boat vs DigitalOcean
A DigitalOcean Droplet is a plain Linux server that you set up and keep running yourself. boat gives an agent a full VM too, but with snapshots every minute, free stops, fork, HTTPS ports, a desktop and coding agents already built in.
Where boat stands out
A disk saved every minute, and fork while running
boat saves a sandbox's disk every minute and when it stops, and a stopped sandbox costs nothing. You can fork a running sandbox in one call. A Droplet keeps billing in full while powered off, and its snapshots are taken when you ask for them.
Coding agents and a desktop built in
Every boat sandbox has Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and other agents ready, and you drive them from outside with a prompt, steer and events API. It also streams a 60fps desktop with Chromium for computer use. The credentials proxy keeps real AI keys out of the machine and can switch to another account when one runs out of credits.
HTTPS on up to 50 ports, no setup
Each boat sandbox can serve up to 50 ports on HTTPS URLs, protected by a token, plus raw TCP. A Droplet has a public IP and any port open to it, but HTTPS means running your own proxy and certificates or adding a load balancer.
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
- Regions
- EU: Germany, Finland, France
DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean is a general-purpose cloud, and Droplets are its Linux virtual machines.
A Droplet is a Linux VM you rent by size, with root, a public IP, local SSD and a monthly transfer allowance. You pick an image, then install and run your own software on it, next to DigitalOcean products like Kubernetes, managed databases, load balancers and cloud firewalls. It is a server host, not an agent sandbox, so this page compares the two where they overlap: giving an agent its own Linux machine. DigitalOcean also sells two separate products in preview, Harness Runtime for agents and MicroVMs, which are not Droplets.
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 | DigitalOcean: price rank |
|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month Both give a full Linux VM with root and Docker, but a Droplet starts empty and stays billed when powered off, while boat comes with agents, snapshots and free stops. | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month | 134th of 367, with limits $1,187 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB A Droplet can run an assistant around the clock, but you build the agent setup, the HTTPS endpoint and the backups yourself; boat has them built in. | 5th cheapest of 366 $657 a month | 35th of 366, with limits $1,429 a month |
| Code interpreter bursts 100 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 200,000 sessions of 1 min a month DigitalOcean fits short runs better here: per-second billing with a 60 second minimum and no plan fee, while boat's start limits make big bursts a compromise. | 186th of 345, with limits $2,000 a month | 63rd of 345, with limits $60 a month |
| Sandboxes for your users 300 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 23 min a month A new DigitalOcean team can run 3 Droplets at once, so hundreds of user sandboxes need a much higher tier first; boat allows 100 to 2,000 by plan. | Cheapest of 361 $209 a month | 54th of 361, with limits $421 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 | 31st of 360, with limits $1,786 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 | 106th of 364, with limits $357 a month |
| CI runners 40 at once · 8 vCPU / 16 GB · 6,000 sessions of 12 min a month Both run Docker builds on a full VM; on DigitalOcean you also run the runner software, the image updates and the clean-up between jobs. | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month | 146th of 377, with limits $171 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB Both fit a 24/7 dev box: a Droplet is a classic always-on server, and a boat machine keeps its disk with snapshots every minute. | 18th cheapest of 368 $26 a month | 39th cheapest of 368 $48 a month |
| Computer-use agents 50 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 20,000 sessions of 15 min a month boat streams a 60fps desktop with Chromium and computer use; on a Droplet you install and run a desktop and VNC yourself. | 6th cheapest of 369 $200 a month | 117th of 369, with limits $263 a month |
| Browser-use agents 50 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 10 min a month | 7th cheapest of 367 $200 a month | 56th of 367, with limits $147 a month |
| Scraping & bots (startup scale) 50 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 100,000 sessions of 3 min a month | 6th cheapest of 346 $90 a month | 88th of 346, with limits $175 a month |
| Mass scraping & bots (undetectable) 1,000 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 3,000,000 sessions of 2 min a month | 71st of 338, with limits $1,800 a month | 69th of 338, with limits $1,786 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 | 22nd of 360, with limits $199 a month |
| GPU eval jobs 10 at once · 8 vCPU / 32 GB · 500 sessions of 30 min a month Only DigitalOcean fits: it rents Nvidia and AMD GPU Droplets, and boat has no GPUs. | 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 | DigitalOcean |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | A sandbox API for agents, on full VMs | A general Linux server you set up and run yourself |
| Isolation | Every sandbox is a full VM with its own kernel | Every Droplet is a full VM with its own kernel |
| CPU | Dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (Zen 5) hosts; 26.69 runs/s at 4 vCPU / 8 GB | Basic plans share hyper-threads with other Droplets; dedicated CPU plans cost more; no comparable measurement |
| Docker and nested virtualization | Docker, root, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine, documented | Root and Docker; nested VMs are mentioned in the live migration docs but not listed as a feature |
| Stopping | A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk | A powered-off Droplet is billed in full; you destroy it to stop paying |
| Snapshots | Automatic snapshots every minute and on stop | On-demand disk snapshots, billed by size; paid scheduled backups from every 4 hours to weekly |
| Fork | Fork a running sandbox in one call (disk, no memory) | Take a live snapshot, then create new Droplets from it (disk, no memory) |
| Reaching the machine | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected; raw TCP; own IP | Public IPv4 and IPv6 on any port; HTTPS needs your own certificates or a load balancer |
| Desktop and computer use | 60fps desktop and Chromium, computer use and browser control, embeddable stream | Headless Linux; you install a desktop and VNC yourself |
| Coding agents | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and more preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API | None on Droplets; the separate Harness Runtime product runs agent templates in microVMs |
| Keeping keys out of the machine | AI credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API you register; switch a credential to another account when credits run out | No credentials proxy for Droplets; you put secrets on the server yourself |
| Outbound rules | Open internet on every plan; no provider-side allowlist | Free cloud firewalls with outbound rules by IP range, Droplet or tag |
| GPUs | None | Nvidia and AMD GPU Droplets, on demand, reserved or spot |
| Regions | EU only: Germany, Finland, France | 13 regions in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia |
| 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 | DigitalOcean |
|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | Yes | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | Yes | No |
| Browser | Yes | No |
| Computer-use API | Yes | No |
| SSH | Yes | Yes |
| Persistent disk | Yes | Yes |
| Pause/resume | Yes | No |
| Automatic snapshots | Yes | No |
| Fork/clone | Yes | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | Yes | Yes |
| Memory fork | No | No |
| Custom image (Docker or snapshot) | Yes | Yes |
| ≥24 h sessions | Yes | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | No | No |
| Wake on request | No | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | Yes | No |
| Raw TCP inbound | Yes | Yes |
| Public IPv4 | No | Yes |
| Egress allowlist | No | Yes |
| Secret proxy | Yes | No |
| Secret proxy for any API | Yes | No |
| Preinstalled agents | Yes | No |
| Agent harness API | Yes | No |
| MCP server | No | Yes |
| GPU | No | Yes |
| 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 | No |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | Yes | Yes |
| Audit logs | No | Not published |
| SSO | No | Yes |
| SOC 2 | No | Yes |
| HIPAA | No | Yes |
| EU data residency | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Yes | Not published |
Performance
There is no comparable measurement for Droplets: they were not part of the public StarSling benchmark run where boat did 26.69 Node.js build-and-test runs per second at 4 vCPU / 8 GB. DigitalOcean's Basic plans share hyper-threads with other Droplets and its dedicated plans do not, so results would depend on which plan you pick.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. DigitalOcean 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 | DigitalOcean, 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 | $13 · Pay as you go |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $26 · $20/mo | $48 · Pay as you go |
| 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 | $629 · Pay as you go · 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 | $179 · Pay as you go · 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 | $357 · Pay as you go · 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.
DigitalOcean: Each Droplet size has a fixed hourly price, billed per second with a 60 second minimum and capped at 672 hours a month, so the monthly price is the most one Droplet can cost. Billing runs from create to destroy, including while the Droplet is powered off, and snapshots and backups cost extra.
Limits in those scenarios
A new DigitalOcean team is on Tier 1: 3 Droplets at once, and only Basic shared CPU plans up to $48. That is why 50 agents in parallel and sandboxes for your users do not fit by default; Tier 5 allows 100 Droplets and is reached through prepayment, paid invoices or a manual request. On boat the limit is a sandbox count (100 to 2,000 by plan) plus starts per minute, so 1,000 short jobs at once get queued and need more starts per day than the $2,000 plan allows. Neither fits that burst without higher limits.
| Scenario | boat | DigitalOcean |
|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays | None that bite | None that bite |
| One agent that never stops | None that bite | 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 DigitalOcean when
you need GPUs, regions outside the EU, or a long-lived server that sits next to managed databases, Kubernetes and firewall rules in one cloud.
- Regions around the world. Useful if your users are outside Europe: Droplets run in 13 regions across the US, Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia.
- GPUs. Useful if your agents train or serve models: DigitalOcean rents Nvidia and AMD GPU Droplets, on demand or reserved.
- A whole cloud around the server. Useful if the agent's machine must sit next to managed databases, Kubernetes, load balancers and firewall rules in one account.
Use boat when
you want each agent on its own full VM that is ready to work: coding agents, a desktop, HTTPS ports and minute-by-minute snapshots built in, and stops that cost nothing.
- A disk saved every minute, and fork while running. Agents sit idle for hours between tasks. On a Droplet you either keep paying for an idle server or script snapshot, destroy and recreate yourself, and lose whatever changed since your last snapshot.
- Coding agents and a desktop built in. A Droplet starts as an empty server, so you install, update and supervise each agent, desktop and key yourself. DigitalOcean's Harness Runtime runs agents, but it is a separate product from Droplets.
- HTTPS on up to 50 ports, no setup. An agent that starts a dev server wants to share a working link right away. On a Droplet that link is a bare IP with no TLS and no access token until you set them up for each machine.
Questions people ask
Is boat cheaper than DigitalOcean?
It depends on how the machine runs. One coding agent on workdays comes to $13 a month on DigitalOcean against $20 on boat, but one agent that never stops comes to $26 on boat against $48 on DigitalOcean. 50 agents in parallel come to $317 on boat against $629 on DigitalOcean, which also needs a higher tier than a new team gets.
Can I run Docker and nested VMs on a Droplet?
Docker works, since a Droplet is a full VM with root. Nested virtualization is mentioned in DigitalOcean's live migration docs, which tell you to restart nested VMs after a migration, but it is not listed as a Droplet feature. On boat, Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm are documented on every machine.
Does DigitalOcean have its own agent sandbox?
Yes, as separate products in preview, each in one US datacenter. Harness Runtime runs agents such as Claude Code and Codex in microVM sandboxes with pause, resume and fork, and MicroVMs run one container image per VM that pauses when idle and wakes on the next request with its memory intact. Neither is a Droplet, so this page compares Droplets, the plain VMs.
Do I pay for a Droplet that is powered off?
Yes. DigitalOcean bills a powered-off Droplet in full until you destroy it. On boat, a stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Where does my data run?
boat runs only in the EU (Germany, Finland and France), with EU data residency and a zero data retention option. DigitalOcean has 13 regions, including Frankfurt, Amsterdam and London in Europe.
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.
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