boat vs Morph Cloud
Both give each agent a full Linux VM with root, Docker and nested virtualization. Morph Cloud is strongest at snapshotting and branching a running machine with its memory, while boat comes with the agents, the desktop, the browser and the key handling already inside.
Where boat stands out
Coding agents you drive from outside
Claude Code, Codex and five other agents come preinstalled in every boat sandbox. You send a prompt, steer the agent and follow its events through one API. On Morph you install the agent yourself and run it inside tmux, sending keystrokes and reading the screen.
Real keys never enter the machine
boat's credentials proxy keeps real keys outside the sandbox for model providers and any other HTTPS API, such as GitHub or Stripe. A credential can also switch to another account of the same type when one runs out of credits. Morph's Responses Proxy covers model APIs only.
A desktop and a browser, ready to use
Every boat sandbox has a Linux desktop streamed at 60fps, with Chromium and a computer use API, and it can be embedded in your app. Morph offers browser-based remote access, but its docs have you install the browser and wire up any computer use agent yourself.
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
Morph Cloud
Morph Cloud sells full virtual machines for AI agents that can be snapshotted, branched and restored with their memory, which it calls Infinibranch.
You get MorphVM instances as low-level building blocks and Devboxes as ready workspaces on top of them, with SSH, preview URLs and a tmux API for running coding agents you install yourself. Everything is billed in MCUs, where one MCU is 1 vCPU, 4 GB of RAM or 16 GB of disk for an hour. It is built for teams that fan agents out from one saved state, and it also sells managed GitHub Actions runners and a shared filesystem.
- Regions
- Not published
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 | Morph Cloud: price rank |
|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month Both run Docker and full builds; boat adds preinstalled coding agents you prompt and steer by API, while on Morph you install the agent and drive it through tmux. | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month | 198th of 367, with limits $2,288 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB An assistant that lives on its machine all month gets agents, a desktop and a credentials proxy for any API on boat, which you would build yourself on Morph. | 5th cheapest of 366 $657 a month | 235th of 366, with limits $3,014 a month |
| Code interpreter bursts 100 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 200,000 sessions of 1 min a month Morph fits short code runs well: a machine can pause with its memory, cost almost nothing while paused, and wake on the next request. | 186th of 345, with limits $2,000 a month | 16th cheapest of 345 $154 a month |
| Sandboxes for your users 300 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 23 min a month Both fit; Morph can pause each user's machine and wake it on the next request, while boat gives each user token-protected HTTPS on up to 50 ports and raw TCP. | Cheapest of 361 $209 a month | 12th cheapest of 361 $905 a month |
| RL rollouts 1,000 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 1,000,000 sessions of 3 min a month Morph's memory branching suits rollouts that all start from the same running state. | 34th of 360, with limits $2,000 a month | 86th of 360, with limits $4,847 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 | 38th cheapest of 364 $675 a month |
| CI runners 40 at once · 8 vCPU / 16 GB · 6,000 sessions of 12 min a month Morph also sells managed GitHub Actions runners; on boat you run your own runner inside a sandbox with nested virtualization. | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month | 39th cheapest of 377 $355 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB | 18th cheapest of 368 $26 a month | 85th cheapest of 368 $116 a month |
| Computer-use agents 50 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 20,000 sessions of 15 min a month boat ships a 60fps desktop with Chromium and a computer use API; on Morph you install and wire up the desktop agent yourself. | 6th cheapest of 369 $200 a month | 182nd of 369, with limits $595 a month |
| Browser-use agents 50 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 10 min a month boat has Chromium ready on its desktop; Morph's docs show running headless Chrome yourself in Docker and exposing its debug port. | 7th cheapest of 367 $200 a month | 214th of 367, with limits $250 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 | 239th of 346, with limits $234 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 | 154th of 338, with limits $4,750 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 | 214th of 360, with limits $228 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 | Morph Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts | Full VM with its own kernel |
| Root, Docker and systemd | Yes | Yes, including Docker in Docker and local Kubernetes |
| Nested virtualization | Yes, /dev/kvm for Android emulators and VMs | Experimental |
| Pause with memory | No; disk is saved and resume boots the machine again | Yes; resume brings back all processes and memory, and a paused VM bills only its snapshot |
| Fork a running machine | Yes, with its disk | Yes, with its memory, as many copies as you ask for, in under 250 ms |
| Wake on request | No; a stopped sandbox is started by API | Yes; a paused VM resumes on the next HTTP request, SSH or exec call |
| Saving work automatically | Disk saved every minute and on every stop; a stopped sandbox is free | Saved when you pause or snapshot; a plain stop deletes the instance |
| Desktop and browser | 60fps Linux desktop with Chromium and a computer use API | Browser-based remote desktop; you install the browser and any computer use agent yourself |
| Coding agents | Seven agents preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API | You install the agent, then drive it through a tmux API that sends keys and reads the screen |
| 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 | Responses Proxy for model APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic and others); other secrets are handed to the machine |
| Inbound access | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected by default; raw TCP | Named HTTP services with optional API key auth; SSH through Morph's gateway; no raw TCP |
| Guest systems | Linux | Linux, with experimental Windows and macOS (x86) |
| Where data lives | EU only (Germany, Finland, France), with zero data retention | Regions not published |
| Managed CI runners | No; run your own runner inside a sandbox | GitHub Actions runners in three sizes, billed from the same MCU balance |
| Compliance and transparency | SOC 2 is in progress. We're open about where we stand: live status and data retention policy. | Not published |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | boat | Morph Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | Yes | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | Yes | Yes |
| Browser | Yes | No |
| Computer-use API | Yes | No |
| 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 | No |
| Secret proxy | Yes | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | Yes | No |
| Preinstalled agents | Yes | No |
| Agent harness API | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | No | No |
| GPU | No | No |
| Windows | No | Yes |
| Arm64 | No | No |
| Self-hosting | No | No |
| BYOC | No | No |
| Open source | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Yes | Yes |
| Spend limits | Yes | Not published |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | Yes | Yes |
| Audit logs | No | Yes |
| SSO | No | Not published |
| SOC 2 | No | Not published |
| HIPAA | No | Not published |
| EU data residency | Yes | Not published |
| Zero data retention | Yes | Not published |
Performance
There is no comparable measurement for Morph Cloud: it is not in the hpc-sandbox-benchmarks run. boat did 26.69 runs per second on that Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts. Morph says it restores a snapshot in under 250 ms, which measures start time, not CPU speed.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Morph Cloud 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 | Morph Cloud, 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 | $32 · Developer |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $26 · $20/mo | $121 · Team |
| 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 | $1,459 · Scale |
| 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 | $325 · Scale |
| 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 | $869 · Scale |
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.
Morph Cloud: Morph bills MCUs at $0.05 each: per hour, a machine uses the largest of its vCPUs, its RAM in 4 GiB steps or its disk in 16 GiB steps, for its configured size. Team ($40 a month) and Scale ($250 a month) are prepaid MCU bundles at a discount, and a paused VM bills only its snapshot storage.
Limits in those scenarios
Morph prices each machine by its largest resource, so more than 16 GiB of disk per vCPU raises the bill, and egress prices are not published. Morph's always-on figure assumes the VM stays awake; one that pauses when idle and wakes on request would cost less. Morph's limits are account-wide resource pools rather than sandbox counts: the Developer pool of 64 vCPU holds only 16 machines at 4 vCPU. 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 Morph Scale fits.
| Scenario | boat | Morph Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| 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 Morph Cloud when
your agents branch from one running state with its memory, sleep between requests and wake on demand, or need experimental Windows and macOS guests.
- Memory snapshots, branching and wake on request. Useful for agents that fan out from one running state or sleep between requests: a paused VM keeps its memory and wakes on demand.
- Windows and macOS guests. Morph lists experimental Windows and macOS (x86) guests for agents that must work in those systems.
- Managed CI runners and a shared filesystem. Morph also sells managed GitHub Actions runners and a filesystem many machines can mount at once.
Use boat when
your agents need to arrive ready: coding agents you prompt and steer by API, a desktop with Chromium for computer use, real keys kept outside the machine, and hosting on many ports in the EU.
- Coding agents you drive from outside. Driving an agent by keystrokes means parsing terminal output to know when it is done or stuck. Every team rebuilds that harness, and it breaks when the agent's screen layout changes.
- Real keys never enter the machine. On Morph, keys for anything other than a model API sit inside a machine the agent controls, where one prompt injection can leak them.
- A desktop and a browser, ready to use. A browsing or computer use agent on Morph starts with you building the desktop image, the browser and the screenshot and click loop before the agent can do any work.
Questions people ask
Is boat cheaper than Morph Cloud?
In four of the five scenarios on this page, yes. For 1,000 short jobs at once, Morph's Scale plan fits while boat's plans queue the starts, so Morph fits that one better. Morph's always-on price drops if you let the VM pause when idle.
Can boat branch a running VM with its memory like Morph?
boat can fork a running sandbox with its disk, but not with its memory, so the copy boots fresh. Morph's Infinibranch copies the memory too, so every branch continues with its processes running.
Do both run Docker and nested virtualization?
Both are full VMs with root and Docker inside. boat exposes /dev/kvm for Android emulators and VMs, and Morph lists nested virtualization as experimental.
Can I run Claude Code or Codex on each?
Yes. On boat they come preinstalled and you prompt, steer and follow them through an API. On Morph you install them in a Devbox and drive them through a tmux API that sends keystrokes and captures the screen.
Does Morph Cloud have computer use?
Morph has browser-based remote desktop access, but no built-in browser or computer use API; you set those up yourself. boat ships a 60fps desktop with Chromium and a computer use API in every sandbox.
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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