boat vs Scaleway
A Scaleway Instance is a plain VM in a European cloud that you install, secure and keep running yourself. boat also gives each agent a full VM in the EU, but with coding agents, a desktop, snapshots every minute, free stops and fleets of hundreds already built in.
Where boat stands out
Coding agents and a desktop built in
Every boat sandbox has Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and other agents ready, and you drive them 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.
Stops that keep the disk, and 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. On Scaleway, standby bills like a running Instance, a powered-off one still bills its volumes and IP, and backups and copies are images you make yourself.
Hundreds of sandboxes without a ticket
boat plans run 100 to 2,000 sandboxes at once, and each comes with HTTPS URLs on up to 50 ports. Scaleway sets quotas per Instance shape: 10 DEV1-L or 15 DEV1-M after you verify your identity, and 50 IPs, with more only through support.
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
Scaleway
Scaleway is a European cloud and AI provider, part of the iliad Group, that rents virtual machines, GPUs, storage and managed services.
Scaleway Instances are KVM virtual machines you pick from fixed shapes, from small shared-vCPU Development Instances to dedicated-vCPU and Arm64 types, running Linux or Windows Server. You get root, SSH, a public IP and security groups, and you install and run your own software next to Scaleway products like managed databases, Kubernetes, object storage and GPU Instances. It is general cloud infrastructure, not an agent sandbox, so this page compares the two where they overlap: giving an agent its own Linux machine.
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 | Scaleway: price rank |
|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month Both give a full Linux VM with root and Docker, but a Scaleway Instance starts as an empty OS image, while boat comes with agents, snapshots every minute and stops that cost nothing. | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month | 49th of 367, with limits $322 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB A Scaleway Instance can run an assistant around the clock, but you build the agent setup, the HTTPS endpoint and the backups yourself; boat has them built in. | 5th cheapest of 366 $657 a month | 90th of 366, with limits $208 a month |
| Code interpreter bursts 100 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 200,000 sessions of 1 min a month Both are a compromise for one-minute runs: Scaleway bills each CPU Instance for at least an hour, and boat's start limits queue big bursts. | 186th of 345, with limits $2,000 a month | 166th of 345, with limits $893 a month |
| Sandboxes for your users 300 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 23 min a month 300 user sandboxes on Scaleway need far more Instances than the default per-shape quotas allow (15 DEV1-M after identity checks), so you would ask support first; boat allows 100 to 2,000 sandboxes by plan. | Cheapest of 361 $209 a month | 84th of 361, with limits $738 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 | 176th of 360, with limits $18,254 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 | 42nd cheapest of 364 $776 a month |
| CI runners 40 at once · 8 vCPU / 16 GB · 6,000 sessions of 12 min a month Both run Docker builds on a full VM; on Scaleway each job pays at least a full hour of uptime, and you run the runner software and the clean-up yourself. | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month | 82nd cheapest of 377 $777 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB Both fit a 24/7 dev box: a Scaleway Instance is a classic always-on server, and a boat machine keeps its disk with snapshots every minute. | 18th cheapest of 368 $26 a month | 30th cheapest of 368 $41 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 a Scaleway Instance you install the desktop, the browser and the control loop yourself. | 6th cheapest of 369 $200 a month | 94th of 369, with limits $168 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 | 173rd of 367, with limits $126 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 | 149th of 346, with limits $13 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 | 34th of 338, with limits $253 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 | 103rd of 360, with limits $29 a month |
| GPU eval jobs 10 at once · 8 vCPU / 32 GB · 500 sessions of 30 min a month Only Scaleway fits: it rents GPU Instances by the minute, 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 | Scaleway |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | A sandbox API for agents, on full VMs | A general cloud VM you set up and run yourself |
| Isolation | Every sandbox is a full VM with its own kernel | Every Instance is a full KVM VM with its own kernel |
| CPU | Dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (Zen 5) hosts; 26.69 runs/s at 4 vCPU / 8 GB | Shared vCPU on Development and Play types, dedicated vCPU on others; no comparable measurement |
| Docker and nested virtualization | Docker, root, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine, documented | Root and Docker on Linux images; nested virtualization is not documented |
| Stopping | A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk | Standby bills as a running Instance, and a shutdown from inside the machine puts it in standby; a console or API power-off stops compute, but volumes and IPs keep billing |
| Snapshots | Automatic snapshots every minute and on stop | Images and volume snapshots you create yourself; none automatic |
| Fork | Fork a running sandbox in one call (disk, no memory) | Create an image from the Instance, then boot new Instances from it (disk, no memory) |
| Reaching the machine | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected; raw TCP; own IP | Public IPv4 and IPv6 on any port; HTTPS needs your own proxy, certificates and DNS |
| Desktop and computer use | 60fps desktop and Chromium, computer use and browser control, embeddable stream | None built in; you install a desktop and browser 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 | Secret Manager stores secrets that the machine fetches, so they end up on it |
| How many at once | 100 to 2,000 sandboxes by plan, raised self-serve | Quotas per shape, for example 10 DEV1-L after identity checks; more through support |
| Outbound rules | Open internet on every plan; no provider-side allowlist | Security groups with inbound and outbound rules by protocol, port and IP range; SMTP blocked by default |
| GPUs, Windows and Arm | No GPUs; no Windows guests (Wine for Windows apps); x86 only | GPU Instances, Windows Server Instances and Arm64 Instances |
| 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 | Scaleway |
|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | Yes | Not published |
| 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 | 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 | 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 | Yes |
| Self-hosting | No | No |
| BYOC | No | No |
| Open source | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Yes | Not published |
| Spend limits | Yes | No |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | Yes | No |
| Audit logs | No | Yes |
| SSO | No | Yes |
| 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 Scaleway: its Instances 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. Scaleway sells both shared-vCPU and dedicated-vCPU types, so results would depend on the shape you pick.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Scaleway 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 | Scaleway, 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 | $14 · Usage account |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $26 · $20/mo | $41 · Usage account |
| 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 | $537 · Usage account |
| 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 | $734 · Usage account |
| 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 | $4,892 · Usage account |
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.
Scaleway: Each Instance shape has an hourly price, billed per hour of uptime including startup and standby, so a short job still pays a full hour. The prices in the table leave out disks and public IPv4, which bill on top and keep billing while an Instance is powered off.
Limits in those scenarios
Scaleway does not cap a fleet with one number: it sets quotas per Instance shape, such as 5 DEV1-L, 8 DEV1-M and 20 public IPs with a validated payment method, rising to 10, 15 and 50 after identity checks. The table prices Scaleway as if those quotas were already raised, so 50 agents, 300 user sandboxes and 1,000 short jobs all need a support request first. Hourly billing also bites the burst, since each one-minute job pays a full hour. 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 | Scaleway |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | None that bite |
| Sandboxes for your users | None that bite | None that bite |
| 1,000 short jobs at once |
| None that bite |
Which one should you use?
Use Scaleway when
you need GPUs, Windows Server or Arm64 machines, or a long-lived server that sits next to managed databases, Kubernetes and firewall rules in one European cloud.
- GPUs by the minute. Useful if your agents train or serve models: Scaleway rents Nvidia B300, H100, L4 and L40S GPU Instances by the minute.
- Windows and Arm64 machines. Useful if an agent must test on Windows Server or on Arm64: Scaleway sells both as ordinary Instances.
- A whole cloud around the machine. Useful if the machine must sit next to managed databases, Kubernetes, private networks and firewall rules in one European account.
Use boat when
you want each agent on its own full VM that is ready to work: coding agents, a desktop, HTTPS ports and minute-by-minute snapshots built in, fork while running, stops that cost nothing, and hundreds of sandboxes without a quota ticket.
- Coding agents and a desktop built in. A Scaleway Instance starts as an empty OS image, so you install, update and supervise each agent, desktop and key yourself, and the agent can read any key you put on it.
- Stops that keep the disk, and fork while running. Agents sit idle between tasks. On Scaleway you pay for the idle disk and IP or delete the Instance and lose its work, and nothing saves the disk for you if an agent breaks it.
- Hundreds of sandboxes without a ticket. A fleet of 50 agents or 300 user sandboxes is far above Scaleway's default quotas, so you wait on support before launch, then set up TLS and DNS for each machine yourself.
Questions people ask
Is boat cheaper than Scaleway?
Not for one part-time server: one coding agent on workdays comes to $14 a month on Scaleway against $20 on boat, before Scaleway's disk and IPv4. One agent that never stops comes to $26 on boat against $41 on Scaleway, 50 agents in parallel to $317 against $537, and 300 user sandboxes to $200 against $734. For 1,000 short jobs at once, Scaleway comes to $4,892 a month and boat's $2,000 plan does not fit the starts needed.
Do I pay for a Scaleway Instance that is stopped?
In standby, yes: Scaleway bills it as a running Instance, and running poweroff inside the machine only puts it in standby. Powered off from the console or API, compute stops billing, but its volumes and public IPs keep billing until you delete them. On boat, a stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Can I run Docker and nested VMs on Scaleway?
Docker works, since an Instance is a full VM with root. Scaleway's docs do not cover nested virtualization, so you would need to test it on the shape you pick. On boat, Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm are documented on every machine.
Does Scaleway have an agent sandbox product?
Not in Instances. Scaleway sells general VMs, GPUs, storage and managed services, with an API, CLI and Terraform provider, and you install agents yourself and drive them over SSH. boat is built for agents, with coding agents, a desktop and a credentials proxy in every sandbox.
Where does my data run?
Both stay in the EU. boat runs in Germany, Finland and France, with EU data residency and a zero data retention option. Scaleway runs in Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw and Milan.
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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