boat vs Samsung Cloud Platform
Samsung Cloud Platform's Virtual Server is a general cloud server in Korea that you set up yourself. boat is a VM made for AI agents, with coding agents, a 60fps desktop and per-port HTTPS URLs ready, and it costs less in most of the scenarios below.
Where boat stands out
Coding agents you drive from outside
boat ships Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and other agents inside each sandbox, and you drive them from outside with a prompt, steer and events API. A Samsung Cloud Platform server boots a plain OS image, so you install each agent, run it as a process and build the control layer yourself.
A desktop and browser for computer use
Every boat sandbox can stream a 60fps desktop with Chromium, and agents can click, type and take screenshots through a computer-use API. You can embed the stream in your own app. Samsung Cloud Platform gives you SSH, or RDP on Windows, and no managed desktop.
A sandbox lifecycle built in
boat snapshots the disk every minute and on stop, a stopped sandbox costs nothing, and you can fork a running sandbox in one call. Each port can get an HTTPS URL with a token, and /dev/kvm is there for emulators. On Samsung Cloud Platform you make images, attach public IPs and set up TLS 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
Samsung Cloud Platform
Samsung Cloud Platform is the public cloud of Samsung SDS, a South Korean enterprise IT company; its Virtual Server service rents general cloud servers, not agent sandboxes.
You pick a server type (standard up to 16 vCore and 256 GB, or high capacity up to 128 vCore), boot it from a Linux or Windows image, and connect with a key pair. Networks, security groups, block storage, images and backups are separate services you put together in the console or through the API. It is built for companies running business workloads in Korea.
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 | Samsung Cloud Platform: price rank |
|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month Both run full VMs, but on Samsung Cloud Platform you install the agents, desktop and preview URLs yourself; boat ships them in every sandbox. | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month | 250th of 367, with limits $3,635 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB A Samsung Cloud Platform server can run all month, but it has no built-in agent API, credentials proxy or per-minute snapshots, so you build that layer yourself. | 5th cheapest of 366 $657 a month | 204th of 366, with limits $2,068 a month |
| Code interpreter bursts 100 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 200,000 sessions of 1 min a month Samsung Cloud Platform fits short bursts better, with hourly billing on small servers and no plan fee, while boat's start limits make big bursts a compromise. | 186th of 345, with limits $2,000 a month | 87th of 345, with limits $127 a month |
| Sandboxes for your users 300 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 23 min a month boat gives each user a sandbox with an HTTPS URL and free stops; on Samsung Cloud Platform you wire up public IPs, security groups and TLS for every user, and its quota for 300 servers at once is not published. | Cheapest of 361 $209 a month | 113th of 361, with limits $1,085 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 | 81st of 360, with limits $4,554 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 | 151st of 364, with limits $982 a month |
| CI runners 40 at once · 8 vCPU / 16 GB · 6,000 sessions of 12 min a month Both fit: a CI job needs a clean Linux machine with root, and both give you one. | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month | 65th cheapest of 377 $509 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB | 18th cheapest of 368 $26 a month | 97th cheapest of 368 $149 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; a Samsung Cloud Platform server has no managed desktop, so you set up VNC or RDP yourself. | 6th cheapest of 369 $200 a month | 236th of 369, with limits $1,004 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 | 256th of 367, with limits $480 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 | 237th of 346, with limits $232 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 | 143rd of 338, with limits $4,245 a month |
| Parallel red teaming 200 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 5,000 sessions of 30 min a month boat runs many isolated sandboxes with fork and snapshots built in; on Samsung Cloud Platform you clone servers from images by hand. | 2nd cheapest of 360 $200 a month | 218th of 360, with limits $239 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 | Samsung Cloud Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Kind of product | Sandbox VMs made for AI agents, created by API in seconds | General cloud servers you configure yourself |
| Isolation | Every sandbox is a full VM with its own kernel | Every server is a full VM on a hypervisor with its own OS |
| Docker and nested virtualization | Docker, root, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine | Root through a key pair, so you can install Docker; nested virtualization is not documented |
| Coding agents | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and more preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API | None; you install and run agents yourself |
| Desktop and computer use | 60fps desktop and Chromium, computer use and browser control, embeddable stream | No managed desktop; you connect over SSH, or RDP on Windows |
| Snapshots and stops | Snapshots every minute and on stop; a stopped sandbox costs nothing | Images of a server on demand and a separate scheduled Backup service; the OS disk is billed while the server is off |
| Fork | Fork a running sandbox in one call | Create an image from a server, then boot new servers from it |
| Reaching the sandbox | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected; raw TCP; dedicated IPv6 or IPv4 | Apply for a public IP through an Internet Gateway and open ports in security groups; TLS is yours to set up |
| Outbound rules | Open internet on every plan; no provider-side allowlist | Security groups deny everything by default; you allow traffic by address, protocol and port (no domain rules) |
| 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 | Secrets Manager stores secrets that your code reads; no proxy that adds them to requests |
| GPUs | None | NVIDIA A100, H100 and B300 servers, plus FuriosaAI RNGD NPUs |
| Windows | No Windows guests; Wine for Windows apps | Windows Server 2016, 2019, 2022 and 2025 images |
| Regions | EU only: Germany, Finland, France | South Korea (KR West and KR West 2 on the self-serve price list) |
| 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 | Samsung Cloud Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | Yes | No |
| Root | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | Yes | Not published |
| Desktop GUI | Yes | No |
| Browser | Yes | No |
| Computer-use API | Yes | No |
| SSH | Yes | Yes |
| Persistent disk | Yes | Yes |
| Pause/resume | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic snapshots | Yes | No |
| Fork/clone | Yes | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | Yes | Not published |
| 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 | Yes |
| 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 | Not published |
| Audit logs | No | Not published |
| SSO | No | Yes |
| SOC 2 | No | No |
| HIPAA | No | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | No |
| Zero data retention | Yes | Not published |
Performance
There is no comparable measurement: Samsung Cloud Platform was not part of StarSling's public sandbox benchmark. In that run, at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, boat did 26.69 Node.js build-and-test runs per second on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (Zen 5) hosts.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Samsung Cloud Platform 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 | Samsung Cloud Platform, 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 | $39 · Pay as you go |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $26 · $20/mo | $149 · Pay as you go |
| 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 | $1,810 · 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 | $480 · Pay as you go · 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 | $913 · Pay as you go · 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.
Samsung Cloud Platform: Samsung Cloud Platform charges each server by the hour it runs, with no plan fee, at list prices before VAT. The OS disk, public IP and outbound traffic past the free amount are billed on top, and 1 or 3 year commitments lower the rate with a fee of 50% of the rest if you end early.
Limits in those scenarios
Samsung Cloud Platform has no session cap, so one agent on workdays, one agent all month and 50 agents in parallel all fit. It does not publish how many servers an account can run at once: quotas are set per account and raised through its Quota Service, so 300 sandboxes for your users or 1,000 jobs at once are not confirmed. On boat the 1,000-job burst hits start limits per minute, hour and day, so it gets queued.
| Scenario | boat | Samsung Cloud Platform |
|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays | None that bite | None that bite |
| One agent that never stops | None that bite | 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 Samsung Cloud Platform when
you need GPUs or Windows Server, or your data must stay in South Korea.
- GPUs and NPUs. Useful if your agents train or serve models: Samsung Cloud Platform rents NVIDIA A100, H100 and B300 servers, and FuriosaAI NPUs.
- Windows Server. Useful if you need Windows Server: Samsung Cloud Platform boots Windows Server 2016 to 2025 images.
- Data in South Korea, with firewall rules. Useful if your data must stay in South Korea or every server must start closed: security groups deny all traffic by default.
Use boat when
you run AI agents that need a ready sandbox: coding agents, a desktop, HTTPS URLs, per-minute snapshots and fork, without building that layer on top of plain servers.
- Coding agents you drive from outside. On a plain server you write and maintain the code that starts, prompts and watches every agent, and real AI keys sit on its disk. boat's credentials proxy keeps those keys outside the sandbox.
- A desktop and browser for computer use. Without it, each computer-use agent needs you to install a desktop, a VNC server and a browser on the server, then build your own screen and input layer and keep it working.
- A sandbox lifecycle built in. Cloning a Samsung Cloud Platform server means making an image, then booting a new server from it. Its OS disk and a reserved public IP keep billing while the server is off.
Questions people ask
Is boat cheaper than Samsung Cloud Platform?
In most of the scenarios we priced, yes: one coding agent on workdays comes to $20 a month on boat and $39 on Samsung Cloud Platform, and one agent running all month comes to $26 versus $149. 50 agents in parallel come to $317 versus $1,810. For 1,000 short jobs at once, Samsung Cloud Platform comes to $913 against $2,000 on boat, and neither fits without higher limits.
Is Samsung Cloud Platform a sandbox for AI agents?
No. Its Virtual Server is a general cloud server: you get a VM with an OS image and build everything else yourself. boat is made for agents, with coding agents, a desktop, HTTPS URLs and snapshots built into every sandbox.
Can I run Docker on Samsung Cloud Platform and boat?
Yes on both. A Samsung Cloud Platform server gives you root through a key pair, so you can install Docker yourself; nested virtualization is not documented there. On boat, Docker, systemd, root and /dev/kvm are ready in every sandbox.
Where does my data run?
Samsung Cloud Platform's self-serve price list covers two regions in South Korea, KR West and KR West 2. boat runs only in the EU (Germany, Finland and France), with EU data residency and a zero data retention option.
Does boat have GPUs or Windows like Samsung Cloud Platform?
No. boat has no GPUs and no Windows guests; it runs Linux VMs on AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts and has Wine docs for Windows apps. Samsung Cloud Platform has A100, H100 and B300 GPU servers and Windows Server images.
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. Samsung SDS lists ISMS-P, CSAP, several ISO 27000 certificates and CSA STAR.
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