Daytona vs Replit
Daytona is a sandbox cloud: your code creates containers or VMs through its API and SDKs and runs agent code in them. Replit is an AI app builder: you describe an app, Replit Agent writes it, and Replit hosts it.
The companies and products
Daytona
Daytona is a cloud for running AI-generated code: you create sandboxes from code through its API and SDKs.
By default a Daytona sandbox is a Linux container with its own namespaces and reserved vCPU, memory and disk. You can also pick a Linux VM class (pause, fork, memory snapshots, /dev/kvm), a Windows VM class, or a GPU class with Nvidia and AMD cards. It is built for teams that run agent code, code interpreters and evals through Python, TypeScript, Ruby, Go or Java SDKs.
- Founded
- 2023
Replit
Replit is an AI app builder and hosting platform: you describe an app in chat, Replit Agent writes it, and Replit publishes it.
You work in a browser workspace where Replit Agent sets up the project, writes the code, tests it and fixes problems, with system packages managed by Nix. When the app is ready you publish it as an Autoscale, Static, Scheduled or Reserved VM deployment, with Postgres and object storage next to it. It is built for people and teams who want a working app, not for programs that need to create many machines by API, so this page compares the parts 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. “15th cheapest of 367” means 14 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 | Daytona: price rank | Replit: price rank | boat: price rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month Daytona fits a software factory because your code starts one sandbox per agent by API; Replit's outside entry point is an MCP server that drives Replit Agent one app at a time, and boat adds coding agents you drive from outside on every VM. | 15th cheapest of 367 $4,111 a month | 181st of 367, with limits $2,000 a month | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB Daytona can keep an assistant running with no session cap; on Replit an always-on assistant means a Reserved VM, one published app that bills all month. | 24th cheapest of 366 $6,104 a month | 202nd of 366, with limits $2,033 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 Daytona fits short code runs best of the three: it creates hundreds of sandboxes a minute and bills per second, while Replit's Autoscale is a web host and boat's start limits make big bursts a compromise. | 25th cheapest of 345 $271 a month | 228th of 345, with limits $146 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 300 sandboxes of 2 vCPU need 600 vCPU, more than Daytona's Tier 4 pool of 500, and Replit does not publish how many deployments can run at once; boat fits this one. | 154th of 361, with limits $2,000 a month | 233rd of 361, with limits $825 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 | 130th of 360, with limits $8,261 a month | 258th of 360, with limits $4,226 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 | 189th of 364, with limits $2,000 a month | 265th of 364, with limits $685 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 CI jobs that build containers need Docker: Daytona has it but caps a sandbox at 4 vCPU by default, Replit does not document it, and boat has it with 8 vCPU from the $20 plan. | 308th of 377, with limits $805 a month | 275th of 377, with limits $425 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB A Replit workspace is a good place to code by hand, and a Daytona sandbox can stay up, but neither is a full VM with systemd the way a boat machine is. | 183rd of 368, with limits $245 a month | 165th of 368, with limits $109 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 Daytona has a VNC desktop and a computer-use API on Linux and Windows, Replit's VNC pane only shows a desktop to a person, and boat streams a 60fps desktop. | 26th cheapest of 369 $1,198 a month | 190th of 369, with limits $619 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 | 93rd of 367, with limits $598 a month | 229th of 367, with limits $317 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 | 38th cheapest of 346 $404 a month | 234th of 346, with limits $217 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 | 202nd of 338, with limits $8,073 a month | 150th of 338, with limits $4,378 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 | 12th cheapest of 360 $2,000 a month | 208th of 360, with limits $215 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 Daytona fits: it rents Nvidia and AMD GPUs by the hour, and neither Replit nor boat has GPUs. | 20th cheapest of 98 $1,190 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 | Can't run it |
Key features
| Feature | Daytona | Replit | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kind of product | Sandbox cloud you drive from code through an API and SDKs | AI app builder with browser workspaces and app hosting | Sandboxes you create, stop and fork by API, SDK or CLI |
| Isolation | Container by default; Linux VM and Windows VM classes have their own kernel | Not documented; the security page says strong logical separation between users | Every sandbox is a full VM with its own kernel |
| Creating machines from code | Python, TypeScript, Ruby, Go and Java SDKs to create many sandboxes | MCP server tools to create, update and publish apps; no API to start many machines | API, SDK and CLI to create, stop, resume and fork many sandboxes, even while running |
| CPU speed (Node.js build-and-test, 4 vCPU / 8 GB) | 21.52 runs/s on the Linux VM class; the default container class reported no result | Not measured | 26.69 runs/s |
| Docker and nested virtualization | Docker in all classes; /dev/kvm only on Linux VMs, once KVM is turned on for your organization | System packages come from Nix; the docs do not describe Docker, systemd or /dev/kvm | Docker, root, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine |
| Files over time | Disk kept and billed while stopped; archived containers are free | Workspace files and Agent checkpoints; published apps should not rely on their filesystem | Snapshots every minute and on stop; a stopped sandbox costs nothing |
| Pause and fork | Linux VM and Windows classes pause and fork with memory kept | No pause; Agent checkpoints and rollbacks | Fork a running sandbox; resume reboots from disk |
| Coding agents | Guides to install agents and run them as processes | Replit Agent, which an MCP client can also drive | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and more preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API |
| Keeping keys out of the sandbox | Secrets proxy swaps placeholders in HTTPS request headers for allowed hosts | Managed keys for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and OpenRouter models; other keys are app secrets | AI credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API; switches accounts when credits run out |
| Desktop and computer use | VNC desktop and a computer-use API on Linux and Windows | VNC pane that streams a desktop to your browser; no computer-use API | 60fps desktop and Chromium, computer use and browser control, embeddable stream |
| Reaching the machine | HTTPS preview URLs on any port; SSH; no raw TCP or public IP | Published apps on HTTPS and custom domains; SSH into the workspace on paid plans | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports; raw TCP; dedicated IPv6 or IPv4; SSH |
| Hosting and databases | No app hosting or hosted databases | Autoscale that idles at no cost, Reserved VMs, Postgres and App Storage | Host from a running sandbox; no wake on request or hosted databases |
| GPUs and Windows | Nvidia and AMD GPUs by the hour; Windows VM sandboxes | None | No GPUs; no Windows guests (Wine for Windows apps) |
| Regions | US and EU, plus dedicated regions or your own machines | Data mainly in the US; apps published in North America, Europe, Asia, South America or Australia | EU only: Germany, Finland, France |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | Daytona | Replit | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | No | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | Yes | No | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Systemd | Not published | No | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Browser | Yes | No | Yes |
| Computer-use API | Yes | No | Yes |
| SSH | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Persistent disk | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pause/resume | Yes | No | Yes |
| Automatic snapshots | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Fork/clone | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | No | No | Yes |
| Memory fork | Yes | No | No |
| Custom image (Docker or snapshot) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ≥24 h sessions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | Yes | Yes | No |
| Wake on request | No | Yes | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | No | Not published | Yes |
| Public IPv4 | No | No | No |
| Egress allowlist | Yes | No | No |
| Secret proxy | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | Yes | No | Yes |
| Preinstalled agents | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Agent harness API | No | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | Yes | No |
| GPU | Yes | No | No |
| Windows | Yes | No | No |
| Arm64 | No | Not published | No |
| Self-hosting | No | No | No |
| BYOC | Yes | No | No |
| Open source | No | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Spend limits | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Audit logs | Yes | Yes | No |
| SSO | Yes | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes | No |
| HIPAA | Yes | No | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Performance
In StarSling's public run of 2026-09-29 at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, boat did 26.69 Node.js build-and-test runs per second and Daytona's Linux VM class did 21.52; Daytona's default container class reported no result. Replit is not in that benchmark, so there is no comparable number for it.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Daytona measured on: Linux VM sandbox (same rates; KVM / nested virt per-org feature). Replit 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 | Daytona, a month | Replit, 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 | $56 · Tier 3 ($500 top-up) | $122 · Pro $100 (annual) · with limits | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $245 · Tier 3 ($500 top-up) | $122 · Pro $100 (annual) · 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 | $2,682 · Tier 3 ($500 top-up) | $1,330 · Pro $1,000 (annual) · 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 | $2,000 · Tier 4 ($2,000 top-up every 30 days) · with limits | $403 · Pro $250 (annual) · 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 | $2,000 · Tier 4 ($2,000 top-up every 30 days) · with limits | $825 · Pro $1,000 (annual) · with limits | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
Daytona: Daytona bills per second for the vCPU, memory and disk you reserve, and keeps billing the disk while a sandbox is stopped. You pay from a prepaid wallet: open internet needs a $500 top-up (Tier 3), and the biggest pool needs $2,000 every 30 days (Tier 4).
Replit: Replit plans (Core $20, Pro from $100) turn into monthly credits for Agent work and hosting, then usage goes on to pay-as-you-go. A Reserved VM has a fixed monthly price per size and bills whether busy or idle, while Autoscale charges only while it serves requests.
Replit: 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
Daytona limits the total vCPU running at once, up to 500 vCPU on Tier 4, so 300 sandboxes for your users or 1,000 short jobs at once need a custom limit, and it opens the internet only from Tier 3. Replit is marked as not a fit in every scenario because one Reserved VM is one published app that runs all month, and it does not publish how many can run at once. On boat, the 1,000-job burst is queued above 90 starts a minute and needs more starts per day than the $2,000 plan allows.
| Scenario | Daytona | Replit | 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 Daytona when
your code needs to create sandboxes by API, especially with GPUs, Windows, memory pause or a US region.
- Sandboxes your code creates. Useful if your program needs one machine per task: Daytona's SDKs create, stop and fork sandboxes from code.
- GPUs and Windows. Useful if agents test models or need Windows: Daytona rents Nvidia and AMD GPUs and runs Windows VM sandboxes.
- Pause with memory kept. Useful if a sandbox must come back exactly where it was: Daytona's VM classes pause and fork with memory.
Use Replit when
you want Replit Agent to build a web app from a description and host it for you, with databases and regions on five continents.
- An app built and hosted for you. Useful if you want a working app from a description: Replit Agent builds, tests and publishes it with Postgres and storage.
- Hosting that idles at no cost. Useful for web apps with uneven traffic: Autoscale wakes on the first request and costs nothing while idle.
- Regions on five continents. Useful if your users are spread out: Replit publishes apps in North America, Europe, Asia, South America and Australia.
Where boat fits
If what you are really running is coding agents that install, build and test for hours, look at boat. Daytona gives you sandboxes by API but starts from containers, and Replit is an app builder with no API to start many machines. boat gives every agent a full VM with Docker, a desktop and agents you drive from outside.
A full VM for every agent
Daytona's default sandbox is a container sharing the host kernel; its VM class fixes that, but KVM must be turned on for your organization. Replit does not document Docker, systemd or /dev/kvm at all. On boat every machine has all of them.
Faster CPU where it was measured
In the same public run boat did 26.69 runs per second and Daytona's Linux VM class 21.52, so every build waits about a quarter longer there. Replit is not in that benchmark.
Agents driven from outside
On Daytona you install agents and run them as processes yourself; Replit's MCP server drives only Replit Agent. boat ships Claude Code, Codex and more with a prompt, steer and events API, and keeps keys outside the sandbox.
Use boat when your agents do real work for hours: installs, builds, tests, Docker and emulators on a full, faster VM with a desktop and coding agents you drive from outside. Compare it one to one: boat vs Daytona and boat vs Replit.
Questions people ask
Is Daytona cheaper than Replit?
It depends on the job. One coding agent on workdays comes to $56 on Daytona and $122 on Replit, but one agent running all month comes to $245 on Daytona and $122 on Replit, because a Reserved VM has a fixed price. Replit is marked as not a fit in every scenario, and boat comes to $20 and $26 for those two.
Which is faster, Daytona or Replit?
There is no fair answer: Replit is not in the StarSling benchmark. Daytona's Linux VM class did 21.52 runs per second there, and boat did 26.69 in the same run.
Can Daytona and Replit run Docker?
Daytona runs Docker in all its sandbox classes, and /dev/kvm on its Linux VM class once KVM is turned on. Replit's docs set up environments with Nix packages and do not describe Docker. Every boat sandbox has Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm.
Is Replit a sandbox for AI agents like Daytona?
Not in the usual sense. Replit is an app builder where Replit Agent writes and publishes apps, and its outside entry point is an MCP server that drives Replit Agent. Daytona and boat both let your code create many machines by API.
Do Daytona or Replit have GPUs?
Daytona rents Nvidia and AMD GPUs by the hour, from RTX 4090 to B300, on demand or preemptible. Replit has no GPUs, and neither does boat.
Where does my data run?
Daytona offers US and EU regions, plus dedicated regions and your own machines. Replit hosts data mainly on Google Cloud in the US and publishes apps on five continents. boat runs only in the EU (Germany, Finland and France).
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