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Alternatives

Ona (formerly Gitpod) alternatives

Answer in brief

The 5 alternatives below are grouped by kind of sandbox, and each says what it does differently from Ona (formerly Gitpod). 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 Ona (formerly Gitpod)

A mature, VPC-native VM environment platform for enterprises, now enterprise-only and tied to OpenAI's Codex after the Ona Cloud shutdown.

  • No hosted or self-serve option any more: Enterprise contact-sales only since Ona Cloud closed
  • Ona's own agent was deprecated; the built-in agent path is now Codex
  • Startup times, session caps and compliance specifics are not published
  • Future product direction sits inside OpenAI's Codex team

Ona (formerly Gitpod) 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.

    Full profile →Daytona alternativesWebsite ↗

  • Together Code Sandbox

    Together AI’s microVM sandbox service, built on the CodeSandbox acquisition, with snapshot-based starts, hibernation, cloning and preview URLs.

    • MicroVM
    • Pause/resume

    How it differs: AI app builders and coding products that need hibernatable, forkable dev-environment VMs with preview URLs. Battle-tested microVM dev environments, now best suited to teams already working with Together AI.

    Full profile →Website ↗

Compute platforms with sandboxes

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

  • Control Plane Sandboxes

    Persistent, suspendable development sandboxes for coding agents inside a Control Plane "virtual cloud", with a browser IDE, SSH/VS Code/Cursor access and identity-based access to private services.

    • Container (runtime not named)
    • Self-hostable
    • BYOC
    • Pause/resume

    How it differs: Enterprises on Control Plane that want long-lived agent dev environments with identity-based access to their private infrastructure. A persistent dev-environment style sandbox for enterprises standardised on Control Plane, not a general-purpose SDK sandbox.

    Full profile →Control Plane Sandboxes alternativesWebsite ↗

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.

    Full profile →Coder alternativesWebsite ↗

  • GitHub Codespaces

    GitHub's cloud development environments: a Dev Container running on a freshly built, dedicated VM per codespace, created from the web, `gh` CLI or REST API, billed per core-hour with a free monthly quota.

    • Dedicated VM per codespace
    • Pause/resume

    How it differs: Developer-driven workspaces tied to GitHub repositories, where an agent assists a human inside a Dev Container. A solid VM-isolated workspace for humans and their assistants on GitHub, but its lifecycle and API are not designed for autonomous agent fleets.

    Full profile →GitHub Codespaces alternativesWebsite ↗

Ona (formerly Gitpod) vs alternatives

SandboxIsolationOpen sourceSelf-host / BYOCCold start (vendor)Max sessionSnapshots / pauseGPUSDKs
Ona (formerly Gitpod)Dedicated cloud VMNoNo / YesNot documentedNot documentedNot documented / YesYesPython, JavaScript/TypeScript, Go, CLI, REST API
CoderTemplate-defined (VM/pod/container)YesYes / NoNot documentedNot documentedNot documented / YesNot documentedCLI, REST API, MCP server
Control Plane SandboxesContainer (runtime not named)NoYes / Yes60-90 sNot documentedNot documented / YesNot documentedCLI
DaytonaContainers or VMsNoNot documented / Yes<90 msUnlimitedYes / YesYesPython, TypeScript, Ruby, Go, Java
GitHub CodespacesDedicated VM per codespaceNoNo / NoNot documented12 h, 30 min idleNo / YesNoCLI, REST API
Together Code SandboxMicroVMNoNo / Not documented0.5 s (snapshot)Until terminatedYes / YesNot documentedPython, TypeScript

Frequently asked questions

What are the main alternatives to Ona (formerly Gitpod)?
Coder, Control Plane Sandboxes, Daytona, GitHub Codespaces, Together Code Sandbox. Which one fits depends on what you need that Ona (formerly Gitpod) does not offer; each entry above explains how it differs.
Is there an open-source alternative to Ona (formerly Gitpod)?
Yes: Coder.

Cite this page

Agent Sandboxes. (2026). Ona (formerly Gitpod) alternatives. agentsandboxes.org. Last reviewed November 9, 2026. https://agentsandboxes.org/alternatives/ona-gitpod/

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