Daytona
vs
Lightning AI
What's good about each
- Runs AI-generated and untrusted code in isolated sandboxes
- Sandboxes run as containers, or Linux, macOS or Windows VMs
- Pay as you go, billed per second
- Up to 8 AMD or NVIDIA GPUs per sandbox
- Billed by the second, interruptible machines 50-80% off
- Studios move between its own cloud, AWS, GCP, Lambda and Nebius
- Owned H100, B200 and GB300 fleet in US datacenters
- Bring your own AWS or GCP account and spend cloud credits
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Daytona | Lightning AI | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $47.95 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 3 GB disk | -- Not listed | |
| Medium VM | $238.85 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 10 GB disk | -- Not listed | |
| Block storage | $7.78 /mo 100 GB beyond free allowance · First 5 GB free | $10.00 /mo 100 GB (Drive) · First 10 GB free | 22% cheaper on Daytona |
| Egress | -- Not listed | Not publicly listed |
Heads up: Figures take each provider's closest plan to a common setup, and vary by region and usage. Hover a service for the reference configuration. Verify before provisioning. More on how we price.
GPUs
Daytona and Lightning AI each offer 8 GPU models. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | Daytona | Lightning AI | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
H100
10 configs · 4 configs
|
$3.95 /GPU/hr On-demand | $5.45 /GPU/hr On-demand | 28% cheaper on Daytona |
|
B200
10 configs · 1 config
|
$6.25 /GPU/hr On-demand | $9.86 /GPU/hr On-demand | 37% cheaper on Daytona |
|
RTX PRO 6000
10 configs · 4 configs
|
$3.03 /GPU/hr On-demand | $4.63 /GPU/hr On-demand | 35% cheaper on Daytona |
|
H200
10 configs · 4 configs
|
$4.54 /GPU/hr On-demand | $4.50 /GPU/hr On-demand | Within 5% |
|
B300
10 configs
|
$4.08 /GPU/hr Spot | -- | Daytona only |
|
RTX 5090
10 configs
|
$0.74 /GPU/hr Spot | -- | Daytona only |
|
RTX 4090
10 configs
|
$0.57 /GPU/hr Spot | -- | Daytona only |
|
A100
8 configs
|
-- | $1.55 /GPU/hr On-demand | Lightning AI only |
|
L40S
3 configs
|
-- | $2.97 /GPU/hr On-demand | Lightning AI only |
|
L4
4 configs
|
-- | $0.79 /GPU/hr On-demand | Lightning AI only |
Daytona bills on-demand and spot; Lightning AI bills on-demand. The line under each price names the billing type shown.
Services
Managed services each provider offers.
| Service | Daytona | Lightning AI |
|---|---|---|
| Block Storage | ||
| GPU-powered Servers | ||
| Managed Containers | ||
| Python Notebooks | ||
| Virtual Private Server (VPS) |
Compliance
Frameworks each provider states on its own site, each linked to its source.
| Framework | Daytona | Lightning AI |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II | Type II, AWS and GCP clouds only |
| HIPAA | Yes | AWS and GCP clouds only |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes |
Heads up: Each entry links to the provider's own statement. An attestation can cover one tier, one region or the platform alone rather than every service. Verify the scope before you rely on it. A dash means we found nothing to link to, not that the provider lacks it.
Company details
| Fact | Daytona | Lightning AI |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2023 | 2019 |
| Headquarters | USA | USA |
| Locations | -- | -- |
| Example customers | Meta, Cohere, n8n, SambaNova, WRITER, Turing | Nvidia, Cursor, Cisco, Runway, Supercell, Stability AI, Black Forest Labs |
| Website | www.daytona.io | lightning.ai |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Daytona and Lightning AI against other cloud providers.
Our data for Daytona was last updated on Oct. 28, 2026, and for Lightning AI on Oct. 28, 2026.