boat vs Browserbase

Browserbase is a browser API: cloud Chrome sessions with proxies, CAPTCHA solving and session replay, each in a fresh VM that is thrown away at the end. boat gives each agent one full Linux VM with root, Docker and a disk that persists, plus a 60fps desktop with Chromium and coding agents you drive from outside.

Where boat stands out

A whole machine, not only a browser

Every boat sandbox is a full VM with root, SSH, systemd, Docker and nested virtualization, on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts, with Chromium on a desktop inside it. A Browserbase session gives your code a Chrome over CDP. Its hosted Agents and Functions have a shell, but in a short TypeScript runtime with no persistent storage.

Runs as long as the task, keeps its disk

A boat sandbox has no session cap on paid plans, and its disk persists with snapshots every minute and on stop, so a stopped sandbox costs nothing and comes back with its files. A Browserbase session ends after at most 6 hours, its VM is rebuilt from scratch, and only the browser profile can be saved in a Context.

Coding agents you drive from outside, keys kept outside

boat ships Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and other agents in each sandbox, and you prompt, steer and follow them through one API with an event stream. Browserbase runs its own browser Agent with fixed built-in tools. boat's credentials proxy keeps real API keys outside the sandbox for model providers and any HTTPS API, not only models.

The companies and products

boat

boat.dev runs sandboxes for AI agents: each one is a full Linux VM with its own kernel.

You start a machine with one command or one API call, then SSH in, run Docker, open a desktop, or let a built-in agent (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and others) work in it. The disk stays between sessions, and a stopped sandbox costs nothing.

Isolation: Full VM per sandbox, own kernel
Hardware: Dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (Zen 5) hosts
Regions: EU: Germany, Finland, France
Plans: From $20 a month, all of it usage credit, 7-day trial

Browserbase

Browserbase calls itself the complete platform to build and deploy agents that browse and interact with the web like humans: browsers, search, fetch, functions, model access and identity behind one API key.

Its core product is a headless Chrome session you drive over CDP with Playwright, Puppeteer or its open source Stagehand SDK, with proxies, CAPTCHA solving, saved browser profiles (Contexts), live view and session replays. Around it sit Search and Fetch APIs, short TypeScript Functions that run next to the browser, a Model Gateway and hosted Agents that work from a plain language goal. It is a browser platform, not a general sandbox: you get a browser, not a shell or root on the machine, so this page compares where the two overlap, which is agents that browse.

Products: Browsers, Search, Fetch, Agent Identity, Functions, Model Gateway, Stagehand and hosted Agents
Isolation: 1 browser per VM, each in its own subnet; the VM is killed and recreated after every session; no GPU access
Session length: 15 minutes on Free, 6 hours on Developer and Startup, 6+ hours on Scale
Concurrency: 3, 25 and 100 browsers at once on Free, Developer and Startup; 250+ on Scale
Regions: us-west-2 (Oregon, default), us-east-1 (Virginia), eu-central-1 (Frankfurt) and ap-southeast-1 (Singapore)
Saved state: Contexts keep the Chromium user data directory (cookies, localStorage, IndexedDB), encrypted at rest
Compliance: SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA, with BAAs on the Scale plan

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. “3rd cheapest of 367” means 2 of the other 366 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	boat: price rank	Browserbase: price rank
Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month A coding agent needs a shell, Docker and a disk, and a Browserbase session gives a browser only, so builds and tests fit boat.	3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month	140th of 367, with limits $1,255 a month
Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB An assistant that lives on its machine all month hits Browserbase's 6-hour session cap and keeps only a browser profile between sessions; boat has no session cap on paid plans.	5th cheapest of 366 $657 a month	259th of 366, with limits $3,699 a month
Code interpreter bursts 100 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 200,000 sessions of 1 min a month	186th of 345, with limits $2,000 a month	270th of 345, with limits $382 a month
Sandboxes for your users 300 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 23 min a month	Cheapest of 361 $209 a month	250th of 361, with limits $1,099 a month
RL rollouts 1,000 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 1,000,000 sessions of 3 min a month	34th of 360, with limits $2,000 a month	264th of 360, with limits $5,049 a month
Agent evals 250 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 15,000 sessions of 20 min a month	10th cheapest of 364 $200 a month	349th of 364, with limits $449 a month
CI runners 40 at once · 8 vCPU / 16 GB · 6,000 sessions of 12 min a month CI jobs need a shell, Docker and often /dev/kvm, which boat has and a browser session does not.	4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month	244th of 377, with limits $152 a month
24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB A dev box has to keep its files and processes, and Browserbase sessions are rebuilt from scratch each time, so this fits boat.	18th cheapest of 368 $26 a month	251st of 368, with limits $96 a month
Computer-use agents 50 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 20,000 sessions of 15 min a month Browserbase agents act on web pages through Stagehand, while boat streams a 60fps Linux desktop where an agent can use any app, not only Chrome.	6th cheapest of 369 $200 a month	159th of 369, with limits $416 a month
Browser-use agents 50 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 10 min a month Both fit: Browserbase gives a managed Chrome over CDP with proxies, CAPTCHA solving and replays, and boat gives Chromium on a full VM where the same agent can also run code.	7th cheapest of 367 $200 a month	24th cheapest of 367 $449 a month
Scraping & bots (startup scale) 50 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 100,000 sessions of 3 min a month Both fit at startup scale; Browserbase also sells Fetch and Search APIs per call, so some pages need no browser at all.	6th cheapest of 346 $90 a month	55th cheapest of 346 $537 a month
Mass scraping & bots (undetectable) 1,000 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 3,000,000 sessions of 2 min a month Browserbase fits mass scraping better: residential proxies in 200+ countries, CAPTCHA solving and Verified browsers are built for sites that block bots, while boat uses datacenter IPs.	71st of 338, with limits $1,800 a month	13th of 338, with limits $9,799 a month
Parallel red teaming 200 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 5,000 sessions of 30 min a month	2nd cheapest of 360 $200 a month	229th of 360, with limits $291 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
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

Key features

Feature	boat	Browserbase
Kind of product	A full Linux VM per sandbox, with a desktop and Chromium inside	Managed headless Chrome sessions, plus search, fetch, functions and hosted browser agents
Isolation	Full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts	1 browser per VM in its own subnet; the VM is destroyed after each session
What the agent can touch	The whole machine: root, SSH, any package, any process	The browser over CDP; hosted Agents and Functions get a shell in a short-lived sandboxed runtime
Docker and nested virtualization	Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine	Not offered; Functions say no containers are needed
Session length	No cap on paid plans; you set the time to live	6 hours on Developer and Startup, 15 minutes on Free; Functions up to 900 seconds
Files after a session	The disk persists, with snapshots every minute and on stop; a stopped sandbox costs nothing	Only the browser profile carries over, through a Context; Functions have no persistent storage
Fork	Fork a running sandbox with its disk	No fork; a new session starts fresh or loads a saved Context
Browser and computer use	60fps desktop and Chromium, computer use on any app, embeddable stream	Chrome with live view, session replay and logs; Stagehand act, extract and observe
Bot detection	Datacenter IPs and Chromium; no CAPTCHA solving	Residential proxies in 200+ countries, CAPTCHA solving on paid plans, Verified browsers on Scale
Reaching the machine	HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected; raw TCP; own IP	CDP connect URL and live view links only; no ports to host on
Outbound rules	Open internet, no provider-side allowlist	Experimental allowed domains list for top-level page navigation (not iframes or scripts)
Agents	Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and more preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API	Its own hosted browser Agent from a plain language goal; built-in tools only, no custom tools yet
Keeping keys out of the sandbox	AI credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API you register; switch a credential to another account when credits run out	Model Gateway reaches OpenAI, Anthropic and Google with your Browserbase key; agent variables hide values from the model
Regions	EU only (Germany, Finland and France)	Oregon, Virginia, Frankfurt and Singapore
Compliance and transparency	SOC 2 is in progress. We're open about where we stand: live status and data retention policy.	SOC 2

Every feature Battleships tracks (43)

Feature	boat	Browserbase
Full VM (own kernel)	Yes	Yes
Docker inside	Yes	No
Nested virtualization	Yes	No
Root	Yes	No
Systemd	Yes	No
Desktop GUI	Yes	No
Browser	Yes	Yes
Computer-use API	Yes	No
SSH	Yes	No
Persistent disk	Yes	No
Pause/resume	Yes	No
Automatic snapshots	Yes	No
Fork/clone	Yes	No
Live fork (no pause)	Yes	No
Memory fork	No	No
Custom image (Docker or snapshot)	Yes	No
≥24 h sessions	Yes	No
Idle auto-stop	No	Yes
Wake on request	No	No
HTTPS preview URLs	Yes	No
Raw TCP inbound	Yes	No
Public IPv4	No	No
Egress allowlist	No	Yes
Secret proxy	Yes	Yes
Secret proxy for any API	Yes	No
Preinstalled agents	Yes	Yes
Agent harness API	Yes	No
MCP server	No	Yes
GPU	No	No
Windows	No	No
Arm64	No	No
Self-hosting	No	No
BYOC	No	No
Open source	No	No
Scoped API keys	Yes	Not published
Spend limits	Yes	Not published
Usage per sandbox (API)	Yes	Not published
Audit logs	No	Not published
SSO	No	Yes
SOC 2	No	Yes
HIPAA	No	Yes
EU data residency	Yes	Yes
Zero data retention	Yes	Yes

Performance

boat26.69 runs/s

BrowserbaseNot measured

There is no comparable measurement. Browserbase was not in StarSling's public CPU benchmark, and it does not publish the vCPU or RAM behind a browser session, so there is no number to set against boat's 26.69 runs per second at 4 vCPU / 8 GB.

Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Browserbase has 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	boat, a month	Browserbase, 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	$20 · $20/mo	$99 · Startup · with limits
One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month	$26 · $20/mo	$122 · Startup · with limits
50 agents in parallel 50 machines of 4 vCPU / 8 GB at once, 8-hour sessions, 1,100 sessions a month, Docker inside	$317 · $20/mo × 3 seats	$841 · Startup · with limits
Sandboxes for your users 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 30,000 sessions of 10 minutes a month, up to 300 at once	$200 · $100/mo × 2 seats	$499 · Startup · with limits
1,000 short jobs at once 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 1,000 at once, 3 minutes each, 200,000 jobs a month	$2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits	$1,049 · Startup · with limits

boat: You pick a monthly plan from $20, and all of it becomes usage credit spent per second on running sandboxes. A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.

Browserbase: Plans include browser hours: 100 on Developer ($20) and 500 on Startup ($99), then $0.12 or $0.10 per browser hour, billed by the minute with a one-minute minimum per session. Proxy data is extra after 1 GB or 5 GB ($12 or $10 per GB), and Search, Fetch and Agents calls have their own allowances.

Limits in those scenarios

The Browserbase prices in the table are for its browser session, with no published size and no disk that stays, so none of them is a 4 vCPU / 8 GB machine. The 6-hour session cap is why the always-on agent and the workday agent do not fit, and a keepAlive session keeps billing until you release it. Concurrency is the other limit: 100 at once on Startup, so 300 sandboxes for your users and 1,000 short jobs at once need Scale through sales. On boat, the 1,000-job burst is the one that does not fit: bursts above 90 starts a minute are queued, and it needs more starts per day than the top plan allows.

Scenario	boat	Browserbase
One coding agent, workdays	None that bite	Startup: sessions capped at 6 h missing persistent disk machine size not published browser-session product, not a general sandbox
One agent that never stops	None that bite	Startup: sessions capped at 6 h missing persistent disk machine size not published browser-session product, not a general sandbox
50 agents in parallel	None that bite	Startup: sessions capped at 6 h missing persistent disk, Docker inside machine size not published browser-session product, not a general sandbox
Sandboxes for your users	None that bite	Startup: max 100 concurrent machine size not published browser-session product, not a general sandbox different kind of product: browser session
1,000 short jobs at once	max 2,400 starts/day (needs ~6,667) max 600 starts/hour (needs ~1,000) bursts above 90 starts/min are queued (a burst of 333 takes ~4 min to start)	Startup: max 100 concurrent machine size not published browser-session product, not a general sandbox different kind of product: browser session

Which one should you use?

Use Browserbase when

your agent only needs the web: hosted Chrome at scale, residential proxies and CAPTCHA solving for sites that block bots, saved logins, session replays, or browsers in the US and Singapore.

Getting past bot walls. Useful for scraping sites that block bots: residential proxies in 200+ countries, CAPTCHA solving and Verified browsers with real fingerprints.
A browser stack ready to use. Useful when the job is only the web: open source Stagehand, search and fetch APIs, saved logins, live view and replays of every session.
US and Asia regions. Useful if your users or target sites are in North America or Asia: Oregon, Virginia, Frankfurt and Singapore.

Use boat when

your agent browses and also works: installs, builds, Docker and dev servers on a full VM that keeps its disk and runs as long as the task takes, with coding agents and a key proxy built in.

A whole machine, not only a browser. An agent that reads a page and then has to clone a repo, run docker compose or start a dev server needs a second provider next to Browserbase, and has to move files between the two.
Runs as long as the task, keeps its disk. A browsing job that runs past 6 hours on Browserbase has to be split into sessions, and downloads, notes and processes outside the browser profile are gone each time.
Coding agents you drive from outside, keys kept outside. On Browserbase you either use its Agent as it is or write your own harness around a session, and keys for APIs other than the Model Gateway models have to live in your code.

Questions people ask

Is boat cheaper than Browserbase?

The table sets a 4 vCPU / 8 GB boat VM against a Browserbase browser session that keeps no disk. 50 agents in parallel come to $317 on boat against $841, and sandboxes for your users to $200 against $499. For 1,000 short jobs at once neither fits, and Browserbase is lower there at $1,049 against $2,000.

Can Browserbase run Docker or a shell?

A Browserbase session gives you Chrome over CDP, not a shell on the VM. Its hosted Agents and Functions can run shell commands in a short TypeScript runtime with no persistent storage. Every boat sandbox has root, SSH, Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm.

How long can a Browserbase session run?

Up to 6 hours on Developer and Startup, 15 minutes on Free, and 6+ hours on Scale. After each session the VM is recreated from scratch, and only the browser profile survives in a Context. boat has no session cap on paid plans and keeps the disk when you stop.

Does boat have residential proxies or CAPTCHA solving like Browserbase?

No. boat runs Chromium on datacenter IPs and does not solve CAPTCHAs. For sites that block bots at volume, Browserbase's residential proxies, CAPTCHA solving and Verified browsers are built for that.

Can I use boat and Browserbase together?

Yes. An agent on a boat sandbox can open a Browserbase session over CDP, or call its Fetch and Search APIs, and keep its code, files and tools on the boat VM. That puts protected browsing on Browserbase and the rest of the work on a machine that keeps its disk.

Is boat SOC 2 compliant?

SOC 2 is in progress. We're open about where we stand: live status at status.ascii.dev and our data retention policy at docs.boat.dev/data-retention. boat runs only in the EU, with a zero data retention option.

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