Daytona vs Together Code Sandbox
Daytona is a sandbox cloud you sign up for today: containers by default, with Linux VM, Windows and GPU classes on top. Together Code Sandbox runs VMs started from Docker-image snapshots and can save their memory, but Together has to enable it for your organization, and its only self-serve product is a Python Code Interpreter.
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
Together Code Sandbox
Together AI is a cloud for running and training AI models, and Code Sandbox is its product for running code in isolated VMs.
You build a snapshot from a Docker image or Dockerfile on Together's builder, then start sandboxes from it and run commands and file operations through the together-sandbox SDK or CLI. When a sandbox ends you can save its disk, and its memory too, as a new snapshot to start more sandboxes from. It is aimed at model-generated code, agent tool calls and reinforcement learning rollouts, and it must be enabled for your organization by Together. Together also sells Code Interpreter, a separate API that runs Python code in short sessions.
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 | Together Code Sandbox: price rank | boat: price rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month Daytona ranks 15th and fits a software factory with Docker and its Linux VM class; Together's new SDK runs commands as a normal user and does not document Docker inside, and boat ranks 3rd with Docker and /dev/kvm on every machine. | 15th cheapest of 367 $4,111 a month | 65th of 367, with limits $528 a month | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB An assistant that lives on its machine all month fits Daytona and boat; Together sandboxes have no idle detection or wake on request, so your backend starts and stops them. | 24th cheapest of 366 $6,104 a month | 152nd of 366, with limits $1,095 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 with no plan fee, while Together's Code Interpreter runs only Python in 60-minute sessions. | 25th cheapest of 345 $271 a month | 326th of 345, with limits $2,190 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 at once need 600 vCPU, more than Daytona's Tier 4 pool of 500, and on Together every port is public with preview URLs still coming soon. | 154th of 361, with limits $2,000 a month | 234th of 361, with limits $900 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 Together can save a sandbox with its memory and start many copies from it, which suits rollouts that branch from one warm state, but the VM product needs Together to turn it on. | 130th of 360, with limits $8,261 a month | 315th of 360, with limits $21,900 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 | 258th of 364, with limits $450 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 Daytona caps a sandbox at 4 vCPU by default, so bigger CI jobs need a raised limit; boat allows 8 vCPU from the $20 plan. | 308th of 377, with limits $805 a month | 251st of 377, with limits $180 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB | 183rd of 368, with limits $245 a month | 210th of 368, with limits $22 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, Together Code Sandbox has no desktop at all, and boat streams a 60fps desktop with Chromium. | 26th cheapest of 369 $1,198 a month | 184th of 369, with limits $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 | 93rd of 367, with limits $598 a month | 301st of 367, with limits $900 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 | 219th of 346, with limits $180 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 | 124th of 338, with limits $3,600 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 | 167th of 360, with limits $150 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 Together Code Sandbox nor boat offers GPU sandboxes. | 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 | Together Code Sandbox | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Container by default; Linux VM and Windows VM classes with their own kernel | A VM per sandbox on Together's infrastructure | Every sandbox is a full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts |
| Getting started | Sign up and get $200 of free compute; pay from a prepaid wallet | The VM SDK and CLI must be enabled for your organization by Together; only Code Interpreter is self-serve, from $5 of prepaid credit | Sign up and start a sandbox from the API, CLI or dashboard |
| 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 |
| Machine size | Up to 4 vCPU / 8 GiB / 10 GiB disk per sandbox by default, raisable per region | 0.1 to 16 cores, 1 to 8 GB of memory per core; disk size fixed | 2 to 16 vCPU with 2 GB per vCPU, up to 16 vCPU / 32 GB on the $100 plan and above |
| Docker and nested virtualization | Docker in all classes; /dev/kvm only on Linux VMs, and KVM must be turned on for your organization | Commands run as user 1000 by default, root on request; Docker inside and nested virtualization not documented | Docker, root, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine |
| Saving state | Linux VM and Windows classes pause and resume with memory kept; the disk is billed while stopped | End a sandbox with a snapshot of its disk, or disk and memory; a new sandbox resumes with its processes running | Disk saved every minute and on stop; a stopped sandbox costs nothing; resume boots the machine again |
| Fork | Linux VM and Windows classes fork with memory kept; containers cannot fork | No live fork: the parent stops, then you start many sandboxes from its snapshot | Fork a running sandbox; the original keeps running |
| Reaching the sandbox | HTTPS preview URLs on any port, token-protected or public; SSH; no raw TCP or public IP | All ports public; preview URLs coming soon; an experimental inbound allowlist; no SSH | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected by default; raw TCP; dedicated IPv6 or IPv4; SSH |
| Outbound internet | Tier 1 and 2 reach only package registries, git hosts and AI APIs; Tier 3 and up get open internet plus per-sandbox allowlists | Open internet; no egress allowlist documented | Open internet on every plan; no provider-side allowlist |
| Desktop and computer use | VNC desktop (xfce4) and a computer-use API on Linux and Windows | None; headless command and file access only | 60fps desktop with Chromium, computer use and browser control, embeddable stream |
| Coding agents | Guides install agents and run them through process exec | Run your own agent through execs; a Harbor guide for agent evals | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and more preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API |
| Keeping API keys out of the sandbox | Secrets proxy swaps placeholders in HTTPS request headers for allowed hosts | No credentials proxy documented | Credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API; switch a credential to another account when credits run out |
| GPUs and Windows | Nvidia and AMD GPUs by the hour; Windows VM sandboxes | No GPU or Windows sandboxes | No GPUs and no Windows guests; Wine for Windows apps |
| Regions | US and EU, plus dedicated regions or your own machines | Not published | EU only: Germany, Finland, France |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | Daytona | Together Code Sandbox | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | Yes | No | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | Yes | No | Yes |
| Browser | Yes | No | Yes |
| Computer-use API | Yes | No | Yes |
| SSH | Yes | No | Yes |
| Persistent disk | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pause/resume | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic snapshots | Yes | No | Yes |
| Fork/clone | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | No | No | Yes |
| Memory fork | Yes | Yes | No |
| Custom image (Docker or snapshot) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ≥24 h sessions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | Yes | No | No |
| Wake on request | No | No | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | No | No | Yes |
| Public IPv4 | No | No | No |
| Egress allowlist | Yes | No | No |
| Secret proxy | Yes | No | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | Yes | No | Yes |
| Preinstalled agents | Yes | No | Yes |
| Agent harness API | No | No | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | Yes | No |
| GPU | Yes | No | No |
| Windows | Yes | No | No |
| Arm64 | No | No | 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 | Not published | No |
| SSO | Yes | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes | No |
| HIPAA | Yes | No | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | Not published | 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, so boat finished about a quarter more work in the same time. Daytona's default container class reported no result, and Together Code Sandbox was not part of that run, 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). Together Code Sandbox 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 | Together Code Sandbox, 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) | $5 · Together pay-as-you-go (prepaid credits; Code Interpreter only) · 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) | $22 · Together pay-as-you-go (prepaid credits; Code Interpreter only) · 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) | $264 · Together pay-as-you-go (prepaid credits; Code Interpreter only) · 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 | $900 · Together pay-as-you-go (prepaid credits; Code Interpreter only) · 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 | $6,000 · Together pay-as-you-go (prepaid credits; Code Interpreter only) · 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).
Together Code Sandbox: Together lists Code Sandbox at $0.0446 per vCPU-hour and $0.0149 per GiB-hour, but the VMs must be enabled for your organization, so the tables price Together with Code Interpreter: $0.03 per 60-minute session from prepaid credits, which runs only Python and keeps no disk.
Together Code Sandbox: Plans start at $20 a month, and the whole fee becomes usage credit spent per second while a sandbox runs. A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Limits in those scenarios
Daytona limits the total vCPU running at once, 10 to 500 vCPU from Tier 1 to Tier 4, so 300 sandboxes for your users (600 vCPU) and 1,000 short jobs at once (2,000 vCPU) need a custom limit, and Tier 1 and 2 only reach an allowlist of services. The Together column is Code Interpreter, and its limits decide every row: sessions end after an hour, nothing is kept, there is no Docker inside, and the machine size is not published, so no scenario fits. On boat the limit that bites is starts: the 1,000-job burst needs more starts per hour and per day than even the $2,000 plan allows, so starts are queued.
| Scenario | Daytona | Together Code Sandbox | 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
you want to start today and your agents may need GPUs, Windows, network allowlists, a US region or your own machines.
- Open signup with GPUs and Windows. For teams that need to start today: Daytona is self-serve, and it adds GPU and Windows sandboxes when agents need them.
- Network rules and your own machines. From Tier 3 each sandbox can be limited to chosen domains, and Daytona runs in the US, the EU or on machines you bring.
- Fast creation for short runs. For code interpreters and evals: Daytona creates hundreds of sandboxes a minute from Docker images, with no plan fee.
Use Together Code Sandbox when
you already run models on Together, can get the VM product enabled, and want sandboxes you save with their memory and branch from, or a simple Python runner billed per session.
- Memory snapshots to branch from. For rollouts and test variants: save a sandbox with its memory and start many copies with processes still running.
- Very small or very large machines. For many light jobs or a few heavy ones: sandboxes range from a tenth of a core up to 16 cores.
- Sandboxes next to your models. Handy if you already run inference on Together: sandboxes, Code Interpreter and models share one account and API key.
Where boat fits
If your agents do real work for hours, like installs, builds, Docker, emulators and servers other people reach, look at boat. Every sandbox is a full, faster VM you can sign up for today, with the agent, a desktop and its keys already set up.
A full VM with Docker and KVM by default
Daytona's default container shares the host kernel, and /dev/kvm needs its VM class plus KVM enabled for your organization. Together does not document Docker inside or nested virtualization, so compose stacks and emulators may not start.
Coding agents driven from outside
On both Daytona and Together you install the agent yourself and run it through execs, then write the code that prompts and watches it. boat ships Claude Code, Codex and others with a prompt, steer and events API.
Private hosting with HTTPS and raw TCP
On Together every port is public and preview URLs are still coming soon. Daytona has preview URLs but no raw TCP or public IP. boat gives token-protected HTTPS on 50 ports, raw TCP and SSH.
Use boat when your agents run for hours on a full, faster VM with Docker, /dev/kvm, a desktop, private hosting and coding agents with their keys already set up. Compare it one to one: boat vs Daytona and boat vs Together Code Sandbox.
Questions people ask
Is Daytona cheaper than Together Code Sandbox?
Together's only self-serve price is Code Interpreter, and it fits none of our scenarios because sessions end after 60 minutes and keep no disk. It looks cheaper for small runs, $264 against $2,682 a month for 50 agents, but costs more at scale: $6,000 against $2,000 for 1,000 short jobs at once. boat comes to $317 and $2,000 for those two.
Which is faster, Daytona or Together Code Sandbox?
Only Daytona has a measured number: its Linux VM class did 21.52 runs per second in StarSling's Node.js test at 4 vCPU / 8 GB. Together Code Sandbox was not in that run. boat did 26.69 in the same run.
Can Daytona and Together Code Sandbox run Docker?
Daytona runs Docker in all its classes, and /dev/kvm on its Linux VM class once KVM is turned on for your organization. Together builds sandboxes from Docker images, but its new SDK documents neither Docker inside a sandbox nor nested virtualization. boat has Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine.
Can anyone sign up for Together Code Sandbox?
Not for the VM product: the together-sandbox SDK and CLI must be enabled for your organization, so you ask Together for access. Code Interpreter is self-serve from $5 of prepaid credit. Daytona and boat are both open signup.
Are Daytona sandboxes containers or VMs?
Both. The default class is a Linux container with reserved resources, and Daytona also offers Linux VM and Windows VM classes with their own kernel, which add pause, fork and memory snapshots. Together Code Sandbox and boat give every sandbox its own VM.
Which one has a desktop for computer-use agents?
Daytona has a VNC desktop and a computer-use API on Linux and Windows. Together Code Sandbox has no desktop; it gives headless command and file access. boat streams a 60fps desktop with Chromium that you can embed in your app.
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