E2B vs Claude Managed Agents
E2B rents you small Firecracker VMs that your own code or agent drives, and they pause and resume with their memory. Claude Managed Agents is Anthropic's ready-made agent: you send Claude a task, and it works in a container that Anthropic runs.
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
Claude Managed Agents
Claude Managed Agents is Anthropic's ready-made agent harness: Claude runs as an autonomous agent in a cloud sandbox that Anthropic manages, and you talk to it through an events API.
This is an agent platform, not a sandbox you rent. You define an agent (model, prompt, tools, MCP servers, skills) and an environment, then start sessions, send messages as events and stream back what Claude does; the harness handles tool calls, prompt caching and compaction. Each session gets its own Ubuntu container, or runs its tools on a worker you host yourself. It is built for teams that want Claude doing long tasks without building their own agent loop or sandbox.
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 | Claude Managed Agents: price rank | boat: price rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month E2B gives a coding agent a microVM with Docker, while Managed Agents gives Claude a container with up to 8 GB of memory and Docker only in limited availability; boat adds no session cap and /dev/kvm. | 16th cheapest of 367 $4,143 a month | 106th of 367, with limits $964 a month | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB Managed Agents sessions sleep for free between messages but its sandbox state expires 30 days after creation, and E2B stops a session at 24 hours on Pro; boat can simply keep running. | 51st of 366, with limits $5,348 a month | 219th of 366, with limits $2,511 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 E2B is built for short code runs that start fast and pause with their memory, and Managed Agents bills runtime only while the agent is working. | 37th cheapest of 345 $421 a month | 163rd of 345, with limits $756 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 gives each user sandbox an HTTPS URL per port, while a Managed Agents sandbox has no inbound ports; boat adds HTTPS URLs on up to 50 ports and raw TCP. | 23rd cheapest of 361 $2,354 a month | 231st of 361, with limits $823 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, and Managed Agents has no fork at all. | 2nd cheapest of 360 $9,384 a month | 252nd of 360, with limits $3,978 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 | 244th of 364, with limits $320 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 Neither E2B nor Managed Agents offers /dev/kvm for Android or VM builds, which boat does, on a CPU that ran the benchmark about twice as fast as E2B. | 337th of 377, with limits $1,429 a month | 227th of 377, with limits $96 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB E2B caps sessions at 24 hours and Managed Agents has no SSH, so a dev box that runs all month fits boat better. | 192nd of 368, with limits $358 a month | 224th of 368, with limits $48 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 has a Linux desktop for computer use and Managed Agents has only headless Chromium; boat streams its desktop at 60fps. | 32nd cheapest of 369 $1,342 a month | 127th of 369, with limits $288 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 | 126th of 367, with limits $288 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 | 127th of 346, with limits $390 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 | 155th of 338, with limits $4,798 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 | 11th cheapest of 360 $1,043 a month | 179th of 360, with limits $160 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 | Claude Managed Agents | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A sandbox API: each agent session gets its own small Linux VM that your code drives | A hosted Claude agent: Anthropic's harness runs Claude in a sandbox and you send it events | A sandbox platform: each agent gets its own full Linux VM, with coding agents built in |
| Isolation | Firecracker microVM with its own kernel | Isolated Linux container per session | Full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts |
| Machine size | 1 to 8 vCPU and up to 8 GiB RAM self-serve, more on request | Up to 8 GB memory and 10 GB disk; vCPU not published; not configurable | Up to 16 vCPU / 32 GB on the $100 plan and above |
| CPU benchmark (4 vCPU / 8 GB) | 12.61 runs/s | Not measured | 26.69 runs/s |
| Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm | Root, Docker and systemd; no nested virtualization | Docker listed as limited availability; root, systemd and /dev/kvm not documented | Root, Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm for Android emulators and VMs |
| Session length | Up to 1 hour on Hobby, 24 hours on Pro; pausing resets the clock | No session cap published; idle sessions sleep and resume on the next message | No cap on paid plans; you set the time to live |
| Pause and resume | Saves memory and disk; resumes in about 1 second with processes still running | Sandbox is checkpointed when a session goes idle; state is kept only 30 days after the sandbox is created | Disk saved every minute and on stop, kept as long as you keep the sandbox; resume boots the machine again |
| Fork | Fork a running sandbox with its memory, up to 20 copies per call | No fork or clone of a session or sandbox | Fork a running sandbox with its disk |
| Inbound access | HTTPS URL per port, public by default unless you turn on a token; no dedicated IP | No inbound ports or SSH; reached only through the sessions and events API | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected by default; raw TCP; SSH; dedicated IPv4 or IPv6 |
| Browser and desktop | Linux desktop for computer use | Headless Chromium with Playwright; no desktop or computer-use tool | Full Linux desktop streamed at 60fps, with Chromium and computer use |
| Agents | Templates and guides for many agents, run through the command API | Anthropic's harness with Claude models only, with steering, memory stores, multiagent threads and webhooks | Claude Code, Codex and five more preinstalled, driven from outside with a prompt, steer and events API |
| Keeping API keys out of the sandbox | Secrets injected into outbound HTTPS headers (private beta) | Vault secrets live in the sandbox as placeholders and are swapped in at egress, per host | Credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API; switch a credential to another account when credits run out |
| Outbound rules | Allow and deny lists by IP, CIDR or domain | Unrestricted, or limited to listed hosts plus optional package registries and MCP servers | Open internet, no provider-side allowlist |
| Regions and self-hosting | US, EU and APAC; open-source runtime and bring your own cloud on Enterprise | US workspace geo only; tools can run on self-hosted workers | EU only (Germany, Finland, France), with zero data retention; no self-hosting |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | E2B | Claude Managed Agents | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | No | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | No | No | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Systemd | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | Yes | No | Yes |
| Browser | Yes | Yes | 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 | No | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | Yes | 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 | Yes | Yes | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | Yes | No | 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 | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | Yes | No |
| GPU | No | No | No |
| Windows | No | No | No |
| Arm64 | No | No | No |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes | No |
| BYOC | Yes | Yes | 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 | Not published | No |
| SSO | No | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes | No |
| HIPAA | Yes | No | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | No | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | No | Yes |
Performance
On the StarSling hpc-sandbox-benchmarks 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 finished about twice as much CPU work in the same time. Claude Managed Agents has no comparable measurement: it was not part of the run, and Anthropic does not publish how many vCPUs a cloud sandbox gets.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Claude Managed Agents 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 | Claude Managed Agents, 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 | $13 · Claude API (pay-as-you-go, usage tiers) · with limits | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $368 · Pro · with limits | $53 · Claude API (pay-as-you-go, usage tiers) · 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 | $634 · Claude API (pay-as-you-go, usage tiers) · 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 | $1,395 · Pro+ (600 concurrent) | $360 · Claude API (pay-as-you-go, usage tiers) · 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 | $2,797 · Pro++ (1,100 concurrent) | $796 · Claude API (pay-as-you-go, usage tiers) · with limits | $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.
Claude Managed Agents: Managed Agents bills model tokens at API list rates plus a flat session runtime fee, measured only while the session is running, including time spent waiting on the model. The table shows runtime only; tokens come on top and usually cost more than the runtime.
Claude Managed Agents: 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; model tokens for the built-in agents are paid to your model provider.
Limits in those scenarios
E2B caps a session at 24 hours on Pro, which is why it does not fit the always-on scenario, and Pro includes 20 GiB of disk. A Managed Agents sandbox has up to 8 GB of memory and 10 GB of disk, an unpublished vCPU count and Docker only in limited availability, so no scenario counts as a clean fit for it, and usage-tier spend limits pause all API use when reached. At 1,000 short jobs at once, E2B Pro++ only queues bursts above 300 starts a minute, while boat's $2,000 plan caps starts per hour and per day.
| Scenario | E2B | Claude Managed Agents | 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 E2B when
you run your own agent or code in many short jobs that pause between requests, fork from memory, or must run in the US or APAC.
- Memory pause, fork and wake on request. For short jobs that sleep between requests, a paused E2B sandbox comes back in about a second with its processes running.
- Any agent or code, in a microVM. Teams with their own agent loop get a Firecracker VM with Docker and a desktop, not one vendor's harness and models.
- More regions and an open runtime. E2B runs in the US, EU and APAC, and its Apache-2.0 runtime can run in your own cloud on Enterprise.
Use Claude Managed Agents when
you want Claude itself to do long, mostly text and code tasks with no harness to build, idle time that costs nothing, and the option to run tools on your own workers.
- No agent loop to build. Teams that want Claude doing long tasks get the harness, caching, compaction, memory and webhooks ready to use.
- Idle time costs nothing. Runtime accrues only while a session is running, and an idle session resumes from its checkpoint on the next message.
- Tools on your own workers. Teams with strict network rules can run every tool call on self-hosted workers while Anthropic keeps the orchestration.
Where boat fits
If your agents do real work for hours, with installs, builds, Docker, emulators and a browser, both options leave gaps: E2B cuts sessions at 24 hours and has no /dev/kvm, and Managed Agents runs only Claude in a small container you cannot open. boat gives each agent a full VM that keeps running, keeps its disk and can be reached from outside.
A whole machine that keeps running
E2B stops a session at 24 hours on Pro, so your code must pause and resume it, and Managed Agents keeps sandbox state only 30 days. Neither offers /dev/kvm, so Android emulators and VMs cannot start. boat has no session cap and nested virtualization.
Open what the agent builds
A Managed Agents sandbox has no inbound ports or SSH, and E2B URLs are public by default with no dedicated IP. boat gives HTTPS URLs on up to 50 ports, token-protected by default, plus raw TCP, SSH and a 60fps desktop.
Any agent, driven from outside, on a faster CPU
Managed Agents runs only Claude through Anthropic's harness, and on E2B you build the harness yourself. boat preinstalls Claude Code, Codex and five more with one API, keeps keys in a credentials proxy, and ran the CPU benchmark about twice as fast as E2B.
Use boat when your agents need a real machine for hours: Docker, emulators, a desktop and browser, ports you can open, a disk that lasts, and the choice of Claude Code, Codex or other agents. Compare it one to one: boat vs E2B and boat vs Claude Managed Agents.
Questions people ask
Is E2B cheaper than Claude Managed Agents?
For sandbox runtime alone, Managed Agents costs less in all five scenarios on this page, for example $634 a month against $2,773 for 50 agents in parallel. But Managed Agents also bills model tokens on top, which usually cost more than the runtime, and it fits none of the scenarios cleanly.
Which is faster, E2B or Claude Managed Agents?
E2B did 12.61 runs per second on the hpc-sandbox-benchmarks CPU test at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, and Managed Agents was not measured because its vCPU count is not published. boat did 26.69 runs per second on the same test.
Can E2B and Claude Managed Agents run Docker?
E2B runs Docker inside its sandboxes, but has no nested virtualization. Managed Agents lists Docker as limited availability. boat runs Docker and systemd and exposes /dev/kvm for Android emulators and VMs.
Can I run Claude Code on E2B or Claude Managed Agents?
E2B has templates and guides for running Claude Code through its command API. Managed Agents runs Anthropic's own harness with Claude models, not Claude Code. On boat, Claude Code, Codex and five other agents come preinstalled.
How long can a session run on each?
E2B stops a sandbox after 24 hours on Pro and 1 hour on Hobby, though pausing and resuming resets the clock. Managed Agents sessions sleep when idle and resume on the next message, but sandbox state is kept only 30 days after creation. boat has no session cap on paid plans.
Is boat SOC 2 compliant?
SOC 2 is in progress. We're open about where we stand: live status at status.ascii.dev and our data retention policy at docs.boat.dev/data-retention.
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