Islo alternatives
The 6 alternatives below are grouped by kind of sandbox, and each says what it does differently from Islo. Start from whatever made you look: missing GPUs, session limits, self-hosting, pricing or isolation.
Why teams look beyond Islo
A credible agent-computer platform from an established build-tooling vendor, best suited to teams who want workflow orchestration and credential brokering alongside the sandbox.
- Hypervisor is not named and no startup, size or region figures are published.
- No Python or TypeScript SDK; the CLI and REST API are the documented interfaces.
- Compliance certifications are not stated on the site.
- The product is wrapped in its own factory/line workflow model, which may be more than a plain sandbox user wants.
Islo alternatives, by kind
Hosted sandbox platforms
SDK-driven sandboxes you create, run code in and destroy through an API.
Daytona
Stateful sandboxes for AI-generated code — Linux containers, Linux and Windows VMs, macOS and GPU sandboxes — with snapshots, volumes and preview URLs.
- Containers or VMs
- BYOC
- GPU
- Pause/resume
How it differs: Long-lived, stateful agent workspaces that need many SDK languages, GPUs, or Windows and macOS sandboxes. The strongest choice for stateful coding-agent workspaces and breadth of sandbox types; note the shift away from open source.
Superserve
Persistent Firecracker microVM sandboxes for long-running agents, with pause/resume, memory-and-disk snapshots, forks and a credentials broker that keeps secrets out of the sandbox.
- Firecracker microVM
- BYOC
- Pause/resume
How it differs: Long-running coding and personal agents that need a persistent VM with pause, forks and brokered credentials. A well-documented persistent-VM sandbox whose credentials broker suits agents that must call third-party APIs safely.
Persistent VMs and agent computers
Full, long-lived virtual machines that an agent keeps, forks and returns to.
OpenComputer
Persistent cloud Linux VMs for long-running agents that hibernate and wake, with checkpoints, regions and a serverless-agent harness on top.
- QEMU/KVM VM
- Open source
- Self-hostable
- Pause/resume
How it differs: B2B agent platforms that give each user or agent a persistent Linux VM rather than a disposable sandbox. Choose it when agents need a machine that persists and wakes, and you are comfortable with pool-based pricing and an evolving agent-first API.
Compute platforms with sandboxes
General serverless or app platforms that also offer sandboxes, often with GPUs.
Namespace
Isolated Linux, macOS and Windows VM instances and persistent Devboxes on a developer-compute cloud, with an SDK, egress policy and SOC 2 Type II.
- KVM virtual machine
- Pause/resume
How it differs: Teams that want macOS, Windows and Linux VMs for agents and CI from one SDK, plus persistent Devboxes for coding agents. A CI-grade compute cloud whose VMs and Devboxes suit teams needing macOS or Windows and compliance more than minimal per-sandbox cost.
Cloud development environments
Cloud and in-browser development environments that coding agents increasingly run in.
Coder
Self-hosted cloud development environments defined in Terraform (VMs, Kubernetes pods or Docker containers) for developers and coding agents, with a control-plane-hosted agent loop so workspaces hold no model credentials.
- Template-defined (VM/pod/container)
- Open source
- Self-hostable
- Pause/resume
How it differs: Organisations that want to run coding agents in self-hosted workspaces on their own clusters and clouds with audit and governance. The leading open-source, self-hosted workspace platform for agents and developers, with isolation as strong as the Terraform templates you write.
Ona (formerly Gitpod)
Enterprise cloud development environments provisioned as isolated VMs (EC2 or Compute Engine) in your own VPC from a Dev Container config, with SDKs, a CLI and Codex-based background agents; hosted Ona Cloud was retired on 31 October 2026.
- Dedicated cloud VM
- BYOC
- GPU
- Pause/resume
How it differs: Enterprises that want VM-isolated, Dev Container-based environments for developers and background agents inside their own AWS or GCP VPC. A mature, VPC-native VM environment platform for enterprises, now enterprise-only and tied to OpenAI's Codex after the Ona Cloud shutdown.
Islo vs alternatives
| Sandbox | Isolation | Open source | Self-host / BYOC | Cold start (vendor) | Max session | Snapshots / pause | GPU | SDKs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Islo | MicroVM (hypervisor not named) | No | No / Yes | Not documented | Policy-driven | Yes / Yes | Not documented | CLI, REST API |
| Coder | Template-defined (VM/pod/container) | Yes | Yes / No | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented / Yes | Not documented | CLI, REST API, MCP server |
| Daytona | Containers or VMs | No | Not documented / Yes | <90 ms | Unlimited | Yes / Yes | Yes | Python, TypeScript, Ruby, Go, Java |
| Namespace | KVM virtual machine | No | No / No | Not documented | Deadline-based; Devbox 3-24 h | Yes / Yes | Not documented | JavaScript/TypeScript, Go, CLI, MCP server, gRPC/Connect API |
| Ona (formerly Gitpod) | Dedicated cloud VM | No | No / Yes | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented / Yes | Yes | Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Go, CLI, REST API |
| OpenComputer | QEMU/KVM VM | Yes | Yes / No | Not documented | No limit documented | Yes / Yes | Not documented | JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, CLI, REST API |
| Superserve | Firecracker microVM | No | No / Yes | Not documented | Unlimited | Yes / Yes | Not documented | Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, CLI, REST API, MCP server |
Frequently asked questions
What are the main alternatives to Islo?
Is there an open-source alternative to Islo?
Cite this page
Agent Sandboxes. (2026). Islo alternatives. agentsandboxes.org. Last reviewed November 9, 2026. https://agentsandboxes.org/alternatives/islo/
Found an error or a missing sandbox? Submit a correction — every entry links to the sources it relies on.