# Deno Sandbox vs Modal Sandboxes (slim)

> Modal Sandboxes scores 75.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Deno Sandbox's 50.3 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do sandbox code. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-modal-sandboxes.md (~2,450 tokens) · this version ~680 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-modal-sandboxes.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-modal-sandboxes
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-09

Modal Sandboxes scores 75.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Deno Sandbox's 50.3 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do sandbox code.

- Deno Sandbox: D 50.3, rank #689 of 842 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deno-sandbox.min.md
- Modal Sandboxes: BB 75.5, rank #45 of 842 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/modal-sandboxes.min.md
- Deno Sandbox, 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.
- Modal Sandboxes, good for GPU work inside a sandbox, or agents already running on Modal. Ahead on Reliability, 95 against 48; Schema & documentation, 79 against 66; Agent ergonomics, 67 against 60; Security & auth, 76 against 61; Payments & pricing, 40 against 20; Maintenance & community, 93 against 45; Transparency & trust, 72 against 58. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better.

| Category | Deno Sandbox | Modal Sandboxes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 48 | 95 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 66 | 79 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 60 | 67 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 61 | 76 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 20 | 40 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 45 | 93 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 58 | 72 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Deno Sandbox | Modal Sandboxes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | SDK + MCP |
| Vendor | Deno Land Inc. | Modal |
| Transports | HTTP |  |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Deno Deploy terms and conditions. The `@deno/sandbox` and `deno-sandbox` SDKs are MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-07-22 | 2026-09-28 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-30 | 2026-05-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-30 | 2023-05-17 |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 6 stars, 2k npm/wk, 32k PyPI/wk | 514 stars, 941k npm/wk, 10.1M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.3/5 (8) |