AWS AgentCore vs Islo
AgentCore is an AWS platform that hosts agents in short microVM sessions, with a managed Code Interpreter and Browser, inside your AWS account. Islo gives each coding agent its own VM that keeps running, with Docker, SSH and a gateway that controls and logs every outbound call.
The companies and products
AWS AgentCore
Amazon Bedrock AgentCore is a set of AWS services to deploy and run AI agents: a Runtime that hosts your agent code, plus built-in Code Interpreter and Browser tools.
AgentCore is not a sandbox product first. It is a hyperscaler's agent platform: you push a container image or code, and each Runtime session gets its own Firecracker microVM that you reach through AgentCore APIs. Around it sit managed tools (Code Interpreter, Browser) and services for memory, identity, gateways and evaluations, and an Instances compute type runs longer sessions on EC2 in your own account. It is built for teams who already build on AWS and want agents to stay inside their account, IAM and VPC.
Islo
Islo is an agent sandbox from Incredibuild: each coding agent gets its own microVM, with network rules and credentials handled at a gateway.
An Islo sandbox is a Linux microVM with its own kernel, built from a container image, with Claude Code, Cursor CLI and Codex preinstalled. Outbound traffic can pass through a gateway that allows or blocks hosts, injects credentials and logs every request. It is built for teams that run coding agents, evals and RL rollouts in the background, on Islo's cloud or in their own cloud account.
- Launched
- May 4, 2026
Which use cases each one fits
For each use case, Battleships prices every sandbox provider on the same workload and sorts them from the cheapest monthly bill up. “7th cheapest of 345” means 6 of the other 344 providers run that workload, with every feature it needs, for less. “With limits” means the provider runs it but misses something, so it is listed after every full match. Open a use case for its whole ranking and what each provider misses.
| Use case and its workload | AWS AgentCore: price rank | Islo: price rank | boat: price rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month A coding agent on AgentCore stops after 8 hours and keeps only its storage mount, while Islo keeps a VM with Docker running; boat adds /dev/kvm and a desktop on a full machine. | 100th of 367, with limits $888 a month | 326th of 367, with limits $7,402 a month | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB Islo fits an assistant that lives on one machine all month and can pause it with its memory; AgentCore needs the Instances type on EC2 for that, and boat simply keeps running. | 64th of 366, with limits $1,300 a month | 30th cheapest of 366 $9,928 a month | 5th cheapest of 366 $657 a month |
| Code interpreter bursts 100 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 200,000 sessions of 1 min a month AgentCore Code Interpreter is built for short code runs and bills only CPU actually used, which suits this better than Islo or boat. | 7th cheapest of 345 $114 a month | 153rd of 345, with limits $503 a month | 186th of 345, with limits $2,000 a month |
| Sandboxes for your users 300 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 23 min a month 300 sandboxes for your users is more than the 50 reported for Islo's Team plan, AgentCore sessions have no open ports for users, and boat gives each one HTTPS URLs on up to 50 ports. | 210th of 361, with limits $506 a month | 171st of 361, with limits $3,160 a month | Cheapest of 361 $209 a month |
| RL rollouts 1,000 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 1,000,000 sessions of 3 min a month | 125th of 360, with limits $8,075 a month | 167th of 360, with limits $15,265 a month | 34th of 360, with limits $2,000 a month |
| Agent evals 250 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 15,000 sessions of 20 min a month Islo has a Harbor integration and gateway rules that stop trials from looking up answers; AgentCore fits short eval runs in its managed sessions, and boat runs more sandboxes at once. | 33rd cheapest of 364 $650 a month | 198th of 364, with limits $2,456 a month | 10th cheapest of 364 $200 a month |
| CI runners 40 at once · 8 vCPU / 16 GB · 6,000 sessions of 12 min a month | 52nd cheapest of 377 $399 a month | 119th cheapest of 377 $1,507 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB Islo gives a dev box SSH and a VM that keeps running; AgentCore has no SSH and resets everything outside its storage mount after a stop. | 228th of 368, with limits $52 a month | 112th cheapest of 368 $402 a month | 18th cheapest of 368 $26 a month |
| Computer-use agents 50 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 20,000 sessions of 15 min a month Neither gives an agent a full desktop: AgentCore Browser drives only a browser and Islo is headless, while boat streams a 60fps Linux desktop with a computer-use API. | 104th of 369, with limits $202 a month | 310th of 369, with limits $2,210 a month | 6th cheapest of 369 $200 a month |
| Browser-use agents 50 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 10 min a month AgentCore Browser is a managed Chromium with live view and session replay, Islo has a browser only for testing inside the sandbox, and boat runs Chromium on a full machine. | 4th cheapest of 367 $144 a month | 113th of 367, with limits $1,105 a month | 7th cheapest of 367 $200 a month |
| Scraping & bots (startup scale) 50 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 100,000 sessions of 3 min a month | 27th cheapest of 346 $287 a month | 66th cheapest of 346 $748 a month | 6th cheapest of 346 $90 a month |
| Mass scraping & bots (undetectable) 1,000 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 3,000,000 sessions of 2 min a month | 165th of 338, with limits $5,458 a month | 265th of 338, with limits $14,966 a month | 71st of 338, with limits $1,800 a month |
| Parallel red teaming 200 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 5,000 sessions of 30 min a month | 62nd of 360, with limits $294 a month | 47th of 360, with limits $746 a month | 2nd cheapest of 360 $200 a month |
| GPU eval jobs 10 at once · 8 vCPU / 32 GB · 500 sessions of 30 min a month | Can't run it | Can't run it | Can't run it |
| macOS agents 5 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 1,000 sessions of 20 min a month | Can't run it | Can't run it | Can't run it |
Key features
| Feature | AWS AgentCore | Islo | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | An AWS agent platform: hosted agent sessions plus managed Code Interpreter and Browser tools | An agent sandbox from Incredibuild: a microVM per coding agent with a network gateway | A sandbox platform: each agent gets its own full Linux machine |
| Isolation | Firecracker microVM per Runtime session; Code Interpreter and Browser in a containerized environment | A microVM with its own kernel for each sandbox | Full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts |
| Session length | Up to 8 hours per microVM lifecycle, stopped after 15 idle minutes by default; up to 14 days on Instances | No published cap; a sandbox runs until you stop it or its pause timer fires | No cap on paid plans; you set the time to live |
| Session size | 2 vCPU / 8 GB per microVM session, not adjustable; bigger EC2 types only on Instances | You choose CPU cores, memory and disk per sandbox, billed per unit | Up to 16 vCPU / 32 GB on the $100 plan and above |
| What survives a stop | Only one storage mount under /mnt, up to 1 GB, in preview; EBS volumes on Instances; the rest resets | Pause keeps files, processes and memory; snapshots of a sandbox's files | The whole disk, saved every minute and on stop; a stopped sandbox costs nothing |
| Fork | No user snapshots or fork of a session | Snapshot a running sandbox's files, then start new sandboxes from it | Fork a running sandbox with its disk |
| Docker and /dev/kvm | Root inside the microVM; arm64 container images; Docker and /dev/kvm not documented | Docker inside and sudo; no /dev/kvm or nested virtualization documented | Root, Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine |
| Reaching the sandbox | No open ports or SSH; reached only through AgentCore APIs with IAM or JWT | SSH and port-forward through the CLI; HTTPS share links that expire after 24 hours by default | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected; raw TCP; SSH |
| Outbound internet rules | VPC mode with security groups, PrivateLink and a NAT gateway for a fixed outbound IP | Gateway rules by host, path and HTTP method, with default deny, rate limits and a log of every request | Open internet, no provider-side allowlist |
| Keeping keys out of the sandbox | AgentCore Identity stores OAuth tokens and API keys and hands them to your agent code | Gateway injects stored credentials into outbound requests; keys never reach the sandbox | Credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API; switch a credential to another account when credits run out |
| Browser and desktop | Managed Chromium with live view, session recording and replay; no full desktop | A browser inside the sandbox for testing; no desktop or computer-use API | Full Linux desktop streamed at 60fps, with Chromium and computer use |
| Coding agents | AWS's own managed harness built on Strands Agents, or your own agent code | Claude Code, Cursor CLI and Codex preinstalled, with automations on schedules, webhooks and GitHub, Slack and Linear events | Claude Code, Codex and more preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API |
| GPUs | NVIDIA G-series and Inferentia2 on the Instances type | No | No |
| Regions | 17 commercial AWS regions plus GovCloud | US West, or your own cloud account with BYOC | EU only (Germany, Finland, France), with EU data residency |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | AWS AgentCore | Islo | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | No | No | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | No | Not published | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | No | No | Yes |
| Browser | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Computer-use API | Yes | No | Yes |
| SSH | No | Yes | Yes |
| Persistent disk | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pause/resume | No | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic snapshots | No | Yes | Yes |
| Fork/clone | No | Yes | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Memory fork | No | No | No |
| Custom image (Docker or snapshot) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ≥24 h sessions | No | Yes | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | Yes | Yes | No |
| Wake on request | Yes | Yes | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | No | Yes | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | No | No | Yes |
| Public IPv4 | No | No | No |
| Egress allowlist | Yes | Yes | No |
| Secret proxy | No | Yes | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | No | Yes | Yes |
| Preinstalled agents | No | Yes | Yes |
| Agent harness API | No | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | No | No |
| GPU | Yes | No | No |
| Windows | No | No | No |
| Arm64 | Yes | No | No |
| Self-hosting | No | No | No |
| BYOC | Yes | Yes | No |
| Open source | No | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Spend limits | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Audit logs | Yes | Yes | No |
| SSO | Yes | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Not published | No |
| HIPAA | Yes | Not published | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | No | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Performance
There is no comparable measurement for either: AgentCore and Islo were not part of the public sandbox benchmark run we use. In StarSling's run of 2026-09-29, boat did 26.69 Node.js build-and-test runs per second at 4 vCPU / 8 GB on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. AWS AgentCore and Islo have no published run in this suite yet, so there is no like-for-like number to compare.
Pricing in five scenarios
Each bill is priced from the providers' public price lists by the open Battleships engine, with the cheapest plan that runs the scenario.
| Scenario | AWS AgentCore, a month | Islo, a month | boat, a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, 8 hours a day, 22 days a month, files kept between days | $26 · Pay-as-you-go (Instances) · with limits | $101 · Free | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $107 · Pay-as-you-go (Instances) · with limits | $420 · Free | $26 · $20/mo |
| 50 agents in parallel 50 machines of 4 vCPU / 8 GB at once, 8-hour sessions, 1,100 sessions a month, Docker inside | $1,286 · Pay-as-you-go (Instances) · with limits | $4,863 · Team | $317 · $20/mo × 3 seats |
| Sandboxes for your users 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 30,000 sessions of 10 minutes a month, up to 300 at once | $423 · Pay-as-you-go · with limits | $1,382 · Team · with limits | $200 · $100/mo × 2 seats |
| 1,000 short jobs at once 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 1,000 at once, 3 minutes each, 200,000 jobs a month | $1,615 · Pay-as-you-go (Instances) | $3,053 · Team · with limits | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
AWS AgentCore: Runtime microVMs, Code Interpreter and Browser bill per second for CPU actually used and for peak memory. The 4 vCPU shape in these scenarios is the Instances type: the EC2 on-demand price plus a 12% management fee, with EBS storage and data transfer billed by AWS on top.
Islo: Islo bills each CPU core and each GB of memory and disk while a sandbox runs, with no plan fee. An idle sandbox keeps billing until a pause-after-idle timer fires, that timer is set only at creation, and egress has no published price.
Islo: Plans start at $20 a month, and the whole fee is usage credit spent per second while a sandbox runs. A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Limits in those scenarios
AgentCore microVM sessions stop at 2 vCPU / 8 GB and 8 hours, so the 4 vCPU scenarios use the Instances type, which still resets packages installed outside the storage mount and caps a session at 14 days. Islo's Team plan is reported at 50 running sandboxes at once, so 300 sandboxes for your users and 1,000 short jobs at once do not fit without a custom contract. AgentCore is the only one of the three that fits the 1,000-job burst; boat queues starts above 90 per minute there.
| Scenario | AWS AgentCore | Islo | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays |
|
| None that bite |
| One agent that never stops |
|
| None that bite |
| 50 agents in parallel |
|
| None that bite |
| Sandboxes for your users |
|
| None that bite |
| 1,000 short jobs at once |
|
|
|
Which one should you use?
Use AWS AgentCore when
your agents must stay inside your AWS account and VPC, need a GPU, or are short code and browser tasks that fit the managed tools.
- It lives inside your AWS account. Teams built on AWS keep agents behind their own IAM, VPC and PrivateLink, in 17 commercial regions plus GovCloud.
- Managed tools for short tasks. For quick code runs and browser tasks, Code Interpreter and Browser bill only CPU actually used, with live view and replay.
- GPUs and two-week sessions. Agents that need a GPU or a session of up to 14 days can run on the Instances type, on EC2 in your account.
Use Islo when
your coding agents run for hours and you need per-host egress rules with a log of every call, pause with memory, or a US region or your own cloud account.
- A VM that keeps running. Coding agents get a VM with Docker and SSH that runs as long as the work takes, with no 8-hour stop.
- Egress rules and request logs. Useful if you must control what agents reach: the gateway allows or blocks each host, path and method, and logs every call.
- Pause with memory, wake on request. Idle agents pause with files, processes and memory kept, and resume on the next exec, file access or webhook.
Where boat fits
If your agents do long, real work on a machine, such as installs, builds, emulators and a running app you want to open, look at boat. It gives each agent a full VM with no session cap, a disk that keeps everything, a desktop and ports you can host on, which neither AgentCore nor Islo covers in full.
Emulators and VMs inside the sandbox
Neither AgentCore nor Islo documents /dev/kvm, so Android emulators and tools that start their own VMs stop at the first boot. boat gives every machine root, Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm.
A desktop agents can see and use
AgentCore Browser drives only Chromium and Islo sandboxes are headless, so an agent cannot use other apps on a screen. On Islo you would install a VNC stack yourself; boat streams a 60fps desktop with a computer-use API.
Open the app your agent is building
AgentCore sessions have no open ports, so you proxy traffic through your own code, and Islo share links expire after 24 hours by default. boat gives each sandbox token-protected HTTPS URLs on up to 50 ports, plus raw TCP.
Use boat when your agents need a whole machine for as long as the work takes: Docker, /dev/kvm, a 60fps desktop, ports you can host on and a disk that keeps everything, in the EU. Compare it one to one: boat vs AWS AgentCore and boat vs Islo.
Questions people ask
Is AWS AgentCore cheaper than Islo?
In the table, yes in every scenario, but AgentCore does not fit most of them: one coding agent on workdays is $26 on AgentCore against $101 on Islo, yet AgentCore resets installed packages after each stop. boat comes to $20 for the same agent, and AgentCore is the only one that fits 1,000 short jobs at once, at $1,615 a month.
Which is faster, AgentCore or Islo?
We cannot say: neither was part of the public benchmark run we use. boat did 26.69 Node.js build-and-test runs per second at 4 vCPU / 8 GB in StarSling's run.
How long can a session run on AgentCore and on Islo?
An AgentCore microVM session lasts up to 8 hours and stops after 15 idle minutes by default; the Instances type runs up to 14 days on EC2 in your account. Islo publishes no cap, so a sandbox runs until you stop it. boat has no session cap on paid plans.
Can AgentCore or Islo run Docker?
Islo runs Docker inside its microVMs. AgentCore runs your arm64 container image as root, but its docs do not say Docker works inside a session. Neither documents /dev/kvm, which boat exposes for Android emulators and VMs.
Can I control what an agent reaches on the internet?
Both can. AgentCore runs sessions in your VPC with security groups and a NAT gateway for a fixed outbound IP. Islo's gateway allows or blocks requests by host, path and HTTP method and logs each one. boat has open internet with no provider-side allowlist.
Where do AgentCore and Islo run?
AgentCore runs in 17 commercial AWS regions plus GovCloud. Islo runs in US West, or inside your own cloud account with BYOC. boat runs only in the EU, in Germany, Finland and France.
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