Google Compute Engine vs Scaleway
Google Compute Engine is a global hyperscaler that bills its VMs by the second in 43 regions. Scaleway is a European cloud in four EU cities that bills its Instances by the hour, which costs less for machines that stay on and more for short jobs.
The companies and products
Google Compute Engine
Google Compute Engine is Google Cloud's general-purpose VM service, not a sandbox product: you rent virtual machines by the second and set them up yourself.
You pick a machine type (E2, N2D, C3D, Arm T2A, GPU families and more), a boot image and a network, and Compute Engine boots a KVM-based VM with its own kernel and root access. Disks are Persistent Disk or Hyperdisk volumes, traffic goes through VPC firewall rules, and anything agent-specific (agents, desktops, HTTPS URLs, key handling) is yours to build. It is built for every kind of server workload, from websites to GPU training, across Google Cloud's worldwide regions.
Scaleway
Scaleway is a European cloud and AI provider, part of the iliad Group, that rents virtual machines, GPUs, storage and managed services.
Scaleway Instances are KVM virtual machines you pick from fixed shapes, from small shared-vCPU Development Instances to dedicated-vCPU and Arm64 types, running Linux or Windows Server. You get root, SSH, a public IP and security groups, and you install and run your own software next to Scaleway products like managed databases, Kubernetes, object storage and GPU Instances. It is general cloud infrastructure, not an agent sandbox, so this page compares the two where they overlap: giving an agent its own Linux machine.
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 364” means 15 of the other 363 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 | Google Compute Engine: price rank | Scaleway: price rank | boat: price rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month | 120th of 367, with limits $1,106 a month | 49th of 367, with limits $322 a month | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB | 177th of 366, with limits $1,433 a month | 90th of 366, with limits $208 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 Per-second billing helps Compute Engine with short runs, while each Scaleway CPU Instance pays at least a full hour of uptime; boat's start limits queue big bursts. | 92nd of 345, with limits $133 a month | 166th of 345, with limits $893 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 On both clouds you build HTTPS access and per-user lifecycle yourself, and 300 at once needs a quota request first; boat ships both and allows 100 to 2,000 sandboxes by plan. | 92nd of 361, with limits $836 a month | 84th of 361, with limits $738 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 Many short rollouts favor Compute Engine's per-second billing, at $2,085 a month against $18,254 on Scaleway, where every run pays a full hour. | 36th of 360, with limits $2,085 a month | 176th of 360, with limits $18,254 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 | 16th cheapest of 364 $263 a month | 42nd cheapest of 364 $776 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 Builds that need /dev/kvm are hard on both: Compute Engine has no nested virtualization on E2, and Scaleway does not document it; boat has /dev/kvm on every machine. | 41st cheapest of 377 $359 a month | 82nd cheapest of 377 $777 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB A 24/7 dev box suits both clouds, and a Scaleway DEV1-L comes to $41 a month against $109 on Compute Engine; boat keeps the disk with snapshots every minute. | 82nd cheapest of 368 $109 a month | 30th cheapest of 368 $41 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 cloud has a desktop or computer-use API, so you install and stream one yourself; boat streams a 60fps desktop with Chromium out of the box. | 129th of 369, with limits $293 a month | 94th of 369, with limits $168 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 On both clouds you install and wire the browser yourself; boat has Chromium and browser control ready in each sandbox. | 212th of 367, with limits $244 a month | 173rd of 367, with limits $126 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 | 218th of 346, with limits $179 a month | 149th of 346, with limits $13 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 | 108th of 338, with limits $2,978 a month | 34th of 338, with limits $253 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 | 152nd of 360, with limits $120 a month | 103rd of 360, with limits $29 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 Both clouds rent Nvidia GPUs (Compute Engine up to B200 and GB200, Scaleway B300, H100, L4 and L40S by the minute), and boat has no GPUs. | 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 | Google Compute Engine | Scaleway | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | A general cloud VM from a global hyperscaler; you set up everything else | A general cloud VM in a European cloud; you set up everything else | An agent sandbox: a full VM with agents, desktop, URLs and snapshots set up |
| Isolation | Every instance is a full KVM-based VM with its own kernel | Every Instance is a full QEMU/KVM VM with its own kernel | Every sandbox is a full VM with its own kernel |
| Regions | 43 regions and 130 zones worldwide, including many in the EU | Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw and Milan | EU only: Germany, Finland, France |
| Billing unit | Per second after a 1 minute minimum | Per hour of uptime, including startup and standby | Per second, spent from a monthly plan's usage credit |
| Docker and nested virtualization | Docker, root and systemd; nested KVM only on some Intel families and N4D, not on E2, Arm or other AMD VMs | Docker and root on Linux images; nested virtualization is not documented | Docker, root, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine |
| Stopping | A stopped VM stops CPU and memory charges; disks and external IPs keep billing | Standby bills as running; a console or API power-off stops compute, but volumes and IPs keep billing | A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk |
| Resume with memory | Suspend keeps a VM's memory for up to 60 days, and memory bills while suspended | No memory suspend for CPU Instances | Resume reboots from disk (no memory snapshots) |
| Snapshots and copies | Snapshots on demand or on a schedule you set; copies through a machine image and a new VM | Images and volume snapshots you create yourself; copies are new Instances booted from an image | Snapshots every minute and on stop; fork a running sandbox in one call |
| Reaching the machine | External IPv4 and any port through firewall rules; HTTPS needs your own certificate and a load balancer or web server | Public IPv4 and IPv6 on any port; HTTPS needs your own proxy, certificates and DNS | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected; raw TCP; own IP |
| Coding agents | None preinstalled; you install agents and drive them over SSH or startup scripts | None preinstalled; you install and drive agents yourself, for example over SSH | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and more preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API |
| Keeping keys out of the machine | No credential proxy; Secret Manager values are read from inside the VM | No credential proxy; Secret Manager secrets are fetched onto the machine | AI credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API; switch a credential to another account when credits run out |
| Desktop and computer use | No managed desktop, browser or computer-use API on Linux VMs | None built in; you install a desktop and browser yourself | 60fps desktop and Chromium, computer use and browser control, embeddable stream |
| Outbound network rules | VPC egress firewall rules by IP and port; domain rules on Cloud NGFW Standard, a paid tier | Security groups with outbound rules by protocol, port and IP range; SMTP blocked by default | Open internet on every plan; no provider-side allowlist |
| How many at once | Per-region CPU quotas that vary by project; free trial accounts cannot request more | Quotas per shape, for example 10 DEV1-L after identity checks; more through support | 100 to 2,000 sandboxes by plan, raised self-serve |
| GPUs, Windows and Arm | Nvidia GPUs from T4 and L4 up to H100, H200, B200 and GB200; Windows Server; Arm | GPU Instances with B300, H100, L4 and L40S by the minute; Windows Server; Arm64 | No GPUs; no Windows guests (Wine for Windows apps); x86 only |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | Google Compute Engine | Scaleway | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | No | Not published | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | No | No | Yes |
| Browser | No | 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 | No | 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 | No | No | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Public IPv4 | Yes | Yes | No |
| Egress allowlist | Yes | Yes | No |
| Secret proxy | No | No | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | No | No | Yes |
| Preinstalled agents | No | No | Yes |
| Agent harness API | No | No | Yes |
| MCP server | No | No | No |
| GPU | Yes | Yes | No |
| Windows | No | Yes | No |
| Arm64 | Yes | Yes | No |
| Self-hosting | No | No | No |
| BYOC | No | No | No |
| Open source | No | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Spend limits | No | No | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | Yes | No | Yes |
| Audit logs | Yes | Yes | No |
| SSO | Yes | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | No | No |
| HIPAA | Yes | No | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Performance
There is no comparable measurement for either cloud: neither Compute Engine nor Scaleway was part of the public StarSling benchmark run, where boat did 26.69 Node.js build-and-test runs per second at 4 vCPU / 8 GB. Compute Engine speed depends on the machine family you pick, and Scaleway sells shared-vCPU Development types such as DEV1-L next to dedicated-vCPU types.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Google Compute Engine and Scaleway 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 | Google Compute Engine, a month | Scaleway, 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 | $31 · Pay-as-you-go billing account (no plan fee) | $14 · Usage account | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $64 · Pay-as-you-go billing account (no plan fee) · with limits | $41 · Usage account | $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 | $1,291 · Pay-as-you-go billing account (no plan fee) | $537 · Usage account | $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 | $378 · Pay-as-you-go billing account (no plan fee) | $734 · Usage account | $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 | $690 · Pay-as-you-go billing account (no plan fee) | $4,892 · Usage account | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
Google Compute Engine: Compute Engine bills each VM per second after a 1 minute minimum at its list rate, here E2 sizes on demand in us-central1, with no platform fee. Disks and external IPs bill on top, also while stopped, and the lowest always-on rate needs a 3-year commitment.
Scaleway: Each Scaleway Instance shape has an hourly price, billed per hour of uptime including startup and standby, so a short job still pays a full hour. Disks and public IPv4 bill on top and keep billing while an Instance is powered off.
Scaleway: You pick a monthly plan from $20, and all of it becomes usage credit spent per second on running sandboxes. A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Limits in those scenarios
Compute Engine caps vCPUs per region with quotas that vary by project, and a free trial account cannot ask for more; one agent that never stops reaches the price shown only with a 3-year commitment. Scaleway sets quotas per shape, such as 5 DEV1-L and 8 DEV1-M, rising to 10 and 15 after identity checks, so 50 agents and 300 user sandboxes need a support request. Hourly billing makes the 1,000-job burst cost $4,892 a month on Scaleway against $690 on Compute Engine. On boat that burst is the one that does not fit, since the $2,000 plan allows 90 starts a minute, 600 an hour and 2,400 a day.
| Scenario | Google Compute Engine | Scaleway | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays | None that bite | 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 | None that bite |
| Sandboxes for your users | None that bite | None that bite | None that bite |
| 1,000 short jobs at once | None that bite | None that bite |
|
Which one should you use?
Use Google Compute Engine when
you need regions outside Europe, per-second billing for short jobs, nested KVM on Intel machines, memory suspend, or a wide range of Nvidia GPUs.
- Regions all over the world. Useful if your users or data sit outside Europe: Compute Engine runs in 43 regions and 130 zones.
- Per-second billing for short jobs. Useful for bursts of short runs: Compute Engine bills per second after one minute, while Scaleway charges a full hour.
- Nested KVM and memory suspend. Useful if an agent needs nested VMs on Intel families, or must resume with its processes still running.
Use Scaleway when
you want a European provider, lower prices for machines that stay on, GPUs by the minute, or Windows and Arm64 servers in the EU.
- Lower prices for machines that stay on. Useful for steady servers: a DEV1-L runs around the clock for less than an E2 VM, with no commitment.
- A European cloud company. Useful if you want a European provider: Scaleway is part of the iliad Group and runs only in EU cities.
- GPUs by the minute. Useful if agents train or serve models: Scaleway rents B300, H100, L4 and L40S GPU Instances by the minute.
Where boat fits
Compute Engine and Scaleway both rent general cloud VMs that start empty. If what you are really running is agents, boat gives each one a full VM in the EU with coding agents, a desktop, HTTPS URLs, snapshots every minute and free stops already built in. Pick one of the two clouds when you need GPUs, Windows or a wider cloud around the machine.
Agents you drive from outside, keys kept out
On both clouds you install, start and watch every agent yourself, and keys from Secret Manager end up on the VM where any root process can read them. boat ships the agents with an API and keeps keys in a proxy.
/dev/kvm, free stops and forks
Compute Engine's E2 VMs have no nested virtualization and Scaleway does not document it. Both keep billing disks and IPs while stopped, and a copy means making an image and booting a new VM.
Desktop, HTTPS URLs and fleets without a ticket
Neither cloud has a desktop or computer use, and each HTTPS URL needs your own certificate and proxy. 50 agents or 300 user sandboxes also need a quota request on both before launch.
Use boat when what you run is agents: each gets a ready, full VM in the EU with coding agents driven from outside, keys kept out, /dev/kvm, a desktop, HTTPS URLs, snapshots every minute, forks and free stops. Compare it one to one: boat vs Google Compute Engine and boat vs Scaleway.
Questions people ask
Is Google Compute Engine cheaper than Scaleway?
For machines that stay on, no: one coding agent on workdays comes to $14 a month on Scaleway against $31, and 50 agents in parallel to $537 against $1,291, before Scaleway's disk and IPv4. For short sessions Compute Engine wins: 300 user sandboxes come to $378 against $734, and 1,000 short jobs to $690 against $4,892.
Which is faster, Compute Engine or Scaleway?
We have no comparable measurement for either. Neither was part of the public StarSling run where boat did 26.69 runs per second at 4 vCPU / 8 GB. Speed on both depends on the machine type you pick.
Can Compute Engine and Scaleway run Docker and nested VMs?
Both run Docker, since each machine is a full VM with root. Compute Engine allows nested KVM only on some Intel families and N4D, not on E2, Arm or other AMD VMs, and Scaleway's docs do not cover it. On boat, /dev/kvm is on every machine.
Do I pay for a stopped VM?
On both clouds, disks and IPs keep billing while a machine is off. Scaleway also bills standby as a running Instance, and a shutdown from inside the machine puts it in standby. On boat, a stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Where does my data run?
Compute Engine runs in 43 regions worldwide, including many in the EU, and you pick the region per VM. Scaleway runs in Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw and Milan. boat runs only in the EU, in Germany, Finland and France.
Do Compute Engine or Scaleway have an agent sandbox?
No. Both sell general VMs, and you install agents yourself and drive them over SSH. boat is built for agents, with coding agents, a desktop and a credentials proxy in every sandbox.
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