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Alternatives

exe.dev alternatives

Answer in brief

The 5 alternatives below are grouped by kind of sandbox, and each says what it does differently from exe.dev. Start from whatever made you look: missing GPUs, session limits, self-hosting, pricing or isolation.

By the Agent Sandboxes editors · Updated

Why teams look beyond exe.dev

A flat-rate fleet of persistent SSH-driven VMs for agent-assisted developers, rather than an SDK-driven sandbox API for high-volume automation.

  • Hypervisor and compliance are not documented
  • No language SDKs; the API is one POST endpoint wrapping SSH commands with a 30-second timeout and no stdin
  • Egress control is a two-mode switch, not a host allow-list
  • Memory snapshots and pause/resume are not documented

exe.dev alternatives, by kind

Persistent VMs and agent computers

Full, long-lived virtual machines that an agent keeps, forks and returns to.

  • boat

    Persistent Ubuntu VMs for AI agents in EU data centres, with SSH, Docker, disk snapshots, forking, a 60 fps virtual desktop and per-second billing from a $20/month plan.

    • Full VM, own kernel
    • Pause/resume

    How it differs: Long-lived EU-hosted VMs that an agent keeps for days, with SSH, Docker and a desktop. A low-priced EU-hosted full VM for agents that need persistence and a desktop, less suited to high-burst, compliance-gated or US-resident workloads.

    Full profile →boat alternativesWebsite ↗

  • Fly.io Sprites

    Persistent, hardware-isolated Linux computers for AI agents with a durable 100 GB disk, checkpoints, and no compute charges while idle.

    • MicroVM
    • Pause/resume

    How it differs: Long-running, stateful agent computers that should cost nothing while idle. The most natural “persistent computer per agent” model, with idle-free billing.

    Full profile →Fly.io Sprites alternativesWebsite ↗

  • Freestyle

    Full Linux VMs for AI agents with live forking of running VMs, memory-preserving hibernation, VPCs and nested virtualization.

    • VM
    • Pause/resume

    How it differs: Long-running coding agents that need full VMs — Docker, nested virtualization — with fork and hibernate. The most capable “real VM” for agents, with live forking; a strong pick for complex coding agents.

    Full profile →Website ↗

  • Upstash Box

    Persistent Docker-container "boxes" for coding agents with Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and Cursor built in, billed on active CPU time rather than wall-clock.

    • Docker container
    • Pause/resume

    How it differs: Long-lived per-user coding-agent workspaces where idle time should cost nothing. A persistent, CPU-time-billed workspace for coding agents that trades VM isolation for cheap idle time.

    Full profile →Upstash Box alternativesWebsite ↗

Compute platforms with sandboxes

General serverless or app platforms that also offer sandboxes, often with GPUs.

  • Railway Sandboxes

    On-demand Linux VMs inside a Railway environment with forks, checkpoints, Docker, private networking to your services and per-second billing; generally available since September 2026.

    • Linux VM
    • Snapshots

    How it differs: Coding agents and test runs that need to reach your Railway databases and services over the private network. The natural sandbox for teams already deploying on Railway, strongest when agents need private-network access to existing services.

    Full profile →Railway Sandboxes alternativesWebsite ↗

exe.dev vs alternatives

SandboxIsolationOpen sourceSelf-host / BYOCCold start (vendor)Max sessionSnapshots / pauseGPUSDKs
exe.devVM (VMM per VM)NoNo / Yes~1 s (claim)No capYes / Not documentedNot documentedCLI (over SSH), HTTPS API, MCP server
boatFull VM, own kernelNoNo / NoNot documentedNo cap (auto-stop 1 h default)Yes / YesNoPython, JavaScript/TypeScript, CLI, REST API
Fly.io SpritesMicroVMNoNo / No0.1–2 s wakeUnlimitedYes / YesNoJavaScript/TypeScript, Go, Python, Elixir
FreestyleVMNoNo / Not documented65 msUnlimited (paid)Yes / YesNot documentedTypeScript
Railway SandboxesLinux VMNoNo / NoNot documentedNo cap (idle 30 min default)Yes / NoNot documentedJavaScript/TypeScript, CLI, GraphQL API
Upstash BoxDocker containerNoNo / NoNot documentedNo cap (idle pause 1 h / 6 h)Yes / YesNoJavaScript/TypeScript, Python, CLI, MCP server

Frequently asked questions

What are the main alternatives to exe.dev?
boat, Fly.io Sprites, Freestyle, Railway Sandboxes, Upstash Box. Which one fits depends on what you need that exe.dev does not offer; each entry above explains how it differs.
Is there an open-source alternative to exe.dev?
Among the alternatives listed here, none is fully open source; see the self-hosting guide.

Cite this page

Agent Sandboxes. (2026). exe.dev alternatives. agentsandboxes.org. Last reviewed November 9, 2026. https://agentsandboxes.org/alternatives/exe-dev/

Found an error or a missing sandbox? Submit a correction — every entry links to the sources it relies on.