What is a sandbox?

Isolated dev environments that run your full stack privately.

A sandbox is a private, throwaway copy of your whole app — frontend, backend, and data — that you can experiment in freely. Nothing you do inside a sandbox can touch your live app or your customers. It's where you try things, break things, and see what happens, with zero risk to production.

Your live app on one side and a dashed-border duplicate labeled "Sandbox — your private, isolated copy of the whole app" on the other, note: "Experiment freely here; nothing you do touches production." Show that the sandbox is where the Builder's App Preview runs.

When you're working in the Builder, the live App Preview you see is running inside a sandbox. So you're already using one — it's the safe, behind-the-scenes environment that lets you watch your changes come to life before they ever go public.

Annotated screenshot of the Sandboxes list showing one or two sandbox cards with a status (Running / Sleeping) and create/manage controls, callout: "Each sandbox is your own private copy of the whole app to experiment in safely."

Your whole app, not just a piece

A sandbox isn't a stripped-down preview or a single page. It runs your full stack — the frontend your users see, the backend that powers it, and a copy of your data. That means it behaves exactly like the real thing, so what works in the sandbox is what you'll get when you go live.

Completely isolated

This is the part that matters most: a sandbox is sealed off from production.

Whatever you do in a sandbox — add features, change data, even break something on purpose — cannot affect your live app or your real customers. It's a separate, private copy. Production carries on, untouched.

That's the whole point. You get to be fearless, because nothing real is on the line.

Sandbox vs. stage — what's the difference?

These two words sound similar but do different jobs:

  • A sandbox is your private playground. It's yours alone, disposable, and meant for experimenting. Create as many as you like — they're unlimited on every plan — and delete them whenever.
  • A stage is a shared, deployed copy of your app — like a "staging" or "production" environment your whole team points at. It's a real destination you deploy to, not a throwaway.

The short version: a sandbox is where you try things; a stage is where you ship things.

The takeaway

A sandbox is your risk-free playground that behaves exactly like the real app. You can poke at anything, knowing production stays safe and untouched.

Where to go next