boat vs Namespace

Namespace is a build and dev platform: GitHub Actions runners, caches, and Devboxes for people and coding agents, on Linux, macOS and Windows. boat is built for agents that run for hours or days, on a full VM with no session cap, a Linux desktop and coding agents you drive from outside.

Where boat stands out

No clock on the session

On boat's paid plans a sandbox runs as long as the work does, for hours or for months. A Namespace Devbox is shut down when it reaches its plan's limit: 4 hours on Developer, 5 on Team and 24 on Business, and support can raise it to 24 at most.

Coding agents you drive from outside

boat ships Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and other agents in each sandbox, and you drive agents inside from outside with a prompt, steer and events API. Namespace runs the machine while a partner such as Anthropic, Cursor or Devin runs the agent loop. boat's credentials proxy keeps real AI keys out, and can switch to another account when credits run out.

A Linux desktop for computer use

Every boat sandbox streams a 60fps Linux desktop with Chromium, with computer use and browser control you can embed in your app. Namespace's screenshot and click API works on macOS Devboxes only and rejects Linux Devboxes.

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

Namespace

Namespace is a dev platform for fast builds, tests and coding environments: CI runners, build caches and Devboxes, on its own hardware.

Most of Namespace is CI: a faster drop-in for GitHub Actions runners, with Docker, Bazel, Turborepo and Nix caching. Its Devboxes are remote Linux and macOS machines with persistent storage, made for people and AI coding agents, and they also host sessions for Claude Managed Agents, Cursor Cloud Agents and Devin. It is a different kind of product from boat, so this page compares the part where they overlap: a machine an agent works on.

Products: GitHub Actions runners, Docker, Bazel, Turborepo and Nix caching, Devboxes, and a compute API
Hardware: Its own hardware in its own racks: AMD EPYC for Linux and Windows, Apple M4 Pro or M5 Max for macOS
Linux Devboxes: Run from a container image you choose and include Docker; the docs do not say whether each one has its own kernel
Devbox time limit: 4 hours on Developer, 5 on Team, 24 on Business, even while you are working
Customers: Says 1,000+ companies, including Ramp, ElevenLabs, Zed and Vanta
Funding: Announced a $42M Series B
Compliance: Trust center lists SOC 2 Type II

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	Namespace: price rank
Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month	3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month	39th of 367, with limits $3,495 a month
Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB An assistant that never stops is a compromise on Namespace, because a Devbox is shut down after at most 24 hours even while it works; boat has no session cap on paid plans.	5th cheapest of 366 $657 a month	303rd of 366, with limits $6,645 a month
Code interpreter bursts 100 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 200,000 sessions of 1 min a month Namespace costs less for one-minute bursts here because it bills per minute with no plan fee, while boat's start limits make big bursts a compromise.	186th of 345, with limits $2,000 a month	247th of 345, with limits $250 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	284th of 361, with limits $2,068 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	356th of 360, with limits $9,012 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	282nd of 364, with limits $1,043 a month
CI runners 40 at once · 8 vCPU / 16 GB · 6,000 sessions of 12 min a month Both fit; CI runners are Namespace's main product, with caches for Docker, Bazel and more, and boat runs CI jobs on full VMs with Docker and /dev/kvm.	4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month	80th cheapest of 377 $765 a month
24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB A Namespace Devbox is a compromise here because it is shut down after at most 24 hours, though it stops when idle and starts again when you connect; a boat machine stays up as long as you want.	18th cheapest of 368 $26 a month	126th of 368, with limits $168 a month
Computer-use agents 50 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 20,000 sessions of 15 min a month Namespace's screenshot and click API works on macOS Devboxes only, so a Linux computer-use agent is a compromise there; boat streams a 60fps Linux desktop with Chromium.	6th cheapest of 369 $200 a month	67th of 369, with limits $982 a month
Browser-use agents 50 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 10 min a month Namespace has no managed browser and no Linux display API for Devboxes, so you set up the browser yourself; boat ships Chromium with browser control.	7th cheapest of 367 $200 a month	285th of 367, with limits $789 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	259th of 346, with limits $332 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	226th of 338, with limits $9,012 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	242nd of 360, with limits $339 a month
GPU eval jobs 10 at once · 8 vCPU / 32 GB · 500 sessions of 30 min a month Neither fits: Namespace's machine shapes and boat's are CPU only.	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 Only Namespace fits: it runs macOS Devboxes and instances on Apple Silicon, and boat has no macOS.	Can't run it	6th cheapest of 36 $1,205 a month

Key features

Feature	boat	Namespace
Isolation	Every sandbox is a full VM with its own kernel	Linux Devboxes run from a container image on Namespace's own hardware; the docs do not say if each has its own kernel
CPU speed (Node.js build-and-test, 4 vCPU / 8 GB)	26.69 runs/s	21.79 runs/s
Docker and nested virtualization	Docker, root, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine	Docker in Linux Devboxes; /dev/kvm on Linux compute instances, not on macOS or Windows
How long a session can run	No session cap on paid plans	Devboxes stop after 4, 5 or 24 hours by plan, raisable to 24 at most; instances after 3, 5 or 24
Desktop and computer use	60fps Linux desktop and Chromium, computer use and browser control, embeddable stream	Screenshot and click API on macOS Devboxes only; VNC and RDP for compute instances
Files after a stop	Snapshots every minute and on stop; a stopped sandbox costs nothing	A stopped Devbox keeps its storage, billed at $0.20 per GB-month used
Idle stop and wake	Machines run until you stop them	Devboxes stop after an idle timeout (15 minutes to 8 hours) and start again when you connect
Fork and suspend	Fork a running sandbox into a new one; resume reboots from disk	No fork; compute instances can suspend and resume with RAM kept
Custom images	Named snapshots (templates), shareable by code; no Dockerfile builds	Any container image you choose, plus Devbox blueprints
Reaching the sandbox	HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected; raw TCP; dedicated IPv6 or IPv4	HTTPS URLs that need a Namespace login, TCP through a running CLI port-forward; no public IP
Outbound internet	Open internet on every plan; no provider-side allowlist	Egress policies per Devbox blueprint, runner or instance: block, advisory or allow by domain
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	Egress rules inject a header from Namespace Vault, resolved outside the workload
Coding agents	Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and more preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API	Hosts Claude Managed Agents, Cursor and Devin sessions run through those partners; an MCP server lets your own agent create Devboxes and run commands
Operating systems	Linux only; Wine for Windows apps	Linux, macOS on Apple Silicon, and Windows on Team plans and up
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	Namespace
Full VM (own kernel)	Yes	Yes
Docker inside	Yes	Yes
Nested virtualization	Yes	Yes
Root	Yes	Yes
Systemd	Yes	Not published
Desktop GUI	Yes	Yes
Browser	Yes	No
Computer-use API	Yes	Yes
SSH	Yes	Yes
Persistent disk	Yes	Yes
Pause/resume	Yes	Yes
Automatic snapshots	Yes	Yes
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	Yes
Wake on request	No	Yes
HTTPS preview URLs	Yes	Yes
Raw TCP inbound	Yes	Yes
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	Yes
Arm64	No	Yes
Self-hosting	No	No
BYOC	No	No
Open source	No	No
Scoped API keys	Yes	Not published
Spend limits	Yes	Yes
Usage per sandbox (API)	Yes	No
Audit logs	No	Yes
SSO	No	Yes
SOC 2	No	Yes
HIPAA	No	No
EU data residency	Yes	Yes
Zero data retention	Yes	Not published

Performance

boat26.69 runs/s

Namespace21.79 runs/s

In StarSling's public run of 2026-09-29, at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, boat did 26.69 Node.js build-and-test runs per second and Namespace did 21.79, so the same build takes about a fifth longer on Namespace. That run found an OCI container inside the Namespace machine it tested. A Namespace Devbox's vCPU count is a ceiling it can boost to, not a guaranteed share.

Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Namespace measured on: Linux compute instance (unit-minutes, PAYG/overage $0.0015).

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	Namespace, 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	$50 · Devbox (pay as you go)
One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month	$26 · $20/mo	$176 · Devbox (pay as you go) · 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	$2,198 · Devbox (pay as you go)
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	$1,214 · Devbox (pay as you go)
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	$3,237 · Devbox (pay as you go)

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.

Namespace: Devboxes are billed in Devbox Minutes at $0.004 each, pay as you go on every plan: a 4 vCPU / 8 GB Devbox uses one a minute, and bigger sizes use more. The minutes in the Team ($100) and Business ($250) plans cover runners and instances, not Devboxes, and stored files cost $0.20 per GB-month.

Limits in those scenarios

The limit that bites most on Namespace is time: a Devbox is shut down after 4, 5 or 24 hours by plan, so the agent that never stops restarts at least once a day, and on Developer or Team even one workday session hits the 4 or 5 hour limit. Namespace limits instances by a pool of vCPU and memory per plan (32 vCPU on Developer up to 160 on Business), and it does not publish a Devbox concurrency limit or an egress price. On boat the limit is a sandbox count (100 to 2,000 by plan) plus starts per minute, so the 1,000 short jobs get queued and need more starts per day than the $2,000 plan allows.

Scenario	boat	Namespace
One coding agent, workdays	None that bite	egress price not published
One agent that never stops	None that bite	sessions end after 24 h: needs restarts to run 24/7 egress price not published
50 agents in parallel	None that bite	egress price not published
Sandboxes for your users	None that bite	egress price not published
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)	egress price not published

Which one should you use?

Use Namespace when

you need macOS or Windows machines, faster GitHub Actions runners with build caches, or Devboxes for people that stop when idle.

macOS and Windows. Useful if your agents build iOS or Mac apps or test on Windows: Namespace runs macOS on Apple Silicon and Windows machines.
CI runners and build caches. Useful if you want faster GitHub Actions: Namespace is a drop-in runner with Docker, Bazel and Turborepo caching.
Egress rules and idle stop. Useful if agents must reach only chosen domains, or boxes should stop when nobody uses them and start on connect.

Use boat when

your agents work on Linux for hours or days: a full, faster VM with no session cap, Docker and /dev/kvm, a 60fps desktop, and coding agents you drive from outside.

No clock on the session. An agent that runs a long migration or stays on as an assistant gets cut off mid-task on Namespace. Its processes die, and your code has to notice, restart the Devbox and resume the work every day.
Coding agents you drive from outside. On Namespace you either sign up for a partner's agent service or write the code that installs, starts, prompts and watches each agent yourself. When an account runs out of credits, boat switches the credential and the agent keeps going.
A Linux desktop for computer use. A Linux agent that has to use a browser or a desktop app has no display API on a Namespace Devbox. You install a desktop and VNC yourself, or pay for macOS minutes at a much higher rate.

Questions people ask

Is boat cheaper than Namespace?

In most of the scenarios we priced, yes: one coding agent on workdays comes to $20 a month on boat and $50 on Namespace, and one agent running all month comes to $26 versus $176, and on Namespace it has to restart at least once a day. 50 agents in parallel come to $317 versus $2,198. For 1,000 short jobs at once Namespace fits and boat does not without higher start limits.

How long can a Namespace Devbox run?

Up to 4 hours on Developer, 5 on Team and 24 on Business, and the limit applies even while you work in it. Support can raise it to 24 hours at most. boat has no session cap on paid plans.

Is Namespace a sandbox for AI agents?

Partly. Namespace is mainly a CI and build platform, and its Devboxes are remote dev machines for people and coding agents. Partners such as Anthropic, Cursor and Devin run agent sessions on them. boat is built only for agent sandboxes, with the agents and their API built in.

Does boat run macOS or Windows like Namespace?

No. boat runs Linux VMs on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (Zen 5) hosts and has Wine docs for Windows apps. If you need macOS for Xcode or a Windows machine, Namespace has both.

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. Namespace runs in several regions and lets you ask support for a preferred region; keeping every workload inside one region needs its enterprise plan.

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. Namespace's trust center lists SOC 2 Type II.

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