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Daytona vs Delinea

Daytona logo

Daytona

Developer Tools

Infrastructure for spinning up secure, sub-second sandboxes to run AI-generated code

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
Delinea logo

Delinea

Cybersecurity

Privileged access management from the merged Thycotic and Centrify

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Daytona has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Daytona pricing is purely usage-based with no flat monthly plan, which can make costs harder to predict for steady workloads.; Delinea the Thycotic and Centrify lineages are integrated unevenly, so buying the full portfolio means running consoles and agents that do not share one administrative model as cleanly as the marketing suggests.
  • They diverge on capability: Daytona covers Sub-second sandbox creation, Delinea covers Secret Server.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Daytona and Delinea actually diverge.

Attributes where Daytona and Delinea differ
AttributeDaytonaDelinea
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelusage-basedquote
Free tierYesNo
Platformsweb, linux, windows, apiWeb, Windows, Linux, macOS
CategoryDeveloper ToolsCybersecurity

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Daytona

  • Sub-second sandbox creation
  • Per-second billing
  • GPU instances
  • Windows OS support
  • Enterprise BYOC

Only in Delinea

  • Secret Server
  • Privileged session recording
  • Privilege Manager
  • Server PAM
  • Discovery
  • DevOps secrets
  • Behaviour analytics

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Daytona

  • Running AI agent-generated code in a disposable, isolated sandboxnot Delinea
  • Executing untrusted user code for a coding platformnot Delinea
  • Running GPU workloads on demand without provisioning dedicated serversnot Delinea
  • Testing Windows-specific code paths in a sandboxnot Delinea

Delinea

  • An organisation whose cyber insurer now requires privileged credentials to be vaulted and rotatednot Daytona
  • A mid-market IT team that abandoned a heavier PAM rollout and needs a vault that can be in production in weeksnot Daytona
  • A company removing local administrator rights from every workstation after a ransomware incidentnot Daytona
  • An audit finding that shared service account passwords are stored in a spreadsheet and used by contractorsnot Daytona

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Daytona

  • Pricing is purely usage-based with no flat monthly plan, which can make costs harder to predict for steady workloads.
  • GPU instances are priced separately and can be significantly more expensive than standard compute for AI-heavy use cases.
  • Enterprise features like SSO, audit logs, and BYOC are only available by contacting sales rather than self-serve.

Delinea

  • The Thycotic and Centrify lineages are integrated unevenly, so buying the full portfolio means running consoles and agents that do not share one administrative model as cleanly as the marketing suggests.
  • Modules are licensed separately by different units, per privileged user for the vault and per endpoint for privilege management, which makes total cost hard to model and easy to underestimate at scale.
  • Delinea does not publish rates, so buyers benchmark against third party and public sector listings; expect list prices to be negotiable by a wide margin, which means the first quote is not the price.
  • Thoma Bravo ownership since 2021 has coincided with firmer renewal pricing, and buyers with a single-vendor PAM estate have little leverage once credentials are inside the vault.
  • Migrating out of a privileged access vault is a genuinely hard project because every automated process that fetches a secret has to be repointed, so the switching cost is real and the vendor knows it.

Pricing, plan by plan

Daytona

Free
  • Pay-as-you-go$undefined/mo
    • $0.0504 per vCPU/hour
    • $0.0162 per GiB memory/hour
    • $0.000108 per GiB storage/hour after 5 free GiB
  • Startup Program$undefined/mo
    • Up to $50,000 in free credits for qualifying startups
  • Enterprise$undefined/mo
    • Custom usage limits
    • SSO
    • Audit logs

Delinea

On request
  • Secret Server$undefined/year
    • Priced per privileged user, tiered by edition
    • Cloud or on premises deployment
    • Session recording in higher editions
  • Privilege Manager$undefined/year
    • Priced per endpoint
    • Local admin rights removal and application elevation
    • Licensed separately from Secret Server
  • Server PAM$undefined/year
    • Priced per managed server or per privileged user
    • Just-in-time server access
    • Licensed separately

Which should you pick?

Choose Daytona if

  • You need sub-second sandbox creation.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on web, linux, windows, api.
  • You also want per-second billing.
Daytona review

Choose Delinea if

  • You need secret server.
  • You work on Web, Windows, Linux, macOS.
  • You also want privileged session recording.
Delinea review

Questions people ask

Is Daytona or Delinea better?
Neither clearly leads. Daytona starts at Free and Delinea at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Daytona or Delinea?
Daytona has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Daytona and On request for Delinea.
Does Daytona or Delinea run on more platforms?
Daytona runs on web, linux, windows, api. Delinea runs on Web, Windows, Linux, macOS.
Can I use Daytona for free?
Yes. Daytona has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Delinea starts at On request.
What is Daytona best used for?
Daytona is most often used for running ai agent-generated code in a disposable, isolated sandbox, executing untrusted user code for a coding platform, running gpu workloads on demand without provisioning dedicated servers, testing windows-specific code paths in a sandbox. Of those, running ai agent-generated code in a disposable, isolated sandbox and executing untrusted user code for a coding platform are not what Delinea is typically brought in for.
What can Daytona do that Delinea cannot?
Daytona covers Sub-second sandbox creation, Per-second billing, GPU instances, Windows OS support. Delinea covers Secret Server, Privileged session recording, Privilege Manager, Server PAM.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Daytona: How is Daytona usage metered?

Usage is billed per second across vCPU, memory, and storage consumed, with separate per-hour rates for GPU and Windows instances.

Source
Delinea: Is Delinea the same as Thycotic?

Delinea is the merged company formed from Thycotic and Centrify in 2021. Secret Server is the former Thycotic product; the server access products come from Centrify.

Daytona: Is there a free plan, and what are its limits?

There is no flat free plan, but new signups receive $200 in free compute credit with no credit card required to start.

Source
Delinea: Is pricing published?

Not by Delinea. Public sector frameworks have listed Secret Server Cloud around 348 GBP per user per year, which is a reference point, not a quote.

Daytona: Are discounts available for startups?

Yes, the Startup Program offers up to $50,000 in free credits for qualifying companies.

Source
Delinea: Does one licence cover endpoints and servers?

No. Secret Server, Privilege Manager and Server PAM are separately licensed on different units. Scope all three if your requirement spans them.

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