boat vs E2B
Both give each agent its own small Linux machine. boat gives it a faster, fuller machine that can run as long as you want, while E2B is strongest at short jobs that pause and resume with their memory intact.
Where boat stands out
About twice as fast on CPU work
boat runs on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts. On the same Node.js build-and-test benchmark at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, boat did 26.69 runs per second and E2B did 12.61. Builds, tests and installs finish sooner, so agents wait less.
A whole machine, for as long as you need
A boat sandbox has no session cap on paid plans, while E2B stops at 24 hours on Pro. You also get nested virtualization for Android emulators and VMs, raw TCP, a dedicated IP, and machines up to 16 vCPU / 32 GB.
Agents and keys built in
Claude Code, Codex and five other agents come preinstalled, and you prompt, steer and follow them through one API. Real API keys stay outside the sandbox in a credentials proxy, and a credential can switch to another account when one runs out of credits.
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
E2B
E2B calls itself the AI agent cloud: an API that gives each agent session its own isolated Linux machine.
Every E2B sandbox is a Firecracker microVM that boots from a snapshot, so it starts fast and can be paused and resumed with its memory. You build custom sandboxes from templates based on a Docker image, and drive them from Python or JavaScript SDKs. It is built for teams that run many short code, data or agent jobs, and its runtime is open source.
- Isolation
- Firecracker microVM per sandbox
- Bring your own cloud
- Enterprise data plane in your AWS, GCP or Azure account
- Compliance
- SOC 2 Type II; HIPAA BAA on request
- Machine size
- 1 to 8 vCPU and 1 to 8 GiB RAM, CPU only
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. “2nd cheapest of 366” means 1 of the other 365 providers runs 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 | E2B: price rank |
|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month Both fit, but boat has no 24-hour cap, nested virtualization for Android emulators, and runs builds about twice as fast on the CPU benchmark. | 2nd cheapest of 366 $634 a month | 8th cheapest of 366 $4,143 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB An assistant that lives on its machine all month hits E2B's 24-hour session limit, so it has to pause and resume; boat can simply keep running. | 4th cheapest of 362 $657 a month | 45th of 362, with limits $5,348 a month |
| Code interpreter bursts 100 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 200,000 sessions of 1 min a month E2B is built for this: short code runs that start fast, pause with their memory and wake on the next request. | 183rd of 342, with limits $2,000 a month | 29th cheapest of 342 $421 a month |
| Sandboxes for your users 300 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 23 min a month Both fit; E2B wakes a paused sandbox on the next request, while boat gives each user a bigger, faster machine with hosting built in. | Cheapest of 361 $209 a month | 16th cheapest of 361 $2,354 a month |
| RL rollouts 1,000 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 1,000,000 sessions of 3 min a month E2B's memory forks and high start rate suit many short rollouts that branch from the same state. | 33rd of 358, with limits $2,000 a month | 2nd cheapest of 358 $9,384 a month |
| Agent evals 250 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 15,000 sessions of 20 min a month | 9th cheapest of 363 $200 a month | 67th cheapest of 363 $1,975 a month |
| CI runners 40 at once · 8 vCPU / 16 GB · 6,000 sessions of 12 min a month CI runners that build Android apps or VM images need nested virtualization, which boat has and E2B does not, and faster CPUs shorten every job. | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month | 328th of 377, with limits $1,429 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB A dev box that runs all month needs no session cap and a dedicated IP, which boat has and E2B does not. | 17th cheapest of 369 $26 a month | 187th of 369, with limits $358 a month |
| Computer-use agents 50 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 20,000 sessions of 15 min a month Both have a Linux desktop for computer use; boat streams it at 60fps and can be embedded in your app. | 5th cheapest of 367 $200 a month | 32nd cheapest of 367 $1,342 a month |
| Browser-use agents 50 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 10 min a month | 5th cheapest of 363 $200 a month | 94th of 363, with limits $746 a month |
| Scraping & bots (startup scale) 50 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 100,000 sessions of 3 min a month | 4th cheapest of 341 $90 a month | 54th cheapest of 341 $554 a month |
| Mass scraping & bots (undetectable) 1,000 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 3,000,000 sessions of 2 min a month | 65th of 337, with limits $1,800 a month | 220th of 337, with limits $9,223 a month |
| Parallel red teaming 200 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 5,000 sessions of 30 min a month | 3rd cheapest of 357 $200 a month | 9th cheapest of 357 $1,043 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 | E2B |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts | Firecracker microVM with its own kernel |
| CPU benchmark (4 vCPU / 8 GB) | 26.69 runs/s | 12.61 runs/s |
| Biggest machine | Up to 16 vCPU / 32 GB on the $100 plan and above | Up to 8 vCPU / 8 GiB self-serve, more on request |
| Session length | No cap on paid plans; you set the time to live | Up to 1 hour on Hobby, 24 hours on Pro; pausing resets the clock |
| Pause and resume | Disk is saved every minute and on stop; resume boots the machine again | Saves memory and disk; resume takes about 1 second with processes still running |
| Fork | Fork a running sandbox with its disk | Fork a running sandbox with its memory, up to 20 copies per call, with a short pause |
| Wake on request | No; a stopped sandbox is started by API | Yes; a paused sandbox can resume on the next HTTP request or SDK call |
| Nested virtualization | Yes, /dev/kvm for Android emulators and VMs | Not supported |
| Inbound access | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected by default; raw TCP; dedicated IPv4 or IPv6 | HTTPS URL per port, public by default unless you turn on a token; no dedicated IP |
| Outbound rules | Open internet, no provider-side allowlist | Allow and deny lists by IP, CIDR or domain |
| Coding agents | Seven agents preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API | Templates and guides for many agents, run through the command API |
| Keeping API keys out of the sandbox | Credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API; switch a credential to another account when credits run out | Secrets injected into outbound HTTPS headers (private beta) |
| Regions | EU only (Germany, Finland, France) | US, EU and APAC |
| Self-hosting | No | Open-source runtime, plus bring your own cloud on Enterprise |
| 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 | E2B |
|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | Yes | No |
| Root | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | Yes | Yes |
| Browser | Yes | Yes |
| Computer-use API | Yes | Yes |
| SSH | Yes | Yes |
| Persistent disk | Yes | Yes |
| Pause/resume | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic snapshots | Yes | Yes |
| Fork/clone | Yes | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | Yes | Yes |
| Memory fork | No | Yes |
| Custom image (Docker or snapshot) | Yes | Yes |
| ≥24 h sessions | Yes | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | No | Yes |
| Wake on request | No | Yes |
| HTTPS preview URLs | Yes | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | Yes | No |
| Public IPv4 | No | No |
| Egress allowlist | No | Yes |
| Secret proxy | Yes | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | Yes | Yes |
| 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 | Yes |
| BYOC | No | Yes |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Scoped API keys | Yes | Not published |
| Spend limits | Yes | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | Yes | No |
| Audit logs | No | Not published |
| SSO | No | No |
| SOC 2 | No | Yes |
| HIPAA | No | Yes |
| EU data residency | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Yes | Not published |
Performance
Both were measured on the StarSling hpc-sandbox-benchmarks Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, in the same run. boat did 26.69 runs per second and E2B did 12.61, so boat finished about twice as much CPU work in the same time. This measures CPU speed only, not start time.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite.
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 | E2B, 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 | $202 · Pro |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $26 · $20/mo | $368 · Pro · 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 | $2,773 · Pro |
| 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 | $1,395 · Pro+ (600 concurrent) |
| 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 | $2,797 · Pro++ (1,100 concurrent) |
boat: Plans start at $20 a month, and the whole fee is usage credit. You pay per second while a sandbox runs, and a stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
E2B: E2B bills per second for the vCPU and RAM you set, idle time included, until you pause or kill the sandbox. Pro costs $150 a month for higher limits, with no usage credit, and more concurrency costs $500 a month per 500 slots.
Limits in those scenarios
E2B caps a session at 24 hours on Pro, so an agent that runs all month has to pause and resume, which is why it does not fit the always-on scenario. E2B's Pro plan includes 20 GiB of disk and machines up to 8 GiB of RAM. boat has no session cap, but its start limits are lower: at 1,000 short jobs at once, the $2,000 plan queues starts, while E2B Pro++ starts them all.
| Scenario | boat | E2B |
|---|---|---|
| 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 E2B when
you run very large numbers of short jobs that pause between requests, or must run in the US or APAC.
- Memory pause and wake on request. Useful for short jobs that sleep between requests: a paused sandbox comes back in about a second with its processes running.
- Outbound rules and more regions. E2B can limit which hosts a sandbox reaches, and it runs in the US and APAC as well as the EU.
- Open source and your own cloud. Its runtime is Apache-2.0, and Enterprise customers can run it in their own AWS, GCP or Azure account.
Use boat when
your agents do real work for hours: installs, builds, tests, Docker, emulators and a browser, on a fast machine that never cuts them off.
- About twice as fast on CPU work. Agents spend most of their time waiting on installs, builds and tests. At half the speed every one of those waits doubles, and so does the time you pay for.
- A whole machine, for as long as you need. On E2B a long task hits the 24-hour cap and has to be paused and resumed by your code, and Android emulators or VMs can't start at all without nested virtualization.
- Agents and keys built in. Without them you build the agent harness yourself, and the real API keys sit inside a machine the agent controls, where one prompt injection can leak them.
Questions people ask
Is boat cheaper than E2B?
In four of the five scenarios on this page, yes, and by a wide margin. For 1,000 short jobs at once, E2B Pro++ handles the burst while boat's plans queue the starts, so E2B fits that one better.
Is boat faster than E2B?
On the hpc-sandbox-benchmarks CPU test at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, boat did 26.69 runs per second and E2B did 12.61. That is about twice the CPU work in the same time.
Can boat pause a sandbox with its memory like E2B?
No. boat saves the disk every minute and when the sandbox stops, so files survive, but resuming boots the machine again. E2B can pause with memory and resume running processes in about a second.
Can an E2B sandbox run for days?
Not in one session. E2B stops a sandbox after 24 hours on Pro and 1 hour on Hobby, though pausing and resuming resets the clock. boat has no session cap on paid plans.
Can I run Docker and Android emulators in each?
Both run Docker inside the sandbox. boat also exposes /dev/kvm for Android emulators and VMs, while E2B's docs say nested virtualization is not supported.
Is boat SOC 2 compliant?
SOC 2 is in progress. We're open about where we stand: live status at https://status.ascii.dev and our data retention policy at https://docs.boat.dev/data-retention.
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