# Celesto (formerly SmolVM) vs InstaVM (slim)

> Celesto scores 68 (B) to InstaVM's 52.1 (D) for code sandboxes. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celesto-vs-instavm.md (~4,750 tokens) · this version ~2,480 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celesto-vs-instavm.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celesto-vs-instavm
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
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Celesto (formerly SmolVM) scores 68 (B) on agent readiness against InstaVM's 52.1 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. InstaVM leads on reliability. Both do code sandboxes.

- Celesto (formerly SmolVM): B 68, rank #298 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/celesto.min.md
- InstaVM: D 52.1, rank #994 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/instavm.min.md
- Celesto (formerly SmolVM), good for Local microVM sandboxes for agent code, browsers and desktops on Linux and macOS, with a path to a hosted cloud. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 85 against 66; Agent ergonomics, 69 against 51; Security & auth, 52 against 41; Payments & pricing, 60 against 20; Maintenance & community, 81 against 35; Transparency & trust, 70 against 57. Also No key needed to call it; Free to start without a card; Open source.
- InstaVM, good for Hosted microVM sandboxes with browser, desktop, OCI images, clones and public shares. Ahead on Reliability, 77 against 66. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install.

| Category | Celesto (formerly SmolVM) | InstaVM |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 66 | 77 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 85 | 66 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 69 | 51 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 52 | 41 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 20 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 81 | 35 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 70 | 57 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Celesto (formerly SmolVM) | InstaVM |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | SDK + MCP | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Celesto AI, Inc. | Checksum Labs, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.instavm.io` |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | none |
| Last release | 2026-11-05 | 2026-07-15 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-30 | 2026-01-26 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-30 | 2026-01-26 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 1.1k stars, 699 PyPI/wk | 57 npm/wk, 370 PyPI/wk |

Why the edge:
- Maintenance & community, Celesto (formerly SmolVM) +46: Celesto (formerly SmolVM) 81 (0.1.13 on PyPI on 5 November 2026, tagged 6 November (30). 22 PyPI releases in the 90 days to 6 November (20). Most open issues are filed by maintainers. Outside reports such as the thread-safety issue got replies, and several recent ones have none yet; pull-request reply times were not read (15 of 25). The Python SDK is current, the TypeScript SDK is an alpha not published to npm (8 of 15). uv and Cargo lock files, CodeQL and publish workflows, with run results unread (8 of 10). Total 81.); InstaVM 35 (Closed service lines. The latest dated change found is Python SDK 0.26.1 on 15 July 2026, 114 days before the check, and the site changelog's only entry is 11 July (10). No SDK release in the 90 days to 6 November (0). A public changelog, support email and Discord, with no reply times seen (8 of 15). Official Python and JavaScript SDKs, last released in July and May 2026 (12 of 15). Package health of the SDK repositories was not read (5 of 10). Total 35.)
- Payments & pricing, Celesto (formerly SmolVM) +40: Celesto (formerly SmolVM) 60 (Read with the self-hosted rule, scoring the hosted option for the price lines. No x402, MPP or L402 (0 of 40). Celesto Cloud publishes hourly prices for six sizes without a login (20). A one-time $5 Micro credit needs no card, and the local SDK is free (20). The graded local SDK installs from PyPI and runs with no account, so an agent needs no signup (20). Cloud use needs a browser signup and a card top-up. Total 60.); InstaVM 20 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0 of 40). Per-second vCPU, memory and storage prices are published without a login (20). The free plan's $50 credit needs a card on file (0). Signup and key minting are in a browser dashboard (0). Total 20.)
- Schema & documentation, Celesto (formerly SmolVM) +19: Celesto (formerly SmolVM) 85 (Read as an SDK and CLI. The repository ships an OpenAPI document for the local server (24 operations) and the cloud API (171 operations), from which the TypeScript client is generated (25). llms.txt at celesto.ai, plus Markdown docs in the repository (10). The README's runtime table says when to use each runtime, and the automation section says to prefer `exec` and keep `shell`, `ssh` and `desktop` for interactive work (14 of 20). Network modes are closed values (`open`, `off`, `public`, `restricted`) and the SDK takes typed keyword arguments, though `internet_settings` is a plain dict (11 of 15). Examples directory, a JSON envelope for every command and documented cloud error fields such as `required_scope`, without a full error catalogue (12 of 15). Dated changelog and tags, pre-1.0 (13 of 15). Total 85.); InstaVM 66 (A public OpenAPI 3.1 spec with 229 operations (25). llms.txt at instavm.io (10). Only 93 of 229 operations have a description, and those read as short summaries without when-not-to-use guidance (8 of 20). FastAPI-generated request schemas with typed fields and required lists (10 of 15). Docs carry code examples for each SDK area, but only 422 validation errors appear in the spec and no error-code reference was found (6 of 15). Paths sit under /v1 and an SDK changelog exists, but the site changelog has one entry, of 11 July 2026 (7 of 15). Total 66.)
- Agent ergonomics, Celesto (formerly SmolVM) +18: Celesto (formerly SmolVM) 69 (A CLI and SDK add no tool definitions to an agent's context. Collected command output is capped at 8 MiB with streaming as the alternative (18 of 25). `computer list`, `logs --follow` and name lookups, with little filtering (10 of 20). JSON errors carry a recovery command where Celesto has one, and cloud errors carry stable codes, operation and computer context and recovery fields since 0.1.7 (18 of 20). State-changing cloud requests are never replayed automatically and computers are addressed by unique names, but there are no idempotency keys (10 of 20). `with Computer()` creates and deletes a computer with no parameters, with Python and an alpha TypeScript SDK (13 of 15). Total 69.); InstaVM 51 (30 operations take limit, offset, cursor or page parameters, with no field selection found (12 of 25). Listing endpoints page, with little filtering (10 of 20). The SDK maps failures to typed exceptions such as AuthenticationError, QuotaExceededError and RateLimitError, but the HTTP error bodies are undocumented (8 of 20). One operation takes an idempotency parameter, and snapshots and clones make work repeatable, with no safe-retry guidance (6 of 20). `client.execute(code=..., language=...)` needs two arguments, with Python and JavaScript SDKs (15). Total 51.)
- Transparency & trust, Celesto (formerly SmolVM) +13: Celesto (formerly SmolVM) 70 (Apache-2.0 in LICENSE and on PyPI (30). The privacy policy of 30 October 2026 links a subprocessor registry and describes the CLI telemetry in the same terms as the docs, but gives no retention periods beyond as long as necessary. Stopped cloud disks are kept 30 days per the pricing page (18 of 30). The changelog marks removals and the breaking rename, and the glossary lists older names still accepted, with no written deprecation policy (10 of 20). Telemetry is disclosed in the README, CLI reference and privacy policy, with three opt-outs, but it is on by default after the notice (16 of 20). Total 74.); InstaVM 57 (Closed service with clear terms (15). The terms and privacy policy agree on keeping code and execution logs up to one year and US storage, and the policy names Stripe, PostHog and Resend, but allows training on anonymised, aggregated data derived from user content with opt-out by email and mentions no DPA (18 of 30). No deprecation policy or notices found (0 of 20). US data location stated and three subprocessors named, cloud providers unnamed (12 of 20). Total 45.)
- Reliability, InstaVM +11: Celesto (formerly SmolVM) 66 (Read with the local-software lines, because the graded surface runs on the owner's machine. Installs from PyPI as `celesto` with Python 3.11 or newer on Linux and macOS stated, plus an install script (20). The repository has pytest, e2e, lint, TypeScript and smoke-test workflows and 38 test packages, but GitHub's API answered with a rate limit, so no run result was read (15 of 25, unchecked). 22 open issues and pull requests against about 188 commits in 90 days. The open bugs include a snapshot restore that can lose a VM's disk if interrupted and a thread-safety issue with five replies (18 of 25). A dated changelog with Security, Fixed, Added and Removed sections, and the rename to Celesto marked as a breaking release, though versions stay below 1.0 (13 of 15). Pre-1.0 per SECURITY.md (0). Total 66.); InstaVM 77 (Hosted lines. Better Stack status page with four components, including the public API (20). The incident history shows no incidents for September, October or November 2026 (30). No rate limits with numbers found; Pro promises higher limits without figures (0). The Python SDK has a RateLimitError and an example retry loop with exponential backoff, but no 429 or Retry-After is documented, and there is no idempotency guidance (7 of 15). The terms commit to 99.9% monthly uptime with service credits, and Pro lists 99.9% (10). No beta or preview label on the API (10). Total 77.)