Northflank vs Namespace
Northflank is a cloud platform where a sandbox is one kind of workload, with GPUs, many regions and your own cloud. Namespace is mainly a CI and build platform, and its Devboxes are remote Linux and macOS machines that stop after 4 to 24 hours.
The companies and products
Northflank
Northflank is a London developer platform for running services, jobs and databases on Kubernetes, and Sandboxes is its product for running untrusted code.
A Northflank sandbox is a container image deployed as a service: CPU sandboxes run in Kata microVMs with their own kernel, and GPU sandboxes run under gVisor. You create and drive them from the JavaScript or Python SDK, the CLI or the dashboard, on Northflank's cloud or inside your own. It suits teams that already want one platform for apps, databases, GPUs and sandboxes.
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. “38th cheapest of 377” means 37 of the other 376 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 | Northflank: 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 A coding agent installs packages all over its machine: Northflank keeps only attached volumes after a pause, Namespace stops a Devbox after 4 to 24 hours, and boat keeps the whole disk with no session cap. | 159th of 367, with limits $1,477 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: Northflank wipes everything outside volumes when paused, and Namespace shuts a Devbox down after at most 24 hours. | 173rd of 366, with limits $1,365 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 Short code runs on small machines suit Northflank best here, because it bills per second from a tenth of a vCPU with no plan fee. | 84th of 345, with limits $115 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 Northflank costs less than Namespace for giving each user a small machine, though it does not publish how many can run at once; boat adds HTTPS on up to 50 ports and a whole disk that survives. | 89th of 361, with limits $815 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 | 342nd of 360, with limits $1,762 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 | 134th of 364, with limits $689 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 All three fit; CI runners with Docker, Bazel and Turborepo caches are Namespace's main product, and boat adds /dev/kvm on every machine. | 38th cheapest of 377 $352 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 | 151st of 368, with limits $59 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 Northflank sandboxes are headless and Namespace's screenshot and click API works on macOS Devboxes only, while boat streams a 60fps Linux desktop with Chromium. | 151st of 369, with limits $371 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 | 200th of 367, with limits $194 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 | 196th of 346, with limits $117 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 | 83rd of 338, with limits $2,049 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 | 141st of 360, with limits $99 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 Only Northflank fits: it has GPU sandboxes from L4 to H100 and up, while Namespace and boat are CPU only. | 4th cheapest of 98 $693 a month | 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, while Northflank and boat run Linux. | Can't run it | 6th cheapest of 36 $1,205 a month | Can't run it |
Key features
| Feature | Northflank | Namespace | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Kata microVM with its own kernel for CPU sandboxes; gVisor for GPU | 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 speed (Node.js build-and-test, 4 vCPU / 8 GB) | No comparable measurement | 21.79 runs/s | 26.69 runs/s |
| How long a session can run | No maximum documented; runs until you pause or delete it | Devboxes stop after 4, 5 or 24 hours by plan, raisable to 24 at most | No session cap on paid plans |
| What survives a stop | Only attached volumes, billed while paused; the rest of the disk and all processes reset | A stopped Devbox keeps its storage, billed at $0.20 per GB-month used | The whole disk, saved every minute and on stop; a stopped sandbox costs nothing |
| Idle stop and wake | No idle auto-pause; bills until you pause it | Devboxes stop after an idle timeout (15 minutes to 8 hours) and start again when you connect | Machines run until you stop them |
| Snapshots and fork | Opt-in filesystem snapshots of a running sandbox, restored into a new one | No fork; compute instances can suspend and resume with RAM kept | Automatic disk snapshots; fork a running sandbox |
| Docker and nested virtualization | Own kernel, so Docker runs inside; /dev/kvm not documented | Docker in Linux Devboxes; /dev/kvm on Linux compute instances | Docker, root, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine |
| Desktop and computer use | Headless; access by SDK, browser terminal or SSH | Screenshot and click API on macOS Devboxes only; VNC and RDP for compute instances | 60fps Linux desktop, Chromium, computer use and browser control, embeddable stream |
| Coding agents | Harnesses start Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode or Pi; you reach them by terminal or SSH | Hosts Claude Managed Agents, Cursor and Devin sessions run by those partners; an MCP server for your own agent | Seven agents preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API |
| Keeping API keys out of the sandbox | Header injection for listed hosts in the network policy API | Egress rules inject a header from Namespace Vault | Credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API; switch a credential to another account when credits run out |
| Inbound access | HTTPS ports on a code.run domain, private by default; public TCP and UDP need a load balancer | HTTPS URLs that need a Namespace login; TCP through a CLI port-forward; no public IP | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected by default; raw TCP; dedicated IPv4 or IPv6 |
| Outbound rules | Network policies with allow lists by IP, CIDR or domain, documented for your own cluster | Egress policies per Devbox blueprint, runner or instance: block, advisory or allow by domain | Open internet, no provider-side allowlist |
| GPUs | L4, A100, H100, RTX PRO 6000 and more | No | No |
| Operating systems | Linux | Linux, macOS on Apple Silicon, and Windows on Team plans and up | Linux only; Wine for Windows apps |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | Northflank | Namespace | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | No | Yes | Yes |
| Root | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | Not published | 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 | No | No | No |
| Custom image (Docker or snapshot) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ≥24 h sessions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | No | Yes | No |
| Wake on request | No | 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 | Yes | Yes | No |
| Self-hosting | Yes | No | No |
| BYOC | Yes | No | No |
| Open source | No | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Spend limits | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | Yes | No | Yes |
| Audit logs | Yes | Yes | No |
| SSO | Yes | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes | No |
| HIPAA | Yes | No | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Performance
In StarSling's run of 2026-09-29 at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, boat did 26.69 Node.js build-and-test runs per second and Namespace did 21.79, so the same build takes about a fifth longer on Namespace. Northflank has no result on that test, so it cannot be compared. A Namespace Devbox's vCPU count is a ceiling it can boost to, not a guaranteed share.
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). Northflank 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 | Northflank, 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 | $32 · Developer Sandbox (free tier) · with limits | $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 | $108 · Developer Sandbox (free tier) · with limits | $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 | $1,322 · Developer Sandbox (free tier) · with limits | $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 | $361 · Developer Sandbox (free tier) · with limits | $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 | $688 · Developer Sandbox (free tier) · with limits | $3,237 · Devbox (pay as you go) | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
Northflank: Northflank bills per second for the plan size you pick, with no monthly fee, until you pause the sandbox. Volumes cost $0.15 per GB a month even while paused, and outbound traffic costs $0.06 per GB.
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 all of it is usage credit spent per second on running sandboxes. A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its whole disk.
Limits in those scenarios
On Northflank the limit that bites is what survives a stop: only attached volumes keep their files, and it does not publish how many sandboxes can run at once, so 300 or 1,000 together is not confirmed. On Namespace it is time: a Devbox is shut down after 4, 5 or 24 hours by plan, so the agent that never stops restarts at least once a day, and Namespace does not publish its egress price. boat fits every scenario but the burst, where even the $2,000 plan queues starts above 90 a minute.
| Scenario | Northflank | Namespace | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays |
|
| None that bite |
| One agent that never stops |
|
| None that bite |
| 50 agents in parallel |
|
| None that bite |
| Sandboxes for your users |
|
| None that bite |
| 1,000 short jobs at once |
|
|
|
Which one should you use?
Use Northflank when
you need GPUs next to the agent, regions outside Europe and the US, sandboxes in your own cloud account, or many small per-second machines.
- GPU sandboxes. For agents that train or run models: Northflank has GPU sandboxes from L4 to H100, and Namespace has no GPUs.
- Regions and your own cloud. For teams with users around the world or a cloud account they must use: Northflank runs in many regions and inside AWS, GCP or Azure.
- Small per-second plans. For many short code runs: Northflank bills per second from a tenth of a vCPU, with no plan fee and no session cap.
Use Namespace when
you need macOS or Windows machines, faster GitHub Actions runners with build caches, or Devboxes for people that stop when idle.
- macOS and Windows. For agents that build iOS or Mac apps or test on Windows: Namespace runs macOS on Apple Silicon and Windows machines.
- CI runners and build caches. For faster GitHub Actions: Namespace is a drop-in runner with Docker, Bazel, Turborepo and Nix caching.
- Idle stop and egress rules. For dev boxes people use by day: Devboxes stop when idle and start on connect, and egress can be limited to chosen domains.
Where boat fits
If what you are really running is coding agents on Linux for hours or days, both options leave work to you: Northflank resets everything outside volumes on a pause, and Namespace shuts a Devbox down within a day. boat gives each agent a full VM with no session cap that comes back as it left it, with a desktop, /dev/kvm and the agent itself driven from your code.
The whole machine comes back, with no clock
A Northflank pause wipes every package outside attached volumes, which bill while paused. A Namespace Devbox is shut down after 4 to 24 hours even mid-task. boat saves the whole disk every minute, and stops are free.
Agents you drive from outside
Northflank Harnesses reach the agent through a terminal or SSH, and Namespace leaves the agent loop to partners like Cursor or Devin. On boat you prompt, steer and follow seven preinstalled agents by API, with keys kept in a credentials proxy.
A Linux desktop and /dev/kvm
Northflank sandboxes are headless, and Namespace's screenshot and click API works on macOS only, so a Linux computer-use agent needs a desktop you build. boat streams a 60fps desktop with Chromium and runs Android emulators.
Use boat when your agents work on Linux for hours or days: a full, faster VM with no session cap, the whole disk kept, Docker and /dev/kvm, a 60fps desktop, and coding agents you drive from outside. Compare it one to one: boat vs Northflank and boat vs Namespace.
Questions people ask
Is Northflank cheaper than Namespace?
In all five scenarios we priced, yes: one agent that never stops is $108 a month on Northflank against $176 on Namespace, and 50 agents in parallel are $1,322 against $2,198. But on Northflank only attached volumes survive a pause, and on boat the same always-on agent is $26 a month.
Which is faster, Northflank or Namespace?
Namespace did 21.79 Node.js build-and-test runs per second at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, and Northflank has no result on that test. boat did 26.69 on the same test.
How long can a sandbox run on each?
Northflank documents no maximum, so a sandbox runs until you pause 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.
Can I run Docker in Northflank and Namespace?
Yes. Northflank CPU sandboxes have their own kernel, and Namespace Linux Devboxes include Docker. For Android emulators, Namespace has /dev/kvm on Linux compute instances, Northflank does not document it, and boat has it on every machine.
Which one has GPUs or macOS?
Northflank has GPU sandboxes from L4 to H100 and up, and Namespace has none. Namespace runs macOS on Apple Silicon and Windows, and Northflank runs Linux. boat runs Linux on CPUs 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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