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Compare deployments · Private cloud testing

Private cloud testing, three ways to deploy.

Same SBOX product, same AI native modules, same security posture in every deployment. The choice is about who operates the platform, who owns the network, and how fast the security review clears. Move between models later without re-platforming.

  • Single-tenant in every model
  • Migration supported between models
Selenium Box · Three deployment models
Decision view
🔒 deployment.element34 Side-by-side
Private Cloud (self-hosted) In-house · K8s · air-gap
Customer-owned infrastructure customer.local
Customer operates everything platform team
Zero data egress network-locked
Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) AWS · Azure · GCP
Customer cloud account vpc-id-***
Customer cloud team applies Terraform customer IaC
Single-tenant inside VPC private-link
Managed Private Cloud Element34 ops · 24x7 SLA
Element34-operated, customer-isolated single-tenant
Region-pinned to customer mandate eu-central-1
Hands-off for the customer team SLA-backed
Private Cloud VPC Managed
Decision matrix

See exactly what changes between models, and what stays the same.

Everything procurement, security, and platform engineering ask before signing the contract. The model decides who operates the platform.

Capability
Private Cloud
Self-hosted
VPC
Customer cloud account
Managed
Element34-operated
Where it runs
Customer-owned infrastructure (bare metal, VMs, Kubernetes)
Customer cloud account (AWS, Azure, GCP)
Element34-operated, region-pinned
Single-tenant by default
Air-gap install supported
Limited
Customer-controlled data residency
Mandated region
Who operates it
Customer operates day-to-day
Customer applies via Terraform
Element34 applies patches and CVE response under SLA
Element34 24x7 monitoring + on-call engineer
Element34 capacity scaling and backups
Security & compliance posture
Customer-controlled keys (BYOK)
Audit logs to customer SIEM (Splunk, QRadar, Sentinel)
Customer IdP via OIDC SSO
Zero data egress (test traffic stays in perimeter)
E34 ops path, audit-logged
Compliance-first by architecture (DORA, HIPAA, GDPR)
What runs inside
Full SBOX platform, all modules licensed
5 AI native modules (Studio, Auto Heal, RCA, Pulse, RDC)
Private inference, BYO LLM
E34-operated path
Selenium, Playwright, Appium
Cost & commercial shape
Annual subscription (no per-execution metering)
Infrastructure cost included in subscription
Days to first test (vs weeks for in-house install)
Weeks
Best fit
Hard data-residency or air-gap mandate
Cloud-first mandate already approved (AWS / Azure / GCP)
No platform engineering team to operate it
Deployment page
Not sure which model fits? Walk us through your security review, cloud strategy, and team size. Book a demo → Most buyers know within one call.
Recommended path

Which deployment fits your team?

Each deployment is built for a specific kind of team. Sitting between two profiles? Book a demo and we will scope it.

Private Cloud

Pick Private Cloud if your security review only accepts customer-owned infrastructure.

You have a platform-engineering team. You have data-residency constraints harder than cloud regions. You may need air-gap. You want total control, you accept total operations.

  • Tier-1 banks with in-house mandates
  • Government and defense with sovereignty rules
  • MedTech with regulatory air-gap requirements
  • Hyperscaler-hostile compliance posture
  • Customer Kubernetes via Helm, VMs via Docker, bare metal
See Private Cloud page →
VPC

Pick VPC if your cloud-first mandate already approved AWS, Azure, or GCP.

You have a cloud platform team that runs Terraform. You want testing infrastructure inside your account, single-tenant, with customer keys and PrivateLink. Public SaaS testing did not clear your review.

  • Cloud-first regulated enterprises
  • Customer-controlled keys via cloud KMS
  • PrivateLink, VPN, or IP allowlist at the edge
  • Sovereign-cloud regions supported
  • Terraform modules shipped by Element34
See VPC page →
Managed

Pick Managed if you want enterprise infrastructure without an enterprise infrastructure team.

You want SBOX, you do not want patches, upgrades, capacity, monitoring, and incident response. Element34 operates a single-tenant environment in your region. 24x7 SLA.

  • Mid-market financial services
  • Healthcare SaaS and MedTech without a platform team
  • Regional and municipal government
  • Existing self-hosted SBOX customers transitioning
  • Predictable annual cost, infrastructure included
See Managed page →
Migration paths

Switching from Selenium Grid, BrowserStack, or Sauce Labs?

Test scripts move over unchanged. Element34 customer success scopes the migration end-to-end. The full SBOX platform, including AI native modules, ships from day one. No stripped-down migration tier.

Selenium Grid alternative

From a self-managed Selenium Grid that is starting to break.

Symptom: flaky sessions, locator decay, slow root cause, on-call rotations on the QA team. Operations burden growing faster than the test fleet.

Recommended path

Private Cloud (self-hosted) SBOX. Keep customer-owned infrastructure. Drop in SBOX. Get Auto Heal, Studio, Automated RCA, Pulse Report on top of the same network footprint. No script rewrites.

BrowserStack alternative

From public SaaS test grids your security review rejected.

Symptom: security review blocks BrowserStack, Sauce Labs, or LambdaTest. Test traffic crossing the customer boundary is no longer acceptable. Vendor controls the keys.

Recommended path

VPC or Managed Private Cloud. Same execution capability inside your perimeter. VPC if your cloud team will run Terraform. Managed if you want hands-off. Both clear the security review BrowserStack failed.

Sauce Labs alternative

From multi-tenant SaaS with metered pricing surprises.

Symptom: per-execution metering, noisy-neighbor performance, no single-tenant option, EU data residency unclear, predictable annual budgeting impossible.

Recommended path

Managed Private Cloud SBOX. Predictable annual subscription. Single-tenant in your region. 24x7 SLA. The full AI native module set included. No noisy neighbors.

Secure test automation principles

The security architecture holds in every deployment.

The principles SBOX honors in every deployment. They do not change with the operator. They do not change with the cloud. They do not change with the contract tier.

Principle 01

Single-tenant by default

Customer infrastructure is never shared. No multi-tenant control plane. In every deployment model.

Principle 02

Customer perimeter is the trust boundary

Test traffic, test data, and platform secrets stay inside the boundary the customer defines.

Principle 03

Customer-controlled keys

BYOK in every model. No vendor master key. Customer KMS in Private Cloud and VPC; optional in Managed.

Principle 04

Customer-owned audit log

Every session, every change, every operations action goes to the customer log sink. Element34 actions in Managed are visible.

Principle 05

Private inference

AI test automation for enterprises runs inside the customer perimeter. Customer plugs in their own LLM provider subscription.

Principle 06

Region pinning

Customer mandates the region. Element34 honors it. Data, processing, backups stay region-pinned.

Compare deployments FAQ

Compare deployments, answered.

What is private cloud testing?
Private cloud testing is a test automation deployment where the test infrastructure runs inside the customer security perimeter rather than on a vendor multi-tenant SaaS platform. Element34 SBOX offers three private cloud testing deployments: Private Cloud (self-hosted), Virtual Private Cloud (customer cloud account), and Managed Private Cloud (Element34-operated, customer-isolated). All three are single-tenant by default. None require test traffic to leave the customer perimeter.
Which Element34 deployment should we pick?
Pick Private Cloud if you have hard data residency, an air-gap mandate, or your own platform team. Pick VPC if your cloud-first mandate already approved AWS, Azure, or GCP and you want SBOX inside your account. Pick Managed Private Cloud if you want enterprise testing infrastructure without operating it. All three run the same SBOX product. Migration between models is supported.
Is Element34 a BrowserStack alternative?
Yes. Element34 SBOX is a BrowserStack alternative built for enterprise buyers whose security review rejects shared SaaS test grids. BrowserStack runs as multi-tenant public SaaS. Element34 SBOX runs single-tenant inside the customer perimeter across three deployment models. The trade-off: SBOX requires a deployment decision; BrowserStack does not. SBOX clears procurement; public SaaS often does not.
Is Element34 a Sauce Labs alternative?
Yes. Element34 SBOX is a Sauce Labs alternative for buyers who need single-tenant, region-pinned testing infrastructure that runs inside their security perimeter. Sauce Labs is public-cloud-first. Element34 is private-cloud-first. The full SBOX platform, including all AI native modules, is included in every deployment model. No per-execution metering. Annual subscription.
Is Element34 a Selenium Grid alternative?
Yes. Element34 SBOX is a Selenium Grid alternative for teams who have outgrown their self-managed grid. Selenium Grid handles session orchestration. SBOX adds AI authoring (Studio), self-healing locators (Auto Heal), automated root cause analysis, site health intelligence (Pulse Report), and Real Device Cloud, on top of a Selenium-compatible session API. Existing test scripts run unchanged.
What is VPC testing infrastructure?
VPC testing infrastructure runs the test platform inside the customer Virtual Private Cloud on AWS, Azure, or GCP. Element34 ships Terraform modules. Customer cloud team applies them inside the customer cloud account. SBOX runs single-tenant inside the customer VPC. Element34 has no write access to the customer account. The customer cloud team owns the deployment, the keys, and the network.
What is in-house test automation in Element34 SBOX?
In-house test automation in Element34 SBOX means running SBOX on customer-owned infrastructure, either inside the customer datacenter or on a customer-controlled environment. The Private Cloud deployment supports Kubernetes via Helm, virtual machines via Docker, bare metal, and fully isolated environments. Test traffic, test data, and platform secrets never leave the customer network.
How does Element34 support compliance-first testing?
All three deployment models support compliance-first testing through architectural controls: single-tenant by default, region-pinned, customer-controlled keys, SSO and SCIM, audit logs, customer-defined retention, and zero data egress in Private Cloud and VPC.
Can we migrate between deployment models?
Yes. SBOX is the same product across Private Cloud, VPC, and Managed Private Cloud. Test scripts, session history, configuration, and user identity migrate with the customer. Element34 customer success engages on every migration. Common paths: Private Cloud to Managed (drop the operations burden), VPC to Managed (drop the cloud-account work), or Managed to VPC (take operations in-house).
What is enterprise browser testing on Element34 SBOX?
Enterprise browser testing on Element34 SBOX means Selenium and Playwright test execution on real browsers and real devices, inside the customer perimeter, with enterprise controls (SSO, SCIM, audit logs, role-based access, customer-controlled keys, region pinning). The same enterprise browser testing capability ships in every deployment model. The deployment decision is about who operates the infrastructure, not what the testers can do.
Does Element34 SBOX include AI test automation for enterprises?
Yes. AI test automation for enterprises is the core of SBOX: Studio for plain-English authoring, Auto Heal for self-healing locators, Automated RCA for failure root cause, Pulse Report for site health intelligence, all running on private inference inside the customer perimeter. Customer plugs in their own LLM provider subscription. No test data, prompts, or model outputs leave the customer security boundary.
How long does each deployment take to stand up?
Managed Private Cloud is the fastest, typically days from contract to first test, because Element34 provisions and operates the environment. VPC depends on the customer cloud team Terraform pace, typically a few days once the cloud account is ready. Private Cloud depends on the customer platform team and infrastructure pipeline, typically weeks because the customer is standing up customer-owned infrastructure.

Three models. One conversation.

Tell us about your security review, your cloud strategy, and your operations capacity. We will recommend the deployment model that fits and scope it. Annual subscription, predictable across the contract term.