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
02Blaxel and kosa8, feature by feature
| Feature | Blaxel | kosa8 |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | MicroVMs; 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-gap | Not 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] |
| Regions | us-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 VM | Yes, 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 rewind | Automatic 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-list | Domain 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 freeze | Not 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 trail | Not documented | Signed, hash-chained log anyone can check with kosa8 audit verify; Cloud streams it to Splunk, Datadog or a webhook [18] [20] |
| SSO | SAML 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] |
| GPU | Not documented for sandboxes | No. Sandboxes have no GPU today [21] |
| SDK languages | TypeScript, 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 model | Per 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 tier | Up 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 status | Its 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:
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):
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 })becomesbox.exec(['sh', '-c', command]); it waits for completion by default.- Region names change:
us-ash1(Dallas) oreu-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]. allowedDomainsmaps to--egress-allowon a local sandbox [17].- Each kosa8 Cloud
execruns in a fresh container on the sandbox's disk: files under/workspacepersist between commands, background processes do not. A buffered exec stops at 90 seconds; sendstream: truefor longer commands [15]. - Templates today are
base(Alpine),python(Python 3.12) andnode(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.
- Blaxel docs: Overview
- Blaxel docs: Sandboxes overview
- Blaxel docs: Fork
- Blaxel docs: Infrastructure
- Blaxel: Pricing
- Blaxel docs: Regions
- Blaxel docs: Proxy domains
- Blaxel docs: SSO and directory sync
- Blaxel docs: Get started
- Blaxel docs: Go SDK
- Blaxel docs: MFA and compliance
- Blaxel docs: Processes
- kosa8: Security, isolation model
- kosa8: Where kosa8 runs
- kosa8 docs: kosa8 Cloud
- kosa8: Pricing
- kosa8 guide: network allow-list
- kosa8 docs: Security Center
- kosa8 docs: Your first sandbox
- kosa8 docs: Governance
- kosa8: FAQ
- kosa8: Trust Center
Give every agent a sealed box.
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