Northflank Sandboxes
Sandboxes on Northflank’s Kubernetes-based platform — microVMs for CPU work, gVisor for GPUs — on Northflank’s cloud or in your own cloud account. Compelling for BYOC and all-in-one platform needs; review the October 2026 incident response before adopting.
Overview
Northflank is a full application platform that added sandboxes as a first-class workload. CPU sandboxes run in Cloud Hypervisor microVMs and GPU sandboxes under gVisor, either on Northflank’s cloud or inside your own AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Oracle or bare-metal account via BYOC.
On October 30, 2026 Northflank disclosed a security incident and advised customers to rotate all environment-variable secrets. Evaluate its post-incident report and remediation alongside the feature set.
Notable
- Disclosed a security incident on October 30, 2026 and told customers to rotate all secrets stored as environment variables; customers reported misuse of AI API keys.
- Raised $22.3M (seed and Series A) announced November 2024.
Northflank Sandboxes specifications
| Attribute | Details |
|---|---|
| Isolation | MicroVMs on Cloud Hypervisor with their own guest kernel for CPU workloads; gVisor for GPU workloads |
| Deployment | Hosted platform · BYOC available |
| Open source | No |
| SDKs and interfaces | JavaScript/TypeScript, Python |
| Cold start (vendor claim) | Under 1 s; sample “ready in 0.8 seconds” on a cached image (vendor claim) |
| Max session length | No time limit; runs until deleted; idle sandboxes can be paused |
| Persistence | Ephemeral by default; persistent and shared volumes, S3 mounts, managed databases and pause/resume |
| GPU | Yes — L4 to B200 under gVisor (e.g. H100 $2.74/hour on Northflank Cloud) or on your own GPU nodes |
| Networking | Private by default; network policies for ingress/egress by FQDN and IP range; mTLS service mesh; secrets injected at egress |
| Pricing | Per second: $0.01667 per vCPU-hour + $0.00833 per GB-hour; BYOC $0.02083 per node vCPU-hour plus your cloud bill |
| Free tier | Free developer plan with up to $20/month of resources and one small BYOC cluster |
| Compliance | SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, ISO 27001 |
| Regions | Not documented |
Facts from Northflank Sandboxes’s public documentation, verified November 8, 2026. Performance numbers are vendor claims.
Strengths and trade-offs
Strengths
- You need BYOC on any major cloud or bare metal
- You want GPUs and CPU sandboxes on one platform
- You also need app hosting, databases and pipelines
- You want low published per-vCPU rates
Trade-offs
- Recent (October 2026) security incident requiring secret rotation
- Not open source
- More general platform than agent-focused SDK
Best for: Teams that want sandboxes in their own cloud account (BYOC) alongside app hosting, databases and GPUs.
Where Northflank Sandboxes ranks
How Northflank Sandboxes compares
| Sandbox | Isolation | Open source | Self-host / BYOC | Cold start (vendor) | Max session | Snapshots / pause | GPU | SDKs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northflank Sandboxes | Cloud Hypervisor microVM | No | No / Yes | <1 s | Unlimited | Not documented / Yes | Yes | JavaScript/TypeScript, Python |
| Modal Sandboxes | gVisor or VM | No | No / Not documented | <1 s | Up to 24 h | Yes / Yes | Yes | Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Go |
| E2B | Firecracker microVM | Yes | Yes / Yes | Not documented | 1 h / 24 h (Pro) | Yes / Yes | No | Python, JavaScript/TypeScript |
| Daytona | Containers or VMs | No | Not documented / Yes | <90 ms | Unlimited | Yes / Yes | Yes | Python, TypeScript, Ruby, Go, Java |
| Kubernetes Agent Sandbox | gVisor or Kata | Yes | Yes / Yes | <1 s (warm pool) | Not documented | Yes / Yes | Yes | Kubernetes CRDs, Python, kubectl |
Head-to-head: Northflank Sandboxes vs Modal Sandboxes · Northflank Sandboxes vs E2B
Frequently asked questions
What is Northflank Sandboxes?
How does Northflank Sandboxes isolate code?
Is Northflank Sandboxes open source?
How much does Northflank Sandboxes cost?
What are the best Northflank Sandboxes alternatives?
Sources
Cite this page
Agent Sandboxes. (2026). Northflank Sandboxes. agentsandboxes.org. Last reviewed November 8, 2026. https://agentsandboxes.org/sandboxes/northflank/
Found an error or a missing sandbox? Submit a correction — every entry links to the sources it relies on.