Context Agent Sandboxes vs microsandbox
Context Agent Sandboxes
context.ai
microsandbox
microsandbox.devSide by side
| Figure | Context Agent Sandboxes | microsandbox |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $20/mo | $49/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 7 | 4 |
| Spec score · Sandbox Software | 9.2 (#1) | 8.2 (#8) |
| Credential handling | Standing secrets are kept out of the sandbox; credentials are issued at the edge after authorization and expire with the action or run. | Bound secrets are represented by placeholders inside the sandbox and substituted host-side for supported intercepted requests to approved destinations. |
| Isolation | Sandboxes run as non-root container pods with capabilities dropped, a seccomp profile, and no cluster service-account token. | Each sandbox is a microVM with its own Linux kernel, filesystem, and network boundary, rather than a container sharing the host kernel. |
| Network controls | Administrators can choose open networking, a domain allowlist or workspace-only access, with outbound decisions logged. | By default, sandboxes can reach the public internet while private, host-local, link-local, and metadata destinations are blocked; egress can be allowlisted or disabled. |
| Self-hosting | Self-hosted installations run on customer Kubernetes clusters such as Amazon EKS or Azure AKS and are installed through KOTS. | The runtime can be run on the user's own servers or clusters, and the cloud platform can be deployed in the user's infrastructure. |
| Support | Basic support through Context's standard channels during business hours is included in every agreement, with Enterprise support set per order. | The product FAQ directs users with questions to its Discord community. |
| What it does | Agent Sandboxes gives each agent task an isolated execution environment while keeping traces, evaluations and policy decisions in the Context workspace. | Microsandbox is a local-first microVM runtime for running untrusted workloads, including AI agents, user code, plugins, CI jobs, scrapers, and automation. |
Plans
Context Agent Sandboxes
- FreeFree
- FreeFree
- Plus$20 a month
- Plus$20 a month
- Pro$200 a month
- Pro$200 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
microsandbox
- FreeFree
- Builder$49 a month
- Teams$299 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
Context Agent Sandboxes
Context Agent Sandboxes gives each agent task a separate sandbox on the customer's cluster, using the permissions of the person who requested it. Each run begins in a fresh environment, which is destroyed after an idle period set to 30 minutes by default. Sandboxes run as non-root container pods with capabilities dropped, a seccomp profile, and no cluster service-account token. Administrators can choose open, domain-allowlist, or workspace-only network access, with allowlist decisions logged. In the supervised preset, commands require human approval and connections outside the allowlist prompt for a decision. Drive is not mounted: files pass through a permission-checking gateway, and outputs are pushed explicitly. Credentials are injected at the edge only after authorization. An append-only audit log records commands, files, connections, and permission decisions, including the actor and decision maker. Context lists more than 180 integrations across business categories, plus remote MCP servers. Enterprise sandboxes run on the customer's Kubernetes cluster, with KOTS installation options for EKS or AKS and an air-gapped bundle. Plans include Free at free, Plus at $20 a month, Pro at $200 a month, and custom-priced Enterprise.
microsandbox
Microsandbox runs untrusted workloads inside microVMs, each with its own Linux kernel, filesystem, and network boundary rather than sharing the host kernel. It can run AI agents, user code, plugins, CI jobs, scrapers, and automation. The local runtime starts on a user's machine without a daemon, root service, or account; it can also run on personal servers or clusters, and its cloud platform can be deployed in the user's infrastructure. Microsandbox offers SDKs for TypeScript, Rust, Python, Go, and Ruby, plus a CLI and MCP workflows, and accepts OCI images from container registries. By default, sandboxes can reach the public internet, while private, host-local, link-local, and metadata destinations are blocked; egress can be allowlisted or disabled. The runtime is open source under Apache 2.0. The Free plan is $0 per month, while paid plans start at $49 per month. Microsandbox Cloud is in private beta and requires an access request.