Daytona vs Fly.io Sprites
Answer in brief
Choose Daytona for long-lived, stateful agent workspaces that need many SDK languages, GPUs, or Windows and macOS sandboxes; choose Fly.io Sprites for long-running, stateful agent computers that should cost nothing while idle. Daytona uses Containers or VMs isolation; Fly.io Sprites uses MicroVM isolation.
Daytona vs Fly.io Sprites at a glance
| Attribute | Daytona | Fly.io Sprites |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Stateful sandboxes for AI-generated code — Linux containers, Linux and Windows VMs, macOS and GPU sandboxes — with snapshots, volumes and preview URLs. | Persistent, hardware-isolated Linux computers for AI agents with a durable 100 GB disk, checkpoints, and no compute charges while idle. |
| Isolation | Isolated Linux containers (dedicated namespaces, resource limits) by default; VM sandboxes (Linux, Windows) run a full VM with their own kernel; GPU sandboxes are containers with exclusive GPU allocation | Dedicated microVM with hardware-level isolation (Fly docs); reported to be Firecracker-based |
| Open source | No (Former public repo archived (AGPL-3.0)) | No (SDKs MIT) |
| Self-host / BYOC | Not documented / Yes | No / No |
| SDKs | Python, TypeScript, Ruby, Go, Java | JavaScript/TypeScript, Go, Python, Elixir |
| Cold start (vendor claim) | Sub-90 ms sandbox creation (vendor claim) | Warm wake 100–500 ms with processes preserved; cold wake 1–2 s (vendor docs) |
| Max session | No hard maximum: auto-stop after 15 min idle by default (can be disabled), auto-archive after 7 days stopped, optional wall-clock TTL | No lifetime limit — a Sprite persists until destroyed and sleeps after ~30 s idle |
| Persistence | Stateful sandboxes, snapshots, shared volumes, archive/recover and stop/start with state. Pause/resume, fork and hot snapshots on VM sandboxes | 100 GB durable disk per Sprite that survives sleep; copy-on-write checkpoints (~1 s) with restore; memory preserved on warm pause |
| GPU | Yes — up to 8 GPUs per sandbox (e.g. H100 from $2.27/hour, B200 $3.59/hour, preemptible list rates) | No GPU option documented |
| Networking | Tiered egress: per-sandbox CIDR and domain allowlists or block-all, changeable at runtime; preview URLs for any port with token or signed URLs; SSH, VNC and web terminal | HTTPS URL per Sprite (org-private by default); outbound open by default with optional DNS-based domain allow/deny policy; connectors broker API credentials |
| Pricing | Per second: $0.0504 per vCPU-hour + $0.0162 per GiB-hour; storage $0.000108/GiB-hour after 5 GiB free; Windows $0.0858/vCPU-hour | Per second, compute only while active: $0.0385 per CPU-hour + $0.021875 per GB-hour memory; storage billed while idle |
| Compliance | States HIPAA, SOC 2 and GDPR compliance (Trust Center) | Fly.io is SOC 2 Type 2; HIPAA BAA and DPA available (company-wide) |
| Best for | Long-lived, stateful agent workspaces that need many SDK languages, GPUs, or Windows and macOS sandboxes | Long-running, stateful agent computers that should cost nothing while idle |
Verified November 8, 2026 from each provider’s documentation. Cold-start figures are vendor claims, not our measurements.
Which should you choose?
Choose Daytona if…
- You need long-lived, stateful workspaces that survive between sessions
- You want SDKs beyond Python and TypeScript (Ruby, Go, Java)
- You need GPUs, Windows or macOS sandboxes from the same provider
- You want BYOC on your own compute
Choose Fly.io Sprites if…
- You want a persistent computer per agent or per user
- Your agents are idle most of the time and you want to pay only for active compute
- You want fast checkpoints and rollback
- You want Elixir or Go SDKs
Both are worth piloting with your own image and region. See the full Daytona profile and Fly.io Sprites profile, or the complete comparison.
Frequently asked questions
Is Daytona or Fly.io Sprites better for AI agents?
Neither is better for every workload. Daytona is best for long-lived, stateful agent workspaces that need many SDK languages, GPUs, or Windows and macOS sandboxes. Fly.io Sprites is best for long-running, stateful agent computers that should cost nothing while idle.
Which is open source, Daytona or Fly.io Sprites?
Neither is open source.
How do Daytona and Fly.io Sprites isolate code?
Daytona: Isolated Linux containers (dedicated namespaces, resource limits) by default; VM sandboxes (Linux, Windows) run a full VM with their own kernel; GPU sandboxes are containers with exclusive GPU allocation. Fly.io Sprites: Dedicated microVM with hardware-level isolation (Fly docs); reported to be Firecracker-based.
Sources
Cite this page
Agent Sandboxes. (2026). Daytona vs Fly.io Sprites. agentsandboxes.org. Last reviewed November 8, 2026. https://agentsandboxes.org/compare/daytona-vs-fly-sprites/
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