Morph Cloud vs exe.dev
Both give you full Linux VMs with root and Docker. Morph Cloud is built around snapshots that keep memory, branching and waking machines on request, while exe.dev rents reserved pools of VMs that stay on, with preinstalled agents and nine regions.
The companies and products
Morph Cloud
Morph Cloud sells full virtual machines for AI agents that can be snapshotted, branched and restored with their memory, which it calls Infinibranch.
You get MorphVM instances as low-level building blocks and Devboxes as ready workspaces on top of them, with SSH, preview URLs and a tmux API for running coding agents you install yourself. Everything is billed in MCUs, where one MCU is 1 vCPU, 4 GB of RAM or 16 GB of disk for an hour. It is built for teams that fan agents out from one saved state, and it also sells managed GitHub Actions runners and a shared filesystem.
- Regions
- Not published
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
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 345” means 15 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 | Morph Cloud: price rank | exe.dev: price rank | boat: price rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month | 198th of 367, with limits $2,288 a month | 253rd of 367, with limits $3,701 a month | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB exe.dev fits an assistant that lives on its machine all month, because a flat pool costs the same busy or idle; Morph bills every hour the VM stays awake. | 235th of 366, with limits $3,014 a month | 15th cheapest of 366 $3,833 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 Morph suits short code runs: a machine pauses with its memory, costs almost nothing while paused and wakes on the next request, which exe.dev cannot do. | 16th cheapest of 345 $154 a month | 235th of 345, with limits $175 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 Morph fits sandboxes for your users with pause and wake on request; exe.dev Personal stops at 50 VMs at once, and boat adds token-protected HTTPS on up to 50 ports. | 12th cheapest of 361 $905 a month | 257th of 361, with limits $1,226 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 Morph's memory branching suits rollouts that all start from the same running state; exe.dev has no snapshots to branch from. | 86th of 360, with limits $4,847 a month | 265th of 360, with limits $5,250 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 Morph and boat both fit many parallel eval runs; on exe.dev they fit only as a compromise, with pools billed whether runs are going or not. | 38th cheapest of 364 $675 a month | 283rd of 364, with limits $1,050 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 Morph also sells managed GitHub Actions runners; exe.dev pools bill whether jobs run or not, and boat bills per second while a sandbox runs. | 39th cheapest of 377 $355 a month | 288th of 377, with limits $504 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB Both make good 24/7 dev boxes with root, SSH and a disk that lasts; exe.dev's flat pool makes it the lower bill, and boat adds a desktop in the browser. | 85th cheapest of 368 $116 a month | 25th cheapest of 368 $35 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 ready screen for agents: exe.dev VMs are headless and Morph has you install the browser and agent, while boat streams a 60fps desktop. | 182nd of 369, with limits $595 a month | 240th of 369, with limits $1,055 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 | 214th of 367, with limits $250 a month | 130th of 367, with limits $530 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 | 239th of 346, with limits $234 a month | 124th of 346, with limits $278 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 | 154th of 338, with limits $4,750 a month | 166th of 338, with limits $5,490 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 | 214th of 360, with limits $228 a month | 60th of 360, with limits $263 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 | Morph Cloud | exe.dev | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Full VM with its own kernel | KVM VM with Cloud Hypervisor; you can't choose the kernel | Full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts |
| Root, Docker and systemd | Yes, including Docker in Docker and local Kubernetes | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | Experimental | Enterprise plan only | Yes, /dev/kvm on every plan for Android emulators and VMs |
| Snapshots and branching | Snapshot and branch a running VM with its memory, in under 250 ms | No snapshots; cp copies a VM's disk and config into a new VM | Fork a running sandbox with its disk; named snapshots as templates; no memory |
| Pause and wake | A paused VM keeps its memory, bills only its snapshot and wakes on the next HTTP request, SSH or exec call | No wake on request; a stopped standalone VM pays nothing for CPU and memory but keeps its disk | A stopped sandbox is free, keeps its disk and is started again by API |
| Saving work automatically | Saved when you pause or snapshot; a plain stop deletes the instance | Disk persists and is streamed to a second server; nothing to roll back to | Disk saved every minute and on every stop |
| Starting image | Start from your own snapshots; no Docker image boot | Boot each VM from your own Docker image in about two seconds | Templates from named snapshots; no Dockerfile or OCI images |
| Coding agents | None preinstalled; you install the agent and drive it through a tmux API that sends keys and reads the screen | Claude Code, Codex, Pi and Shelley preinstalled; only Shelley takes prompts through the API | Seven agents preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API and TypeScript and Python SDKs |
| Desktop and computer use | Browser-based remote desktop; you install the browser and any computer use agent yourself | Headless; no desktop or screen streaming | 60fps Linux desktop with Chromium, a computer use API and an embeddable stream |
| Keeping API keys out of the machine | Responses Proxy for model APIs; other secrets are handed to the machine | Integrations inject secrets at the network edge for any HTTP host, S3, GitHub and more | Credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API; switch a credential to another account when credits run out |
| Inbound access | Named HTTP services with optional API key auth; SSH through Morph's gateway; no raw TCP | HTTPS proxy for ports 3000 to 9999, one of them public; SSH; no public IP or raw TCP | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected by default; raw TCP; dedicated IPv6 or IPv4 per machine |
| Guest systems | Linux, with experimental Windows and macOS (x86) | Linux | Linux |
| Regions | Not published | 9 regions in the US, Europe, Asia and Australia | EU only: Germany, Finland, France, with zero data retention |
| Extras | Managed GitHub Actions runners and a shared filesystem many machines can mount | MCP server; unlimited users, SSO and roles on the Work plan | Org seats, scoped API keys, spend limits and usage per sandbox |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | Morph Cloud | exe.dev | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | Yes | No | Yes |
| Browser | No | Yes | Yes |
| Computer-use API | No | No | Yes |
| SSH | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Persistent disk | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pause/resume | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic snapshots | Yes | No | Yes |
| Fork/clone | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Memory fork | Yes | No | No |
| Custom image (Docker or snapshot) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ≥24 h sessions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | Yes | No | No |
| Wake on request | Yes | No | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | No | No | Yes |
| Public IPv4 | No | No | No |
| Egress allowlist | No | No | No |
| Secret proxy | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | No | Yes | Yes |
| Preinstalled agents | No | Yes | Yes |
| Agent harness API | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | No | Yes | No |
| GPU | No | No | No |
| Windows | Yes | No | No |
| Arm64 | No | No | No |
| Self-hosting | No | No | No |
| BYOC | No | Yes | No |
| Open source | No | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Spend limits | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Audit logs | Yes | Not published | No |
| SSO | Not published | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Not published | No | No |
| HIPAA | Not published | No | No |
| EU data residency | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Performance
Neither Morph Cloud nor exe.dev is in the hpc-sandbox-benchmarks run, so there is no comparable CPU measurement for either of them. boat did 26.69 runs per second on that Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts. Morph's under 250 ms figure is snapshot restore time, not CPU speed.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Morph Cloud and exe.dev 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 | Morph Cloud, a month | exe.dev, 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 | $32 · Developer | $35 · Personal | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $121 · Team | $35 · Personal | $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 | $1,459 · Scale | $1,848 · Personal | $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 | $325 · Scale | $530 · Personal · 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 | $869 · Scale | $1,050 · Personal · with limits | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
Morph Cloud: Morph bills MCUs at $0.05 each: per hour, a machine uses the largest of its vCPUs, its RAM in 4 GiB steps or its disk in 16 GiB steps. Team ($40 a month) and Scale ($250 a month) are prepaid MCU bundles at a discount, and a paused VM bills only its snapshot.
exe.dev: exe.dev pools are reserved capacity your VMs share, billed the same whether they are busy or idle; a 4 vCPU / 8 GB Personal pool is $35 a month. Standalone VMs bill per second at $0.105 per 2 vCPU / 4 GiB per hour.
exe.dev: 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
Morph's limits are account-wide resource pools: the Developer pool of 64 vCPU holds only 16 machines at 4 vCPU, disk above 16 GiB per MCU raises the bill, and egress prices are not published. exe.dev Personal allows one pool of up to 16 vCPU and 50 VMs plus up to 50 standalone VMs, so the 300-at-once and 1,000-at-once scenarios don't fit there. boat has no session cap on paid plans, but its start limits mean even the $2,000 plan queues 1,000 short jobs at once, which only Morph Scale fits.
| Scenario | Morph Cloud | exe.dev | 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 Morph Cloud when
your agents branch from one running state with its memory, sleep between requests and wake on demand, or come in large short bursts.
- Branch a running machine with its memory. Useful for agents that fan out from one running state: Morph copies a VM with its memory into many branches in under 250 ms.
- Pause and wake on request. A paused VM bills only its snapshot and wakes on the next HTTP request, SSH or exec call, which suits machines that sit idle.
- Room for big bursts. Morph's Scale plan fits 1,000 short jobs at once in our table, where exe.dev Personal stops at 50 VMs at once.
Use exe.dev when
you want VMs that stay on for a flat monthly fee, booted from your own Docker image, in regions outside Europe.
- A flat bill for machines that stay on. For one VM running all month, an exe.dev Personal pool is a flat fee, well below Morph's hourly MCU bill for the same machine.
- Regions around the world. Useful if your users are far from Europe: exe.dev runs in nine regions across the US, Europe, Asia and Australia.
- Your image, agents included. exe.dev boots each VM from your own Docker image and preinstalls Claude Code, Codex, Pi and its Shelley agent.
Where boat fits
If what you are running is coding or computer use agents that work for hours, look at boat. Each sandbox is a full VM with Docker and /dev/kvm, the agents come preinstalled with one API to drive agents inside from outside, and a 60fps desktop is ready for agents that need a screen.
Agents you drive from outside
On Morph you install the agent and drive it through tmux by sending keys and reading the screen. On exe.dev only Shelley takes prompts through the API, so Claude Code or Codex need scripted shell sessions you build yourself.
A screen your agents can use
exe.dev VMs are headless, so a computer use agent has nothing to look at. Morph gives you remote desktop access, but you build the browser, the desktop image and the click loop before the agent can work.
Work saved every minute
On Morph a plain stop deletes the instance unless you pause or snapshot first, and exe.dev has no snapshots to roll back to after a bad agent step. boat saves the disk every minute and on every stop, and a stopped sandbox is free.
Use boat when your agents do real work for hours: preinstalled coding agents you drive from outside, a 60fps desktop with Chromium, Docker and /dev/kvm, and work saved every minute in the EU. Compare it one to one: boat vs Morph Cloud and boat vs exe.dev.
Questions people ask
Is Morph Cloud cheaper than exe.dev?
In four of our five scenarios, yes: for 50 agents in parallel Morph comes to $1,459 against $1,848 on exe.dev. For one agent that never stops, exe.dev's flat pool is far lower than Morph's $121 a month. boat's bill is lower than both in four of the five.
Which is faster, Morph Cloud or exe.dev?
We can't say: neither is in the hpc-sandbox-benchmarks run, so there is no comparable CPU score for either. boat scored 26.69 runs per second on that test at 4 vCPU / 8 GB.
Can Morph Cloud and exe.dev run Docker?
Yes, both are full VMs with root and Docker inside. Nested virtualization is experimental on Morph and Enterprise only on exe.dev, while boat exposes /dev/kvm on every plan.
Does exe.dev have snapshots like Morph Cloud?
No. exe.dev keeps each VM's disk and can copy a VM with cp, but has no snapshots. Morph snapshots and branches a running VM with its memory, and boat saves the disk every minute and can fork a running sandbox.
Can I run Claude Code on Morph Cloud and exe.dev?
Yes. exe.dev preinstalls Claude Code, Codex and Pi along with its Shelley agent. On Morph you install the agent yourself and drive it through a tmux API, while boat preinstalls seven agents with an API to prompt and steer them.
Where do Morph Cloud and exe.dev run?
exe.dev has nine regions in the US, Europe, Asia and Australia. Morph does not publish its regions. boat runs only in the EU, in Germany, Finland and France.
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