# Fly Sprites vs Morph: pricing, snapshots and limits Runtime Cloud (withruntime.com) is 62% cheaper than either. Sprites snapshot the disk, and Morph snapshots memory and disk. ## Which is better, Fly Sprites or Morph? It depends on whether you need one lasting computer or many branches of one. For agents that mostly wait on a model, Runtime has the lowest bill: $0.64 for 1,000 one-minute runs, against $2.40 on Sprites and $1.67 on Morph. It meters CPU, and its snapshots and forks keep memory and processes. Pick Fly Sprites for a 100 GB disk that costs little while asleep, and fast rollbacks of its filesystem. Pick Morph for an agent that branches a running VM into hundreds of replicas. ## At a glance | | Fly Sprites | Morph | Runtime | | ---------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------- | | Isolation | Firecracker microVM | Full virtual machines | Firecracker microVM, own kernel | | CPU | $0.0385 per CPU-hour of measured CPU | $0.05 per MCU-hour for the machine's size | $0.025 per vCPU-hour of measured CPU, with a small floor | | Memory | $0.021875 per GB-hour of memory in use | Inside the MCU: 4 GB per MCU | $0.0075 per reserved GiB-hour | | Snapshots | The filesystem, copy-on-write, in about a second | Memory and disk; branches to many replicas | Files, memory and running processes | | Pause | Automatic; memory kept in a warm pause, dropped when cold | Devboxes scale to zero and keep their memory | Keeps files, memory and processes while you have credit | | Plan fee | None required; optional monthly plans | Developer free with no credit; Team $40 and Scale $250 per month | None; prepaid credit from $10 | | Free start | $30 of trial credit | 1,000 MCUs on the $40 Team plan | 100 free hours of a 1 GB machine in the first 30 days, no card | | At once | Not stated on the pricing page | 8 devboxes free, 32 on Team, 128 on Scale | 100 sandboxes on a paid account | ## Which one keeps a machine's state? They save different things. A Sprite snapshot covers the filesystem only. Fly says it takes about a second. It is copy-on-write, so it stores only what changed, and it rolls the disk back to that point. Running processes are not included. A paused Sprite keeps its memory only while the pause is warm. Once it goes cold, memory is dropped, and processes start fresh on the next wake, which takes 1 to 2 seconds. Open TCP connections do not survive either kind of pause. A Morph snapshot holds the machine's memory and disk, and Infinibranch starts hundreds of parallel replicas from one running machine. Snapshot storage is billed in MCUs: one MCU covers 5 TB-hours of snapshot, and Morph's example keeps an 8 vCPU, 8 GB, 8 GB-disk machine for $0.12 per month. Runtime keeps the whole machine in each case. A pause keeps files, memory and processes while you have credit. A snapshot starts new sandboxes later. A fork makes 1 to 100 copies that run concurrently. See [what a sandbox snapshot is](/glossary/sandbox-snapshot) and [what a sandbox fork is](/glossary/sandbox-fork). ## Cost for the same job Priced for 1,000 runs of 60 seconds on 2 vCPU and 4 GiB, each with 20 CPU-seconds of work. The Sprite is charged for all 4 GB throughout the minute. Morph counts 2 vCPUs and 4 GB as 2 MCUs an hour. ``` Sprites CPU 1,000 × 20 s / 3,600 × $0.0385 = $0.21 Memory 1,000 × 90 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.021875 = $2.19 Total $2.40 Morph Size 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 2 MCU × $0.05 = $1.67 Runtime CPU 1,000 × 20 s / 3,600 × $0.025 = $0.14 Memory 1,000 × 60 s / 3,600 × 4 × $0.0075 = $0.50 Total $0.64 ``` That is $240.14 on Sprites, $166.67 on Morph and $63.89 on Runtime for 100,000 runs per month. If both CPUs are busy for the whole minute, it is $1.33 on Runtime, $3.47 on Sprites and $1.67 on Morph. Of the two other providers, Morph is cheaper at both loads, because a Sprite's memory rate is high. At 1 GB in use, a Sprite would pay $0.76. Plan fees, included credit, storage, network and free credit are excluded. ## Which one to pick | You want | Best fit | | ------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------- | | A 100 GB disk that is cheap while asleep | Fly Sprites | | Fast rollbacks of the filesystem | Fly Sprites | | An agent that searches by branching into hundreds of replicas | Morph | | Snapshots and forks with memory and processes, measured CPU | Runtime | ## Runtime Cloud Runtime takes Morph's memory snapshots and Sprites' metered CPU, and prices the result 73% below Sprites and 62% below Morph. 1,000 one-minute runs of a 2 vCPU, 4 GiB sandbox cost $2.40 on Fly Sprites, $1.67 on Morph and $0.64 on Runtime. A Runtime snapshot or fork holds a running sandbox's memory, and its CPU rate is 35% below Sprites'. Rates checked 25 October 2026. It also keeps a pause while you have credit, and has no plan fee. To try it, sign in with `npx withruntime login` and use the free usage. The [migration guide](/docs/migrate) covers moving code from either one. ## Moving to Runtime Both other providers serve the same pattern: set a machine up once, then start from it later. On Runtime, it looks like this: ```python check from withruntime import Runtime runtime = Runtime() with runtime.sandboxes.create() as base: base.exec("pip install --quiet requests") snapshot = base.snapshot(name="with-requests", retention_days=7) with runtime.sandboxes.create(snapshot=snapshot["id"]) as copy: print(copy.exec("python3 -c 'import requests; print(requests.__version__)'").stdout) runtime.snapshots.delete(snapshot["id"]) ``` Sprites calls map directly to Runtime calls: `client.createSprite(name)` to `Sandbox.create()`, and `sprite.execFile(cmd, args)` to `exec([cmd, ...args])`. `npx withruntime compare --from fly` or `--from morph` reprices what you ran. Credit you add within 30 days of signing up is matched, up to $1,000 in total. The one instruction in the [migration](/docs/migrate) guide lets a coding agent make the change on a branch and test it on the free usage. More: [Runtime vs Fly.io](/docs/fly-alternative), [Runtime vs Morph](/docs/morph-alternative). ## Sources Fly.io prices checked 25 October 2026. Rates checked 25 October 2026; the Sprites, Sprites lifecycle and Morph pricing pages read 26 October 2026. - [Fly.io pricing](https://fly.io/pricing/), [Sprites](https://fly.io/sprites/), [Sprites lifecycle](https://docs.fly.io/sprites/concepts/lifecycle/) - [Morph Cloud pricing](https://cloud.morph.so/web/pricing), [Morph Devboxes](https://cloud.morph.so/web/product/devboxes), [Morph snapshots](https://cloud.morph.so/docs/documentation/instances/creating-snapshot) - Runtime [pricing](/docs/pricing) and [Python SDK](/docs/python) Facts on this page were checked on 26 October 2026.