Codemagic vs Ubicloud
Codemagic is a CI service for mobile apps: each build gets a fresh Mac, Linux or Windows machine that is destroyed when the build ends, after at most 120 minutes on self-serve plans. Ubicloud is an open source cloud that rents plain Linux VMs, managed Postgres and GitHub Actions runners, and a VM lives until you delete it.
The companies and products
Codemagic
Codemagic is a cloud CI/CD service built for mobile developers: it builds, tests and publishes iOS, Android, Flutter and React Native apps.
You describe a workflow in codemagic.yaml, and each build runs on a new virtual machine: an Apple silicon Mac mini with Xcode, an Ubuntu Linux machine, or a Windows machine. The machine is destroyed when the build finishes, and the result can go straight to App Store Connect, Google Play and other stores. It is built for app teams that want builds and code signing handled for them; it is a different kind of product from an agent sandbox, and the two overlap only where an agent needs a machine for a short, scripted job.
Ubicloud
Ubicloud is an open source cloud that runs VMs, managed Postgres, Kubernetes and GitHub Actions runners on leased bare-metal servers.
You rent Linux VMs (Standard with dedicated CPU, or cheaper Burstable with shared CPU) from Ubicloud's managed service, or run the same AGPL code on your own servers. Around the VMs it offers private subnets, an inbound firewall, load balancers, managed PostgreSQL, Kubernetes, GPU VMs, inference endpoints and cheap GitHub Actions runners. It is general 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. “362nd cheapest of 367” means 361 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 | Codemagic: price rank | Ubicloud: price rank | boat: price rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month A software factory needs machines that keep their work; Codemagic wipes each build machine within two hours, a Ubicloud VM keeps its disk but bills while stopped, and boat keeps the disk with free stops. | 362nd of 367, with limits $32,718 a month | 126th of 367, with limits $1,136 a month | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB | 364th of 366, with limits $98,550 a month | 154th of 366, with limits $1,139 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 Ubicloud fits short runs best of the three: its burstable VMs bill per minute with no plan fee, while Codemagic sells 8 vCPU build slots one at a time. | 337th of 345, with limits $9,147 a month | 59th of 345, with limits $52 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 Hundreds of user sandboxes at once rule out Codemagic's per-slot builds; Ubicloud needs a quota raise past 256 vCPU, and boat allows 100 to 2,000 sandboxes by plan. | 349th of 361, with limits $28,497 a month | 53rd of 361, with limits $390 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 | 336th of 360, with limits $135 a month | 234th of 360, with limits $1,560 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 | 363rd of 364, with limits $10,947 a month | 31st cheapest of 364 $624 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 sell CI: Codemagic is built for mobile apps on Macs, Ubicloud sells cheap x64 and arm64 GitHub Actions runners, and boat runs CI jobs on general sandboxes with Docker and /dev/kvm. | 207th of 377, with limits $3,387 a month | 28th cheapest of 377 $300 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB Codemagic machines are gone 10 minutes after a build ends, so only Ubicloud and boat fit a 24/7 dev box; boat comes in at $26 a month against $91 on Ubicloud. | 191st of 368, with limits $333 a month | 67th cheapest of 368 $91 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 Codemagic nor Ubicloud has a computer-use API; Codemagic offers VNC for a person debugging a build, and boat streams a 60fps desktop an agent can drive. | 71st of 369, with limits $10,047 a month | 132nd of 369, with limits $312 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 | 151st of 367, with limits $10,947 a month | 188th of 367, with limits $156 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 | 148th of 346, with limits $13,310 a month | 165th of 346, with limits $78 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 | 337th of 338, with limits $263 a month | 60th of 338, with limits $1,573 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 | 95th of 360, with limits $6,672 a month | 129th of 360, with limits $81 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 Only Ubicloud fits: it rents Nvidia GPU VMs on request, and neither Codemagic nor boat has GPUs. | Can't run it | 93rd of 98, with limits $795 a month | Can't run it |
| macOS agents 5 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 1,000 sessions of 20 min a month Only Codemagic fits: it runs real macOS on Apple silicon with Xcode and iOS simulators, while Ubicloud and boat run Linux only. | 32nd of 36, with limits $1,952 a month | Can't run it | Can't run it |
Key features
| Feature | Codemagic | Ubicloud | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | A fresh build machine per CI build, destroyed when the build completes | A general cloud VM you set up and run yourself, plus Postgres, Kubernetes and CI runners | A sandbox API for agents, on full VMs that live as long as you want |
| Isolation | A new VM per build; macOS runs on Apple's Virtualization framework | Every VM is a full KVM guest (Cloud Hypervisor) with its own kernel | Every sandbox is a full VM with its own kernel |
| How long a machine can run | 120 minutes per build on Free, Pay as you go and Fixed price; custom on Enterprise | No maximum; a VM runs until you stop or delete it | No session cap on paid plans |
| Files after it stops | Machine and disk are deleted; only per-workflow dependency caches carry over | A stopped VM keeps its disk, but billing continues as if it were running | Disk persists and a stopped sandbox costs nothing |
| Snapshots and fork | None; every build starts from a stock image | Machine images of a stopped VM's disk (single disk up to 40 GiB), made by hand | Automatic snapshots every minute and on stop; fork a running sandbox in one call |
| Operating systems | macOS on Apple silicon, Linux (x64, arm64 on request) and Windows | Linux only | Linux only (x86-64) |
| Mobile builds and publishing | Xcode and iOS simulators preinstalled; built-in publishing to App Store Connect, TestFlight and Google Play | None; you set it up yourself on a Linux VM | None; Linux only, and publishing is not built in |
| Docker and nested virtualization | Docker and Android emulators on Linux; macOS machines have no nested virtualization | Root over SSH, so Docker installs like on any Linux VM; nested virtualization is not documented | Docker, root, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine |
| Reaching the machine | Temporary SSH, VNC or RDP through a gateway, turned on per build; machines sit on a private network | Free public IPv6, public IPv4 for $3 a month; for HTTPS the VM runs TLS itself | HTTPS URLs on up to 50 ports, token-protected; raw TCP; SSH |
| Desktop and computer use | VNC or RDP for a person to debug a build; no computer-use API | None; you install a desktop and browser on the VM yourself | 60fps desktop and Chromium, computer use and browser control |
| Coding agents | codemagic-init helps agents on your own computer; nothing runs agents on build machines | None; you install and drive agents yourself, for example over SSH | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and more preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API |
| Keeping keys out of the machine | Encrypted environment variables delivered into the build machine while it runs | No credentials proxy; secrets live on the VM | AI credentials proxy: real keys never enter the sandbox; works for any HTTPS API |
| GPUs and self-hosting | No GPUs; managed service only | Nvidia GPU VMs on request, and the whole stack is AGPL code you can run yourself | No GPUs; managed service only |
| Regions | US data centers; dedicated macOS hosts in the EU on request | Germany, Finland and Virginia (US), plus GPUs in Istanbul | EU only: Germany, Finland, France |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | Codemagic | Ubicloud | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Root | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | No | Not published | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | Yes | No | Yes |
| Browser | Yes | No | 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 | Yes | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | No | No | Yes |
| Memory fork | No | No | No |
| Custom image (Docker or snapshot) | No | Yes | Yes |
| ≥24 h sessions | No | Yes | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | Yes | No | No |
| Wake on request | No | No | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | No | No | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | No | Not published | Yes |
| Public IPv4 | No | Yes | No |
| Egress allowlist | No | No | No |
| Secret proxy | No | No | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | No | No | Yes |
| Preinstalled agents | No | No | Yes |
| Agent harness API | No | No | Yes |
| MCP server | No | No | No |
| GPU | No | Yes | No |
| Windows | Yes | No | No |
| Arm64 | Yes | Yes | No |
| Self-hosting | No | Yes | No |
| BYOC | No | Yes | No |
| Open source | No | Yes | No |
| Scoped API keys | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Spend limits | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | No | No | Yes |
| Audit logs | Yes | Yes | No |
| SSO | Yes | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes | No |
| HIPAA | No | No | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Performance
There is no comparable measurement for Codemagic or Ubicloud: neither was 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. Codemagic sells fixed machine sizes (Mac minis, and Linux X2 at 8 vCPU / 32 GB), and Ubicloud results would depend on the family, since Standard VMs have dedicated CPU and Burstable VMs get half of each vCPU.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Codemagic and Ubicloud 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 | Codemagic, a month | Ubicloud, 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 | $333 · Free (individual) · with limits | $22 · Usage | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $333 · Free (individual) · with limits | $91 · Usage | $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 | $21,531 · Pay as you go (team, 4 concurrent) · with limits | $1,098 · Usage | $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 | $12,297 · Pay as you go (team, 4 concurrent) · with limits | $156 · Usage | $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 | $27,147 · Pay as you go (team, 4 concurrent) · with limits | $312 · Usage · with limits | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
Codemagic: Codemagic bills build minutes: $0.095 a minute on a Mac mini M2, $0.114 on an M4, and $0.045 on Linux X2 or Windows, with 500 free M2 minutes a month for individuals. Each extra build running at once costs $49 a month, and fixed annual plans start at $3,990 a year.
Ubicloud: Ubicloud bills each VM per minute for as long as it exists, running or stopped, and a public IPv4 adds $3 a month. The cheapest shapes are Burstable VMs with shared CPU, and Germany and Finland prices rose 25% on September 1, 2026.
Ubicloud: 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
Codemagic fits none of the five scenarios: builds stop within 120 minutes and lose their files, Pay as you go adds one build slot at a time, and the smallest Linux machine is 8 vCPU / 32 GB. Ubicloud fits four of them; its project quota starts at 32 vCPU and goes to 256 after a paid invoice, so big fleets need a raise from support, and the 1,000-job burst runs on burstable VMs that get only half of each vCPU. On boat the 1,000-job burst gets queued, since it needs more starts per minute and per day than the $2,000 plan allows.
| Scenario | Codemagic | Ubicloud | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
|
|
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Which one should you use?
Use Codemagic when
you build, sign and publish iOS, Android or Flutter apps and need real Macs with Xcode for builds that finish within two hours.
- Real Macs with Xcode. Useful if you build iOS or macOS apps: Codemagic runs Apple silicon Mac minis with Xcode and iOS simulators ready.
- A full mobile release pipeline. Useful if you ship mobile apps: Codemagic signs builds and publishes to App Store Connect, TestFlight and Google Play.
- Windows build machines. Useful if you also build Windows apps: Codemagic offers Windows machines next to its Mac and Linux ones.
Use Ubicloud when
you want an open source cloud you can also run yourself, GPU VMs, cheap GitHub Actions runners, a US region, or long-lived VMs next to managed Postgres.
- Open source you can run yourself. Useful if you want the cloud on your own servers: Ubicloud's whole stack is AGPL code you can deploy on leased bare metal.
- GPUs on request. Useful if you train or serve models: Ubicloud rents Nvidia A100, B200 and RTX PRO 6000 VMs once support enables them.
- A whole cloud with cheap CI. Useful if you want long-lived VMs next to managed Postgres, Kubernetes and per-minute GitHub Actions runners, or a US region.
Where boat fits
Codemagic and Ubicloud are not agent sandboxes: one is a mobile CI service, the other a general cloud. If what you are really running is agents that work for hours, install tools, serve apps and sit idle between tasks, boat gives each one a full Linux VM that is ready for that job.
A machine that keeps its work and stops for free
Codemagic deletes the machine after each build of at most 120 minutes. A stopped Ubicloud VM keeps its disk but bills as if running, so you pay for idle time or delete it. boat snapshots every minute, and stops cost nothing.
Coding agents and a desktop built in
On Codemagic an agent can only run as a build step you cannot steer, and a Ubicloud VM starts as an empty OS image. boat ships Claude Code, Codex and OpenCode with a prompt and steer API, plus a 60fps desktop.
Ports you can open, and fork while running
Codemagic machines sit on a private network, and on Ubicloud you run TLS yourself and must stop a VM to copy it. boat serves up to 50 ports on HTTPS URLs plus raw TCP, and forks a running sandbox in one call.
Use boat when your agents need a full Linux VM that keeps running and keeps its files, with coding agents, a desktop, HTTPS ports, fork while running and stops that cost nothing. Compare it one to one: boat vs Codemagic and boat vs Ubicloud.
Questions people ask
Is Codemagic cheaper than Ubicloud?
Not for long-running machines. One agent that never stops comes to $91 a month on Ubicloud against $333 on Codemagic, which does not fit because builds end within 120 minutes; boat comes to $26. For CI runners, Ubicloud is $300 a month against $3,387 on Codemagic, and boat is $86.
Which is faster, Codemagic or Ubicloud?
Neither has a comparable measurement: they were not part of the public StarSling benchmark, where boat did 26.69 runs per second at 4 vCPU / 8 GB. Ubicloud Standard VMs have dedicated CPU, while Burstable VMs get half of each vCPU.
Can Codemagic and Ubicloud run Docker?
Codemagic runs Docker and Android emulators on its Linux machines, but its macOS machines have no nested virtualization. A Ubicloud VM gives you root over SSH, so Docker installs like on any Linux VM. boat has Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine.
Can I keep a machine between runs?
Not on Codemagic: the machine is destroyed when the build completes, and only dependency caches carry over. A stopped Ubicloud VM keeps its disk, but billing continues as if it were running. A stopped boat sandbox keeps its disk and costs nothing.
Which one can build iOS apps?
Only Codemagic. It runs Mac mini M2 and M4 machines with Xcode and iOS simulators, and publishes to App Store Connect and TestFlight. Ubicloud and boat run Linux only.
Is Ubicloud or Codemagic open source?
Ubicloud is: its code is on GitHub under the AGPL v3, and you can run it yourself on leased bare-metal servers. Codemagic is a managed service only, and so is boat.
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