CircleCI vs Depot
CircleCI is a whole CI and CD platform: you write pipelines in its config file and its jobs run on its machines or yours. Depot keeps your GitHub Actions workflows and swaps in faster runners with a shared cache, one runs-on label at a time.
The companies and products
CircleCI
CircleCI is a CI and CD platform that runs your pipeline jobs on machines it hosts, or on runners you host.
You describe jobs in a config file, and each job runs on a fresh Docker container or a machine VM (Linux, Arm, Windows, macOS on Apple M4 Pro, or GPU on Scale), then the machine is discarded. Files move between jobs only through caches, workspaces and artifacts. It is a CI service, not an agent sandbox, so this page compares where they overlap: a machine where a job or an agent does its work. CircleCI also has Chunk, a toolkit that starts its own agent tasks in CircleCI Cloud from a prompt.
Depot
Depot is a build and CI platform: faster Docker builds, drop-in GitHub Actions runners, its own Depot CI, and newer sandboxes for coding agents.
Depot's main product is GitHub Actions runners: you change one runs-on label and each job runs on a fresh AWS EC2 instance that is thrown away when the job ends, with Linux, Arm, Windows and macOS sizes and a shared fast cache. It also sells remote agent sandboxes that run Claude Code in a container, and a Sandbox SDK in public beta whose sandboxes live at most 24 hours. It is built for engineering teams that want CI and builds to finish sooner, so it is a different kind of product than an agent sandbox, and this page compares where the two overlap.
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. “136th cheapest of 377” means 135 of the other 376 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 | CircleCI: price rank | Depot: price rank | boat: price rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month A coding agent that builds an app over days outlives a CircleCI job, which stops after 3 hours on Performance, and a Depot runner, which ends with its job; boat keeps one VM and its disk. | 333rd of 367, with limits $8,692 a month | 331st of 367, with limits $8,688 a month | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB An assistant that runs all month fits neither: CircleCI jobs stop after 5 hours even on Scale, and Depot's Sandbox SDK caps a sandbox at 24 hours; boat has no session cap on paid plans. | 340th of 366, with limits $13,137 a month | 86th of 366, with limits $13,148 a month | 5th cheapest of 366 $657 a month |
| Code interpreter bursts 100 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 200,000 sessions of 1 min a month | 285th of 345, with limits $572 a month | 311th of 345, with limits $1,188 a month | 186th of 345, with limits $2,000 a month |
| Sandboxes for your users 300 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 23 min a month Your users' sandboxes need a URL to open; neither CircleCI nor Depot documents inbound ports, while boat serves HTTPS on up to 50 ports and raw TCP. | 316th of 361, with limits $3,702 a month | 318th of 361, with limits $3,713 a month | Cheapest of 361 $209 a month |
| RL rollouts 1,000 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 1,000,000 sessions of 3 min a month | 310th of 360, with limits $17,882 a month | 311th of 360, with limits $17,908 a month | 34th of 360, with limits $2,000 a month |
| Agent evals 250 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 15,000 sessions of 20 min a month | 318th of 364, with limits $2,877 a month | 319th of 364, with limits $2,888 a month | 10th cheapest of 364 $200 a month |
| CI runners 40 at once · 8 vCPU / 16 GB · 6,000 sessions of 12 min a month Both are built for CI: CircleCI with its own pipelines, caches and test splitting, Depot as faster GitHub Actions runners; boat gives you a full VM to run your own runner on. | 136th cheapest of 377 $4,302 a month | 125th cheapest of 377 $1,736 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB Both start a fresh machine for every job and throw it away after, so a dev box that keeps what you installed fits boat better. | 197th of 368, with limits $508 a month | 199th of 368, with limits $534 a month | 18th cheapest of 368 $26 a month |
| Computer-use agents 50 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 20,000 sessions of 15 min a month Neither CircleCI nor Depot has a desktop or computer-use product; boat streams a 60fps Linux desktop with Chromium. | 320th of 369, with limits $2,589 a month | 321st of 369, with limits $2,600 a month | 6th cheapest of 369 $200 a month |
| Browser-use agents 50 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 10 min a month | 116th of 367, with limits $1,293 a month | 139th of 367, with limits $1,304 a month | 7th cheapest of 367 $200 a month |
| Scraping & bots (startup scale) 50 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 100,000 sessions of 3 min a month | 70th cheapest of 346 $860 a month | 139th of 346, with limits $1,763 a month | 6th cheapest of 346 $90 a month |
| Mass scraping & bots (undetectable) 1,000 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 3,000,000 sessions of 2 min a month | 274th of 338, with limits $17,532 a month | 312th of 338, with limits $35,108 a month | 71st of 338, with limits $1,800 a month |
| Parallel red teaming 200 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 5,000 sessions of 30 min a month | 80th of 360, with limits $852 a month | 81st of 360, with limits $863 a month | 2nd cheapest of 360 $200 a month |
| GPU eval jobs 10 at once · 8 vCPU / 32 GB · 500 sessions of 30 min a month Neither is priced here: CircleCI's GPU classes are on its custom-priced Scale plan, Depot's GPU runners are on its Business plan, and boat has no GPUs. | Can't run it | 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 Both rent macOS for CI: CircleCI on Apple M4 Pro up to 12 vCPU and 56 GB, Depot at 8 CPU and 24 GB; boat runs Linux only. | 34th of 36, with limits $2,262 a month | 10th of 36, with limits $248 a month | Can't run it |
Key features
| Feature | CircleCI | Depot | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kind of product | A full CI and CD platform with pipelines from its own config file | Drop-in GitHub Actions runners, Depot CI and faster Docker builds, plus agent sandboxes and a beta Sandbox SDK | Full VMs for AI agents that you keep, stop, fork and host from |
| Isolation | Containers on the Docker executor; a fresh VM per job on machine, Windows and macOS executors | A fresh EC2 instance per GitHub Actions job; agent sessions in an isolated container | Every sandbox is a full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts |
| How long a machine runs | 1 hour per job on Free, 3 on Performance, 5 on Scale | Runners end with the job; Sandbox SDK sandboxes default to 120 minutes, at most 24 hours | No session cap on paid plans; runs until you stop it |
| Files after a run | The machine is discarded; you copy chosen paths out with caches, workspaces and artifacts | Runners are never reused; agent sandboxes keep files and the Claude Code conversation | The whole disk is saved every minute and on stop; a stopped sandbox costs nothing |
| Fork | No fork of a job | No fork or clone API | Fork a running sandbox with its disk |
| Docker and nested virtualization | Docker and sudo on machine executors; nested virtualization documented on the Android machine image | Docker on Linux runners; /dev/kvm only on Depot CI sandboxes, not on GitHub Actions runners | Docker, root, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine |
| Reaching the machine | No exposed ports; rerun a job with SSH, open for 10 minutes after it ends | SSH into a running Depot CI job for debugging; no documented inbound ports or URLs | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected; raw TCP; dedicated IPv4 or IPv6 |
| Coding agents | Chunk starts CircleCI's own agent tasks from a prompt; other agents you install in a job | Claude Code only, started and resumed with the depot claude command | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and more preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API |
| Keeping API keys out | Contexts inject secrets as environment variables; OIDC tokens for cloud logins | Secrets are passed into the job or sandbox as environment variables | Credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API; real keys never enter the sandbox |
| Desktop and computer use | Headless jobs; browsers in images for tests | No desktop or computer-use product | 60fps Linux desktop with Chromium, computer use and browser control |
| macOS and Windows | macOS on Apple M4 Pro up to 12 vCPU and 56 GB with Xcode, Windows VMs, Arm Linux | macOS 26, 15 and 14 runners at 8 CPU / 24 GB, Windows Server 2025 and 2022, Graviton4 Arm | Linux only (x86); Wine for Windows apps |
| CI setup | Its own pipelines, caches, workspaces, orbs and test splitting | Keep your GitHub Actions workflows; change one runs-on label, with a shared cache up to 1000 MiB/s | A VM you can register as your own runner; no managed CI cache |
| Jobs at once | Up to 80 jobs at once on Performance (15 for macOS); unlimited on Scale | Says its runners have no concurrency limits | A sandbox count per plan, with starts capped per minute, hour and day |
| Regions and hosting | US only (AWS and GCP); CircleCI Server runs the whole platform on your own Kubernetes | US and EU regions; egress filtering on Linux runners; Depot Managed in your own AWS account on Business | EU only: Germany, Finland, France, with EU data residency |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | CircleCI | Depot | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Root | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | No | No | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | No | No | Yes |
| Browser | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Computer-use API | No | No | Yes |
| SSH | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Persistent disk | No | Yes | Yes |
| Pause/resume | No | No | Yes |
| Automatic snapshots | No | No | Yes |
| Fork/clone | No | No | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | No | No | Yes |
| Memory fork | No | No | No |
| Custom image (Docker or snapshot) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ≥24 h sessions | No | Yes | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | Yes | Yes | No |
| Wake on request | No | No | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | No | No | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | No | No | Yes |
| Public IPv4 | No | No | No |
| Egress allowlist | No | Yes | No |
| Secret proxy | No | No | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | No | No | Yes |
| Preinstalled agents | No | Yes | Yes |
| Agent harness API | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | No | No |
| GPU | Yes | Yes | No |
| Windows | Yes | Yes | No |
| Arm64 | Yes | Yes | No |
| Self-hosting | Yes | No | No |
| BYOC | No | Yes | No |
| Open source | No | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Spend limits | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | Yes | No | Yes |
| Audit logs | Yes | Not published | No |
| SSO | Yes | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes | No |
| HIPAA | No | Not published | No |
| EU data residency | No | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Performance
We have no comparable measurement for CircleCI or Depot: neither was part of the StarSling hpc-sandbox-benchmarks run. On that Node.js build-and-test benchmark at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, boat did 26.69 runs per second on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts, so we do not compare CPU speed between the three.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. CircleCI and Depot have 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 | CircleCI, a month | Depot, a month | boat, 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 | $96 · Performance · with limits | $122 · Developer · with limits | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $508 · Performance · with limits | $534 · Developer · with limits | $26 · $20/mo |
| 50 agents in parallel 50 machines of 4 vCPU / 8 GB at once, 8-hour sessions, 1,100 sessions a month, Docker inside | $5,714 · Performance · with limits | $5,710 · Developer · with limits | $317 · $20/mo × 3 seats |
| Sandboxes for your users 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 30,000 sessions of 10 minutes a month, up to 300 at once | $1,617 · Performance · with limits | $1,628 · Developer · with limits | $200 · $100/mo × 2 seats |
| 1,000 short jobs at once 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 1,000 at once, 3 minutes each, 200,000 jobs a month | $3,562 · Performance · with limits | $3,588 · Developer · with limits | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
CircleCI: CircleCI bills in credits per minute for the machine class a job uses: Performance starts at $15 a month with 30,000 credits, and more cost $15 per 25,000. A 4 vCPU / 15 GB Linux machine uses 20 credits a minute, and Scale is custom and billed annually.
Depot: Depot plans cost $20 or $200 a month and include GitHub Actions, Depot CI and Docker build minutes. After that a 2-CPU Linux runner costs $0.006 a minute and bigger sizes multiply it.
Depot: 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.
Limits in those scenarios
For CircleCI the limit that bites is the job: it stops after 3 hours on Performance, and Performance runs at most 80 jobs at once, so 300 user sandboxes and 1,000 short jobs wait in a queue. Depot says it has no concurrency limits, but its runners end with the job and its Sandbox SDK stops a sandbox after 24 hours, so an agent that never stops needs restarts. Neither keeps a disk, so none of the agent scenarios fit as priced on either. On boat, the 1,000-job burst is queued and needs more starts per day than the $2,000 plan allows.
| Scenario | CircleCI | Depot | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 CircleCI when
you want a complete CI platform with its own pipelines, the option to host it yourself, big Apple M4 Pro Macs, or GPUs for tests.
- A whole CI platform you can host. Useful if you want one CI service with pipelines, caches and test splitting, or to run all of it on your own Kubernetes.
- Bigger Macs and GPUs. Useful for heavy iOS builds or GPU tests: macOS on Apple M4 Pro up to 12 vCPU and 56 GB, and Nvidia GPUs on Scale.
- A free plan. Useful for small teams: the Free plan gives 30,000 credits a month, including one macOS job at a time.
Use Depot when
your CI already runs on GitHub Actions and you want faster runners, a shared cache, quicker Docker builds, no job queue, or an EU region.
- Keep GitHub Actions, just faster. Useful if your workflows already live in GitHub Actions: change one runs-on label and jobs use Depot's runners and fast cache.
- Fast Docker builds. Useful if image builds slow you down: Depot also speeds up Docker builds, with build minutes included in each plan.
- No queue, and an EU region. Useful if jobs pile up or must run in Europe: Depot says its runners have no concurrency limits, and a project can run in the EU.
Where boat fits
CircleCI and Depot are CI services, and boat is not one. If what you are really running is AI agents, both give you a machine that is thrown away when the job ends. boat gives each agent a full VM that keeps its disk, serves apps on HTTPS ports and comes with coding agents you drive from outside.
A machine that outlives the job
A CircleCI job stops after 3 hours on Performance and a Depot runner ends with its job, so an agent rebuilds its tools every run or you keep caches. boat runs with no session cap on paid plans and saves the disk every minute.
Apps your agents can show you
Neither CircleCI nor Depot exposes ports, only SSH for debugging, so a preview server an agent starts has nowhere to be seen. boat gives each sandbox HTTPS URLs on up to 50 ports, plus raw TCP.
Agents you steer, keys they cannot read
Chunk runs only CircleCI's own agent and Depot runs only Claude Code, and both pass secrets in as environment variables the agent can read. boat preinstalls Claude Code, Codex and more with a steer API, and its credentials proxy keeps real keys out.
Use boat when what you run is AI agents on Linux: a full VM that keeps its disk and forks, Docker and /dev/kvm, a 60fps desktop, URLs you can reach, and coding agents you drive from outside. Compare it one to one: boat vs CircleCI and boat vs Depot.
Questions people ask
Is CircleCI cheaper than Depot?
For CI runners in our model, Depot comes out lower: $1,736 a month against $4,302 on CircleCI, and boat's VMs come to $86. For agent scenarios the two are close, for example $96 a month on CircleCI and $122 on Depot for one coding agent on workdays, and $20 on boat.
Which is faster, CircleCI or Depot?
We have no measurement for either: neither was in the StarSling benchmark run, where boat did 26.69 runs per second. Depot's pitch is speed, with a shared cache up to 1000 MiB/s and faster Docker builds.
Do I have to leave GitHub Actions to use them?
For Depot, no: you change the runs-on label in your workflow and jobs run on Depot's runners. CircleCI uses its own pipelines and config file, so you write your CI there.
Can CircleCI or Depot run Docker?
Yes. CircleCI has a Docker executor and Docker on machine executors, and Depot's Linux runners run Docker and also speed up Docker image builds. boat runs Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm on every VM.
Do CircleCI and Depot both have macOS?
Yes. CircleCI runs macOS on Apple M4 Pro up to 12 vCPU and 56 GB, and Depot runs macOS 26, 15 and 14 runners at 8 CPU and 24 GB. boat runs Linux only.
Can I run AI agents on CircleCI or Depot?
Only inside a job: a CircleCI job stops after 3 hours on Performance, and a Depot runner ends with its job, while Depot's Sandbox SDK caps a sandbox at 24 hours. boat keeps one VM with its disk for as long as the agent works on paid plans.
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