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The independent reference for AI agent sandboxesLast reviewed November 8, 2026

Best for

Best sandboxes for coding agents

Answer in brief

For coding agents, our top picks are Daytona, E2B and Vercel Sandbox. We weight persistence, session length, resume speed, preview URLs and isolation most heavily.

By the Agent Sandboxes editors · Updated November 8, 2026

What coding agents need from a sandbox

Coding agents clone repositories, install dependencies, run test suites and start dev servers — often over many turns spread across hours or days. That shifts priorities compared with a code interpreter:

Persistence: the workspace should survive between sessions so dependencies are not reinstalled every time.
Long sessions or cheap pause/resume.
Preview URLs so the agent (and user) can see the app it is building.
Realistic Linux with a full toolchain, Docker-in-sandbox for some stacks, and enough CPU and memory to run builds.
Egress control and credential brokering, because coding agents read untrusted code and issues.

Best sandboxes for coding agents, ranked

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
Why it’s here: Stateful by default with no hard session limit, auto-stop and archive to control cost, preview URLs for any port, SSH/VNC access and SDKs in five languages.

Full profile →Daytona alternatives Website ↗
E2B

Open-source cloud sandboxes for AI agents, each a Firecracker microVM, with pause/resume, snapshots and forking.
- Firecracker microVM
- Open source
- Self-hostable
- BYOC
- Pause/resume
Why it’s here: MicroVM isolation with pause/resume that preserves memory, snapshots and forking; paused sandboxes are kept indefinitely. The most-integrated option across agent frameworks.

Full profile →E2B alternatives Website ↗
Vercel Sandbox

Firecracker microVM sandboxes on Vercel’s infrastructure, persistent by default and billed on active CPU, with fine-grained egress control.
- Firecracker microVM
- Pause/resume
Why it’s here: Persistent-by-default microVMs with credential brokering — valuable when agents handle untrusted repositories — and active-CPU billing for the long waits on model output.

Full profile →Vercel Sandbox alternatives Website ↗
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
Why it’s here: A persistent microVM computer per agent with a 100 GB disk and fast checkpoints for safe rollback; costs only storage while asleep.

Full profile →Fly.io Sprites alternatives Website ↗
Freestyle

Full Linux VMs for AI agents with live forking of running VMs, memory-preserving hibernation, VPCs and nested virtualization.
- VM
- Pause/resume
Why it’s here: Full VMs that can run Docker and nested virtualization, live-forkable with memory, with default-deny networking — well suited to complex builds.

Full profile →Website ↗
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
Why it’s here: Mature microVM dev environments with fast snapshot-based resume and forking, rooted in years of browser-based development tooling.

Full profile →Website ↗
Modal Sandboxes

Sandboxes on Modal’s serverless compute platform for running untrusted code at very high scale, with GPUs, snapshots and tunnels.
- gVisor or VM
- GPU
- Pause/resume
Why it’s here: Up to 24-hour sessions with filesystem and memory snapshots, and GPUs if your coding agent also runs models; less workspace-oriented than the leaders.

Full profile →Modal Sandboxes alternatives Website ↗
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
Why it’s here: For coding agents running on a developer’s own machine: microVM isolation with a private Docker Engine and deny-by-default networking.

Full profile →Website ↗

Side by side

Sandbox	Isolation	Open source	Self-host / BYOC	Cold start (vendor)	Max session	Snapshots / pause	GPU	SDKs
Daytona	Containers or VMs	No	Not documented / Yes	<90 ms	Unlimited	Yes / Yes	Yes	Python, TypeScript, Ruby, Go, Java
E2B	Firecracker microVM	Yes	Yes / Yes	Not documented	1 h / 24 h (Pro)	Yes / Yes	No	Python, JavaScript/TypeScript
Vercel Sandbox	Firecracker microVM	No	No / No	Milliseconds (claim)	24 h (Pro)	Yes / Yes	Not documented	JavaScript/TypeScript, Python
Fly.io Sprites	MicroVM	No	No / No	0.1–2 s wake	Unlimited	Yes / Yes	No	JavaScript/TypeScript, Go, Python, Elixir
Freestyle	VM	No	No / Not documented	65 ms	Unlimited (paid)	Yes / Yes	Not documented	TypeScript
Together Code Sandbox	MicroVM	No	No / Not documented	0.5 s (snapshot)	Until terminated	Yes / Yes	Not documented	Python, TypeScript
Modal Sandboxes	gVisor or VM	No	No / Not documented	<1 s	Up to 24 h	Yes / Yes	Yes	Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Go
Docker Sandboxes	MicroVM	No	Yes / No	Not documented	Until removed (local)	Yes / Yes	Yes	sbx CLI, TypeScript (cloud), REST API (cloud)

Frequently asked questions

What is the best sandbox for coding agents?

For hosted, multi-session coding agents, Daytona and E2B are the strongest all-round choices, with Vercel Sandbox, Fly.io Sprites and Freestyle close behind for persistent VMs. For local coding agents, Docker Sandboxes or Anthropic’s open-source sandbox runtime are good fits.

Cite this page

Agent Sandboxes. (2026). Best sandboxes for coding agents. agentsandboxes.org. Last reviewed November 8, 2026. https://agentsandboxes.org/best/coding-agents/

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