Mainbrella vs E2B vs Daytona
Mainbrella offers small, temporary Linux workspaces with fixed monthly allowances. E2B and Daytona offer broader machine configurations and persistence options with usage billing. The differences below help you check whether your workload fits.
Reviewed . Published by Mainbrella; competitor details come from their official pages, not independent runtime tests.
| Capability | Mainbrella | E2B | Daytona |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billing model | Fixed monthly plans: $5 Builder, $180 Pro, $999 Scale. 250 / 9,000 / 50,000 compute-unit hours per UTC month; hard allowance caps, no automatic overage charges. | Hobby: $0 base; Pro: $150/month base, both plus usage. One-time $100 Hobby credit. | Per-second usage billing for compute, memory, and storage; $200 initial compute credit advertised. |
| Machine sizes | All plans: Five sizes: 1/16–4 vCPU, 256 MiB–12 GiB RAM, 2–20 GB ephemeral disk. Size-weighted runtime and concurrency allowances. | Template CPU/RAM configuration; published Hobby ceiling of 8 vCPUs and 8 GiB RAM. Availability depends on plan and template. | Default: 1 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM, 3 GiB disk. Configurable within organization limits. |
| Infrastructure | Cloudflare Containers; provider documents a Firecracker microVM per instance. | Firecracker-based microVM runtime with dedicated kernels. | Dedicated-kernel sandbox model described in the public project; OCI/Docker compatible. |
| Storage and persistence | Files lost after stop. No snapshots, pause/resume, or persistent volumes. | Pause/resume preserves disk and memory; paused sandboxes retained until explicitly killed. | Persistent volumes survive individual sandbox deletion. Snapshots are also documented. |
| SDKs and integration | HTTP API and agent skill; no published SDK. | JavaScript/TypeScript and Python SDK examples. | TypeScript, Python, Ruby, Go, and Java examples; API and CLI. |
| Source availability | Website and client tools source available. This does not establish a self-hostable compute platform. | Runtime and platform repositories published under Apache-2.0. | Former core repository archived October 3, 2026; its notice says core development moved private in June 2026. |
| Deployment options | Hosted on Cloudflare. No offered BYOC, self-hosted deployment, or customer-selected compute region. | Managed cloud, BYOC, and self-hosted stack advertised; check commercial terms. | Managed US/EU regions; enterprise BYOC advertised. |
| Startup evidence | Historical prototype: 381 ms P50 / 528 ms P95 (30 creates); 680 ms P95 (100-machine burst). Original methodology incomplete. | No comparable timed test reviewed for this page. Use the Quickstart to measure your own workload. | Millisecond startup claim; no comparable timed test reviewed for this page. |
Compare the workload, not just the monthly price
A plan fee is not a total-cost estimate for a usage-billed service. Compare the machine resources, runtime, concurrency, starts, and stored data your application needs. All Mainbrella plans offer machines up to 4 vCPU and 12 GiB RAM. Persistent volumes, snapshots, and a published SDK remain capability gaps. Mainbrella’s concurrency ceiling also depends on machine size.
Measure startup on equal terms
The startup row is not a speed ranking. Mainbrella’s historical percentiles and a provider’s marketing claim do not share a test harness or known cache state. Measure creation through a validated first command with the same workload, client location, resource size, concurrency, and failure accounting. Retain raw samples and cleanup outcomes. Mainbrella’s benchmark methodology describes those boundaries.
Check the current contract
Rows marked unavailable describe Mainbrella today, not roadmap commitments. Competitor capabilities can depend on plan, region, or a sales agreement. Links beside each claim let you inspect the provider’s own documentation. For Mainbrella, the limits, platform page, and trust center describe current access and commitments.
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