Freestyle vs Namespace
Freestyle gives each agent a full KVM virtual machine that can pause with its memory, fork while running and wake on the next request. Namespace is mainly a CI and build platform, and its Devboxes are remote Linux, macOS and Windows machines that stop after at most 24 hours.
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.
Namespace
Namespace is a dev platform for fast builds, tests and coding environments: CI runners, build caches and Devboxes, on its own hardware.
Most of Namespace is CI: a faster drop-in for GitHub Actions runners, with Docker, Bazel, Turborepo and Nix caching. Its Devboxes are remote Linux and macOS machines with persistent storage, made for people and AI coding agents, and they also host sessions for Claude Managed Agents, Cursor Cloud Agents and Devin. It is a different kind of product from boat, so this page compares the part where they overlap: a machine an agent works on.
- Products
- GitHub Actions runners, Docker, Bazel, Turborepo and Nix caching, Devboxes, and a compute API
- Hardware
- Its own hardware in its own racks: AMD EPYC for Linux and Windows, Apple M4 Pro or M5 Max for macOS
- Linux Devboxes
- Run from a container image you choose and include Docker; the docs do not say whether each one has its own kernel
- Funding
- Announced a $42M Series B
- Compliance
- Trust center lists SOC 2 Type II
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 | Namespace: price rank | boat: price rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month Both are a compromise for a software factory; boat is a full match, with Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm on faster CPUs than either. | 241st of 367, with limits $3,311 a month | 39th of 367, with limits $3,495 a month | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB An assistant that never stops is a compromise on both; on Namespace a Devbox is shut down after at most 24 hours even while it works, while boat has no session cap on paid plans. | 263rd of 366, with limits $4,195 a month | 303rd of 366, with limits $6,645 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 is a full match for short code runs: its VMs pause with their memory and wake on the next request, while Namespace is a compromise here. | 40th cheapest of 345 $482 a month | 247th of 345, with limits $250 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 fits well, waking a paused user VM on its next request; Namespace's Devbox URLs need a Namespace login, so it is a compromise for sandboxes you hand to your users. | 16th cheapest of 361 $1,358 a month | 284th of 361, with limits $2,068 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 | 107th of 360, with limits $6,600 a month | 356th of 360, with limits $9,012 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 | 282nd of 364, with limits $1,043 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 runners are Namespace's main product, with caches for Docker, Bazel, Turborepo and Nix; Freestyle's own docs say CPU-heavy jobs like kernel builds are better served elsewhere. | 168th of 377, with limits $625 a month | 80th cheapest of 377 $765 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB A Freestyle VM runs until you pause or stop it, while a Namespace Devbox is shut down after 4, 5 or 24 hours by plan, so only Freestyle is a full match. | 98th cheapest of 368 $151 a month | 126th of 368, with limits $168 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 Both are a compromise: Freestyle has guides to install a desktop and VNC yourself, and Namespace's screenshot and click API works on macOS Devboxes only; boat streams a 60fps Linux desktop. | 234th of 369, with limits $940 a month | 67th of 369, with limits $982 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 | 285th of 367, with limits $789 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 | 259th of 346, with limits $332 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 | 226th of 338, with limits $9,012 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 | 242nd of 360, with limits $339 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 Only Namespace fits: it runs macOS Devboxes on Apple Silicon, and neither Freestyle nor boat has macOS. | Can't run it | 6th cheapest of 36 $1,205 a month | Can't run it |
Key features
| Feature | Freestyle | Namespace | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Full KVM VM with its own kernel | Linux Devboxes run from a container image on Namespace's own hardware; the docs do not say if each has its own kernel | Full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts |
| CPU benchmark (Node.js build-and-test, 4 vCPU / 8 GB) | 9.64 runs/s | 21.79 runs/s | 26.69 runs/s |
| Root, Docker and nested virtualization | Yes; systemd is pid 1, Docker runs from boot, full KVM support | Docker in Linux Devboxes; /dev/kvm on Linux compute instances, not on macOS or Windows | Root, systemd, Docker and /dev/kvm on every machine |
| How long a session can run | No provider limit; a VM runs until you pause, stop or delete it | Devboxes stop after 4, 5 or 24 hours by plan, 24 at most | No session cap on paid plans |
| Pause and resume | Pause saves memory and disk; the same processes resume, and a paused VM can wake on the next request | Devboxes stop after an idle timeout and start again when you connect; compute instances can suspend with RAM kept | Disk saved every minute and on stop; resume boots the machine again |
| Fork | Clone a running VM without pausing it; snapshots capture memory and disk | No fork | Fork a running sandbox with its disk |
| Desktop and computer use | Guides to install GNOME or Xvfb, VNC and Chromium yourself | Screenshot and click API on macOS Devboxes only; VNC and RDP for compute instances | Linux desktop streamed at 60fps, Chromium and computer use built in |
| Coding agents | claude, codex, opencode and openclaw preinstalled, driven through exec or a terminal | Hosts Claude Managed Agents, Cursor and Devin sessions run by those partners; an MCP server lets your agent create Devboxes | Seven agents preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API to drive them from outside |
| Inbound access | HTTPS on free style.dev names or your own domain, forward auth, other public protocols | HTTPS URLs that need a Namespace login, TCP through a running CLI port-forward; no public IP | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected by default; raw TCP |
| Outbound rules | Default-deny firewall with allow rules by IP, VM, VPC or exact domain | Egress policies per Devbox blueprint, runner or instance: block, advisory or allow by domain | Open internet, no provider-side allowlist |
| Stopped machines | A paused VM bills for its storage; no idle timeout unless you set one | A stopped Devbox keeps its storage, billed at $0.20 per GB-month used | A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk |
| Operating systems | Linux | Linux, macOS on Apple Silicon, and Windows on Team plans and up | Linux only; Wine for Windows apps |
| CI runners and build caches | Not a CI product | Drop-in GitHub Actions runners with Docker, Bazel, Turborepo and Nix caching | Runs CI jobs on full VMs; no managed runner service or build caches |
| Regions and data | Not listed; the docs name a San Jose, US data center | Several regions; keeping every workload in one region needs the enterprise plan | EU only (Germany, Finland, France), zero data retention |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | Freestyle | Namespace | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | No | Yes | Yes |
| Browser | No | No | Yes |
| Computer-use API | No | Yes | Yes |
| SSH | Yes | Yes | 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 | Yes | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | Yes | Yes | 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 | No | Yes | No |
| GPU | Yes | No | No |
| Windows | No | Yes | No |
| Arm64 | No | Yes | No |
| Self-hosting | No | No | No |
| BYOC | No | No | No |
| Open source | No | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Spend limits | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | No | No | Yes |
| Audit logs | Yes | Yes | No |
| SSO | Yes | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Not published | Yes | No |
| HIPAA | Not published | No | No |
| EU data residency | No | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Performance
On the hpc-sandbox-benchmarks Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, boat did 26.69 runs per second, Namespace 21.79 and Freestyle 9.64. Namespace and boat were measured in the same run on 2026-09-29, and Freestyle in an earlier run on 2026-08-24, so Namespace did roughly 2.3 times the CPU work of Freestyle. This measures CPU speed only, not start time.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Namespace measured on: Linux compute instance (unit-minutes, PAYG/overage $0.0015).
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 | Namespace, 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 | $50 · Devbox (pay as you go) | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $159 · Free | $176 · Devbox (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 | $2,139 · Pro | $2,198 · Devbox (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 | $581 · Pro | $1,214 · Devbox (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 | $1,305 · Pro · with limits | $3,237 · Devbox (pay as you go) | $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 of 200 vCPU-hours, 400 GiB-hours of RAM and 60,000 GiB-hours of storage. On Free those allowances are hard stops; Hobby and Pro set a $50 or $500 monthly minimum that counts as usage.
Namespace: Namespace bills Devboxes in Devbox Minutes at $0.004 each, pay as you go on every plan, and a 4 vCPU / 8 GB Devbox uses one a minute. The minutes in the Team and Business plans cover runners and instances, not Devboxes, and stored files cost $0.20 per GB-month.
Namespace: Plans start at $20 a month, and the whole fee is usage credit spent per second while a sandbox runs. A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Limits in those scenarios
On Namespace the limit that bites is time: a Devbox is shut down after 4, 5 or 24 hours by plan, so the agent that never stops has to restart at least once a day. On Freestyle it is concurrency: Pro allows 400 VMs at once, so it does not fit 1,000 short jobs at once, while Namespace publishes no Devbox concurrency limit and fits. Namespace does not publish an egress price. boat fits the long-running scenarios but queues big bursts of starts, so the 1,000 short jobs need higher start limits.
| Scenario | Freestyle | Namespace | 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 |
|
|
|
Which one should you use?
Use Freestyle when
your agents need full VMs that pause with their memory, fork while running and wake on the next request, or when one machine needs more than 16 vCPU.
- Memory pause, live fork and wake on request. Useful for VMs that sleep between requests: they resume the same processes and can wake on the next incoming traffic.
- No clock on the session. Useful for agents that work for days: a Freestyle VM runs until you pause it, while a Namespace Devbox stops within 24 hours.
- Big machines on Pro. Useful for heavy single jobs: Pro VMs go up to 32 vCPU / 64 GiB, and custom limits reach 64 / 128.
Use Namespace when
you need macOS or Windows machines, faster GitHub Actions runners with build caches, or Devboxes for people and partner agents that stop when idle.
- macOS and Windows. Useful if your agents build iOS or Mac apps or test on Windows: Namespace runs macOS on Apple Silicon and Windows machines.
- CI runners and build caches. Useful if you want faster GitHub Actions: Namespace is a drop-in runner with Docker, Bazel and Turborepo caching.
- Partner agents on its machines. Useful if you already use Claude Managed Agents, Cursor Cloud Agents or Devin: they can run their sessions on Namespace Devboxes.
Where boat fits
If you are choosing between Freestyle and Namespace to run coding agents on Linux, look at boat too. Every boat sandbox is a full VM with its own kernel, Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm, on faster CPUs than either, with no session cap on paid plans. It also ships a desktop, a browser and an API to drive agents inside from outside.
Faster CPUs for builds and tests
On the same Node.js build-and-test benchmark, boat did 26.69 runs per second, Namespace 21.79 and Freestyle 9.64. Freestyle's docs send sustained heavy CPU work elsewhere, and a Namespace Devbox's vCPU count is a ceiling, not a guaranteed share.
A Linux desktop, ready
boat streams a 60fps Linux desktop with Chromium and computer use in every sandbox. On Freestyle you install the desktop, VNC and click layer yourself, and Namespace's screenshot API works only on pricier macOS Devboxes.
Agents you drive from outside
boat lets you prompt, steer and follow the agents inside through an API, and its credentials proxy switches to another account when credits run out. Freestyle leaves you parsing CLI output from exec, and Namespace hands the loop to a partner service.
Use boat when your agents work on Linux for hours or days: a full, faster VM with no session cap, Docker and /dev/kvm, a 60fps desktop, and coding agents you drive from outside. Compare it one to one: boat vs Freestyle and boat vs Namespace.
Questions people ask
Is Freestyle cheaper than Namespace?
In most of the scenarios we priced, yes. Sandboxes for your users come to $581 on Freestyle against $1,214 on Namespace, and one agent running all month comes to $159 against $176, though Namespace needs a restart every day. For 1,000 short jobs at once only Namespace fits, at $3,237 a month. boat comes to $26 a month for the always-on agent.
Which is faster, Freestyle or Namespace?
On the Node.js build-and-test benchmark at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, Namespace did 21.79 runs per second and Freestyle 9.64. boat did 26.69. Freestyle advertises VM starts in about 65 ms, which this test does not measure.
Can Freestyle and Namespace run Docker?
Yes. Freestyle VMs run Docker from boot with systemd and full KVM support. Namespace Linux Devboxes include Docker, and /dev/kvm is available on its Linux compute instances. boat has Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine.
How long can a session run on each?
A Freestyle VM has no provider limit and runs until you pause, stop or delete it. A Namespace Devbox stops after 4 hours on Developer, 5 on Team and 24 on Business, even while you work in it. boat has no session cap on paid plans.
Does Freestyle or Namespace run macOS?
Only Namespace. It runs macOS Devboxes and instances on Apple M4 Pro and M5 Max chips, and Windows on Team plans and up. Freestyle and boat run Linux only.
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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