SBOX vs Sauce Labs

Test automation built to run inside your perimeter, not tunneled out to a vendor cloud.

Sauce Labs is a mature, AI-forward testing cloud with a large real-device fleet and an agentic AI suite. Selenium Box (SBOX) starts from the opposite requirement: a managed test grid architected to run entirely inside your network, including air-gapped deployments, so that code and test data stay within your perimeter. This page compares the two for teams where data residency decides the purchase.

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Runs inside your network, including air-gapped Bring-your-own-LLM, AI inference stays in your perimeter Selenium, Playwright and Appium in parallel Built by core contributors to Selenium Grid, Selendroid and ios-driver

Quick answer

Sauce Labs is a mature, AI-forward public testing cloud that reaches internal apps over a Sauce Connect tunnel while tests run on its cloud. Element34 SBOX runs the whole grid inside your own network, single-tenant and air-gap-capable, with AI on your own LLM. Choose SBOX when tests and data must stay in your perimeter; choose Sauce Labs when a vendor-hosted cloud with a large real-device fleet fits.

Built for regulated enterprise QA and platform teams.

BankingInsuranceHealthcareGovernmentDefense

How the two compare

SBOX vs Sauce Labs: same tests, the difference is where your data lives.

Both run Selenium and Playwright at scale. The difference is architectural: where the grid runs, who operates it, and whether your code and test data ever leave your network. The comparison below uses the criteria a security or compliance-minded engineering leader actually evaluates on.

Criterion	Sauce Labs	Element34 SBOX
Default operating model	Fully managed, multi-tenant public cloud (the AURA platform), plus single-tenant Private Cloud and dedicated Private Devices options that Sauce Labs hosts.	A managed private grid that runs inside your own network.
Where test data lives	On Sauce Labs-operated infrastructure; internal apps are reached over a Sauce Connect or IPSec tunnel while tests run on the Sauce cloud.	Your data center or private cloud, with air-gapped deployment supported.
Who operates the grid	Sauce Labs operates all execution infrastructure; you connect to it.	Element34 operates the managed layer; the grid stays inside your perimeter.
On-prem and air-gapped	Sauce Labs documents on-premise install for its Mobile App Distribution product. Its published documentation describes browser and real-device execution on Sauce Labs-hosted infrastructure.	Runs inside your network, with air-gapped deployment supported; by design, no outbound callback to Element34 after the initial image pull.
AI and data handling	Sauce Labs documents AURA, an agentic AI suite (authoring, execution, analysis) that runs in the Sauce cloud.	AI inference runs inside your perimeter with bring-your-own-LLM, so by design prompts and test data are processed inside your network rather than sent to Element34.
Frameworks	Selenium, Playwright, Appium, Cypress and TestCafe.	Selenium, Playwright and Appium, across the same grid.
Device & browser breadth	A large real-device fleet: 7,500+ real devices and 1,700+ emulators and simulators, across thousands of browser-OS combinations (per saucelabs.com/products/supported-browsers-devices, accessed 25 Sep 2026).	A focused browser and real-device matrix inside your controlled environment.
Regulatory fit	SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certified across the portfolio (per Sauce Labs).	Aligned by architecture with DORA, HIPAA, PCI-DSS and Solvency II; each customer completes its own audit. SBOX is not FedRAMP authorized and is not on the FedRAMP Marketplace; where FedRAMP applies, it runs inside the customer's own authorization boundary.
Cost model	Quoted through sales by scale and deployment.	Quoted through sales by scale and deployment.

Where a capability is not shown for a product, that means the vendor does not publicly document it as of the access date below, not that it is unavailable. Sauce Labs figures and capabilities are taken from Sauce Labs' published product documentation at saucelabs.com/products/supported-browsers-devices, accessed 25 September 2026. Re-verified quarterly by Element34 marketing.

Architecture matters when compliance is non-negotiable.

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What they do well

Where Sauce Labs is the stronger choice

An honest comparison names the other product's strengths. Sauce Labs is excellent at several things SBOX does not try to match.

Device and browser breadth

7,500+ real devices and 1,700+ emulators/simulators, across thousands of browser-OS combinations for consumer-facing web and mobile testing across geographies.

Zero infrastructure

The managed cloud is instant and self-serve, reached from behind your firewall via Sauce Connect.

Agentic AI platform

AURA and Sauce AI author, run and analyze tests from natural language, with IDE, pipeline and MCP integrations.

Certified security posture

SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certifications across the portfolio.

When to choose Sauce Labs

Choose Sauce Labs when these are true

Be specific. There are clear situations where Sauce Labs fits better than SBOX.

You need a large real-device and browser matrix, and you test consumer web or mobile across many device types and regions.
You want zero infrastructure to operate and instant self-serve onboarding.
Your test data is not subject to residency, single-tenant or air-gap mandates that require execution inside your own network, so a vendor-hosted cloud reached via Sauce Connect is acceptable.
You want Sauce Labs' agentic AI suite (AURA) with its IDE, pipeline and MCP integrations out of the box.
You value the vendor holding SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certifications directly.

Where SBOX wins

Choose SBOX when your data cannot leave your network

For regulated teams, the deciding factor is usually not feature count. It is where the grid runs and what your auditor can verify.

Test code, sessions and test data stay inside your perimeter. Nothing runs on shared multi-tenant infrastructure.
Can be deployed fully air-gapped; by design, after the initial image pull it needs no outbound connection to Element34, so vendor telemetry and callbacks are not part of the architecture.
AI-native modules (Auto Heal, Automated RCA, Pulse Reports) run in-perimeter with bring-your-own-LLM, so by design your prompts and test data are processed inside your network rather than sent to Element34.
A managed layer handles provisioning, upgrades and observability, so you are not maintaining the grid yourself.
Selenium, Playwright and Appium run in parallel on the same grid.
Architecture that can support DORA, HIPAA, PCI-DSS and Solvency II alignment; each customer completes its own audit. Built by core contributors to Selenium Grid, Selendroid and ios-driver.

Migrating from Sauce Labs

What a move to SBOX looks like

Most migrations are a configuration change, not a rewrite.

Suites already on the W3C WebDriver protocol move with a session-endpoint and credential change.

Point your CI/CD at the SBOX hub running inside your network.

Parallel-run against SBOX to validate results before you cut over.

Suites still using the legacy JSON Wire Protocol or DesiredCapabilities need refactoring first, and that timeline depends on suite size. Because the grid runs inside your network, there is no Sauce Connect tunnel to maintain.

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Common questions

Questions evaluators ask

Does Sauce Labs run behind our firewall?

Sauce Labs offers Sauce Connect and IPSec Proxy to securely test internal apps behind your firewall, plus dedicated Private Devices and a single-tenant Private Cloud for its app-distribution product. In each of these, Sauce Labs' documentation describes test execution on Sauce Labs-hosted infrastructure. SBOX differs in that the whole grid runs inside your own network, including fully air-gapped, so execution and data stay in your perimeter.

Can SBOX run air-gapped?

Yes. By design, after the initial container image pull SBOX requires no external connectivity and makes no callback to Element34, so test data, sessions and logs stay inside your environment.

Do Sauce Labs and SBOX both support Playwright?

Yes. Both support Selenium, Playwright and Appium. Sauce Labs also supports Cypress and TestCafe. SBOX runs Selenium, Playwright and Appium in parallel on the same grid.

Where does our test data go with each option?

With Sauce Labs, its documentation describes execution on Sauce Labs-hosted infrastructure (multi-tenant cloud, single-tenant Private Cloud for app distribution, or dedicated Private Devices), with internal apps reached over a Sauce Connect tunnel. With SBOX, sessions run inside your own data center or private cloud, and can be fully air-gapped.

Does SBOX send our prompts or test data to an AI provider?

No. SBOX is bring-your-own-LLM and runs AI inference inside your perimeter. Prompts and test data move only between SBOX and the LLM endpoint you connect. Element34 does not receive them.

Is SBOX SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certified?

SBOX is designed so your deployment can meet the controls these frameworks require, and its architecture aligns with DORA, HIPAA, PCI-DSS and Solvency II. SBOX is not FedRAMP authorized and is not on the FedRAMP Marketplace; where FedRAMP applies, it runs inside the customer's own authorization boundary. Certification applies to a specific environment, and each customer completes its own audit.

How hard is it to migrate from Sauce Labs?

Suites already on the W3C WebDriver protocol typically move with a session-endpoint and credential change. Suites on the legacy JSON Wire Protocol or DesiredCapabilities need refactoring first, and that timeline depends on suite size.

See it in your environment

See SBOX running inside your perimeter

Bring your compliance constraints. We will show you a private, AI-native test grid that keeps code and test data inside your network.

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