Modal sandbox alternative
A Maritime sandbox is $0.022 an hour at 2 vCPU and 4 GB against Modal Sandboxes at $0.238, and Maritime adds desktops, Windows, Android and persistent machines. Modal adds GPUs and very high scale.
Maritime gives every AI agent its own computer: agent boxes that stay online, sandboxes for code, Linux and Windows desktops it clicks, and Android phones.
Modal pricing vs Maritime, same sizes.
List prices for one machine awake for one full hour. Disk and egress are left out.
| Provider | 1 vCPU, 2 GB per hour | 2 vCPU, 4 GB per hour | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maritime sandbox | $0.011 | $0.022 | Any size up to 16 vCPU and 64 GB, priced per vCPU and GB. Ends with its disk when idle, or pause it and pay $0.08 per GB-month of disk. |
| Maritime agent box | $0.00137 | $0.00274 | $1 a month per 2 GB of memory, 1 vCPU, awake or asleep, with unlimited awake hours and 5 GB of disk. The 4 GB box ($2 a month) is shown in the 2 vCPU, 4 GB column by memory. |
| Modal Sandboxes | $0.119 | $0.238 | $0.071 per vCPU-hour and $0.024 per GiB-hour. Choosing a region multiplies prices by 1.15 to 1.75. |
Modal prices from modal.com/pricing, checked October 26, 2026. Maritime prices from the pricing page.
Modal plans: Starter $0 plus compute, with $30 a month of credit. Team $250 a month plus compute, with $100 of credit. Enterprise custom.
What Maritime has that Modal does not.
Modal sells sandboxes (gVisor containers by default, or VM sandboxes with their own Linux kernel) on its serverless compute platform, on Linux only. Maritime gives every agent its own computer: sandboxes, persistent agent boxes, Linux and Windows desktops, and Android phones, on one API.
Windows desktops
Maritime: $0.18 an hour while awake, licence included, with screenshot, click, type, files and human takeover. Requires Growth, Scale or Dedicated once the plan has been paid; not Starter or the free trial.
Modal: Linux only. No built-in desktop; a VNC example you set up yourself.
Android phones
Maritime: $0.15 an hour while awake. AOSP Android 15 with tap, swipe, ui_tree, install_app and an adb tunnel.
Modal: No Android machine.
Persistent agent boxes
Maritime: $1 a month per 2 GB, awake or asleep, with no lifetime limit. Sleeps when idle and wakes in about a second on the next command, message, webhook or schedule.
Modal: Default lifetime 5 minutes, up to 24 hours. Filesystem and memory snapshots (memory snapshots in alpha, 7-day expiry), no live pause.
Per-end-user spend caps
Maritime: End users are records keyed by your own id, with one agent each, per-user spend caps, short-lived eu_ tokens for their browser, and a usage report for rebilling.
Modal: Not stated.
Private network
Maritime: Reach a system inside a customer's office through a small connector on their side, no VPN, on every plan including the free trial.
Modal: Egress allowlists, and static IPs on Team ($250 a month) and Enterprise. A private network into a customer's site is not stated.
Where Modal is better.
Pick Modal if one of these matters more to you than the list above.
- GPUs. Maritime has no GPUs.
- Scale: 5,000 containers on Team. Maritime Scale allows 60 machines awake at once and Dedicated 500.
- Many regions. Maritime runs in the United States and Germany.
- A free credit every month: $30 on Starter. Maritime's free trial is 7 days with a $20 cap.
What a month costs.
Arithmetic from the rates above. A month is 730 hours. Maritime numbers include the $20 Starter plan, whose fee comes back as usage credit; Starter allows 5 machines awake at once.
Short-lived code execution: 1,000 sandbox-hours a month at 2 vCPU and 4 GB, no more than 5 at once
- Maritime sandboxes1,000 h x $0.022, $2 past the $20 Starter credit$22
- Modal Sandboxes1,000 h x $0.238, before any region multiplier$238
Maritime and Modal, briefly.
- How much do Modal Sandboxes cost?
- Modal sandboxes bill $0.071 per vCPU-hour and $0.024 per GiB-hour: $0.119 an hour at 1 vCPU and 2 GiB, and $0.238 at 2 vCPU and 4 GiB (modal.com/pricing, checked 2026-10-26). Choosing a region multiplies prices by 1.15 to 1.75. Starter is $0 plus compute with $30 a month of credit; Team is $250 a month plus compute.
- Is Maritime cheaper than Modal Sandboxes?
- At list prices, yes. A Maritime sandbox with 2 vCPU and 4 GB is $0.022 an hour; a Modal sandbox is $0.238 an hour at the same size (modal.com/pricing, checked 2026-10-26), before any region multiplier. Modal Team is $250 a month on top of compute; Maritime's plan fee comes back as usage credit.
- Can a Maritime sandbox stay alive longer than a Modal sandbox?
- A Maritime sandbox runs up to 24 hours, like Modal's maximum. For a machine that keeps running, a Maritime agent box has no lifetime limit, sleeps when idle and keeps its disk for $1 a month per 2 GB.
- Where is Modal the better choice?
- Modal has GPUs, runs thousands of containers at once on Team, offers many regions, and gives $30 of free credit every month on Starter.
These sources were read on October 26, 2026. Later price checks are dated where stated. Prices change; check the source before you decide. The full comparison of 25 providers, with every source, is at maritime.sh/compare.md.
Start with a free trial.One API key, one bill.
7 days, a card is required, usage capped at $20. Cancel within the trial and nothing is charged. Starter $20, Growth $100, Scale $500 and Dedicated $5,000 a month. Each fee comes back as the same amount of usage credit. Every plan pays the same rates.
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