Tangle vs Vercel Sandbox: which sandbox for coding agents?
Pick Vercel Sandbox for Firecracker microVMs in 19 regions, an egress firewall that injects credentials, and persistence on by default. Pick Tangle when you want OpenClaw, Kimi Code or Prime Agent installed in every sandbox, and one prompt call that returns the agent's result, usage and cost.
Last checked November 10, 2026: each Vercel Sandbox fact links the page it came from, read that day.
Pick Vercel Sandbox when
- You need a kernel boundary per sandbox: Vercel Sandbox runs each one in a Firecracker microVM. (vercel.com/docs/vercel-sandbox)
- You need credentials kept out of untrusted code: Vercel injects them into outbound traffic so they never enter the sandbox. (vercel.com/docs/sandbox/concepts/firewall)
- You need to start Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode or Pi from your terminal: Vercel ships a CLI command per agent. (vercel.com/docs/sandbox/ecosystem)
- You need sandboxes near your data worldwide: Vercel Sandbox lists 19 regions. (vercel.com/docs/sandbox/concepts/regions)
Pick Tangle when
- You want OpenClaw, Kimi Code or Prime Agent next to the agents you already use, installed in every sandbox. (tangle.tools)
- One prompt call gives the agent its task and returns the result, token usage and cost. (docs.tangle.tools/sandbox/cloud-agents)
- A fleet runs many agents under one budget, set in dollars, and the platform refuses any charge past it. (docs.tangle.tools/sandbox/agents-fleet)
Vercel Sandbox and Tangle, row by row
| Feature | Vercel Sandbox | Tangle |
|---|---|---|
| Coding agents | Start OpenCode, Pi, Claude Code or Codex in a sandbox from the Sandbox CLI (vercel.com/docs/sandbox/ecosystem) | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Pi, Hermes, OpenClaw, Kimi Code and Prime Agent installed in every sandbox (tangle.tools) |
| Model calls | Its framework examples route model calls through Vercel AI Gateway (vercel.com/docs/sandbox/ecosystem) | Tangle Router by default, billed to the same Tangle balance as the sandbox (docs.tangle.tools/sandbox/cloud-agents) |
| Isolation | Firecracker microVM per sandbox with its own filesystem and network (vercel.com/docs/vercel-sandbox) | A container or a Firecracker microVM, chosen per sandbox (docs.tangle.tools/sandbox/security) |
| Stop and resume | Persistent by default: filesystem state is saved on stop and restored on resume (vercel.com/docs/sandbox/concepts/persistent-sandboxes) | Timers you set stop a sandbox; a stopped sandbox keeps its files until you delete it or its delete timer passes (docs.tangle.tools/sandbox/migrate-e2b) |
| Snapshots and forks | Snapshots of the filesystem and installed packages, and forks from another sandbox's current state (vercel.com/docs/sandbox/concepts/snapshots) | Snapshot, revert, and split a running sandbox into copies (docs.tangle.tools/sandbox/snapshots) |
| Secrets | Credentials brokering injects secrets into outbound traffic so they never enter the sandbox (vercel.com/docs/sandbox/concepts/firewall) | Stored once; you choose whether the sandbox can read a secret or only the network proxy can (docs.tangle.tools/sandbox/secrets) |
| Network | A network firewall restricts egress, with allow-all, deny-all and user-defined policies (vercel.com/docs/sandbox/concepts/firewall) | Open, a strict allowlist, or blocked, changeable while the sandbox runs (docs.tangle.tools/sandbox/egress) |
| Getting a shell | An interactive shell in an existing sandbox from the CLI, aliased as ssh and shell (vercel.com/docs/sandbox/cli-reference) | SSH, a PTY or a browser terminal (docs.tangle.tools/sandbox/terminals) |
| Run records | Access to logs, file edits and live previews; CPU and memory in the Observability tab (vercel.com/docs/vercel-sandbox) | Every agent turn is traced, and an Intelligence report summarizes what the agent did (docs.tangle.tools/sandbox/observability) |
| Regions | 19 regions, chosen per sandbox (vercel.com/docs/sandbox/concepts/regions) | eu1 and us1 (tangle.tools/benchmarks) |
| SDKs | CLI, JS SDK and Python SDK (vercel.com/docs/vercel-sandbox) | TypeScript, Python (tangle-sandbox on PyPI) and the tangle CLI (docs.tangle.tools/sandbox/sdk-python) |
| Free start | Free for Hobby users within usage quotas (vercel.com/docs/vercel-sandbox/pricing) | A Free plan with no included credit (tangle.tools#pricing) |
Start times: our measurements, their published claims
| Tangle, measured | p50 | p95 | Runs | Failed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New sandbox, ready to use | 1.5s | 12s | 393 | 56 of 425 |
| Create, then run a first command | 1.7s | 8s | 74 | 3 of 77 |
| Claude Code's first reply, from create | 3.4s | 12s | 45 | 3 of 48 |
| Codex's first reply, from create | 3.3s | 18s | 44 | 3 of 47 |
Production runs from 2026-11-02 to 2026-11-09, the same rows tangle.tools/benchmarks draws.
- Vercel states "Sandboxes start in milliseconds, making them ideal for real-time user interactions and latency-sensitive workloads." (vercel.com/docs/vercel-sandbox)
These are different tests, and we have not run Vercel Sandbox through our benchmark.
Prices are on each pricing page
Tangle: plans and the rate card. Vercel Sandbox: vercel.com/docs/vercel-sandbox/pricing.