exe.dev vs Beam
exe.dev gives you a Linux VM that keeps running and keeps its disk, billed as a reserved pool or per second, in nine regions. Beam is a serverless GPU cloud whose sandboxes are quick gVisor containers with a time to live, plus a separate line of CPU VMs, all in the US.
The companies and products
exe.dev
exe.dev, made by Bold Software, Inc., rents Linux VMs for developers and AI agents that you reach over SSH and HTTPS.
You reserve a pool of vCPUs and memory, and your VMs share it; you can also start standalone VMs billed by the second. Each VM is KVM-isolated (they use Cloud Hypervisor), boots from a container image in about two seconds, and has root, systemd and Docker. It comes with Claude Code, Codex, Pi and exe.dev's own Shelley agent, and is aimed at developers who want a persistent dev box or a sandbox for their agents.
- Company
- Bold Software, Inc.
- Preinstalled agents
- claude, codex, pi and the Shelley web agent
Beam
Beam is a serverless cloud for GPU inference, sandboxes and background jobs, built on its open-source runtime Beta9.
Beam runs functions, REST endpoints, task queues, pods, sandboxes and VMs on CPUs and GPUs, all from a Python or TypeScript SDK. A sandbox is a container isolated with gVisor that starts in a second or two, lives until you terminate it or its time to live runs out, and can be saved as a filesystem image or a memory snapshot. Beam VMs are a separate CPU product: a microVM with its own kernel, systemd and a root disk that stays when it stops. Much of Beam is a GPU serverless platform for AI teams.
- Bring your own cloud
- Management fee per vCPU and GB of RAM, on top of your own cloud bill
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 366” means 14 of the other 365 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 | exe.dev: price rank | Beam: 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 Docker, systemd and a disk that lasts; exe.dev has them but bills a pool whether busy or not, Beam sandboxes have no systemd, and boat fits fully with snapshots and a desktop. | 253rd of 367, with limits $3,701 a month | 69th of 367, with limits $551 a month | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB exe.dev fits always-on assistants fully with a VM that runs until you stop it; Beam fits with a compromise, and boat fits fully with agents and a desktop built in. | 15th cheapest of 366 $3,833 a month | 115th of 366, with limits $651 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 Beam fits code interpreter bursts best of the three: sandboxes start in a second or two, bill per second and end when their time to live runs out. | 235th of 345, with limits $175 a month | 8th cheapest of 345 $117 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 Beam and boat both fit sandboxes for your users; exe.dev's Personal plan stops at 50 VMs at once, below the 300 this scenario needs. | 257th of 361, with limits $1,226 a month | 3rd cheapest of 361 $290 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 | 265th of 360, with limits $5,250 a month | 341st of 360, with limits $939 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 | 283rd of 364, with limits $1,050 a month | 13th cheapest of 364 $251 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 Beam and boat both fit CI, but builds that need /dev/kvm only run on boat, since exe.dev keeps nested virtualization for Enterprise. | 288th of 377, with limits $504 a month | 12th cheapest of 377 $171 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB All three make good 24/7 dev boxes: exe.dev and Beam VMs keep their disk, and boat saves it every minute and on stop. | 25th cheapest of 368 $35 a month | 13th cheapest of 368 $21 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 exe.dev nor Beam has a desktop, so computer-use agents need one you build yourself; boat streams a 60fps desktop with Chromium. | 240th of 369, with limits $1,055 a month | 111th of 369, with limits $237 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 | 130th of 367, with limits $530 a month | 195th of 367, with limits $176 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 | 124th of 346, with limits $278 a month | 200th of 346, with limits $131 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 | 166th of 338, with limits $5,490 a month | 42nd of 338, with limits $923 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 | 60th of 360, with limits $263 a month | 175th of 360, with limits $155 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 Beam has GPUs, from T4 and RTX 4090 up to H100 and B200; exe.dev and boat are CPU only. | Can't run it | Cheapest of 98 $458 a month | 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 | exe.dev | Beam | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolation | KVM VM with Cloud Hypervisor; you can't choose the kernel | gVisor container by default for sandboxes; Beam VMs are CPU microVMs with their own kernel | Full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts |
| Docker and systemd | Root, systemd and Docker in every VM | Docker in sandboxes with docker_enabled; systemd only in Beam VMs | Root, systemd and Docker, like a normal Ubuntu server |
| Nested virtualization | Enterprise only | Not documented | Yes, /dev/kvm on every plan |
| Lifetime | No cap; VMs run until you stop them | Sandbox default is 10 minutes; set -1 to run until you terminate it | No session cap on paid plans; you set the time to live |
| Saved state | Disk persists and is streamed to a second server; no snapshots | Filesystem images and memory snapshots of a running sandbox; a Beam VM keeps a 50 GiB root disk while stopped | Disk saved every minute and on stop; a stopped sandbox keeps it for free |
| Fork and copies | cp copies a VM's disk and config into a new VM | Memory snapshot with running processes, restored into new sandboxes | Fork a running sandbox; named snapshots as templates |
| Custom images | Boot from your own Docker image | Custom container images | Templates from named snapshots; no Dockerfile or OCI images |
| GPUs | No | GPU sandboxes and serverless GPUs up to H100, H200 and B200 | No, CPU only |
| Desktop and computer use | Headless; no desktop or screen streaming | No desktop or browser product | 60fps desktop with Chromium, computer use and browser control |
| Coding agents | Claude Code, Codex, Pi and Shelley; only Shelley takes prompts through the API | None preinstalled; you install and run them through process exec | Seven agents preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API |
| Inbound access | HTTPS proxy for ports 3000 to 9999, one of them public; SSH; no public IP or raw TCP | Public HTTPS URL per exposed port with no built-in auth; no raw TCP or dedicated IP | HTTPS on up to 50 ports, token-protected by default; raw TCP; dedicated IPv4 or IPv6 |
| Secrets | Integrations inject secrets at the network edge for any HTTP host | Secrets are environment variables inside the sandbox | Credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API; switch accounts when credits run out |
| Outbound rules | Open internet | Block all outbound traffic or allow up to 10 CIDR ranges | Open internet, no provider-side allowlist |
| Regions and hosting | 9 regions in the US, Europe, Asia and Australia; BYOC on Enterprise | US only; Beta9 runtime is open source to self-host, or bring your own cloud | EU only: Germany, Finland, France |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | exe.dev | Beam | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | No | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | Yes | No | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | Yes | No | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | No | No | Yes |
| Browser | Yes | No | Yes |
| Computer-use API | No | No | Yes |
| SSH | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Persistent disk | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pause/resume | Yes | No | Yes |
| Automatic snapshots | No | No | Yes |
| Fork/clone | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Memory fork | No | Yes | No |
| Custom image (Docker or snapshot) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ≥24 h sessions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | No | 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 | No | Yes | No |
| Secret proxy | Yes | No | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | Yes | No | Yes |
| Preinstalled agents | Yes | No | Yes |
| Agent harness API | Yes | No | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | Yes | No |
| GPU | No | Yes | No |
| Windows | No | No | No |
| Arm64 | No | No | No |
| Self-hosting | No | Yes | No |
| BYOC | Yes | Yes | No |
| Open source | No | Yes | No |
| Scoped API keys | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Spend limits | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | Yes | No | Yes |
| Audit logs | Not published | Not published | No |
| SSO | Yes | No | No |
| SOC 2 | No | Yes | No |
| HIPAA | No | Yes | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Performance
There is no comparable measurement for exe.dev or Beam: neither has a result on the StarSling hpc-sandbox-benchmarks CPU test, so we cannot say which is faster at CPU work. boat did 26.69 runs per second on that test at 4 vCPU / 8 GB. Beam's own guide says its sandboxes cold-boot in 1 to 3 seconds.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. exe.dev and Beam 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 | exe.dev, a month | Beam, 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 | $35 · Personal | $5 · Developer | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $35 · Personal | $22 · Developer | $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 | $1,848 · Personal | $410 · Team | $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 | $530 · Personal · with limits | $191 · Team | $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 | $1,050 · Personal · with limits | $259 · Team | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
exe.dev: Personal is a flat pool paid monthly, such as $35 for 4 vCPU / 8 GiB, billed whether your VMs are busy or idle; Work is $75/month for the team plus $0.105 per 2 vCPU / 4 GiB unit-hour. Standalone VMs bill per second at that same rate.
Beam: Beam sandboxes bill per second for each CPU core (two vCPU) and GiB of RAM until you terminate them or their time to live ends, so an idle tail is billed too. Developer has no fee; Team is $89/month plus usage, with no usage credit and no egress fees.
Beam: Plans start at $20 a month, and the whole fee is usage credit. Sandboxes bill per second while they run, and a stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Limits in those scenarios
exe.dev Personal allows 50 VMs at once, so the 300-at-once and 1,000-at-once scenarios don't fit there. Beam's Developer plan allows 30 CPU containers at once, so 50 parallel agents need its Team plan, which fits every scenario here; Beam publishes no price for extra disk, so its bills count no disk cost. boat fits four of the five, but its start-rate limits queue the 1,000 short jobs even on the top plan.
| Scenario | exe.dev | Beam | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays |
|
| 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 |
| 1,000 short jobs at once |
|
|
|
Which one should you use?
Use exe.dev when
you want a persistent VM that runs until you stop it, in a region near you, booted from your own Docker image, with SSO and roles for a team.
- A VM that just stays. For a dev box or assistant that lives all month, an exe.dev VM keeps root, systemd and its disk until you stop it.
- Regions around the world. Useful if your users are far from the US: exe.dev runs in nine regions across the US, Europe, Asia and Australia.
- Team controls and secret injection. Its Work plan covers a whole team with SSO and roles, and integrations inject secrets at the network edge.
Use Beam when
your agents need GPUs, when you run many short sandboxes that should end on their own, when you need outbound rules, or when you must self-host.
- GPUs in the same platform. For workloads that need a GPU, Beam offers GPU sandboxes and serverless GPUs from RTX 4090 to H100, H200 and B200.
- Fast, short-lived sandboxes. For many short jobs, Beam sandboxes start in a second or two, bill per second and its Team plan allows 1,000 at once.
- Open source and outbound rules. Its Beta9 runtime is free to self-host, and a sandbox can be locked to a few networks or cut off entirely.
Where boat fits
If what you are running is coding agents that work for hours, boat sits between the two: a full VM like exe.dev, billed per second like Beam. It adds a desktop, state saved every minute, /dev/kvm and one API to drive agents inside from outside, which neither exe.dev nor Beam has.
A screen your agents can use
exe.dev VMs are headless and Beam has no desktop or browser product, so a computer-use agent on either has nothing to look at until you set up and stream a desktop yourself. boat streams 60fps with Chromium.
Drive agents inside from outside
On exe.dev only Shelley takes prompts through the API, and Beam preinstalls no agents, so running Claude Code or Codex means scripting shell sessions with no clean way to steer a task or stream its events.
A real kernel with /dev/kvm
Android emulators and nested VMs need /dev/kvm. exe.dev keeps it for Enterprise, Beam documents none, and tools that expect systemd can fail in a gVisor sandbox. boat gives every plan /dev/kvm and systemd.
Use boat when your agents do real work over hours: builds, Docker, emulators, a desktop and a browser on a full VM with state saved every minute and one API to drive agents inside from outside. Compare it one to one: boat vs exe.dev and boat vs Beam.
Questions people ask
Is exe.dev cheaper than Beam?
Not in our scenarios. Beam costs less in all five, such as $22 against $35 a month for one agent that never stops and $410 against $1,848 a month for 50 agents in parallel. Beam's bills count no disk cost, since it publishes no price for extra disk.
Which is faster, exe.dev or Beam?
We can't say. Neither has a result on the StarSling hpc-sandbox-benchmarks CPU test, where boat did 26.69 runs per second at 4 vCPU / 8 GB. Beam says its sandboxes cold-boot in 1 to 3 seconds, and exe.dev says a new VM takes about two seconds.
Is a Beam sandbox a VM like exe.dev?
Not by default. Beam sandboxes are gVisor containers, with an opt-in microVM mode for CPU sandboxes, and Beam sells separate CPU VMs with their own kernel and systemd. Every exe.dev machine is a KVM VM, and so is every boat sandbox.
Can exe.dev and Beam run Docker?
Yes. exe.dev VMs have root, systemd and Docker, and Beam supports Docker inside a sandbox with docker_enabled. boat runs Docker in a full VM and also exposes /dev/kvm on every plan.
Does either have GPUs?
Beam does, with GPU sandboxes and serverless GPUs from T4 and RTX 4090 up to H100 and B200. exe.dev and boat are CPU only.
Where do exe.dev and Beam run?
exe.dev has nine regions in the US, Europe, Asia and Australia. Beam runs in the US, on AWS and Google Cloud. boat runs only in the EU, in Germany, Finland and France.
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