boat vs OpenPond
OpenPond is an open-source agent workspace with cloud sandboxes you drive through its TypeScript SDK, up to 10 at a time below Enterprise. boat gives every agent a full Linux VM with SSH, root, Docker, /dev/kvm, a desktop and coding agents built in, with no 10-sandbox ceiling.
Where boat stands out
A whole Linux machine, not just an SDK
On boat each agent gets a VM you can SSH into, with root, systemd, Docker and /dev/kvm, plus raw TCP and its own IP. OpenPond sandboxes are also microVMs, but you reach them through its SDK, CLI or MCP: exec, processes, PTY sessions and HTTPS preview ports. SSH, systemd and /dev/kvm are not documented there.
Fleets bigger than ten
OpenPond's Free plan runs 1 cloud sandbox at a time, and Starter and Pro run up to 10. Anything more needs an Enterprise contract. On boat, 50 agents in parallel and 300 sandboxes for your users fit on self-serve plans.
Coding agents and a desktop built in
boat ships Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and other agents in each sandbox, and you drive them from outside with a prompt, steer and events API. Each VM also streams a 60fps desktop with Chromium for computer use. OpenPond's Work runs its own hosted model, and its cloud sandboxes are headless.
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
OpenPond
OpenPond is an open-source workspace where people and AI agents do tasks, with paid cloud sandboxes on the side.
The main product is a desktop, web, CLI and chat workspace with an agent harness, evals and a training workbench, released under the MIT license. Its cloud sandboxes are Firecracker microVMs that your server code creates and controls through the openpond-sdk TypeScript SDK: run commands, manage files, open preview ports, snapshot and fork. It is built for teams that want either a hosted model to finish a task (Work) or raw sandboxes their own code drives.
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 | OpenPond: price rank |
|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month A software factory runs many agents with Docker and services at once; OpenPond stops at 10 sandboxes below Enterprise, and boat adds /dev/kvm and SSH on each machine. | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month | 292nd of 367, with limits $5,787 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB Always-on assistants need many machines that never stop; OpenPond fits only up to 10 of them on self-serve plans. | 5th cheapest of 366 $657 a month | 327th of 366, with limits $8,768 a month |
| Code interpreter bursts 100 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 200,000 sessions of 1 min a month OpenPond fits short code runs better: it bills only running seconds with no plan fee for the size, while boat's start limits make big bursts a compromise. | 186th of 345, with limits $2,000 a month | 148th of 345, with limits $391 a month |
| Sandboxes for your users 300 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 23 min a month 300 sandboxes for your users need far more than OpenPond's 10 at once, so they need an Enterprise contract there. | Cheapest of 361 $209 a month | 163rd of 361, with limits $2,471 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 | 156th of 360, with limits $11,874 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 | 186th of 364, with limits $1,918 a month |
| CI runners 40 at once · 8 vCPU / 16 GB · 6,000 sessions of 12 min a month OpenPond has no runner integration or SSH, so CI jobs run through its SDK; boat machines take a runner like any Linux server. | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month | 192nd of 377, with limits $1,152 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB | 18th cheapest of 368 $26 a month | 339th of 368, with limits $351 a month |
| Computer-use agents 50 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 20,000 sessions of 15 min a month OpenPond's cloud sandboxes are headless; its browser control drives the browser in its local desktop app, while boat streams a 60fps desktop with Chromium from each VM. | 6th cheapest of 369 $200 a month | 288th of 369, with limits $1,727 a month |
| Browser-use agents 50 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 10 min a month Browser agents need a browser inside the sandbox; OpenPond documents none in its cloud sandboxes, and boat ships Chromium with browser control. | 7th cheapest of 367 $200 a month | 297th of 367, with limits $868 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 | 287th of 346, with limits $582 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 | 243rd of 338, with limits $11,642 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 | 287th of 360, with limits $579 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 | OpenPond |
|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Every sandbox is a full VM with its own kernel | Firecracker microVM with its own kernel |
| Root, systemd and nested virtualization | Root, systemd, Docker and /dev/kvm on every machine | Docker commands are recognized; root, systemd and /dev/kvm are not documented |
| How you get in | SSH and SCP, plus an API and a CLI | SDK, CLI and MCP: exec, processes and PTY sessions; no SSH |
| Sandboxes at once | No 10-sandbox ceiling; large fleets on self-serve plans | 1 on Free, up to 10 on Starter and Pro, more only on Enterprise |
| Machine size | 4 vCPU / 8 GB by default, 8 vCPU from the $20 plan | Five published sizes from 0.25 vCPU / 0.5 GiB to 4 vCPU / 8 GiB; templates allow up to 8 vCPU / 32 GiB |
| Files after a stop | Snapshots every minute and on stop; a stopped sandbox costs nothing | Stopping ends compute billing and keeps the filesystem; snapshots are made by hand |
| Snapshot and fork | Fork a running sandbox; named snapshots as templates (disk, not memory) | Filesystem snapshots you can fork, restore or publish as templates (disk, not memory) |
| Custom images | Named snapshots (templates), shareable by code; no Dockerfile builds | Start from a base, a snapshot, an OCI image or a Dockerfile |
| Reaching the sandbox | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected; raw TCP; dedicated IPv6 or IPv4 | HTTPS preview ports, private with tokens or public; no raw TCP or public IP documented |
| Outbound internet | Open internet on every plan; no provider-side allowlist | Egress set to restricted, allow or block, with allowed hosts, in the sandbox network policy |
| Desktop and browser | 60fps desktop and Chromium in each VM, with computer use and browser control | Cloud sandboxes are headless; browser tools drive the local desktop app |
| Coding agents | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and more preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API | Work runs an OpenPond-hosted model with file and command tools; third-party coding agents are not preinstalled |
| 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 | OpenPond Connect links Google, GitHub and X accounts without handing raw tokens to agents |
| Spend caps | Account spend limits on top of monthly plan credit | Per-sandbox budget, spend, duration and idle limits set in code |
| 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 | OpenPond |
|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | Yes | No |
| Root | Yes | Not published |
| Systemd | Yes | Not published |
| Desktop GUI | Yes | No |
| Browser | Yes | No |
| Computer-use API | Yes | No |
| SSH | Yes | No |
| Persistent disk | Yes | Yes |
| Pause/resume | Yes | Yes |
| 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 | Yes |
| Wake on request | No | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | Yes | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | Yes | Not published |
| Public IPv4 | No | No |
| 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 | No |
| Windows | No | No |
| Arm64 | No | No |
| Self-hosting | No | No |
| BYOC | No | No |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Scoped API keys | Yes | Yes |
| Spend limits | Yes | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | Yes | No |
| Audit logs | No | Not published |
| SSO | No | Yes |
| 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 OpenPond: it was not part of the public CPU benchmark boat was measured in. boat did 26.69 Node.js build-and-test runs per second at 4 vCPU / 8 GB on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (Zen 5) hosts in StarSling's run.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. OpenPond 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 | OpenPond, 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 | $76 · Free |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $26 · $20/mo | $351 · Free |
| 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 | $3,799 · Starter · 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 | $1,083 · Starter · 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 | $2,375 · Starter · 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.
OpenPond: OpenPond bills per second for each vCPU, GiB of memory and GiB of VM disk while a sandbox runs, and retained volumes and snapshots keep costing storage after it stops. Starter and Pro include $10 or $20 of monthly usage, and beyond that you add credits or turn on overage.
Limits in those scenarios
The limit that bites on OpenPond is sandboxes at once: 1 on Free and 10 on Starter and Pro. That is why 50 agents in parallel, 300 sandboxes for your users and 1,000 short jobs at once do not fit without Enterprise. OpenPond does not publish an egress price, so heavy downloads are an open cost. On boat the 1,000-job burst is limited by starts: bursts above 90 starts a minute are queued, and it needs more starts per day than the $2,000 plan allows.
| Scenario | boat | OpenPond |
|---|---|---|
| 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 OpenPond when
you want an open-source agent workspace with a hosted Work API, or a handful of sandboxes that boot from Dockerfiles with strict egress rules and per-sandbox spend caps.
- Egress rules and spend caps per sandbox. Useful if untrusted code must stay offline or inside a host list, with a hard dollar cap on each sandbox.
- Build from a Dockerfile or OCI image. Useful if your environments already live as Dockerfiles or registry images: OpenPond boots a sandbox straight from them.
- An open-source workspace around the sandbox. Useful if you want a MIT-licensed agent workspace, harness and evals that you can read, change and run locally.
Use boat when
your agents need real Linux machines in numbers: SSH, root, Docker and /dev/kvm, a desktop and browser, coding agents you drive by API, and more than 10 running at once.
- A whole Linux machine, not just an SDK. Without SSH and root, tools that expect a normal server, like remote editors, CI runners or emulators that need /dev/kvm, have to be wrapped in SDK calls on OpenPond, or they do not run at all.
- Fleets bigger than ten. An agent team, an eval run or a product that gives each user a sandbox hits OpenPond's 10-sandbox wall fast, and the extra jobs wait or need a sales call.
- Coding agents and a desktop built in. If you want Claude Code or Codex on OpenPond, you install it and write the code that starts, prompts and watches it yourself. Browser and desktop agents have no screen to use in its cloud sandboxes.
Questions people ask
Is boat cheaper than OpenPond?
In the scenarios we priced at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, yes: one coding agent on workdays comes to $20 a month on boat and $76 on OpenPond, and one agent running all month comes to $26 versus $351. 50 agents in parallel come to $317 versus $3,799, and OpenPond also caps self-serve plans at 10 sandboxes. OpenPond's default 1 vCPU sandbox is small, so very light jobs can cost less there.
Can I SSH into an OpenPond sandbox?
OpenPond documents no SSH. You run commands, start processes and open PTY sessions through its SDK, CLI or MCP server. boat machines take SSH like any Linux server.
How many OpenPond sandboxes can run at once?
One on Free, and up to 10 on Starter and Pro. More needs an Enterprise contract with dedicated capacity.
Does OpenPond have a desktop or browser in the sandbox?
Not in its cloud sandboxes, which are headless Linux. Its browser tools control the browser inside the local OpenPond desktop app. boat streams a 60fps desktop with Chromium from each VM, with computer use and browser control.
Is OpenPond open source?
The workspace, CLI, SDK, harness and evals are MIT licensed on GitHub. The cloud sandboxes themselves run on OpenPond's hosted service and need an API key. boat is a hosted service too.
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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