# DeltaBox Lite vs Modal Sandboxes

> Modal Sandboxes scores 65.9 (B) to DeltaBox Lite's 52.3 (D) for sandbox fs. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-modal-sandboxes.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)
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- Updated: 2026-10-17

Modal Sandboxes scores 65.9 (B) on agent readiness against DeltaBox Lite's 52.3 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. DeltaBox Lite leads on payments & pricing. 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
- Modal Sandboxes: grade B, 65.9/100, rank #335 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/modal-sandboxes.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/modal-sandboxes.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
- Best GPU and serverless compute for AI workloads: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/gpu-compute/index.md
- All 170 gpu compute comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpu-compute/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:
- 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

### Modal Sandboxes (B)

Good for: GPU work inside a sandbox, or agents already running on Modal.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 55 against 37
- Schema & documentation, 79 against 68
- Security & auth, 79 against 47
- Maintenance & community, 93 against 43
- Transparency & trust, 77 against 40

Also in its favour:
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.3 against 2.8 out of 5

Watch for: No REST API, and the JavaScript and Go SDKs are beta


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | DeltaBox Lite | Modal Sandboxes | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 37 | 55 | Modal Sandboxes +18 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 79 | Modal Sandboxes +11 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 67 | even |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 47 | 79 | Modal Sandboxes +32 |
| 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 | 93 | Modal Sandboxes +50 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 40 | 77 | Modal Sandboxes +37 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **52.3 · D** | **65.9 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | DeltaBox Lite | Modal Sandboxes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | SDK + MCP | SDK + MCP |
| Vendor | DeltaBox (delta-box) | Modal |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-14 | 2026-10-15 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-05-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2023-05-17 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 514 stars, 941k npm/wk, 10.1M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.8/5 (4) | 3.3/5 (8) |

## 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.

**Modal Sandboxes.** GPU sandboxes at the same per-second rates as the rest of Modal. No REST API, and the JavaScript and Go SDKs are beta.

## 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.

### Modal Sandboxes

1. Pass `timeout=` when you create a sandbox. The default lifetime is 5 minutes
2. Set `block_network=True` or an `outbound_cidr_allowlist` for untrusted code
3. Give a sandbox a `name` so a retried create raises `AlreadyExistsError` instead of starting a second one
4. Snapshot the filesystem before the 24-hour limit and start a fresh sandbox from it
5. Catch `ResourceExhaustedError` from `Sandbox.create()` on SDK 1.6.0 and later, since create now waits until scheduled

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, DeltaBox Lite or Modal Sandboxes?

Modal Sandboxes scores 65.9 (B) on agent readiness against DeltaBox Lite's 52.3 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. DeltaBox Lite leads on payments & pricing.

### Are DeltaBox Lite and Modal Sandboxes open source?

DeltaBox Lite is open source (Apache-2.0). No open-source release is listed for Modal Sandboxes.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with DeltaBox Lite or Modal Sandboxes

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