boat vs Hetzner Dedicated
A Hetzner dedicated server is a whole physical machine that you order, install and look after yourself, and it bills until you cancel it. boat gives each agent its own full VM by API call, sized to the job, with snapshots every minute, stops that cost nothing, fork of a running machine and coding agents already built in.
Where boat stands out
A machine per agent in seconds, sized to the job
On boat one API call gives an agent its own VM, from 2 to 16 vCPU, and you can run 100 to 2,000 at once by plan. On Hetzner each order is a whole physical server, a first order is checked by hand, and the smallest one has 12 threads and 64 GB.
Free stops, snapshots every minute, 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 Hetzner server bills while it is off until you cancel it, has no snapshots of its own, and a copy means ordering and installing another server.
Coding agents and a desktop built in
Every boat sandbox has Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and other agents ready, and you drive agents inside 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.
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
Hetzner Dedicated
Hetzner is a German hosting company founded in 1997; its dedicated root servers are whole physical machines rented to one customer.
You pick a server from the AX (AMD), EX (Intel), SX (storage), DX (Dell) or GPU lines, or a used one from the Server Auction, and get root on the bare hardware with a public IPv4 and unmetered traffic on a 1 Gbit port. You install the OS yourself through the Rescue System, installimage or your own ISO, and manage it through the Robot panel and API. It is a server rental, not an agent sandbox, so this page compares the two where they overlap: giving agents their own Linux machines.
- Founded
- 1997, in Germany
- Certifications
- Data centers certified to ISO/IEC 27001:2022
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 | Hetzner Dedicated: price rank |
|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month Both give root, Docker and /dev/kvm, but on Hetzner you rent a whole server per agent or split it into VMs yourself, while boat hands each agent its own VM by API call. | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month | 175th of 367, with limits $1,918 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB A Hetzner server can run assistants around the clock, but you build the agent setup, the HTTPS endpoints and the backups yourself; boat has them built in. | 5th cheapest of 366 $657 a month | 248th of 366, with limits $3,400 a month |
| Code interpreter bursts 100 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 200,000 sessions of 1 min a month Neither fits one-minute runs well: a Hetzner server is ordered, set up and billed by the hour per machine, and boat's start limits make big bursts a compromise. | 186th of 345, with limits $2,000 a month | 199th of 345, with limits $6,800 a month |
| Sandboxes for your users 300 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 23 min a month Handing each of your users a sandbox on Hetzner means renting servers and building the VM layer, snapshots and HTTPS yourself; boat does that with one API call per sandbox. | Cheapest of 361 $209 a month | 313th of 361, with limits $3,270 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 | 208th of 360, with limits $68,000 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 | 174th of 364, with limits $1,635 a month |
| CI runners 40 at once · 8 vCPU / 16 GB · 6,000 sessions of 12 min a month Both run Docker builds on real Linux; a Hetzner server makes a strong always-on runner if you run the runner software and clean-up yourself. | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month | 76th cheapest of 377 $645 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB Both fit a 24/7 dev box, and a Hetzner server gives far more cores and memory per box; boat's box is smaller but keeps its disk with snapshots every minute. | 18th cheapest of 368 $26 a month | 121st of 368, with limits $68 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 Hetzner you install the desktop, the browser and the control loop yourself. | 6th cheapest of 369 $200 a month | 308th of 369, with limits $2,180 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 | 348th of 367, with limits $3,270 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 | 294th of 346, with limits $654 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 | 255th of 338, with limits $13,080 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 | 280th of 360, with limits $545 a month |
| GPU eval jobs 10 at once · 8 vCPU / 32 GB · 500 sessions of 30 min a month Hetzner rents GPU servers with Nvidia RTX PRO Blackwell cards by the month, 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 | Hetzner Dedicated |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Every sandbox is a full VM with its own kernel | A whole physical server for one customer, with your own kernel on the hardware |
| CPU | Dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (Zen 5) hosts; 26.69 runs/s at 4 vCPU / 8 GB | Ryzen 7 PRO 8700GE (AX42), Ryzen 9 7950X3D (AX102), EPYC 9454P (AX162) and Intel lines; no comparable measurement |
| Machine sizes | 2 to 16 vCPU and up to 32 GB per sandbox, picked per sandbox | A whole server: from 12 threads / 64 GB (AX41) up to 96 threads (AX162) or 172 threads (DX294) |
| Getting a new machine | One API call creates a sandbox in seconds | An order per physical server; first orders are checked and may need ID or an advance payment |
| Docker and nested virtualization | Docker, root, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine | Root on the hardware, so Docker and KVM work once you install them |
| Stopping | A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk | A turned-off server bills until you cancel it |
| Snapshots | Automatic snapshots every minute and on stop | None for the server; you order a Storage Box and run your own backups |
| Fork | Fork a running sandbox in one call (disk, no memory) | None; you order another server and install it again |
| Reaching the machine | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected; raw TCP | Public IPv4 on any port and unmetered traffic on 1 Gbit; HTTPS is your own web server and certificates |
| Desktop and computer use | 60fps desktop and Chromium, computer use and browser control, embeddable stream | None built in; a KVM console for admin, and you install a desktop yourself |
| Coding agents | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and more preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API | None; you install and drive agents yourself, for example over SSH |
| 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; secrets live on the server you run |
| Outbound rules | Open internet on every plan; no provider-side allowlist | Free Robot firewall on the switch port: stateless, up to 10 rules each for incoming and outgoing traffic |
| GPUs and Windows | No GPUs; no Windows guests (Wine for Windows apps) | GPU servers with Nvidia RTX PRO 4000 and 6000 Blackwell cards; Windows Server 2025 as an add-on |
| Compliance and transparency | SOC 2 is in progress. We're open about where we stand: live status and data retention policy. | No SOC 2 report published |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | boat | Hetzner Dedicated |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | No |
| Live fork (no pause) | Yes | No |
| 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 | No |
| GPU | No | Yes |
| Windows | No | Yes |
| 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 | No |
| Audit logs | No | Not published |
| SSO | No | No |
| SOC 2 | No | No |
| HIPAA | No | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Yes | Not published |
Performance
There is no comparable measurement for Hetzner dedicated servers: 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. Results would depend on the model you rent, from the older Ryzen 5 3600 in the AX41 to the Zen 4 Ryzen 9 7950X3D in the AX102.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Hetzner Dedicated 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 | Hetzner Dedicated, 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 | $19 · Usage account · with limits |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $26 · $20/mo | $67 · Usage account · 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 | $946 · Usage account · 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 | $3,225 · Usage account · 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 | $21,500 · Usage account · 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.
Hetzner Dedicated: Hetzner bills each server by the hour, rounding up, until it reaches the monthly price, and keeps billing while it is off until you cancel it. Most models add a one-time setup fee per order, from $59 on the AX42 to $359 on the AX162, and the public IPv4 is $1.90 a month on top. The prices here rent one whole AX41 (12 threads, 64 GB, no setup fee) per agent.
Limits in those scenarios
The smallest Hetzner server priced here has 12 threads and 64 GB, so every scenario rents a whole server per agent and none fit the size asked for; you could split one server into several VMs, but then you build and run that layer yourself. Hetzner publishes no cap on how many servers you can rent, but it checks first orders for plausibility and may hold large ones, so 50 or 300 servers at once is a conversation, not a click. On boat the limit is a sandbox count (100 to 2,000 by plan) plus starts per minute, so the 1,000-job burst gets queued and needs more starts per day than the $2,000 plan allows.
| Scenario | boat | Hetzner Dedicated |
|---|---|---|
| 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 Hetzner Dedicated when
you want a few big, steady machines you run yourself, with GPUs, Windows Server, unmetered traffic or a firewall in front of the hardware.
- Big whole machines with unmetered traffic. Useful for heavy, steady work: one server goes up to 96 threads, and traffic on the 1 Gbit port is unmetered.
- GPU servers. Useful if your agents train or serve models: Hetzner rents servers with Nvidia RTX PRO 4000 and 6000 Blackwell cards.
- Windows and a firewall in front of the server. Useful if the machine must run Windows Server, or be fenced off by rules outside the OS itself.
Use boat when
you want each agent on its own full VM that is ready to work in seconds: /dev/kvm, coding agents, a desktop, HTTPS ports and minute-by-minute snapshots built in, fork while running, and stops that cost nothing.
- A machine per agent in seconds, sized to the job. Agent work comes in bursts of many small machines. On Hetzner you either rent whole servers per agent or build and run your own VM layer on them, with its scheduling, images and clean-up.
- Free stops, snapshots every minute, fork while running. Agents break their machines and sit idle between tasks. On Hetzner a broken install means a reinstall from your own backups, and an idle server keeps billing until you cancel it and lose its disk.
- Coding agents and a desktop built in. A Hetzner server starts as an empty OS install, so you set up, update and supervise each agent, desktop and key yourself, and every agent on the server can read any key you put there.
Questions people ask
Is boat cheaper than a Hetzner dedicated server?
Per agent, mostly yes, because each Hetzner scenario rents a whole AX41: one agent on workdays comes to $20 on boat and $19 on Hetzner, one agent that never stops comes to $26 on boat against $67, and 50 agents in parallel come to $317 against $946. If you pack several agents onto one big server and run the VM layer yourself, Hetzner can cost less per agent.
Can I run nested virtualization on a Hetzner dedicated server?
Yes. You have root on the whole physical machine, so KVM, Docker and your own VMs work once you install them. On boat, Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm are ready in every sandbox.
Could I build my own agent sandboxes on Hetzner servers?
Yes, with KVM or Firecracker on top of the servers you rent. You would then build the images, snapshots, forks, HTTPS routing, key handling and scheduling yourself, and run them day to day. boat is that layer, already built, with coding agents and a desktop in every sandbox.
Do I pay for a Hetzner server that is turned off?
Yes. Hetzner bills a product for as long as it is on your account, even when it is turned off, until you cancel it. On boat, a stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Where does my data run?
Hetzner's dedicated servers run in Falkenstein and Nuremberg (Germany) and Helsinki (Finland). boat runs only in the EU (Germany, Finland and France), with EU data residency and a zero data retention option.
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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