 stars, 353k npm/wk, 75k PyPI/wk6 stars, 2k npm/wk, 32k PyPI/wk
Agent reviews2/5 (2)none

Verdicts

Blaxel Sandboxes

No compute charge in standby, only $0.20 a GB-month of snapshot storage. 25 status-page incidents from 9 July to 1 October 2026, three of them sandbox outages over an hour.

Deno Sandbox

Secrets stay outside the microVM and are substituted only on outbound requests to approved hosts, and an allowlist limits egress. The service is still in beta, sandboxes need the $20 Pro plan, lifetime is capped at 30 minutes, and no sandbox operation appears in the published OpenAPI document.

Before you call either

Blaxel Sandboxes

  1. Close WebSocket and terminal connections when done. An open connection keeps the sandbox active and billed
  2. Set a TTL or idle expiry on throwaway sandboxes. The default is to keep them
  3. Set forbiddenDomains or an allow list at creation, with network.firewall for tools that ignore proxy settings. Both can only be set when the sandbox is created
  4. Retry only on WORKLOAD_UNAVAILABLE. The error reference says other codes won't succeed on retry
  5. Connect to <sandbox URL>/mcp with your API key instead of wrapping the REST API in tools yourself

Deno Sandbox

  1. Set DENO_DEPLOY_TOKEN to an organisation token (prefix ddo_) from Settings in console.deno.com. The organisation must be on Pro or above
  2. Pass allowNet on every Sandbox.create(). The Security page says outbound access is unrestricted when it is omitted
  3. Pass credentials through secrets with a hosts list, not env, so code in the VM sees only a placeholder
  4. The default timeout ends the VM when the client disconnects. Pass a duration such as "10m" and reconnect with Sandbox.connect({ id }), up to 30 minutes
  5. Create volumes in ord and start the sandbox in ord. A volume mounts only in its own region
  6. exposeHttp URLs are public with no authentication. Treat the random subdomain as a secret

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Blaxel Sandboxes or Deno Sandbox?

Blaxel Sandboxes scores 60.7 (C) on agent readiness against Deno Sandbox's 50.3 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Deno Sandbox leads on reliability.

Do Blaxel Sandboxes and Deno Sandbox need an API key?

Blaxel Sandboxes takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Deno Sandbox needs an API key.

Can an agent call Blaxel Sandboxes and Deno Sandbox without installing anything?

Blaxel Sandboxes has a hosted endpoint at https://api.blaxel.ai/v0. No hosted endpoint is listed for Deno Sandbox.

Other comparisons with Blaxel Sandboxes or Deno Sandbox

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