HEAD-TO-HEAD · PRICES VERIFIED 2026-08-27
Self-host Firecracker (Hetzner) vs Cloudflare Containers
Across 3 benchmark profiles, Cloudflare Containers prices lower in 2 of 3 — by up to ~94% where the gap is widest. Both rows use identical workload inputs and USD list rates from the capture-dated catalog; verify current rates via each vendor's source link.
Monthly Cost Across Realistic Benchmarks
Rate Card Snapshot
| Vendor | $/vCPU-hr | $/GiB-hr | Billing granularity | Concurrency note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Self-host Firecracker (Hetzner) | — | incl. | — | Bounded only by host capacity — the point of self-hosting. |
| Cloudflare Containers | $0.0720 | $0.0090 | per 0.01s | Requires Workers Paid $5/mo. Included monthly: 375 vCPU-minutes, 25 GiB-hours memory, 200 GB-hours disk; usage beyond included bills at the listed rates. |
Fit Notes
- Self-host Firecracker (Hetzner) — Skip if usage is bursty or spiky — the host bills 24/7 whether sandboxes run or not; below roughly half utilization the managed providers win on total cost and you still own the pager.
- Cloudflare Containers — Skip if you want vendor-managed snapshot/resume semantics — Containers scale to zero but have no cross-machine session pause/resume story like E2B/Daytona snapshots.
Self-host Firecracker (Hetzner)
StrengthsCloudflare Containers
StrengthsRun your own workload through the full interactive calculator, or browse all pairs on the comparisons hub.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is cheaper, Self-host Firecracker (Hetzner) or Cloudflare Containers?
Across 3 benchmark profiles, Cloudflare Containers prices lower in 2 of 3 — by up to ~94% where the gap is widest. Both rows use identical workload inputs and USD list rates from the capture-dated catalog; verify current rates via each vendor's source link.
How were these Self-host Firecracker (Hetzner) vs Cloudflare Containers costs computed?
Both vendors run identical workload profiles (sandbox-hours × vCPU/RAM) through the same engine using each vendor's captured USD list rates; the full methodology is on the agent-sandbox-pricing tool page.