# Runloop Devboxes vs Vercel Sandbox

> Vercel Sandbox has a score of 69.6 (B) against Runloop Devboxes's 65 (B). Both do sandbox code. The largest gap is transparency & trust, 24 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-05

Vercel Sandbox has a score of 69.6 (B) against Runloop Devboxes's 65 (B). Both do sandbox code. The largest gap is transparency & trust, 24 points.

- Runloop Devboxes: grade B, 65/100, rank #177 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/runloop.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/runloop.json
- Vercel Sandbox: grade B, 69.6/100, rank #111 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vercel-sandbox.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vercel-sandbox.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Runloop Devboxes for schema & documentation (+8), payments & pricing (+10).

Pick Vercel Sandbox for reliability (+10), security & auth (+20), transparency & trust (+24).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Runloop Devboxes | Vercel Sandbox | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 70 | Vercel Sandbox +10 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 85 | 77 | Runloop Devboxes +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 65 | Runloop Devboxes +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 60 | 80 | Vercel Sandbox +20 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 50 | 40 | Runloop Devboxes +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 80 | Runloop Devboxes +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 51 | 75 | Vercel Sandbox +24 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **65 · B** | **69.6 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Runloop Devboxes | Vercel Sandbox |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Runloop | Vercel |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.runloop.ai` | `https://api.vercel.com/v1/sandboxes` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | none | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-08 | 2026-09-11 |
| Popularity | 34 stars, 23k npm/wk, 136k PyPI/wk | 168 stars, 6.5M npm/wk, 462k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 3.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Runloop Devboxes.** Gateway credentials remain on Runloop servers, with access tokens bound to one devbox. Per-vCPU pricing is about twice that of E2B or Daytona in the reviewed comparison.

**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

### Runloop Devboxes

1. Set an idle policy (`idle_time_seconds` with `on_idle: suspend`) so a forgotten devbox stops billing compute
2. Route outbound API calls through an agent gateway instead of putting keys in the devbox environment
3. Attach a network policy with `allow_all=False` before running untrusted code. Egress is open by default
4. Restart background services after every resume. Nothing in memory survives
5. Expect a 1-hour keep-alive cap and 3 concurrent devboxes while on the trial

### 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

## Other comparisons with Runloop Devboxes or Vercel Sandbox

- [Blaxel Sandboxes vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blaxel-sandboxes-vs-runloop.md)
- [Blaxel Sandboxes vs Vercel Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blaxel-sandboxes-vs-vercel-sandbox.md)
- [Cloudflare Sandbox SDK vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-sandbox-sdk-vs-runloop.md)
- [Cloudflare Sandbox SDK vs Vercel Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-sandbox-sdk-vs-vercel-sandbox.md)
- [Daytona vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-runloop.md)
- [Daytona vs Vercel Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-vercel-sandbox.md)
- [E2B vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/e2b-vs-runloop.md)
- [E2B vs Vercel Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/e2b-vs-vercel-sandbox.md)
- [Modal Sandboxes vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-sandboxes-vs-runloop.md)
- [Modal Sandboxes vs Vercel Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-sandboxes-vs-vercel-sandbox.md)