# Celesto (formerly SmolVM) vs Runloop Devboxes (slim)

> Celesto scores 68 (B) to Runloop Devboxes's 60.1 (C) for code sandboxes. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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Celesto (formerly SmolVM) scores 68 (B) on agent readiness against Runloop Devboxes's 60.1 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Runloop Devboxes leads on security & auth. Both do code sandboxes.

- Celesto (formerly SmolVM): B 68, rank #298 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/celesto.min.md
- Runloop Devboxes: C 60.1, rank #666 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/runloop.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 Reliability, 66 against 60; Payments & pricing, 60 against 50; Transparency & trust, 70 against 52. Also No key needed to call it; Open source; No incidents deducted, where Runloop Devboxes loses 5 points for them.
- Runloop Devboxes, good for Existing customers finishing work before 13 November 2026 and planning a move. Ahead on Security & auth, 60 against 52. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install.

| Category | Celesto (formerly SmolVM) | Runloop Devboxes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 66 | 60 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 85 | 85 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 69 | 66 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 52 | 60 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 50 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 81 | 83 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 70 | 52 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Celesto (formerly SmolVM) | Runloop Devboxes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | SDK + MCP | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Celesto AI, Inc. | Runloop |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.runloop.ai` |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Last release | 2026-11-05 | 2026-10-23 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-30 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-30 | no date given |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 1.1k stars, 699 PyPI/wk | 34 stars, 23k npm/wk, 136k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (2) |

Why the edge:
- Transparency & trust, Celesto (formerly SmolVM) +18: 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.); Runloop Devboxes 52 (SDKs are MIT. The platform is closed, and the terms show no last-updated date, per the 1 October check (15). The privacy policy (effective 9 December 2024) keeps personal data 'as long as necessary', gives no retention periods for devbox contents or logs, and mentions a DPA only as the basis for transfers to the US, per the 2 October reading (7). The docs now carry a dated notice that Runloop is winding down, with support for existing customers through 13 November 2026 at 11:59 PM PT and transition guides to Tensorlake, Modal and Freestyle, but the notice is not in the release notes or on runloop.ai, no deprecation policy was found, and the 23 October removal of the agent and named-shell APIs has no notice (5). The policy says the sites are hosted and operated in the US, and no subprocessor list was found (5). 15+7+5+5 = 32.)
- Payments & pricing, Celesto (formerly SmolVM) +10: 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.); Runloop Devboxes 50 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-second prices published for CPU, memory, disk and snapshot storage (20). $50 of trial credit and the trial page still says "no credit card is required to sign up" on 2 November, while the service winds down (20). Stripe Projects lists Runloop, so an agent can create the account through the operator's Stripe login, per the 1 October check (10).)
- Security & auth, Runloop Devboxes +8: Celesto (formerly SmolVM) 52 (Framework reading for local software. No credential is needed for local use, and the local API server and dashboard each require a bearer token, and cloud keys carry named permissions (22 of 30). Each computer has its own guest kernel, browser and display access uses capability URLs with a read-only option, and raw VNC is off. Against that, outbound networking is open by default and the restricting modes are opt-in (12 of 20). The security doc warns against giving connection URLs to a model as page content, but there is no guidance on treating command or page output as untrusted (5 of 15). `computer logs` shows startup output, with no audit log of commands (5 of 15). SECURITY.md with GitHub private vulnerability reporting and a supported-versions table, Security sections in the changelog, no security.txt, bug bounty or certification (8 of 20). Total 52.); Runloop Devboxes 60 (Bearer API key on api.runloop.ai. We found no scopes or rotation guidance (20). Runloop's security page lists microVM isolation (10). Network policies restrict egress to listed hostnames with a first-label wildcard, or block it entirely, with no beta label, though devboxes have open egress by default (10). Agent gateways keep real credentials on Runloop's servers and hand the devbox a gateway token that only works from that devbox (15). No audit log, and no API-key or permissions page in the docs index (0). SOC 2 Type II, with the report on request. No security.txt, disclosure policy or bug bounty found (5).)
- Reliability, Celesto (formerly SmolVM) +6: 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.); Runloop Devboxes 60 (Status page at status.runloop.ai, now on incident.io, with component history (20). Its feed (feed.rss) and incident pages hold three incidents in the 90 days from 4 August to 2 November 2026, each marked partial outage and under an hour (a Devbox Lifecycle outage of under a minute on 3 September, Devbox Lifecycle for 29 minutes on 2 October, the Blueprint component for 40 to 44 minutes on 5 October). Minor only (20). The 28 July terminations have left the window. No published rate limits, and the docs index has no rate-limit page (0). The official SDK READMEs document 429 as RateLimitError and retry it five times with exponential backoff, retrying POSTs only on 429 and GETs also on 408, 409 and 5xx. No Retry-After or API-level retry guidance found (10). No SLA found (0). GA (10). Runloop is winding down its services, with support for existing customers through 13 November 2026, and the score reads the service as it runs until then. 20+20+0+10+0+10 = 60.)