# boat vs Boxes.dev

boat records 66,870 monthly visits with +520.8% month-over-month growth and Free Trial, Paid pricing. Boxes.dev records 552 monthly visits with 0% growth and Freemium, Contact for Pricing pricing.

| Metric | [boat](https://openaitools.app/tool/boat) | [Boxes.dev](https://openaitools.app/tool/boxes-dev) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Website URL | https://boat.dev | https://boxes.dev |
| Categories | AI Agent, AI Developer Tools, AI Workflow, AI API | AI Agent, AI Developer Tools, AI Code Assistant, AI Copilot |
| Pricing Model | Free Trial, Paid | Freemium, Contact for Pricing |
| Monthly Visits | 66,870 | 552 |
| MoM Growth Rate | +520.8% | 0% |
| Primary Market | United States | Global |
| Direct Visits | 37,777 | 159 |
| Review Score | 4.6 | 4.6 |
| Saved Count | 0 | 0 |
| Supported Platforms | Website | Website |

## boat

boat targets teams running many agents at once, which it calls "agent factories". Instead of containers that reset on every session, boat hands out full Linux virtual machines with a persistent disk, so installed packages, cloned repos, and saved files survive between runs. Pre-configured images ship with Docker, VS Code, Chrome, the GitHub CLI, Rust, Node.js, and Bun, and you can bring any harness such as Claude Code, Codex, or OpenCode.

The standout capability is disk-level forking. You can snapshot a configured sandbox and clone it in seconds to run dozens or hundreds of parallel agents from an identical starting state. Sandboxes can be paused and resumed, with disk snapshots taken every minute and again at each stop, so billing only accrues while the VM runs. This makes it practical to fan out test, build, and research workloads without paying for idle time.

Billing is metered by the second against a monthly minimum, and the service advertises one of the lowest list prices for comparable VM hours, with sizes ranging from 2 vCPU to 16 vCPU. Sandboxes run in Germany, Finland, and France; there is no US or Asia region and no GPU option, so graphical work runs on the CPU. It is a strong fit for developers who want a real machine rather than a constrained execution sandbox.

**Pricing & Plans:** Per-second billing with a $20/month minimum. The default 4 vCPU / 8 GB sandbox lists at $0.036/h, with smaller (2 vCPU / 4 GB) and larger (8 vCPU / 16 GB, 16 vCPU / 32 GB) sizes available. A 7-day free trial with a card provides 25 compute hours, and stopped sandboxes incur no compute charge while the disk is retained for at least 14 days.

- **Persistent full Linux VMs:** Each sandbox is a complete Ubuntu machine with systemd, Docker, databases, and cron, so anything that runs on Linux runs here.
- **Fast snapshot forking:** Clone a configured sandbox from a disk snapshot in seconds to launch large fleets of identical parallel agents.
- **SSH, SCP, and virtual desktop:** Connect over SSH and SCP or open a 60fps virtual desktop and browser to inspect web apps, IDEs, and 3D scenes.
- **API, CLI, and SDKs:** Drive everything programmatically through the boat CLI (with --json output), an HTTP API, or Python and TypeScript SDKs.
- **Per-second metered billing:** Pay only while sandboxes run, with no compute charge when stopped and disks kept for at least 14 days.

**Strengths:** Full Ubuntu VMs rather than restricted containers, with Docker and systemd included; Very fast disk-level forking makes large parallel agent runs affordable; Transparent per-second pricing with no compute charge while stopped

**Limitations:** No GPU option and no US or Asia data regions; A $20 monthly minimum applies, which is wasteful for light or occasional use

[Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/boat.md)

## Boxes.dev

Boxes.dev solves a problem that appears the moment you start running more than one AI coding agent at a time: a single laptop cannot give several agents isolated filesystems, isolated ports and enough CPU at once. The product's answer is to hand each meaningful body of work its own cloud machine, called a devbox. A devbox is a real Linux computer with its own filesystem, its own processes, port forwarding back to localhost, and your development setup already installed, so several tasks can run in parallel without port collisions or resource contention.

What makes Boxes.dev distinctive is that it does not introduce a new agent harness. It runs the native Claude Code and Codex CLI you already pay for, using your existing subscription or API key — the company explicitly does not sell tokens. Onboarding is designed to be handed to the agent itself: you paste a prompt into Claude Code or Codex inside your project folder, the agent inspects your environment (env files, local databases, tooling outside the repo), drafts a setup plan, and after your approval a second agent executes the plan on a remote box. The resulting filesystem-and-memory snapshot becomes the template that all future devboxes boot from in seconds.

Operationally, agents can be started from Slack by mentioning the bot, by assigning a Linear issue, by a cron schedule, or by a single API call, and results come back where you asked for them. Devboxes sleep automatically when idle and sleeping boxes are free, which keeps parallelism from turning into runaway cost. The company positions it against Devin, Cursor and bare Claude Code/Codex setups, emphasising full cloud computers per agent, a native iOS and Android app, live session sharing for teammates, and preview URLs for running apps.

**Pricing & Plans:** Freemium with a usage-based model. A free trial includes 20 box-hours with a template box plus 3 awake devboxes and unlimited sleeping boxes. Paid tiers per user per month: Starter $19 (50 box-hours, 5 awake devboxes), Pro $99 (300 box-hours, 12 awake devboxes) and Max $249 (750 box-hours, 25 awake devboxes). Overage is $0.40 per box-hour with prepaid discounts up to 10%. Teams plans with SSO, SCIM, RBAC and audit logs are custom-priced. A box-hour equals one hour awake on a standard 4 vCPU / 8 GiB / 100 GB machine; larger sizes consume proportionally more.

- **One cloud computer per agent:** Every meaningful task gets a fresh Linux devbox with its own filesystem, processes and ports, so parallel agents never fight over resources or collide on ports.
- **Bring your own Claude Code or Codex:** Boxes.dev runs the native harness and your existing subscription or API key — no new agent framework, and no token resale.
- **Start agents from anywhere:** Kick off work by mentioning @boxes.dev in Slack, assigning a Linear issue, scheduling a cron job, or calling the REST API, with results returned in the same channel.
- **Desktop, mobile, terminal and web clients:** Read threads, approve requests, review diffs or open a terminal on any surface, including full-featured native iOS and Android apps.
- **Sleeping devboxes are free:** Idle boxes suspend automatically and are billed by the second only while awake, keeping the cost of running many agents under control.

**Strengths:** Each agent gets a genuine isolated cloud computer rather than a worktree or sandbox on your laptop; Works with your existing Claude Code or Codex subscription, so there is no separate token bill; Agents can be triggered from Slack, Linear, cron or API, which fits existing team workflows; Idle devboxes sleep for free, and billing is per second, so parallel experiments stay affordable

**Limitations:** Usage is metered in box-hours, so heavy or long-running workloads can exceed included allowances; The free trial's 20 box-hours is enough for evaluation but not sustained daily work; Most powerful features such as SSO, audit logs and dedicated deployment sit behind custom-priced Teams plans

[Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/boxes-dev.md)

## Frequently Asked Questions

### How do boat and Boxes.dev compare in monthly traffic?

boat has 66,870 monthly visits, while Boxes.dev has 552. Traffic estimates describe audience size, not product quality.

### How do their growth rates compare?

boat has a month-over-month growth rate of +520.8%; Boxes.dev has 0%.

### How does pricing compare?

boat: Free Trial, Paid. Per-second billing with a $20/month minimum. The default 4 vCPU / 8 GB sandbox lists at $0.036/h, with smaller (2 vCPU / 4 GB) and larger (8 vCPU / 16 GB, 16 vCPU / 32 GB) sizes available. A 7-day free trial with a card provides 25 compute hours, and stopped sandboxes incur no compute charge while the disk is retained for at least 14 days. Boxes.dev: Freemium, Contact for Pricing. Freemium with a usage-based model. A free trial includes 20 box-hours with a template box plus 3 awake devboxes and unlimited sleeping boxes. Paid tiers per user per month: Starter $19 (50 box-hours, 5 awake devboxes), Pro $99 (300 box-hours, 12 awake devboxes) and Max $249 (750 box-hours, 25 awake devboxes). Overage is $0.40 per box-hour with prepaid discounts up to 10%. Teams plans with SSO, SCIM, RBAC and audit logs are custom-priced. A box-hour equals one hour awake on a standard 4 vCPU / 8 GiB / 100 GB machine; larger sizes consume proportionally more.

## Alternatives

| # | Tool Name | Monthly Visits | MoM Growth Rate | Pricing Model | Summary | Profile (Markdown) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 1 | [RunPod](https://openaitools.app/tool/runpod) | 2,881,043 | +5.9% | Paid | The AI developer cloud for GPU pods, serverless inference and clustering | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/runpod.md) |
| 2 | [Browser Use](https://openaitools.app/tool/browser-use) | 1,206,376 | +41.1% | Freemium, Paid, Contact for Pricing | Browser agents and stealth cloud browsers for real web tasks | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/browser-use.md) |
| 3 | [Modal](https://openaitools.app/tool/modal-com) | 1,196,021 | +30.2% | Freemium, Contact for Pricing | Serverless cloud infrastructure for AI and data workloads | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/modal-com.md) |
| 4 | [MyClaw](https://openaitools.app/tool/myclaw) | 990,387 | -23.8% | Paid | Your always-on AI teammate, hosted and managed for you | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/myclaw.md) |
| 5 | [BLACKBOX.AI](https://openaitools.app/tool/blackbox-ai-1) | 622,975 | -27.2% | Free Trial, Paid | High-trust frontier inference, encrypted end to end | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/blackbox-ai-1.md) |
| 6 | [Browserbase](https://openaitools.app/tool/browserbase) | 283,597 | -8% | Freemium | Cloud browsers and web APIs for AI agents | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/browserbase.md) |
| 7 | [Agent 37](https://openaitools.app/tool/agent-37) | 180,030 | +24.2% | Free Trial, Contact for Pricing | The low-cost cloud sandbox where AI agents actually live | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/agent-37.md) |
| 8 | [Coder](https://openaitools.app/tool/coder) | 149,417 | -12.8% | Free Trial, Contact for Pricing, Free | Self-hosted cloud development environments and AI coding agents for enterprise teams | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/coder.md) |
| 9 | [InsForge](https://openaitools.app/tool/insforge) | 60,257 | -11.3% | Freemium, Contact for Pricing, Free | Agent-native cloud infrastructure that lets coding agents run the whole backend stack | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/insforge.md) |
| 10 | [exe.dev](https://openaitools.app/tool/exe-dev) | 60,103 | -26.4% | Freemium, Paid | Cloud Linux VMs built for developers and their AI agents | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/exe-dev.md) |

---
Source: https://openaitools.app/compare/boat-vs-boxes-dev

More Markdown: [Categories](https://openaitools.app/categories.md) · [Traffic rankings](https://openaitools.app/rankings.md) · [llms.txt](https://openaitools.app/llms.txt)