Ona vs Koyeb
Ona, formerly Gitpod and now part of OpenAI, gives engineers and its Codex agent governed cloud dev environments, and new customers buy it through sales. Koyeb is a self-serve serverless cloud whose sandboxes are microVMs you start from code, which can sleep when idle and run on GPUs.
The companies and products
Ona
Ona, formerly Gitpod, is a platform for cloud dev environments and background coding agents, and is now part of OpenAI.
Ona is a different kind of product from boat: a dev-environment platform, not a sandbox API. Each task or developer gets an isolated VM built from a Dev Container config, which people open in a browser IDE, VS Code or JetBrains, and where Ona's Codex Agent can plan, code, test and open pull requests. It is built for engineering teams who want the same governed environment for every developer and agent; new customers run it in their own AWS or GCP account on an Enterprise contract.
Koyeb
Koyeb is a serverless cloud for apps, inference and sandboxes, and in February 2026 it agreed to join Mistral AI.
A Koyeb sandbox is a Koyeb service: a microVM started from any Docker image and driven from Python or JavaScript SDKs that run commands, read files and expose a port. It can scale to zero when idle and wake on the next request, and it can run on CPU or GPU instance types. It is built for teams that run AI agents or untrusted code next to apps they already host on Koyeb.
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. “324th cheapest of 367” means 323 of the other 366 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 | Ona: price rank | Koyeb: price rank | boat: price rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month Koyeb starts sandboxes from code on a self-serve plan, while Ona's SDK is Enterprise only; boat fits fully, with a disk kept by default and /dev/kvm. | 324th of 367, with limits $7,315 a month | 54th of 367, with limits $366 a month | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB An always-on assistant on Ona needs auto-stop set to Never, and on Koyeb a deep sleep throws away the VM; boat keeps the machine and its files. | 83rd of 366, with limits $8,504 a month | 135th of 366, with limits $923 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 Koyeb fits short code runs well, with small instances that scale to zero and wake on the next request; Ona is not built for this. | 335th of 345, with limits $5,320 a month | 4th cheapest of 345 $66 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 Koyeb fits handing sandboxes to your users, while Ona is built for your own engineers and its per-user policy defaults to 10 running environments. | 330th of 361, with limits $5,988 a month | 6th cheapest of 361 $495 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 | 283rd of 360, with limits $9,773 a month | 237th of 360, with limits $1,631 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 | 334th of 364, with limits $5,768 a month | 19th cheapest of 364 $429 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 Neither Ona nor Koyeb documents /dev/kvm, and neither can copy a warm machine; boat has both. | 365th of 377, with limits $5,461 a month | 142nd of 377, with limits $88 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB Ona is a full cloud IDE with Dev Containers and prebuilds, which suits a dev box best of the two; boat is a full VM you reach over SSH, HTTPS or a desktop. | 368th of 368, with limits $5,140 a month | 217th of 368, with limits $37 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 Ona nor Koyeb has a graphical desktop inside the environment; boat streams a 60fps desktop with Chromium for computer use. | 353rd of 369, with limits $5,691 a month | 81st of 369, with limits $123 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 | 150th of 367, with limits $5,346 a month | 172nd of 367, with limits $123 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 | 146th of 346, with limits $5,468 a month | 172nd of 346, with limits $89 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 | 261st of 338, with limits $14,360 a month | 65th of 338, with limits $1,683 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 | 93rd of 360, with limits $5,228 a month | 233rd of 360, with limits $299 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 Koyeb runs GPU instances up to H100 and H200 on its own plans; Ona can use GPU types such as an A10G only on Enterprise runners in your cloud, and boat has no GPUs. | Can't run it | 3rd cheapest of 98 $628 a month | 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 | Ona | Koyeb | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A cloud dev environment platform for engineers and the Codex agent | A serverless cloud for apps, inference and sandboxes | A sandbox API: full VMs that agents run in, driven from code |
| Isolation | An isolated VM per environment, built from a Dev Container config | A microVM per instance, started from any Docker image | A full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts |
| Buying it | New Core subscriptions are closed; new customers go through sales for Enterprise | Self-serve Pro and Scale plans, plus Enterprise | Self-serve plans from a free trial up |
| Driving it from code | Python, TypeScript and Go SDK on the Enterprise plan only | Python and JavaScript SDKs to run commands, read files and expose a port | API and SDK on every plan, including the trial |
| Docker and nested virtualization | Docker and root inside the Dev Container; /dev/kvm not documented | Runs Docker images; nested virtualization not documented | Docker, root, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine |
| Files after a stop | Disk persists across stops; billed in your cloud while stopped; Core archives after 3 days | Local disk is lost on redeploy and deep sleep; volumes (preview, 1 to 10 GB) persist | Disk kept across stops and saved every minute; a stopped sandbox costs nothing |
| Copies of a machine | No environment copy; prebuilds snapshot the filesystem on a schedule | Experimental SDK snapshots, with or without running processes, then new sandboxes from them | Fork a running sandbox into copies with its files |
| Idle behavior | Stops after 30 idle minutes by default; background work does not count; can be set to Never | Scales to zero after at least 5 idle minutes and wakes on the next request | Runs until you stop it; no session cap on paid plans |
| Developer IDE | Browser IDE, VS Code and JetBrains, with Dev Containers and prebuilds | None; you work through the SDK | SSH, HTTPS ports and a desktop; no team IDE |
| Desktop and computer use | No graphical desktop inside the environment | No desktop or browser in the sandbox SDK | 60fps Linux desktop with Chromium, computer use and browser control |
| Coding agents | Codex Agent from chat, a Linear issue or an automation; Claude Code you run yourself | Tutorials that run agents through the command API | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and more preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API |
| Keeping keys out of the sandbox | Secrets injected as environment variables or files | Secrets set as environment variables inside the service | AI credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API you register |
| Reaching the sandbox | HTTPS URL per port and SSH; no raw TCP or public IP documented | One exposed HTTPS port at a time, plus an optional TCP proxy to one port | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected; raw TCP; dedicated IPv4 or IPv6 |
| GPUs and regions | GPU types such as an A10G on Enterprise runners in your own AWS or GCP account, in many regions | RTX 4000 SFF Ada up to H100 and H200; EU, US and Asia | No GPUs; EU only (Germany, Finland, France) |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | Ona | Koyeb | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | No | No | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Systemd | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | No | No | Yes |
| Browser | Yes | No | Yes |
| Computer-use API | No | No | Yes |
| SSH | Yes | No | Yes |
| Persistent disk | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pause/resume | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic snapshots | No | Yes | Yes |
| Fork/clone | No | Yes | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | No | Not published | Yes |
| Memory fork | No | Yes | No |
| Custom image (Docker or snapshot) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ≥24 h sessions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | Yes | Yes | No |
| Wake on request | No | Yes | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | No | Yes | Yes |
| Public IPv4 | No | No | No |
| Egress allowlist | No | Yes | No |
| Secret proxy | No | No | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | No | No | Yes |
| Preinstalled agents | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Agent harness API | Yes | No | Yes |
| MCP server | No | Yes | No |
| GPU | Yes | Yes | No |
| Windows | No | No | No |
| Arm64 | No | No | No |
| Self-hosting | No | Yes | No |
| BYOC | Yes | Yes | No |
| Open source | No | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Spend limits | Yes | No | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | No | No | Yes |
| Audit logs | No | Yes | No |
| SSO | Yes | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes | No |
| HIPAA | No | No | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Performance
There is no comparable measurement for Ona or Koyeb: neither was in the public benchmark runs we use. boat did 26.69 Node.js build-and-test runs per second at 4 vCPU / 8 GB in StarSling's run of 2026-09-29, on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts. Koyeb publishes a CPU share of at least 0.25 dedicated vCPU per GB of memory, bursting to all cores, so its speed depends on how busy the host is.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Ona and Koyeb 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 | Ona, a month | Koyeb, 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 | $5,030 · Enterprise (AWS Marketplace 12-month contract) · with limits | $29 · Pro | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $5,140 · Enterprise (AWS Marketplace 12-month contract) · with limits | $57 · Pro | $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 | $6,521 · Enterprise (AWS Marketplace 12-month contract) · with limits | $475 · Pro | $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 | $5,432 · Enterprise (AWS Marketplace 12-month contract) · with limits | $329 · Scale | $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 | $5,955 · Enterprise (AWS Marketplace 12-month contract) · with limits | $485 · Scale · with limits | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
Ona: New Core subscriptions are closed, so Ona prices here use its Enterprise listing on AWS Marketplace: a 12-month, $60,000 contract, plus compute on your own AWS bill. Real Enterprise prices are negotiated with sales.
Koyeb: Koyeb bills each instance per second at a fixed price per instance type, and deep sleep costs nothing. Pro is $29 a month with $10 of usage included and Scale $299 a month with $100 included; the rest of the fee is not credit.
Koyeb: Plans start at $20 a month, and the whole fee is usage credit spent per second on running sandboxes. A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Limits in those scenarios
No Ona scenario fits as published, because a new customer can only buy Enterprise through sales, and Ona publishes no Enterprise concurrency limit, so the table assumes 3 environments at once. Koyeb fits four of the five scenarios, but its priced eco-xlarge shape has a 20 GiB disk with no published price for more, and eco instances guarantee only half of each vCPU, so the 1,000-job burst throttles. boat fits the same four; for that burst its $2,000 plan queues starts above 90 a minute.
| Scenario | Ona | Koyeb | 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 | None that bite |
| 1,000 short jobs at once |
|
|
|
Which one should you use?
Use Ona when
your engineers want a governed cloud IDE shared with a Codex agent, inside your own AWS or GCP account.
- A full cloud IDE for your team. Useful if your engineers work in the same environments as their agents, with browser, VS Code and JetBrains IDEs and prebuilds.
- Runs in your own cloud. Useful if environments must run inside your own AWS or GCP account: new Ona customers run Enterprise runners there.
- A managed Codex agent. Useful if you want Codex to plan, code, test and open pull requests from chat, a Linear issue or an automation.
Use Koyeb when
you want self-serve sandboxes that sleep when idle, run on GPUs, or have to run in the US or Asia.
- Self-serve sandboxes from code. Useful if you want to start sandboxes from Python or JavaScript today, on a monthly plan, without a sales call.
- Sleep when idle, wake on request. Good for sandboxes that sit idle between requests: Koyeb scales to zero and wakes on the next one.
- GPUs and many regions. Useful when an agent or eval needs a GPU, up to H100 and H200, or must run in the US or Asia.
Where boat fits
If what you are really running is coding agents that your code starts, look at boat. It is self-serve like Koyeb, but each sandbox is a full VM that keeps its disk, forks while running, and comes with agents, a desktop and open ports built in.
A machine that keeps its work
On Ona a stopped disk stays on your cloud bill, Core archives it after 3 days, and nothing copies an environment. On Koyeb a deep sleep discards the VM, so files need a preview volume or experimental snapshots. boat saves every minute and forks running sandboxes.
Root, Docker and /dev/kvm
Neither Ona nor Koyeb documents /dev/kvm, so Android emulators, Firecracker or QEMU VMs have to run somewhere else. Every boat machine has root, systemd, Docker and /dev/kvm.
Agents, a desktop and ports built in
Ona manages only Codex and needs Enterprise for its SDK; on Koyeb you build the harness on exec and expose one port at a time. boat preinstalls Claude Code, Codex and more, streams a 60fps desktop, serves 50 HTTPS ports and keeps keys in a proxy.
Use boat when your code starts and drives coding agents on full VMs with /dev/kvm, a desktop and open ports, on machines that keep their work and fork while running. Compare it one to one: boat vs Ona and boat vs Koyeb.
Questions people ask
Is Ona cheaper than Koyeb?
Not in the scenarios we priced, using Ona's Enterprise listing on AWS Marketplace since new Core subscriptions are closed. One agent running all month is $5,140 on Ona against $57 on Koyeb and $26 on boat. Ona's real price is a sales quote, so yours may differ.
Which is faster, Ona or Koyeb?
We cannot say: neither was in the public benchmark runs we use. boat did 26.69 runs per second on that Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB. Koyeb guarantees at least 0.25 dedicated vCPU per GB of memory, bursting to all cores.
Can Ona and Koyeb run Docker?
Ona gives you Docker and root inside the Dev Container, and Koyeb starts each sandbox from a Docker image. Neither documents /dev/kvm. boat runs Docker with root and systemd, and exposes /dev/kvm for Android emulators and VMs.
Can I sign up for Ona or Koyeb myself?
Koyeb, yes: new users pick Pro, Scale or Enterprise. Ona, no: its billing docs say new Core subscriptions are no longer available, so new customers go through sales. boat's plans are self-serve, from a free trial up.
Who owns Ona and Koyeb now?
Ona, formerly Gitpod, is now part of OpenAI. Koyeb announced on February 17, 2026 that it agreed to join Mistral AI, and says the platform keeps running as part of Mistral Compute.
Which one has GPUs?
Koyeb runs GPU instances from an RTX 4000 SFF Ada up to H100 and H200, billed per second. Ona can use GPU types such as one NVIDIA A10G on Enterprise runners in your own cloud. boat is CPU only.
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