Cua alternatives
The 6 alternatives below are grouped by kind of sandbox, and each says what it does differently from Cua. Start from whatever made you look: missing GPUs, session limits, self-hosting, pricing or isolation.
Why teams look beyond Cua
The broadest open-source option for computer-use sandboxes across macOS, Linux and Windows, now firmly a self-run toolkit after the hosted cloud shut down.
- No hosted compute: you provision and pay for machines yourself (Cua Cloud ended October 2026)
- Licensing is mixed across the repository (MIT, FSL-1.1-MIT, AGPL components) and must be checked per directory
- Egress-free networking is only supported for local QEMU VMs, not gVisor containers or Lume
- No compliance attestations are documented
Cua alternatives, by kind
Browser and desktop sandboxes
Hosted browsers and full desktops that computer-use agents click, type and browse in.
Kasm Workspaces
Container-streamed Linux desktops and browsers, self-hosted or as Kasm SaaS, with a Developer API and a free Community Edition that Kasm now also positions for agentic AI.
- Docker container
- Self-hostable
- GPU
How it differs: Organisations that already run browser-streamed desktops and want to give agents the same isolated, policy-controlled containers. A mature container-streaming VDI platform whose Developer API can hand agents isolated desktops, best suited to teams that already operate it.
Orgo
Always-on cloud Linux and Windows desktops for AI agents, each an isolated VM billed by the second, with a computer-use API, MCP server, SSH, clone and fork.
- Isolated VM (hypervisor not named)
- GPU
- Pause/resume
How it differs: Agents that keep a persistent cloud desktop running around the clock with a browser, terminal and SSH. A persistent-desktop service for computer-use agents with unusually transparent per-second pricing, though isolation details are thin.
Scrapybara
Hosted Ubuntu, browser and Windows desktop instances for computer-use agents, driven through Python and TypeScript SDKs with pause and resume.
- Not documented
- Pause/resume
How it differs: Computer-use agents that need a ready-made Ubuntu or Windows desktop with a browser, bash, filesystem and Jupyter tools in one API. A compact computer-use desktop API with good tooling, but undocumented isolation and pricing and a parent company that has pivoted make it one to evaluate carefully.
Open-source runtimes to self-host
Open-source sandbox runtimes you run on your own servers or Kubernetes.
Microsandbox
Open-source, local-first microVM runtime that gives each sandbox its own Linux kernel, with an optional managed cloud.
- MicroVM (libkrun)
- Open source
- Self-hostable
- BYOC
- Snapshots
How it differs: Self-hosted microVM isolation on developer machines or your own servers. The most approachable way to get microVM-grade isolation locally or self-hosted.
Isolation primitives and runtimes
The hypervisors, user-space kernels, OS sandboxes and WebAssembly runtimes that sandbox platforms build on.
gVisor
Google's user-space application kernel for containers, with the runsc OCI runtime, GPU passthrough via nvproxy and checkpoint/restore; used by Modal, Beam, Anthropic, OpenAI and Google Cloud.
- User-space kernel
- Open source
- Self-hostable
- GPU
- Snapshots
How it differs: Sandboxing containers on hosts where you cannot or do not want to run a VM per workload, including GPU workloads. The most widely adopted non-VM sandbox boundary; choose it when a VM per workload is impractical or you need sandboxed GPUs.
Local sandboxes for coding agents
Isolation for agents like Claude Code, Codex or Gemini CLI on your own laptop.
Docker Sandboxes
Docker’s `sbx` CLI for running AI coding agents in microVM sandboxes on your machine, with an experimental Docker-hosted cloud.
- MicroVM
- Self-hostable
- GPU
- Pause/resume
How it differs: Running coding agents unsupervised on a laptop with microVM isolation. The easiest way to give local coding agents a real microVM boundary.
Cua vs alternatives
| Sandbox | Isolation | Open source | Self-host / BYOC | Cold start (vendor) | Max session | Snapshots / pause | GPU | SDKs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cua | gVisor container or VM | Yes | Yes / No | Not documented | Until destroyed | Yes / Yes | Not documented | Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Rust, CLI, MCP server |
| Docker Sandboxes | MicroVM | No | Yes / No | Not documented | Until removed (local) | Yes / Yes | Yes | sbx CLI, TypeScript (cloud), REST API (cloud) |
| gVisor | User-space kernel | Yes | Yes / No | ms (claim) | Not documented | Yes / Not documented | Yes | CLI |
| Kasm Workspaces | Docker container | No | Yes / No | Not documented | Admin-defined | No / Not documented | Yes | REST API |
| Microsandbox | MicroVM (libkrun) | Yes | Yes / Yes | <100 ms | Not documented | Yes / Not documented | No | TypeScript, Python, Rust, Go, Ruby, CLI, MCP server |
| Orgo | Isolated VM (hypervisor not named) | No | No / No | Seconds (claimed) | Unlimited (paid) | Yes / Yes | Yes | Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, REST API, CLI, MCP server |
| Scrapybara | Not documented | No | No / No | <1 s (claimed) | 1 h default, configurable | No / Yes | No | Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, REST API, MCP server, CLI |
Frequently asked questions
What are the main alternatives to Cua?
Is there an open-source alternative to Cua?
Cite this page
Agent Sandboxes. (2026). Cua alternatives. agentsandboxes.org. Last reviewed November 9, 2026. https://agentsandboxes.org/alternatives/cua/
Found an error or a missing sandbox? Submit a correction — every entry links to the sources it relies on.