E2B vs Azure Container Apps Sandboxes
Both give each agent a microVM that suspends with its memory and wakes on the next request. E2B is an open-source agent cloud with a Linux desktop and a 24-hour session cap on Pro, while Azure's sandboxes live inside your Azure account, have no session cap and are headless.
The companies and products
E2B
E2B calls itself the AI agent cloud: an API that gives each agent session its own isolated Linux machine.
Every E2B sandbox is a Firecracker microVM that boots from a snapshot, so it starts fast and can be paused and resumed with its memory. You build custom sandboxes from templates based on a Docker image, and drive them from Python or JavaScript SDKs. It is built for teams that run many short code, data or agent jobs, and its runtime is open source.
- Isolation
- Firecracker microVM per sandbox
- Bring your own cloud
- Enterprise data plane in your AWS, GCP or Azure account
- Compliance
- SOC 2 Type II; HIPAA BAA on request
- Machine size
- 1 to 8 vCPU and 1 to 8 GiB RAM, CPU only
Azure Container Apps Sandboxes
Azure Container Apps Sandboxes is a service inside Microsoft Azure that gives each agent or user an isolated microVM you create, suspend and resume through an SDK.
It is part of Azure Container Apps, the hyperscaler's serverless container platform, and lives in your Azure subscription as a sandbox group resource. Each sandbox boots from an OCI image or a snapshot, has its own kernel, and can be suspended with its memory and resumed in under a second. It is built for teams already on Azure that want stateful code execution with Azure networking, identity and billing.
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. “16th cheapest of 367” means 15 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 | E2B: price rank | Azure Container Apps Sandboxes: price rank | boat: price rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month E2B fits a software factory, but its 24-hour cap means long tasks pause and resume; Azure needs an image with Docker and has no desktop, and boat adds /dev/kvm and SSH. | 16th cheapest of 367 $4,143 a month | 288th of 367, with limits $5,276 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 hits E2B's 24-hour cap, and on Azure it bills every running second; boat simply keeps running with a desktop and SSH. | 51st of 366, with limits $5,348 a month | 302nd of 366, with limits $6,544 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 Both are built for this: short code runs that suspend with their memory and wake on the next request, with Azure slightly cheaper in the table. | 37th cheapest of 345 $421 a month | 34th cheapest of 345 $354 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 E2B and Azure sit side by side here, both suspending idle user sandboxes with memory; boat gives each user a bigger machine with hosting on up to 50 ports. | 23rd cheapest of 361 $2,354 a month | 22nd cheapest of 361 $2,260 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 E2B's memory forks and high start rate suit many short rollouts that branch from the same state, which is why it is near the top of this table. | 2nd cheapest of 360 $9,384 a month | 153rd of 360, with limits $10,740 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 | 78th cheapest of 364 $1,975 a month | 75th cheapest of 364 $1,728 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 Azure fits CI runners better than E2B, but neither documents nested virtualization for Android or VM builds, which boat has with /dev/kvm. | 337th of 377, with limits $1,429 a month | 103rd cheapest of 377 $1,046 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB | 192nd of 368, with limits $358 a month | 322nd of 368, with limits $262 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 E2B ships a Linux desktop for computer use and Azure's sandboxes are headless; boat streams its desktop at 60fps and can be embedded in your app. | 32nd cheapest of 369 $1,342 a month | 279th of 369, with limits $1,573 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 | 100th of 367, with limits $746 a month | 288th of 367, with limits $795 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 | 57th cheapest of 346 $554 a month | 284th of 346, with limits $561 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 | 227th of 338, with limits $9,223 a month | 239th of 338, with limits $10,956 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 E2B fits parallel red teaming well, while Azure's headless sandboxes are a compromise; boat gives each run a desktop, a browser and a fast machine. | 11th cheapest of 360 $1,043 a month | 278th of 360, with limits $517 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 | 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 | Can't run it | Can't run it | Can't run it |
Key features
| Feature | E2B | Azure Container Apps Sandboxes | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker microVM with its own kernel | MicroVM per sandbox with its own kernel | Full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts |
| CPU benchmark (4 vCPU / 8 GB) | 12.61 runs/s | Not measured | 26.69 runs/s |
| Session length | Up to 1 hour on Hobby, 24 hours on Pro; pausing resets the clock | No cap; a sandbox runs until it is stopped or auto-suspends when idle | No cap on paid plans; you set the time to live |
| Machine size | 1 to 8 vCPU and up to 8 GiB self-serve, more on request | Tiers up to 4 cores / 8 GB; up to 16 vCPU / 32 GB by API | Up to 16 vCPU / 32 GB on the $100 plan and above |
| Pause and resume | Saves memory and disk; resume takes about 1 second with processes running | Suspends with memory and disk; resume in under a second with processes running | Disk is saved every minute and on stop; resume boots the machine again |
| Wake on request | A paused sandbox can resume on the next HTTP request or SDK call | Auto-suspends after an idle timeout; network traffic or a start command brings it back | Auto-stop timer you set; a stopped sandbox is started by API |
| Fork | Fork a running sandbox with its memory, up to 20 copies per call | Snapshot a running sandbox with its memory and create new sandboxes from it | Fork a running sandbox with its disk |
| Docker and nested virtualization | Docker inside; nested virtualization not supported | Docker depends on the image (azure-dev ships it); nested virtualization not documented | Docker, systemd and root on every sandbox, plus /dev/kvm for Android emulators and VMs |
| Desktop and computer use | Linux desktop for computer-use agents | Headless; no desktop or managed browser | Linux desktop streamed at 60fps, Chromium and computer-use tools preinstalled |
| Inbound access | HTTPS URL per port, public by default unless you turn on a token; no dedicated IP | Public HTTPS routes per published port; private endpoint from your VNet at extra cost; no public IP | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected by default; raw TCP; dedicated IPv4 or IPv6 |
| Outbound rules | Allow and deny lists by IP, CIDR or domain | Egress policy with allow, deny, rewrite and header rules by host, path and method; VNet integration | Open internet, no provider-side allowlist |
| Coding agents and keys | Templates for many agents run through the command API; secrets injected into outbound HTTPS headers (private beta) | Copilot CLI and Claude Code images run through the exec API; their tokens are injected into the sandbox at start | Seven agents preinstalled with a prompt, steer and events API; credentials proxy keeps model and any HTTPS API keys outside |
| Regions | US by default; EU and APAC on Pro and above, enabled by support | 40 Azure regions, 9 of them in the EU | EU only (Germany, Finland, France) |
| Where it runs | E2B's cloud, an open-source runtime you can self-host, or your own cloud on Enterprise | Inside your Azure subscription, with Entra ID accounts only | boat's cloud; sign in with GitHub, Google or an emailed code |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | E2B | Azure Container Apps Sandboxes | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | No | No | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | Yes | Yes | 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 | Yes | Yes |
| Fork/clone | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Memory fork | Yes | Yes | No |
| Custom image (Docker or snapshot) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ≥24 h sessions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | Yes | Yes | No |
| Wake on request | Yes | Yes | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | No | No | Yes |
| Public IPv4 | No | No | No |
| Egress allowlist | Yes | Yes | No |
| Secret proxy | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Preinstalled agents | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Agent harness API | No | No | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | No | No |
| GPU | No | No | No |
| Windows | No | No | No |
| Arm64 | No | No | No |
| Self-hosting | Yes | No | No |
| BYOC | Yes | No | No |
| Open source | Yes | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Spend limits | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Audit logs | Not published | Yes | No |
| SSO | No | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes | No |
| HIPAA | Yes | Yes | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Performance
E2B and boat were measured in the same StarSling hpc-sandbox-benchmarks run, a Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB: boat did 26.69 runs per second and E2B did 12.61, so boat does about twice the CPU work in the same time. Azure Container Apps Sandboxes has no comparable measurement yet, so this page makes no speed claim for it.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Azure Container Apps Sandboxes 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 | E2B, a month | Azure Container Apps Sandboxes, 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 | $202 · Pro | $68 · Pay-as-you-go | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $368 · Pro · with limits | $262 · Pay-as-you-go · 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 | $2,773 · Pro | $3,421 · Pay-as-you-go | $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 | $1,395 · Pro+ (600 concurrent) | $989 · Pay-as-you-go | $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 | $2,797 · Pro++ (1,100 concurrent) | $2,148 · Pay-as-you-go | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
E2B: E2B bills per second for the vCPU and RAM you set, idle time included, until you pause or kill the sandbox. Pro costs $150 a month for higher limits with no usage credit, and more concurrency costs $500 a month per 500 slots.
Azure Container Apps Sandboxes: Azure bills per second on the Container Apps Consumption meters for the sandbox's tier while it runs, including the idle time before auto-suspend (5 minutes by default). There is no plan fee, and some regions such as West Europe charge more per second.
Azure Container Apps Sandboxes: Plans start at $20 a month, and the whole fee is usage credit. You pay per second while a sandbox runs, and a stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Limits in those scenarios
E2B caps a session at 24 hours on Pro, so it does not fit the always-on scenario, and its Pro plan includes 20 GiB of disk. Azure has no session cap but bills every running second, so always-on only gets close with a 3-year commitment, and its default quota of 500 active cores caps a fleet until support raises it. For 1,000 short jobs at once, E2B Pro++ queues bursts above 300 starts a minute, Azure starts them from prewarmed pools, and boat's $2,000 plan caps starts per hour and per day.
| Scenario | E2B | Azure Container Apps Sandboxes | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays |
| None that bite | None that bite |
| One agent that never stops |
|
| 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 E2B when
you want an open-source runtime you can self-host, a desktop for computer-use agents, or memory forks for many short rollouts.
- A desktop for computer-use agents. E2B gives each sandbox a Linux desktop for computer-use agents, which Azure's headless sandboxes do not have.
- Open source and your own cloud. Its runtime is Apache-2.0 and runs on your own KVM host, and Enterprise can run it in your AWS, GCP or Azure account.
- Built for many short rollouts. Memory forks of a running sandbox, up to 20 per call, suit RL rollouts that branch from the same state.
Use Azure Container Apps Sandboxes when
your team already runs on Azure and wants stateful sandboxes with no session cap, strict egress rules and 40 regions.
- No session cap. A sandbox keeps running until you stop it or it suspends when idle, so long tasks are never cut off at 24 hours.
- Fine-grained outbound rules. Its egress policy can allow, deny or rewrite each outbound request by host, path and method, and join your Azure VNets.
- Inside Azure, in 40 regions. Teams already on Azure get Entra ID, Azure billing and their own networks, in 40 regions on six continents.
Where boat fits
E2B and Azure are both strongest at short stateful jobs that suspend with their memory. If your agents do hours of real work, with installs, builds, Docker, emulators and a browser, boat gives each one a whole fast computer with agents and keys built in.
A whole machine with /dev/kvm and SSH
Neither E2B nor Azure offers nested virtualization, so Android emulators and VMs cannot start. Azure has no SSH and E2B has no raw TCP or dedicated IP, so remote editors and database clients need workarounds.
Twice the CPU, no session cap
boat did 26.69 runs per second on the CPU benchmark and E2B did 12.61, so every build waits about twice as long on E2B. E2B also stops at 24 hours on Pro, and your code must pause and resume it.
Agents, a 60fps desktop and keys kept outside
On Azure a browser agent needs you to build a display and streaming stack yourself, and its agent tokens sit inside the sandbox. boat ships seven agents, a 60fps desktop and a credentials proxy for any HTTPS API.
Use boat when your agents need a whole fast computer for hours: SSH, Docker, /dev/kvm, a 60fps desktop and a browser, with coding agents and a credentials proxy built in. Compare it one to one: boat vs E2B and boat vs Azure Container Apps Sandboxes.
Questions people ask
Is E2B cheaper than Azure Container Apps Sandboxes?
In four of the five scenarios on this page Azure costs less, for example $68 a month against $202 for one coding agent on workdays. E2B is cheaper for 50 agents in parallel, at $2,773 a month against $3,421. boat costs less than both in every scenario it fits.
Which is faster, E2B or Azure Container Apps Sandboxes?
Azure has not been measured on the same CPU test, so there is no fair answer yet. E2B did 12.61 runs per second at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, and boat did 26.69 in the same run.
Can E2B and Azure sandboxes run Docker?
E2B runs Docker inside the sandbox. On Azure it depends on the image: azure-dev ships Docker on systemd, while the default ubuntu image has only Buildah. Neither offers nested virtualization; boat runs Docker everywhere and exposes /dev/kvm.
Can a sandbox run for days on E2B or Azure?
Not in one E2B session: it stops after 24 hours on Pro and 1 hour on Hobby, though pausing resets the clock. Azure documents no session cap, and boat has none on paid plans.
Which one has a desktop for computer-use agents?
E2B has a Linux desktop for computer use, while Azure's sandboxes are headless with no managed browser. boat streams a Linux desktop at 60fps with Chromium preinstalled.
Do I need an Azure account for Azure Container Apps Sandboxes?
Yes. It needs an Azure subscription, a Microsoft Entra ID account and the Container Apps SandboxGroup Data Owner role. boat signs you in with GitHub, Google or an emailed code.
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