# DeltaBox Lite vs Deno Sandbox

> DeltaBox Lite scores 52.3 (D) to Deno Sandbox's 50.3 (D) for sandbox fs. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-deno-sandbox
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- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-deno-sandbox.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.
- Updated: 2026-10-17

DeltaBox Lite scores 52.3 (D) on agent readiness against Deno Sandbox's 50.3 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Deno Sandbox leads on reliability, security & auth and transparency & trust. Both do sandbox fs.

- DeltaBox Lite: grade D, 52.3/100, rank #825 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deltabox-lite.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deltabox-lite.json
- Deno Sandbox: grade D, 50.3/100, rank #873 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deno-sandbox.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deno-sandbox.json
- Best code execution sandboxes for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/code-sandboxes/index.md
- All 153 sandboxes comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/code-sandboxes/index.md

## Which one, for what

### DeltaBox Lite (D)

Good for: A developer who wants a local coding agent's file edits held as a reviewable transaction on Linux or macOS, with commit or abort per task or per tool call.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 67 against 60
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 20

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Free to start without a card
- Open source

Watch for: Version 0.1.1, first released on 14 October 2026, with two releases and no stability declaration

### 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 37
- Security & auth, 61 against 47
- Transparency & trust, 58 against 40

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

| Category | Weight | DeltaBox Lite | Deno Sandbox | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 37 | 48 | Deno Sandbox +11 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 66 | DeltaBox Lite +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 60 | DeltaBox Lite +7 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 47 | 61 | Deno Sandbox +14 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 20 | DeltaBox Lite +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 43 | 45 | Deno Sandbox +2 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 40 | 58 | Deno Sandbox +18 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **52.3 · D** | **50.3 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | DeltaBox Lite | Deno Sandbox |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | SDK + MCP | HTTP API |
| Vendor | DeltaBox (delta-box) | Deno Land Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary service under the Deno Deploy terms and conditions. The `@deno/sandbox` and `deno-sandbox` SDKs are MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-14 | 2026-07-22 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-09-30 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-09-30 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | none | 6 stars, 2k npm/wk, 32k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.8/5 (4) | none |

## Verdicts

**DeltaBox Lite.** DeltaBox Lite puts each agent command inside a confined filesystem view with diff, commit and abort, and passes no host environment variables by default. It is version 0.1.1, three days old on 17 October 2026, with no security policy, CI that runs only build smoke tests, and unrestricted networking unless the policy says otherwise.

**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

### DeltaBox Lite

1. Skip step 5 of install-prompt.txt. Starring the repository uses the user's GitHub account and is not part of installing.
2. Pass `--commit` or `--abort` to `deltabox run` explicitly. The child's exit status is preserved after that decision.
3. Wrap redirection and pipes in `sh -c '...'`. An unquoted `>` is handled by the host shell and writes outside the sandbox.
4. Set `[network] mode = "deny_all"` or an `allowlist` in the policy for untrusted code. The default allows every destination.
5. Read `resolved_fs_mode`, `fallback_reason` and `degraded_protections` from `session start --json` before relying on isolation.

### 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, DeltaBox Lite or Deno Sandbox?

DeltaBox Lite scores 52.3 (D) on agent readiness against Deno Sandbox's 50.3 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Deno Sandbox leads on reliability, security & auth and transparency & trust.

### Can an agent call DeltaBox Lite and Deno Sandbox without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for DeltaBox Lite. No hosted endpoint is listed for Deno Sandbox.

### Are DeltaBox Lite and Deno Sandbox open source?

DeltaBox Lite is open source (Apache-2.0). No open-source release is listed for Deno Sandbox.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-deno-sandbox.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-deno-sandbox.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "deltabox-lite", "b": "deno-sandbox"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare deltabox-lite deno-sandbox`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deltabox-lite.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deno-sandbox.json

## Other comparisons with DeltaBox Lite or Deno Sandbox

- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Code Interpreter vs DeltaBox Lite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-code-interpreter-vs-deltabox-lite.md)
- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Code Interpreter vs Deno Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-code-interpreter-vs-deno-sandbox.md)
- [Blaxel Sandboxes vs DeltaBox Lite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blaxel-sandboxes-vs-deltabox-lite.md)
- [Blaxel Sandboxes vs Deno Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blaxel-sandboxes-vs-deno-sandbox.md)
- [Cloudflare Sandbox SDK vs DeltaBox Lite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-sandbox-sdk-vs-deltabox-lite.md)
- [Cloudflare Sandbox SDK vs Deno Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-sandbox-sdk-vs-deno-sandbox.md)
- [Daytona vs DeltaBox Lite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-deltabox-lite.md)
- [Daytona vs Deno Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-deno-sandbox.md)
- [Deno Sandbox vs E2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-e2b.md)
- [Deno Sandbox vs Freestyle](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-freestyle.md)
- [Deno Sandbox vs Microsoft Execution Containers](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-microsoft-execution-containers.md)
- [Deno Sandbox vs Modal Sandboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-modal-sandboxes.md)
- [Deno Sandbox vs Morph Cloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-morph-cloud.md)
- [Deno Sandbox vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-offscreen.md)
- [Deno Sandbox vs SPACE](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-perplexity-space.md)
- [Deno Sandbox vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-runloop.md)
- [Deno Sandbox vs Sprites](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-sprites.md)
- [Deno Sandbox vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)
- [Deno Sandbox vs Vercel Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-vercel-sandbox.md)
- [Agent 37 Cloud vs DeltaBox Lite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent37-vs-deltabox-lite.md)
- [Agent 37 Cloud vs Deno Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent37-vs-deno-sandbox.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs E2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-e2b.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Freestyle](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-freestyle.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Microsoft Execution Containers](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-microsoft-execution-containers.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Modal Sandboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-modal-sandboxes.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Morph Cloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-morph-cloud.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-offscreen.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs SPACE](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-perplexity-space.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-runloop.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Sprites](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-sprites.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Vercel Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-vercel-sandbox.md)

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