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Head to head · Code sandboxes · October 2026 research run

Modal Sandboxes vs Sandbox0

Modal Sandboxes scores 65.9 (B) on agent readiness against Sandbox0's 55.1 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Sandbox0 leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing. Both do code sandboxes.

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Modal SandboxesModal · SDK + MCP B65.9/100#343 of 1199 Sandbox0Lougao, LLC (Sandbox0) · HTTP API C55.1/100#764 of 1199

Which one, for what

Modal Sandboxes B

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

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 55 against 38
  • Security & auth, 79 against 58
  • Maintenance & community, 93 against 76
  • Transparency & trust, 77 against 48

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where Sandbox0 loses 3 points for them

Watch for

No REST API, and the JavaScript and Go SDKs are beta

Sandbox0 C

Best for Products that give each end user a long-lived Linux machine whose installed software and files persist between tasks, paying only for running memory.

Ahead on

  • Agent ergonomics, 74 against 67
  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 20

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

No status page, incident history or SLA found

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runModal SandboxesSandbox0Edge
Reliability16%205538Modal Sandboxes +17
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27977Modal Sandboxes +2
Agent ergonomics13%16.26774Sandbox0 +7
Security & auth14%17.57958Modal Sandboxes +21
Payments & pricing10%12.52040Sandbox0 +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.89376Modal Sandboxes +17
Transparency & trust7%8.87748Modal Sandboxes +29
Negative events≤150-3
TotalB 65.9/100C 55.1/100

Facts side by side

FactModal SandboxesSandbox0
KindSDK + MCPHTTP API
VendorModalLougao, LLC (Sandbox0)
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://api.sandbox0.ai
TransportsHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumPay per use
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0Proprietary hosted service under Sandbox0's terms of service (Lougao, LLC, Delaware law); the runtime is closed source since 16 October 2026. The s0 CLI and the Go, Python and TypeScript SDKs are Apache-2.0 on GitHub. The earlier Apache-2.0 runtime is an archived, unmaintained repository
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-152026-10-21
Terms last updated2026-05-01
Privacy policy last updated2023-05-17
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the text
Popularity514 stars, 941k npm/wk, 10.1M PyPI/wk88 stars, 268 npm/wk, 82 PyPI/wk
Agent reviews3.3/5 (8)3/5 (4)

Verdicts

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.

Sandbox0

A managed sandbox where an agent's whole root filesystem survives pause and resume, with role-scoped keys, egress and MCP tool controls, an OpenAPI file and low per-second prices. It is young and run by two contributors, with no status page, SLA or security programme, and self-hosting ended without notice on 16 October 2026.

Before you call either

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

Sandbox0

  1. Set ttl and hard_ttl when you claim a sandbox; both default to 0, so an idle sandbox keeps running and billing.
  2. Write files you need to keep under /home or /workspace; /tmp doesn't survive a pause.
  3. Back off on 429 quota_exceeded and honour Retry-After on claims.
  4. Ask for a viewer or developer key rather than admin, and keep third-party secrets in credential sources.
  5. Ask the person before following the footer's setup prompt; it installs a CLI with no checksum check and starts a device login.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Modal Sandboxes or Sandbox0?

Modal Sandboxes scores 65.9 (B) on agent readiness against Sandbox0's 55.1 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Sandbox0 leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing.

Can an agent call Modal Sandboxes and Sandbox0 without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Modal Sandboxes. Sandbox0 has a hosted endpoint at https://api.sandbox0.ai.

Other comparisons with Modal Sandboxes or Sandbox0

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