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Developer Tools · head to head

Daytona vs Soketi

Daytona logo

Daytona

Developer Tools

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

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Soketi logo

Soketi

Developer Tools

Self-hosted, Pusher-compatible WebSockets server with a stalled maintenance record

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • 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.; Soketi maintenance has effectively stalled: the maintainer has said time is severely limited, releases are infrequent, and the community has been discussing whether the project is abandoned, which means security fixes may not arrive.
  • They diverge on capability: Daytona covers Sub-second sandbox creation, Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Daytona and Soketi actually diverge.

Attributes where Daytona and Soketi differ
AttributeDaytonaSoketi
Pricing modelusage-basedOpen source, no licence fee
Platformsweb, linux, windows, apiLinux, macOS, Windows

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Developer Tools).

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 Soketi

  • Pusher protocol compatibility
  • Presence and private channels
  • Horizontal scaling
  • App management backends
  • Webhooks
  • Prometheus metrics

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 Soketi
  • Executing untrusted user code for a coding platformnot Soketi
  • Running GPU workloads on demand without provisioning dedicated serversnot Soketi
  • Testing Windows-specific code paths in a sandboxnot Soketi

Soketi

  • A Laravel application that already uses Echo and wants to stop paying a hosted realtime providernot Daytona
  • Realtime notifications or presence indicators where data must not leave your own infrastructure for compliance reasonsnot Daytona
  • A local or CI environment that needs a Pusher-compatible server without hitting a paid accountnot Daytona
  • A high-connection-count application where hosted per-connection pricing has become the largest line in the infrastructure billnot 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.

Soketi

  • Maintenance has effectively stalled: the maintainer has said time is severely limited, releases are infrequent, and the community has been discussing whether the project is abandoned, which means security fixes may not arrive.
  • Dependency drift on Node and uWebSockets.js will eventually force you to fork or migrate, and that cost is unbudgeted at the point you adopt it.
  • There is no commercial support to buy, so a production incident at three in the morning is entirely your problem with no escalation path.
  • Scaling beyond a single node needs Redis and careful configuration, and getting presence channels correct across nodes is a genuine source of subtle bugs.
  • It implements the Pusher protocol rather than tracking it, so any protocol feature Pusher adds later will not appear, and the compatibility guarantee slowly decays.

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

Soketi

Free
  • SoketiFree
    • MIT licensed
    • Unlimited connections subject to your own hardware
    • No vendor billing

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 Soketi if

  • You need pusher protocol compatibility.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want presence and private channels.
Soketi review

Questions people ask

Is Daytona or Soketi better?
Neither clearly leads. Daytona starts at Free and Soketi at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Daytona or Soketi?
Daytona starts at Free and Soketi at Free.
Does Daytona or Soketi run on more platforms?
Daytona runs on web, linux, windows, api. Soketi runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Daytona for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
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 Soketi is typically brought in for.
What can Daytona do that Soketi cannot?
Daytona covers Sub-second sandbox creation, Per-second billing, GPU instances, Windows OS support. Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility, Presence and private channels, Horizontal scaling, App management backends.

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
Soketi: Is Soketi still maintained?

Barely. The maintainer has stated that available time is very limited and releases have been sparse; treat it as community-maintained.

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
Soketi: Do I need to change my client code?

No. Pusher client SDKs and Laravel Echo work by changing the host, port and credentials.

Daytona: Are discounts available for startups?

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

Source
Soketi: What does it cost?

Nothing in licence fees. It is MIT licensed; you pay for the server it runs on.

Soketi: What are people moving to?

Laravel Reverb for Laravel applications, and Sockudo, a Rust reimplementation, for others.

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