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Compare · kosa8 vs Blaxel

kosa8 vs Blaxel

Checked

Both run microVMs and both keep memory: Blaxel puts sandboxes on standby and resumes them in under 25 ms, and forks memory and processes in private preview [1] [2] [3]. kosa8 runs on your computer, your servers, an air-gapped site or kosa8 Cloud, with keys held outside the VM and a hash-chained audit log.

01The short verdict

Choose Blaxel if

  • you want sandboxes that sit on standby forever and resume in under 25 ms, billed only while active [2] [5];
  • you want agent hosting, batch jobs and MCP hosting on the same platform [5];
  • you need very high concurrency tiers, up to 100,000+ through sales [5];
  • you need SOC 2 and HIPAA reports today [11].

Choose kosa8 if

  • sandboxes must run on laptops, your servers or an air-gapped site with no outside control plane [14];
  • you need fork and checkpoints as generally available features [15];
  • you want an audit log of sandbox actions anyone can verify [20];
  • you want a freeze for every sandbox and key in one call [18].

02Blaxel and kosa8, feature by feature

FeatureBlaxelkosa8
IsolationMicroVMs; the hypervisor is not named [1] [4]A microVM per sandbox with its own Linux kernel: Apple's Virtualization framework on a Mac, Cloud Hypervisor on KVM on x86-64 Linux; kosa8 Cloud runs the same sandboxes on kosa8's hosts [13]
Self-host and air-gapNot documented; bring-your-own-metal in your VPC keeps Blaxel's control plane [5]Yes: your computer, your own KVM Linux servers, or an air-gapped site with a signed offline licence (Enterprise, quoted) [14]
Bring your own cloud (BYOC)Bring your own compute (bare metal in your VPC) on the Custom plan; clouds not named [5]Your own KVM Linux servers join your Cloud organization through an outbound tunnel, $0.20 per host-hour, no compute charge [14]
Regionsus-pdx-1, us-was-1, eu-lon-1, eu-fra-1 and auto; not all self-service [6]kosa8 Cloud: US (Dallas, Texas) and EU (Helsinki). Locally: wherever your machines are [15]
Fork a running VMYes, in private preview: memory, files and processes [3]Yes: live copies with memory and processes intact (kosa8 fork; on Cloud up to 100 per call). Plans count how many copies run at once [15] [16]
Snapshots and rewindAutomatic standby keeps memory and processes, resumes in under 25 ms; manual snapshots in private preview [2] [3]Checkpoint and rewind of memory, processes and disk; a sleeping Cloud sandbox keeps a snapshot at $0.08 per GB-month [15] [16]
Egress allow-listDomain allow- or deny-lists with wildcards, plus methods and paths (public preview); CIDR not documented [7]Host-enforced allow-list (names, *.domain, IPs, CIDRs) fixed at create, with API keys added by an egress broker outside the VM. kosa8 Cloud has no egress policy setting yet [17] [18]
Kill switch or freezeNot documented; standby is automatic, delete and archive exist [2]kosa8 sandbox pause --all stops every sandbox's CPUs in place; on Cloud an organization freeze refuses new work, sleeps every sandbox and can suspend keys [18] [19]
Audit trailNot documentedSigned, hash-chained log anyone can check with kosa8 audit verify; Cloud streams it to Splunk, Datadog or a webhook [18] [20]
SSOSAML SSO and SCIM behind a feature flag; tied to a support add-on on pricing [8] [5]kosa8 Cloud: OIDC with Okta, Entra ID or Google Workspace, and it can be required. No SAML or SCIM yet [18] [20]
GPUNot documented for sandboxesNo. Sandboxes have no GPU today [21]
SDK languagesTypeScript, Python and Go, a CLI and a REST API [9] [10]Python, JavaScript and TypeScript, Go, Ruby, Java; plus an HTTP API, a CLI and an MCP server [15]
Pricing modelPer GB of RAM per second while active ($0.0000115), standby not billed; snapshots $0.20 per GB-month [5]Plans from $29 a month for your own machines, each with Cloud credit; Cloud per second at $0.048 per vCPU-hour and $0.0154 per GB-hour [16]
Free tierUp to $200 of free credits on pay as you go; 10 sandboxes on the free tier [5]Free on your computer after email sign-up (sandboxes, save and undo, dashboard); $30 of Cloud credit once a card is added [16]
Security audit statusIts docs say SOC 2 and HIPAA audit reports are available on request [11]SOC 2 in progress (no report yet); no external penetration test yet [22]

Bracketed numbers point to the sources. "Not documented" means the vendor's own pages did not say on 2026-11-14; it does not mean the feature is missing.

03Where Blaxel is stronger

  • Standby and resume. Under 25 ms resume and no charge while on standby [2] [5].
  • Managed scale. Concurrency tiers into the 100,000s [5]; kosa8 Cloud defaults to 20 [16].
  • A wider agent platform. Agent hosting, batch jobs, MCP hosting and an egress proxy with secrets injection [5] [7].
  • Compliance paperwork. SOC 2 and HIPAA reports on request [11]; kosa8 has no SOC 2 report yet [22].

04Where kosa8 is different

  • Fully yours to run. Blaxel's own-hardware option keeps its control plane [5]; kosa8 runs offline [14].
  • Generally available fork and rewind. Blaxel's fork and snapshots are in private preview [3]; kosa8's are standard [15].
  • A documented audit log with hash chaining and SIEM streaming [18].
  • More SDKs. kosa8 adds Ruby and Java [15].

05Moving from Blaxel to kosa8

Blaxel's docs create a sandbox, run a process and delete it [9] [12] [2].

Blaxel, from its docs:

typescript
import { SandboxInstance } from "@blaxel/core";
const sandbox = await SandboxInstance.createIfNotExists({
  name: "my-sandbox",
  image: "blaxel/base-image:latest",
  memory: 4096,
  region: "us-pdx-1"
});
const result = await sandbox.process.exec({
  command: "ls /",
  waitForCompletion: true
});
await SandboxInstance.delete("my-sandbox");

The same on kosa8 Cloud (TypeScript, npm install @kosa8/sdk):

typescript
import { Kosa8Cloud } from '@kosa8/sdk';

const cloud = new Kosa8Cloud(); // reads KOSA8_API_KEY
const box = await cloud.sandboxes.create({ template: 'python' });
const r = await box.exec(['python3', '-c', "print('hello')"]);
console.log(r.exitCode, r.stdout);
await box.delete();
  • process.exec({ command }) becomes box.exec(['sh', '-c', command]); it waits for completion by default.
  • Region names change: us-ash1 (Dallas) or eu-hel1 (Helsinki) [15].
  • Blaxel's automatic standby maps to sleep_after_s; a sleeping kosa8 Cloud sandbox costs $0.08 per GB-month and wakes on the next command [16].
  • allowedDomains maps to --egress-allow on a local sandbox [17].
  • Each kosa8 Cloud exec runs in a fresh container on the sandbox's disk: files under /workspace persist between commands, background processes do not. A buffered exec stops at 90 seconds; send stream: true for longer commands [15].
  • Templates today are base (Alpine), python (Python 3.12) and node (Node.js 22) [15].
  • An organization runs up to 20 sandboxes at once on kosa8 Cloud unless you ask for more [16].

06Questions

Do Blaxel and kosa8 both keep memory?

Yes. Blaxel's standby keeps memory and processes [2]; kosa8 checkpoints save memory, processes and disk [15].

Is Blaxel's fork generally available?

Its docs mark fork and manual snapshots as private preview [3]. kosa8's fork is a standard command [15].

Can I run Blaxel without its control plane?

Its docs do not describe that; bring-your-own-metal connects to Blaxel's control plane [5]. kosa8 runs fully offline [14].

Does either have GPUs?

Blaxel does not document GPUs for sandboxes, and kosa8 sandboxes have no GPU today [21].

07Sources, checked on 2026-11-14

Every fact about another product comes from that vendor's own documentation or pricing page, read on 2026-11-14. Where its pages do not say, the table says "not documented" rather than guess. Products change quickly: check the current pages before you decide, and tell us if something here is out of date.

  1. Blaxel docs: Overview
  2. Blaxel docs: Sandboxes overview
  3. Blaxel docs: Fork
  4. Blaxel docs: Infrastructure
  5. Blaxel: Pricing
  6. Blaxel docs: Regions
  7. Blaxel docs: Proxy domains
  8. Blaxel docs: SSO and directory sync
  9. Blaxel docs: Get started
  10. Blaxel docs: Go SDK
  11. Blaxel docs: MFA and compliance
  12. Blaxel docs: Processes
  13. kosa8: Security, isolation model
  14. kosa8: Where kosa8 runs
  15. kosa8 docs: kosa8 Cloud
  16. kosa8: Pricing
  17. kosa8 guide: network allow-list
  18. kosa8 docs: Security Center
  19. kosa8 docs: Your first sandbox
  20. kosa8 docs: Governance
  21. kosa8: FAQ
  22. kosa8: Trust Center

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