# Freestyle vs Vercel Sandbox

> Vercel Sandbox scores 69.6 (B) on agent readiness against Freestyle's 58.5 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Freestyle leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing. Both do sandbox code. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freestyle-vs-vercel-sandbox
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freestyle-vs-vercel-sandbox.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freestyle-vs-vercel-sandbox.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freestyle-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 Freestyle's 58.5 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Freestyle leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing. Both do sandbox code.

- Freestyle: grade C, 58.5/100, rank #520 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/freestyle.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/freestyle.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

### Freestyle (C)

Good for: Suited to long-running agent work that needs a full Linux VM, memory-preserving pause, snapshots to branch from and private networking.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 86 against 77
- Payments & pricing, 45 against 40

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No terms of service or service agreement found on the site, and the privacy policy covers the website only

### 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 43
- Security & auth, 80 against 53
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 71
- Transparency & trust, 75 against 41

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 | Freestyle | Vercel Sandbox | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 43 | 70 | Vercel Sandbox +27 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 86 | 77 | Freestyle +9 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 69 | 65 | Freestyle +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 53 | 80 | Vercel Sandbox +27 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 45 | 40 | Freestyle +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 80 | Vercel Sandbox +9 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 41 | 75 | Vercel Sandbox +34 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **58.5 · C** | **69.6 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Freestyle | Vercel Sandbox |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Freestyle Cloud Inc. | Vercel |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.freestyle.sh/v5` | `https://api.vercel.com/v1/sandboxes` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service with no published terms of service found. The `freestyle` SDK and CLI package on npm is MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-27 | 2026-09-11 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-06-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-06-01 |
| Customer content may train models |  | yes, with an opt-out |
| 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 |  | yes |
| Popularity | 72k npm/wk | 168 stars, 6.5M npm/wk, 462k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Freestyle.** A public OpenAPI 3.1 file describes 88 operations with a stable error code on every failure, and per-VM identity tokens keep the team API key away from end users. No terms of service, product privacy policy, request rate limit or incident history was found, and the only SDK is TypeScript.

**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

### Freestyle

1. Send a `firewall` object on every `POST /v5/vms`. It is required, and a VM with no rules has no outbound internet
2. Ask the owner to run `freestyle login` in a browser once, then mint a key with `freestyle tokens create --output json`
3. Do not retry an exec that answers 409 `VM_NON_RESPONSIVE`. The command may already have run
4. Keep `exec-await` under its 300,000 ms cap and use a PTY session or `x-freestyle-background-after-secs` for longer work
5. Call the `/v5` paths. The unversioned duplicates in the OpenAPI file are marked deprecated

### 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, Freestyle or Vercel Sandbox?

Vercel Sandbox scores 69.6 (B) on agent readiness against Freestyle's 58.5 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Freestyle leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing.

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

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

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

Yes. Freestyle has a hosted endpoint at https://api.freestyle.sh/v5 and Vercel Sandbox at https://api.vercel.com/v1/sandboxes.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Freestyle or Vercel Sandbox

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