4 Best Daytona Alternatives in 2026: Features and Pricing
What are the best Daytona alternatives?
Solari is almost 3x cheaper than Daytona per sandbox hour. Compare Solari, E2B, Modal and Vercel Sandbox on isolation, pricing and migration.
Solari is the best Daytona alternative for agent sandboxes, at almost 3x cheaper than Daytona per sandbox hour for the same 4 vCPU, 8 GB machine.
Solari also runs a sandbox's full lifecycle, from create to teardown, faster than Daytona on the same workload.
E2B, Modal and Vercel Sandbox complete the list, each with the prices it publishes.
Key Takeaways
Choose Solari when your agent needs isolated sandboxes, cloud browsers and computer desktops from one API key.
Choose E2B when you want a free Hobby tier with a $100 one-time credit to start.
Choose Modal when your sandbox code needs GPUs on the same serverless platform as your Modal Functions.
Choose Vercel Sandbox when your app already deploys on Vercel and you want CPU billed on active time only.
What Is a Daytona Alternative?
A Daytona alternative is a cloud sandbox provider that runs AI-generated code in an isolated machine created by API, the job Daytona sandboxes do today.
Solari calls this an AI Sandbox: a machine for running code and automation, with no screen.
Reasons to Consider an Alternative to Daytona
Daytona moved its production codebase to closed source on June 11, 2026.
Daytona reserves pause and resume, fork and hot snapshots for its VM sandbox classes.
Daytona lists compute at $0.0504 per vCPU-hour.
Daytona Alternatives Compared
Provider | Best for | Stand-out feature | Edge over Daytona | Pricing starts at |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Solari | Agents that run code and use the web | MicroVM sandboxes, browsers and desktops on one API | Almost 3x cheaper per sandbox hour | Free plan, $0 per month |
E2B | Code interpreters and agent runs | Pause keeps filesystem and memory | Every sandbox is a Linux VM | Hobby, free with $100 one-time credit |
Modal | GPU and Python workloads | gVisor or VM runtime per sandbox | Bursts above requested CPU and memory | Starter, $0 plus $30 monthly credits |
Vercel Sandbox | Apps already on Vercel | Active CPU billing | CPU billed only while code uses it | Hobby, 5 Active CPU hours included |
Daytona (baseline) | Container and GPU sandboxes | Container, VM and GPU classes | Baseline | Pay as you go, $200 free compute |
Every competitor figure in the table comes from that provider's own pricing or docs page, linked in its section below.
Daytona sits in the last row as the baseline.
1. Solari
Solari is agent infrastructure from one account and one API: AI Sandboxes, Cloud Browsers and Computer Desktops.
You bring the model and the logic, while Solari runs the machine your agent works in.
Core Capabilities
A Solari sandbox runs as a microVM of your own by default.
You size a Solari sandbox from 1 to 8 vCPUs with up to 16 GB of memory.
Pausing a Solari sandbox saves its memory and processes, so resume brings it back exactly as it was.
Solari sandboxes snapshot and fork, so an agent can branch a running machine to try two paths.
Pricing
Solari's Free plan costs $0 per month.
Solari bills $0.0245 per vCPU-hour on the Professional plan.
Solari's Team plan bills $0.0175 per vCPU-hour.
Solari bills per second while an environment runs.
Where It Shines
Code written for Daytona's SDK runs on Solari sandboxes after one import change.
On Solari, a Daytona stop call pauses the sandbox, keeping its memory, running processes and disk.
The same Solari account runs Computer Desktops, so a computer-use agent needs no second vendor.
Where It Fits
Solari scales from one sandbox on the Free plan to 100,000 sandboxes or desktops on Enterprise.
Solari includes HIPAA compliance on the Team and Enterprise plans.
Who It's Best For
Solari is best for platform engineers whose agents write code, browse the web and need both from one API key.
Teams moving off Daytona keep their SDK calls through the @solarisdk/daytona-compat package.
2. E2B
E2B provides isolated cloud sandboxes where AI agents execute code, process data and run tools.
E2B ships its SDK for JavaScript, TypeScript and Python.
Core Capabilities
E2B describes each sandbox as a fast, secure Linux VM created on demand.
Pausing an E2B sandbox saves its filesystem and memory.
Pricing
E2B's Hobby tier is free with a $100 one-time usage credit.
E2B Pro costs $150 per month plus usage.
E2B lists usage at $0.000014 per vCPU per second.
E2B Enterprise starts at a $2,000 monthly commit.
Where It Shines
E2B keeps paused sandboxes indefinitely until you kill them.
E2B Pro runs 100 concurrent sandboxes, expandable to 1,100.
Where It Fits
E2B Hobby sessions run up to 1 hour.
E2B Pro sessions run up to 24 hours.
Who It's Best For
E2B suits teams building code interpreters with the E2B Code Interpreter SDK.
Larger fleets move to E2B Enterprise, which offers tens of thousands of concurrent sandboxes.
3. Modal
Modal Sandboxes are secure containers for executing untrusted code on Modal.
Modal Sandboxes use the same named Images and Volumes as Modal Functions.
Core Capabilities
Modal Sandboxes run on gVisor or a VM runtime with its own Linux kernel.
Modal supports GPU Sandboxes on the gVisor runtime.
Pricing
Modal bills Sandboxes at non-preemptible rates of 3x list price.
Modal meters Sandbox CPU per physical core per second, where one physical core equals 2 vCPUs.
Modal's Starter plan costs $0 plus compute, with $30 of monthly credits.
Where It Shines
Modal Sandboxes burst above their requested CPU and memory when a job needs it.
Modal's Team plan runs 5,000 containers.
Where It Fits
A Modal Sandbox has a default lifetime of 5 minutes, extendable to 24 hours.
Modal bills Sandboxes at the larger of requested and actual usage.
Who It's Best For
Modal suits teams that already deploy Modal Functions and want sandboxes on the same images.
Modal's Enterprise plan adds audit logs, Okta SSO and HIPAA.
4. Vercel Sandbox
Vercel Sandbox runs code in isolated sandboxes created with the Sandbox SDK.
Vercel Sandbox is available in 19 regions.
Core Capabilities
Vercel Sandbox provisions up to 8 vCPUs and 16 GB of memory on Pro.
Each Vercel sandbox on SDK 3.0.0 or above gets 64 GB of ephemeral NVMe storage.
Pricing
Vercel Sandbox bills Pro usage by Active CPU hours.
Vercel Sandbox bills memory by provisioned GB-hours, idle time included.
Vercel Pro sandbox usage draws first from a $20 monthly credit.
Where It Shines
Vercel Sandbox leaves I/O wait out of Active CPU, including time spent on model calls.
Vercel Pro and Enterprise run 10,000 concurrent sandboxes.
Where It Fits
Vercel Sandbox sessions run up to 45 minutes on Hobby.
Vercel Sandbox sessions run up to 24 hours on Pro and Enterprise.
Who It's Best For
Vercel Sandbox suits teams whose apps and agents already deploy on Vercel.
Vercel Enterprise raises the sandbox ceiling to 32 vCPUs and 64 GB of memory.
What's Next?
Choose Solari over Daytona when every sandbox should be a microVM by default.
Choose Solari over Daytona when the agent also needs a computer desktop or a cloud browser on the same API key.
Choose Solari over Daytona when the per-hour sandbox rate drives the decision.
Daytona is the more established vendor with the larger ecosystem; Solari is the younger company and moves faster on price and lifecycle speed.
Key Facts
Solari is almost 3x cheaper than Daytona per sandbox hour at 4 vCPU and 8 GB (Solari pricing).
Solari runs a sandbox's full lifecycle faster than Daytona on the same workload (Solari pricing).
Solari's Team plan bills $0.0175 per vCPU-hour (Solari pricing).
Daytona SDK code runs on Solari after one import change (Solari docs).
Daytona offers container, Linux VM, Windows and GPU sandbox classes (Daytona isolation).
E2B keeps paused sandboxes, filesystem and memory included, until you kill them (E2B docs).
Modal runs GPU Sandboxes on its gVisor runtime (Modal docs).
Vercel Sandbox bills CPU on active time only, leaving out I/O wait (Vercel pricing).
FAQ
What Is the Best Daytona Alternative?
Solari is the best Daytona alternative for agent sandboxes: it is almost 3x cheaper than Daytona per sandbox hour, runs the full sandbox lifecycle faster, and runs Daytona SDK code after one import change.
How Do I Migrate From Daytona to Solari?
Install @solarisdk/daytona-compat for TypeScript or solari-daytona-compat for Python, change the import, and pass a Solari API key. Sandbox create, commands, files, git, snapshots and fork keep working.
Does Daytona Isolate Sandboxes in a VM?
Daytona offers both. Its container class is an isolated container with dedicated namespaces, while its Linux VM and Windows classes are full virtual machines with their own kernel.
How Does Solari Isolate Sandboxes?
A Solari sandbox is a microVM of its own by default. The hardened tier is the same microVM with all outbound network blocked.
Which Daytona Alternative Bills Only for Active CPU?
Vercel Sandbox bills CPU on Active CPU hours, leaving out time spent waiting on I/O such as model calls, while memory is billed on provisioned GB-hours.
Sources
Try Solari. Start free, move your Daytona code in one import change, or read the sandbox docs.
Pricing checked 2026-11-08.