# Daytona vs Morph: Morph is 40% cheaper per agent run Runtime Cloud (withruntime.com) costs 77% less than Daytona; Morph branches running VMs with their memory. ## Which is better, Daytona or Morph? It depends on how far you need to branch a running machine. Runtime gives agents the lowest bill here, $0.64 for the job against $1.67 on Morph and $2.76 on Daytona, with no plan fee, and it forks up to 100 copies of a sandbox with memory kept. Pick Morph to branch one live machine to hundreds of replicas. Pick Daytona for GPU or Windows machines. ## At a glance | | Daytona | Morph | Runtime | | ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- | | Isolation | Containers by default; VM sandboxes as a separate class | Full virtual machines | Firecracker microVM, own kernel, every sandbox | | CPU | $0.0504 per allocated vCPU-hour | $0.05 per MCU-hour; one MCU is 1 vCPU, 4 GB or 16 GB of disk | $0.025 per vCPU-hour of measured CPU, with a small floor | | Memory | $0.0162 per GiB-hour | Inside the MCU: 4 GB per MCU | $0.0075 per reserved GiB-hour | | Plan fee | None published | Free, 8 concurrent devboxes; Team $40 a month, 32; Scale $250, 128 | None; prepaid credit from $10 | | Free start | $200 of compute | 1,000 MCUs with the $40 Team plan | 100 free hours of a 1 GB machine in the first 30 days, no card | | Snapshots, forks | Memory snapshots on VM sandboxes | Memory and disk; Infinibranch branches to hundreds of replicas | Files, memory and running processes; 1 to 100 forks | ## Which is better for branching a running sandbox? Both rivals can copy a sandbox with its memory, with different reach. - **Morph** is built around it. Infinibranch branches a running machine, memory included, to hundreds of parallel replicas, and snapshots keep memory and disk. - **Daytona** takes memory snapshots only on its VM class; its default container sandbox does not keep memory. - **Runtime** forks any sandbox, 1 to 100 running copies at a time, each with the source's files, memory and running processes. A snapshot keeps the machine to start more copies from later. Prepare once, then try two things from exactly that point: ```ts check import { Runtime, Sandbox } from "withruntime"; const runtime = new Runtime(); await using base = await Sandbox.create(); await base.exec("pip install --quiet requests"); const [a, b] = await base.fork({ count: 2 }); // both running, answered together await Promise.all([a!.stop(), b!.stop()]); // Or keep the machine to start copies from later: const snapshot = await base.snapshot({ name: "with-requests", retentionDays: 7 }); await using later = await runtime.sandboxes.create({ snapshot: snapshot.id }); await runtime.snapshots.delete(snapshot.id); ``` A fork's copies are billed as a create of the same size would be, and the snapshot a fork takes is deleted when the fork ends. See [sandbox fork](/glossary/sandbox-fork) and [sandbox snapshot](/glossary/sandbox-snapshot). ## Cost for the same job 1,000 runs of a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB sandbox (2 MCUs an hour on Morph). Each run lasts 60 seconds and keeps the CPU busy for 20 CPU-seconds: an agent that mostly waits for a model. ``` Daytona CPU 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 2 × $0.0504 = $1.68 Memory 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0162 = $1.08 Total $2.76 Morph Size 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 2 MCU × $0.05 = $1.67 Runtime CPU 1,000 × 20 s / 3,600 × $0.025 = $0.14 Memory 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0075 = $0.50 Total $0.64 ``` At 100,000 runs a month that is $276.00 on Daytona, $166.67 on Morph and $63.89 on Runtime. With both CPUs busy for the whole minute, it is $1.33 on Runtime against $2.76 on Daytona and $1.67 on Morph, so Runtime is cheaper however busy the sandbox is. Plan fees, included credit, disk, network and free credits are left out. Morph charges a machine for whichever it needs most of: 2 vCPUs is 2 MCUs, and so is 8 GB. A 2 vCPU sandbox with 8 GB still costs 2 MCUs on Morph, while Daytona and Runtime charge the extra memory. ## Which one to pick - **Pick Daytona** for GPU sandboxes or Windows machines, per-second billing with no plan, or the $200 free start. - **Pick Morph** to branch one running machine to hundreds of replicas in parallel, or for shareable development environments that scale to zero and keep their memory. - **Pick Runtime** for a microVM on every sandbox at 77% below Daytona's price and 62% below Morph's, forks and pause with memory on every sandbox, and no plan fee. ## Runtime Cloud Runtime runs the same job for 77% less than Daytona and 62% less than Morph. 1,000 one-minute runs of a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB sandbox cost $2.76 on Daytona, $1.67 on Morph and $0.64 on Runtime, because Runtime bills the CPU your code uses. Every Runtime sandbox is a Firecracker microVM that can pause and fork with its memory and running processes. Rates checked 25 October 2026. Open a free account with `npx withruntime login` and fork your own sandbox to see it. The [migration guide](/docs/migrate) covers moving Daytona or Morph code. ## Switch from either one From Daytona, Runtime's SDK runs your code after one import change: ```ts no-run import { Daytona } from "withruntime/daytona"; // was: from "@daytona/sdk" ``` ```python no-run from withruntime.daytona import Daytona # was: from daytona import Daytona ``` From Morph, port the calls with the [migration table](/docs/migrate#map-the-calls): starting an instance becomes `Sandbox.create()`, a command becomes `exec`, and branching becomes `fork({ count })`. Or give your coding agent the one instruction in [migration](/docs/migrate): it switches the project on a branch, tests it on the free usage and reports the monthly saving. `npx withruntime compare --from morph` prices the sandboxes you ran at Morph's published rates, and credit you add within 30 days of signing up is matched, up to $1,000 in total. The full side-by-sides are [Runtime vs Daytona](/docs/daytona-alternative) and [Runtime vs Morph](/docs/morph-alternative). ## Sources Daytona and Morph pricing pages rechecked 25 October 2026; the rest checked 25 October 2026. - [Morph Cloud pricing](https://cloud.morph.so/web/pricing), [Morph Devboxes](https://cloud.morph.so/web/product/devboxes), [Morph snapshots](https://cloud.morph.so/docs/documentation/instances/creating-snapshot) - [Daytona pricing](https://www.daytona.io/pricing), [Daytona sandboxes](https://www.daytona.io/docs/en/sandboxes), [Daytona on microVMs, pause and fork](https://www.daytona.io/dotfiles/vms-pause-and-fork) - Runtime [pricing](/docs/pricing) Facts on this page were checked on 26 October 2026.