Freestyle vs Claude Managed Agents
Freestyle rents you full Linux VMs that pause with their memory, fork and wake on the next request, and you bring the agent. Claude Managed Agents is Anthropic's hosted agent: you send Claude a task and it works in a small container that Anthropic runs.
The companies and products
Freestyle
Freestyle sells full Linux virtual machines for AI agents, built for long running, complex tasks.
Each Freestyle VM is a KVM virtual machine with its own kernel, booted from an Ubuntu base snapshot with systemd, Docker and coding agent CLIs preinstalled. VMs can be paused with their memory, snapshotted while running, forked and woken by the next request, and every VM starts behind a default-deny firewall. It is built for teams that give each agent or each user its own machine, driven from a TypeScript SDK, a CLI or an API.
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. “40th cheapest of 345” means 39 of the other 344 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 | Freestyle: 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 Freestyle gives a coding agent a full VM with Docker and systemd, while Managed Agents gives it a container with up to 8 GB of memory and Docker only in limited availability; boat adds faster CPUs and a URL to open the app. | 241st of 367, with limits $3,311 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 sandbox state is kept only 30 days after creation; a Freestyle or boat disk stays until you delete it. | 263rd of 366, with limits $4,195 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 Freestyle suits short code runs: VMs pause with their memory and wake on the next request with the same processes still running. | 40th cheapest of 345 $482 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 Freestyle can give each of your users a VM with HTTPS on its own domain, while a Managed Agents sandbox has no inbound ports at all; boat adds a desktop and hosting on 50 ports. | 16th cheapest of 361 $1,358 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 Freestyle can snapshot a running VM with its memory and boot copies from it, which suits rollouts that branch from one state; Managed Agents has no fork. | 107th of 360, with limits $6,600 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 | 53rd cheapest of 364 $1,046 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 CI jobs that build Android apps or VM images need /dev/kvm and full Docker, which Freestyle and boat have and Managed Agents does not document. | 168th of 377, with limits $625 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 A dev box needs SSH and a disk that lasts; Freestyle and boat have both, and Managed Agents reaches its sandbox only through the session API. | 98th cheapest of 368 $151 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 Neither ships a desktop: Managed Agents has headless Chromium with Playwright, and on Freestyle you install the desktop and VNC yourself; boat streams a Linux desktop at 60fps with computer use. | 234th of 369, with limits $940 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 | 257th of 367, with limits $482 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 | 278th of 346, with limits $482 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 | 183rd of 338, with limits $6,560 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 | 272nd of 360, with limits $482 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 | Freestyle | Claude Managed Agents | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Full Linux VMs for agents, driven from a TypeScript SDK, a CLI or an API | 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 | Full KVM VM with its own kernel | Isolated Linux container per session | Full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts |
| CPU benchmark (4 vCPU / 8 GB) | 9.64 runs/s | Not measured; vCPU count not published | 26.69 runs/s |
| Biggest machine | Up to 32 vCPU / 64 GiB on Pro, 64 / 128 with custom limits | Up to 8 GB memory and 10 GB disk; not configurable | Up to 16 vCPU / 32 GB on the $100 plan and above |
| Root, Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm | Yes; systemd is pid 1, Docker runs from boot, full KVM support | Docker listed as limited availability; root, systemd and /dev/kvm not documented | Yes, with /dev/kvm for Android emulators and VMs |
| Pause and resume | Pause saves memory and disk; the same processes resume where they left off | An idle session is checkpointed with its files and resumes on the next message | Disk is saved every minute and on stop; resume boots the machine again |
| Wake on next request | Yes; a VM paused by idle timeout resumes on the next traffic | Yes; an idle session resumes on the next message, and idle time is not billed | No; a stopped sandbox is started by API |
| Fork | Clone a running VM without pausing it; snapshots capture memory and disk | No fork or clone of a session or sandbox | Fork a running sandbox with its disk |
| How long files last | Until you delete the VM; a paused VM bills for its storage | Sandbox state is kept only 30 days after the sandbox is created | The whole disk, for as long as you keep the sandbox; a stopped sandbox costs nothing |
| Inbound access | HTTPS on free style.dev names or your own domain, SSH, other public protocols | 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 |
| Desktop, browser and computer use | Guides to install GNOME or Xvfb, VNC and Chromium yourself | Headless Chromium with Playwright; no desktop or computer-use tool | Linux desktop streamed at 60fps, Chromium and computer use built in |
| Agents | claude, codex, opencode and openclaw preinstalled, driven through exec or a terminal | Anthropic's harness with Claude models only: events, steering, memory stores, webhooks | Claude Code, Codex and five more preinstalled, driven from outside with a prompt, steer and events API |
| Outbound rules | Default-deny firewall with allow rules by IP, VM, VPC or exact domain | Unrestricted, or limited to listed hosts plus optional package registries and MCP servers | Open internet, no provider-side allowlist |
| Where data lives | Regions not listed; the docs name a San Jose, US data center | US workspace geo only; not eligible for Zero Data Retention | EU only (Germany, Finland, France), with zero data retention |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | Freestyle | Claude Managed Agents | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | No | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | Yes | No | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Systemd | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | No | No | Yes |
| Browser | No | Yes | Yes |
| Computer-use API | No | 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 | Yes | 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 | No | Yes | No |
| GPU | Yes | No | No |
| Windows | No | No | No |
| Arm64 | No | No | No |
| Self-hosting | No | Yes | No |
| BYOC | No | Yes | No |
| Open source | No | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Spend limits | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Audit logs | Yes | Not published | No |
| SSO | Yes | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Not published | Yes | No |
| HIPAA | Not published | No | No |
| EU data residency | No | No | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | No | Yes |
Performance
On the hpc-sandbox-benchmarks Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, Freestyle did 9.64 runs per second and boat did 26.69, so boat finished about 2.8 times 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 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 | Freestyle, 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 | $27 · Free | $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 | $159 · Free | $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 | $2,139 · 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 | $581 · Pro | $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 | $1,305 · Pro · with limits | $796 · Claude API (pay-as-you-go, usage tiers) · with limits | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
Freestyle: Freestyle bills per second for the vCPU, RAM and disk allocated to a VM, busy or idle, after monthly allowances. On Free those allowances are hard stops; Hobby and Pro set a $50 or $500 monthly minimum that counts as usage, and a paused VM bills only for storage.
Claude Managed Agents: Managed Agents bills model tokens at API 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.
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.
Limits in those scenarios
Freestyle has no idle timeout by default, so a VM bills until you pause it or set one, and on Free the monthly allowances are hard stops. Its Pro plan allows 400 concurrent VMs, which is why it does not fit 1,000 short jobs at once. 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; Anthropic publishes no concurrent-session cap, only 300 creates per minute and usage-tier spend limits that pause all API use. boat has no session cap, but its $2,000 plan queues starts above 90 a minute.
| Scenario | Freestyle | Claude Managed Agents | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays | None that bite |
| None that bite |
| One agent that never stops | None that bite |
| 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 |
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|
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Which one should you use?
Use Freestyle when
you want your own VMs that pause with their memory, fork while running and wake on the next request, with a default-deny firewall or more than 8 GB in one machine.
- Memory pause, live fork and wake on request. For VMs that sleep between requests: they resume the same processes, wake on new traffic and can be cloned while running.
- Bigger machines. Teams with heavy jobs get up to 32 vCPU / 64 GiB on Pro, against a container with up to 8 GB on Managed Agents.
- Network controls per VM. Every VM starts with no network access, and you allow exactly the IPs, VMs, VPCs or domains it may reach.
Use Claude Managed Agents when
you want Claude itself to do long, mostly text and code tasks with no agent loop 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 sessions sleep for free. Agents that wait a long time between messages pay runtime only while working, and resume on the next message.
- Run tools on your own workers. Teams with strict rules can run every tool call on their own infrastructure while Anthropic keeps the orchestration.
Where boat fits
If your agents spend hours on builds, tests, Docker, emulators and web pages, look at boat. It gives each agent a full VM on fast CPUs with a desktop, links you can open and an API to drive Claude Code, Codex or other agents inside from outside.
A full machine on fast CPUs
On the same CPU test Freestyle did 9.64 runs per second and boat did 26.69, so every build waits almost three times as long. Managed Agents gives a container with up to 8 GB and Docker only in limited availability.
A desktop and links you can open
Managed Agents has no inbound ports, SSH or desktop, so you copy the app elsewhere to try it. On Freestyle you install and maintain GNOME or Xvfb, VNC and Chromium yourself. boat ships a 60fps desktop and HTTPS on 50 ports.
Any agent, driven from outside
Managed Agents runs only Claude in Anthropic's harness. Freestyle preinstalls agent CLIs, but you start them through exec and parse their output yourself. boat has one API to prompt and steer seven agents, and a credentials proxy that switches accounts when credits run out.
Use boat when your agents need a real machine for hours: Docker, emulators, a desktop and browser, ports you can open, fast CPUs, and the choice of Claude Code, Codex or other agents driven from outside. Compare it one to one: boat vs Freestyle and boat vs Claude Managed Agents.
Questions people ask
Is Freestyle cheaper than Claude Managed Agents?
For sandbox runtime alone, Managed Agents costs less in every scenario on this page, for example $53 of runtime for an agent that never stops against $159 on Freestyle. But Managed Agents adds model tokens on top, which usually cost more than the runtime, and its small container is not a like-for-like fit. boat runs the same always-on agent for $26 a month.
Which is faster, Freestyle or Claude Managed Agents?
Only Freestyle was measured: 9.64 runs per second on the Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB. Anthropic does not publish a Managed Agents sandbox's vCPU count, and it was not benchmarked. boat did 26.69 runs per second on the same test.
Can Claude Managed Agents or Freestyle run Docker?
Freestyle runs Docker from boot in a full VM with systemd and KVM, so Android emulators work too. Managed Agents lists Docker only as limited availability and does not document root, systemd or /dev/kvm. boat has all of them in every sandbox.
Can I run Claude Code on Freestyle or Claude Managed Agents?
Freestyle's base image has the claude CLI on PATH, and you start it through exec or a terminal. Managed Agents runs Anthropic's own harness with Claude models, not Claude Code. boat preinstalls Claude Code, Codex and five other agents with an API to drive them from outside.
Can I open a web app my agent built?
On Freestyle, yes: VMs get HTTPS on free style.dev names or your own domain. A Managed Agents sandbox has no inbound ports or SSH, so you see its work only through the events API. boat gives each sandbox HTTPS URLs on up to 50 ports, raw TCP and SSH.
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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