Comparison

Containarium vs Sprites

Sprites and Containarium agree on the big idea: an agent needs a real, persistent Linux computer, not a throwaway sandbox. The difference is where it lives. Sprites are a hosted Fly.io product; Containarium is open source and runs on a VM you own.

Choose Containarium when…

  • You need to self-host: code and data stay on infrastructure you control.
  • You want the whole stack under Apache 2.0, including the control plane.
  • You need GPU passthrough on your own hardware.
  • You want per-tenant eBPF egress allowlists.

Choose Sprites when…

  • You want a persistent agent computer without running anything.
  • You want one-second filesystem checkpoints to roll back a bad agent run.
  • You want idle computers to cost nothing but storage.
  • You're already on Fly.io.

Same shape — a persistent computer per agent. Different owner: you vs Fly.io.

Side-by-side

Dimension Containarium Sprites
What you get A persistent Linux box (LXC container or Kubernetes pod) A persistent Linux computer ("Sprite")
Persistence Disk and running services persist until you delete the box Durable storage (local cache backed by object storage); ~1 s copy-on-write checkpoints
Idle behavior Optional auto-sleep; self-hosted boxes cost only your VM Running → warm → cold; warm and cold are not billed for compute
Public URL Routable hostname with TLS via the sentinel; custom domains Every Sprite gets its own URL with TLS
Agent interface MCP server in every box + CLI + SSH CLI, REST API, SDKs (JS, Go, Python, Elixir), agent plugins
Self-hosting First-class, Apache 2.0 Hosted on Fly.io
Pricing OSS: your VM's cost. Cloud: free tier, then usage $0.07/CPU-hr, $0.04375/GB-hr memory, ~$0.50/GB-month hot storage

Sprites details checked against its public docs and pricing pages in September 2026. Check Sprites's own docs for current specifics.

The same bet

Both products reject the "five-minute sandbox" model. An agent that installs a toolchain, runs a dev server and comes back tomorrow needs a machine that is still there. On that, Sprites and Containarium agree.

Where they differ

Sprites wins on convenience: nothing to operate, checkpoints in about a second, and idle computers that stop billing compute. If you're happy on Fly.io's infrastructure, that is a strong default.

Containarium wins when the machine has to be yours — for data residency, for GPUs you already own, or because you want the control plane under Apache 2.0 too. Every box also ships an MCP server, so agents drive it with a config entry. See where customer data lives on the hosted tier.

FAQ

What is the difference between Containarium and Sprites?

Both give AI agents a persistent Linux computer. Sprites is a hosted Fly.io product with fast filesystem checkpoints and idle-free billing. Containarium is open source (Apache 2.0), self-hostable on your own VM, and ships an MCP server in every box.

Can I self-host Sprites?

Sprites is a hosted Fly.io service. Containarium's open-source install runs on any Ubuntu VM you own.

Which is cheaper?

For a self-hosted Containarium install, the cost is the VM you run it on, with many boxes per VM. Sprites bill per CPU-hour and GB-hour while running and only storage while idle, which suits bursty, mostly-idle agents.

A persistent computer for every agent — on your hardware.

Start free on the hosted cloud, or self-host the open source on your own VM.

Try Containarium Cloud How the agent sandbox works

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