# boat vs exe.dev

boat records 66,870 monthly visits with +520.8% month-over-month growth and Free Trial, Paid pricing. exe.dev records 60,103 monthly visits with -26.4% growth and Freemium, Paid pricing.

| Metric | [boat](https://openaitools.app/tool/boat) | [exe.dev](https://openaitools.app/tool/exe-dev) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Website URL | https://boat.dev | https://exe.dev |
| Categories | AI Agent, AI Developer Tools, AI Workflow, AI API | AI Developer Tools, AI Agent, AI App Builder |
| Pricing Model | Free Trial, Paid | Freemium, Paid |
| Monthly Visits | 66,870 | 60,103 |
| MoM Growth Rate | +520.8% | -26.4% |
| Primary Market | United States | United States |
| Direct Visits | 37,777 | 40,778 |
| Review Score | 4.6 | 4.3 |
| 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)

## exe.dev

exe.dev is a Bay Area-built cloud computing platform aimed at a specific modern problem: developers increasingly run coding agents that need their own machines, and those machines need to behave like real servers rather than ephemeral containers. The product lets you buy a pool of vCPU and memory and then spin up as many VMs as you want inside it, fork them quickly, and SSH straight in with root access on Ubuntu-compatible images with apt and systemd available.

The platform positions itself as production-ready infrastructure, not just a scratchpad. VMs get fast, persistent, replicated NVMe storage, can be exposed publicly over HTTPS on *.exe.xyz subdomains, and can also host consumer-facing apps with authentication and secret management handled by the platform. A built-in LLM gateway can attach provider keys (OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Fireworks, Deepgram and others) to your machines so agents have model access without extra plumbing.

Pricing is transparent and published: a Personal plan starts at $15 per month for a 2 vCPU / 4 GiB pool, larger Personal pools scale up to 16 vCPU / 32 GiB, a Work plan adds SSO, unlimited users, larger VM counts per pool and hourly or monthly scaling, and Enterprise covers dedicated hardware and VPC connectivity. A seven-day trial is offered, and you can get started free through ChatGPT.

**Pricing & Plans:** Personal plans start at $15/month for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB of pooled memory, scaling to $155/month for 16 vCPU and 32 GiB. The Work plan is $75/month regular (intro $37.50/month for the first three months) with SSO, unlimited users and extra pool resources billed hourly. Enterprise pricing is custom, and a 7-day free trial is available.

- **Real persistent VMs, not sandboxes:** SSH into Ubuntu-compatible machines with root access, apt and systemd, then keep them running as long-lived servers instead of short-lived containers.
- **Pooled CPU and memory:** Buy vCPU and RAM once, then create as many VMs as you need inside the pool and fork them quickly for parallel agent work.
- **HTTPS and public hosting built in:** Expose internal apps privately or publish them publicly on *.exe.xyz subdomains, with auth and secret management handled for you.
- **LLM gateway for agents:** Attach OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Fireworks or Deepgram keys so agents running on your VMs have model access configured automatically.
- **Global regions and durable storage:** Deploy VMs across regions with fast, persistent and replicated NVMe storage, plus team features like SSO on higher-tier plans.

**Strengths:** Real root-access Linux VMs with persistent storage rather than ephemeral sandboxes; Transparent published pricing with a free trial and hourly scaling option; Built-in HTTPS exposure, auth, secrets and an LLM gateway for agent workloads; Fast VM creation and forking, useful for parallel agent tasks and preview environments

**Limitations:** Priced per resource pool, so heavy multi-VM usage can add up quickly; No free tier beyond the trial and ChatGPT-based signup path; Enterprise features such as VPC and dedicated hardware require contacting sales

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

## Frequently Asked Questions

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

boat has 66,870 monthly visits, while exe.dev has 60,103. 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%; exe.dev has -26.4%.

### 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. exe.dev: Freemium, Paid. Personal plans start at $15/month for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB of pooled memory, scaling to $155/month for 16 vCPU and 32 GiB. The Work plan is $75/month regular (intro $37.50/month for the first three months) with SSO, unlimited users and extra pool resources billed hourly. Enterprise pricing is custom, and a 7-day free trial is available.

## 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 | [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) |
| 5 | [Zeabur](https://openaitools.app/tool/zeabur) | 275,642 | -15.9% | Free Trial, Paid | AI DevOps engineer that deploys and scales your apps | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/zeabur.md) |
| 6 | [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) |
| 7 | [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) |
| 8 | [Thunder Compute](https://openaitools.app/tool/thunder-compute) | 102,147 | -29% | Paid (per-minute instances, per-second sandboxes) | Low-cost cloud GPUs with per-minute instances and per-second sandboxes for AI workloads. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/thunder-compute.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 | [Modelence](https://openaitools.app/tool/modelence) | 31,915 | -0.9% | Freemium, Paid | Production cloud on autopilot for full-stack and AI apps | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/modelence.md) |

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

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