# Deno Sandbox vs Sprites

> Sprites scores 58.3 (C) on agent readiness against Deno Sandbox's 50.3 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do sandbox code. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-sprites
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-sprites.md (~2,600 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-sprites.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-sprites.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
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Sprites scores 58.3 (C) on agent readiness against Deno Sandbox's 50.3 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do sandbox code.

- Deno Sandbox: grade D, 50.3/100, rank #689 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deno-sandbox.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deno-sandbox.json
- Sprites: grade C, 58.3/100, rank #528 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sprites.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/sprites.json

## Which one, for what

### 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.

Watch for: Beta since 3 February 2026. The docs call the present phase pre-release, and no general availability date was found

### Sprites (C)

Good for: Agents that need a long-lived machine with installed tools and files kept between sessions, and rollback by checkpoint.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 55 against 48
- Schema & documentation, 74 against 66
- Agent ergonomics, 68 against 60
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 45

Watch for: Four Sprites incidents on the status page in 90 days, including a partial outage of 7 hours 28 minutes on 23 September 2026 and failed creates outside Europe for 28 minutes on 8 October


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Deno Sandbox | Sprites | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 48 | 55 | Sprites +7 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 74 | Sprites +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 60 | 68 | Sprites +8 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 61 | 59 | Deno Sandbox +2 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 30 | Sprites +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 45 | 80 | Sprites +35 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 58 | 59 | Sprites +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **50.3 · D** | **58.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Deno Sandbox | Sprites |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Deno Land Inc. | Fly.io |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Deno Deploy terms and conditions. The `@deno/sandbox` and `deno-sandbox` SDKs are MIT | Proprietary service under the Fly.io Terms of Service. The JavaScript, Go, Python and Elixir SDKs are MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-07-22 | 2026-10-06 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-30 | 2026-04-29 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-30 | 2026-09-24 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| 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 | 158k npm/wk, 59k PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**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.

**Sprites.** A Sprite keeps a 100 GB ext4 disk between runs, bills compute only while active and can be checkpointed and restored through a published OpenAPI contract. The status page records four Sprites incidents in the last 90 days, one lasting over seven hours, and outbound network access is unrestricted until a policy is set.

## Before you call either

### 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

### Sprites

1. Create a token at sprites.dev/account after a browser signup, and send it as `Authorization: Bearer <token>` to `https://api.sprites.dev`
2. Follow the OpenAPI document, not the product page example. Create with `POST /v1/sprites` and a JSON `name`, and run commands with `POST /v1/sprites/{name}/exec` using `cmd` query parameters
3. Set a network policy with `POST /v1/sprites/{name}/policy/network` before running untrusted code. Egress is open until one is set
4. Processes started by exec stop on a cold wake. Define a Service for anything that must answer the request that wakes the Sprite
5. Create a checkpoint before a restore. Restoring replaces the filesystem, ends active sessions and keeps no copy of the replaced state
6. Sprite creation is limited to 10 a minute on pay-as-you-go. The Go SDK reads `Retry-After` and the error code `sprite_creation_rate_limited` on a 429
7. Delete Sprites you no longer need. An idle Sprite still bills cold storage for the bytes it holds

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Deno Sandbox or Sprites?

Sprites scores 58.3 (C) on agent readiness against Deno Sandbox's 50.3 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Do Deno Sandbox and Sprites need an API key?

Both need an API key.

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

No hosted endpoint is listed for Deno Sandbox. No hosted endpoint is listed for Sprites.


## For agents

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

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