Browser platforms / Scrapfly Cloud Browser alternative

A Scrapfly Cloud Browser alternative

Scrapfly Cloud Browser exposes managed Chromium through CDP, Playwright and Puppeteer. Its shared API-credit balance covers browser time and bandwidth alongside other Scrapfly products. Compare that remote browser layer with the separate execution and durable filesystem an agent uses outside the browser.

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Reviewed 2026-10-18 · Published by the Sandbox0 team

When Scrapfly Cloud Browser fits

Scrapfly fits browser automation and data pipelines that want managed Chromium, proxy pools and one credit account across scraping, screenshots and extraction. It can remain a browser dependency for an agent hosted on Sandbox0.

When to consider Sandbox0

Consider Sandbox0 when the agent needs persistent Linux packages, repositories and configuration beyond one browser lifetime, with automatic RootFS expansion and supported file access while compute stays paused. Account separately for any retained remote-browser service.

Capabilities

Scrapfly Cloud Browser and Sandbox0: what persists?

Feature comparison with documentation and verification status
Environment and runtime lifetimeScrapfly Cloud BrowserCloud Browser defaults to 15 minutes from start, with a maximum configured lifetime of 30 minutes.View evidence ↗Sandbox0ttl and hard_ttl default to 0 (disabled). Configure idle pause and deletion policies for the same persistent sandbox identity; an idle running sandbox still accrues compute charges.Read documentation →
Persistent filesScrapfly Cloud BrowserNamed browser-session reuse is documented; an independent durable Linux disk is not established.View evidence ↗Sandbox0The writable RootFS survives successful checkpoints, including software, system configuration, dependencies, and user data.Read documentation →
Whole RootFSScrapfly Cloud BrowserManaged Chromium does not establish complete writable Linux RootFS persistence.View evidence ↗Sandbox0Persistence extends beyond /workspace to paths such as /usr/local, /etc, and /home. Runtime tmpfs and virtual filesystems are excluded.Read documentation →
Release compute, keep stateScrapfly Cloud BrowserReconnecting a live session is distinct from a compute-free machine checkpoint.View evidence ↗Sandbox0Pause compute between tasks; resume on available capacity. Default resume starts fresh processes from the saved filesystem.Read documentation →
Memory and process stateScrapfly Cloud BrowserArbitrary process-memory capture and restore are not established.View evidence ↗Sandbox0Experimental memory checkpoints can preserve compatible process state. Use memory: true on both pause and resume on a compatible deployment. A filesystem checkpoint alone does not preserve running processes.Read documentation →

Online RootFS growth

On growth-enabled images, Sandbox0 automatically expands the writable RootFS as free space runs low, within a configured sparse logical ceiling up to 64 TiB. Agent processes keep running. Growth is enabled in the qualified Cloud region; confirm activation for other regions. Existing images and snapshots retain their captured storage geometry. The ceiling is logical capacity, not preallocated host disk.

A Scrapfly browser session has a bounded lifetime and credit balance. The reviewed contract does not establish online expansion or whole-RootFS retention for a Linux agent. Retain the agent’s working environment and long-term outputs in the appropriate runtime.

Files while compute is paused

Sandbox0's Files API reads persistent files without resuming compute. Filesystem-only pauses also permit edits; retained-memory pauses are read-only and reject mutations with 409. SSH, SFTP, file watching, and runtime-only mounts require running compute.

Cloud Browser session reuse does not establish file read/write access to a paused general-purpose Linux environment. Export browser outputs before session expiration and keep their durable destination explicit.

See paused file operations →

A session can reconnect without becoming an indefinite computer

A named session with auto_close=false supports reuse across client connections. The documented default expiration is 15 minutes from session start; timeout can raise that to 30 minutes. Reconnection must fit within that lifetime, so save useful results and make longer jobs resumable outside the browser.

Source 1 ↗

Time, network traffic and cached traffic all consume credits

Cloud Browser charges one credit per 30 seconds, plus seven credits per MB of datacenter bandwidth or 52 per MB of residential bandwidth. Cached static-resource traffic is one credit per MB, and each session has a five-credit minimum. These meters are not a flat price per extracted page or a comparable Linux VM-hour.

Source 1 ↗

Plan limits determine how exhaustion behaves

The current monthly price cards pair a credit allowance with concurrency. Free and Discovery stop at their credit quota, while Pro and higher support pay-as-you-go overflow. Log retention is an observability allowance, not evidence that installed software or a customer filesystem survives browser termination.

Source 1 ↗

Pricing

Compare billing models, then price your workload

CPU allocation, memory, billing minimums, disk, plan fees, and supported workload differ. These meters are not equal-performance machine quotes. Confirm region, resource units, and included allowances before estimating a total.

Scrapfly Cloud Browser

Pricing reviewed 2026-10-18

Discovery
$30/month including 200,000 API credits
Five concurrent requests; quota-capped rather than automatic paid overflow.
Rate source ↗
Pro
$100/month including 1,000,000 API credits
20 concurrent requests; additional credits are $3.50 per 10,000.
Rate source ↗
Cloud Browser time
1 credit per 30 seconds; 5-credit session minimum
Bandwidth is additional: 7 credits/MB datacenter, 52 credits/MB residential; cached bandwidth is 1 credit/MB.
Rate source ↗

Use the human-readable current price cards as the pricing authority. The machine-readable pricing export lists a Discovery extra-credit amount while also marking that plan quota-capped; do not assume automatic Discovery overage. Shared credits can be spent by other Scrapfly APIs, so the allowance is not a dedicated browser-time pool.

Check current Scrapfly Cloud Browser pricing ↗

Sandbox0

$0.015/GiB-hour compute (billed by the second at approximately $0.000004167/GiB-second), plus $0.02/GiB-month of retained incremental RootFS and memory checkpoint data. Shared base images and platform recovery retention are excluded; paused sandboxes accrue storage charges only.

Compute / GiB-hour
$0.015
Retained data / GiB-month
$0.02
Paused compute
$0.00

A 4 GiB agent, 100 running hours

$6.00 compute

4 GiB × 100 hours, billed by the second. Keeping 20 GiB of billable incremental data for a full billing month adds $0.40. CPU is derived from memory by the platform; choose a tier that fits your workload.

Understand storage billing →

Before migrating from Scrapfly Cloud Browser

  1. Record session names, auto-close behavior, deadlines, browser downloads and proxy/cache traffic before choosing a replacement boundary.
  2. Port surrounding agent code and durable outputs to Sandbox0, reconnecting to Scrapfly or supplying another compatible browser as required.
  3. Validate jobs beyond 30 minutes, safe checkpoints, RootFS growth, paused files and total shared-credit plus runtime usage.

Common questions

Is Sandbox0 a drop-in Scrapfly Cloud Browser replacement?

Evaluate API compatibility and product scope. These products serve different core workflows, so a change may require a different architecture.

Does keeping files also keep a running agent?

Filesystem state and volatile process state are separate. Sandbox0 requires explicit compatible memory checkpoints to preserve running processes; its default filesystem resume starts fresh processes.

Sources and review scope

The Boat team's Battleships directory is the discovery source. References below describe the product and plan discussed on this page. Check current availability, regional terms and billing units before migrating. Where the cited material does not establish a capability or price, the comparison identifies that uncertainty.

Battleships research record ↗scrapfly.io/docs/cloud-browser-api/getting-started ↗scrapfly.io/pricing ↗Sandbox0 RootFS capacity →

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