A very small and slow VPS is $5/month. A Sandstorm instance, at the same price, could offer far better performance.
Ultimately, as a Linux-based project, Sandstorm cannot really save you from the complication of installing Linux itself, or keeping it running and updated, or making backups. It just saves you the complication of installing and configuring individual apps. So the "managed instances" service is appropriate for people who don't even want to manage a Linux instance at all.
