# Deno Sandbox vs Vercel Sandbox

> Vercel Sandbox scores 69.6 (B) 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.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-vercel-sandbox
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-vercel-sandbox.md (~2,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-vercel-sandbox.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-vercel-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
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Vercel Sandbox scores 69.6 (B) on agent readiness against Deno Sandbox's 50.3 (D), and leads in every scored category. 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
- Vercel Sandbox: grade B, 69.6/100, rank #168 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vercel-sandbox.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vercel-sandbox.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

### Vercel Sandbox (B)

Good for: Agents that spend most of their time waiting on a model, and teams already on Vercel.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 70 against 48
- Schema & documentation, 77 against 66
- Agent ergonomics, 65 against 60
- Security & auth, 80 against 61
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 45
- Transparency & trust, 75 against 58

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: Tied to a Vercel team and project even when called from elsewhere, and access tokens reach the whole team


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Deno Sandbox | Vercel Sandbox | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 48 | 70 | Vercel Sandbox +22 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 77 | Vercel Sandbox +11 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 60 | 65 | Vercel Sandbox +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 61 | 80 | Vercel Sandbox +19 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 40 | Vercel Sandbox +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 45 | 80 | Vercel Sandbox +35 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 58 | 75 | Vercel Sandbox +17 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **50.3 · D** | **69.6 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Deno Sandbox | Vercel Sandbox |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Deno Land Inc. | Vercel |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.vercel.com/v1/sandboxes` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| 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 |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-07-22 | 2026-09-11 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-30 | 2026-06-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-30 | 2026-06-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes, with an opt-out |
| 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 | yes |
| Popularity | 6 stars, 2k npm/wk, 32k PyPI/wk | 168 stars, 6.5M npm/wk, 462k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) |

## 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.

**Vercel Sandbox.** Active CPU billing, so waiting on model responses costs only memory. Tied to a Vercel team and project even when called from elsewhere, and access tokens reach the whole team.

## 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

### Vercel Sandbox

1. Call `sandbox.stop()` when the task is done. Memory bills until the session ends
2. Use `Sandbox.getOrCreate` with a name so retries land in the same sandbox
3. Set `networkPolicy` to `deny-all` for untrusted code. The default is allow-all
4. Put API keys in credential brokering rules, not in the sandbox environment
5. Pass `persistent: false` for one-off runs so no snapshot is stored or billed

## Questions

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

Vercel Sandbox scores 69.6 (B) on agent readiness against Deno Sandbox's 50.3 (D), and leads in every scored category.

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

Deno Sandbox needs an API key. Vercel Sandbox takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

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

No hosted endpoint is listed for Deno Sandbox. Vercel Sandbox has a hosted endpoint at https://api.vercel.com/v1/sandboxes.


## For agents

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

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