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boat

Powerful, affordable cloud VMs for long-running agents.

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boat is a product by ASCII that provides persistent Linux (Ubuntu) virtual machines for AI agents. Each sandbox includes SSH and SCP access, Docker support, a dedicated IPv6 or IPv4 address, a 60fps virtual desktop, and fast disk-level forking from a snapshot. Pre-installed tools include Docker, VS Code, Chrome, Ghostty, GitHub CLI, Rust, Node.js, and Bun. Sandboxes can be managed via CLI, HTTP API, and Python and TypeScript SDKs, with commands for creating, forking, stopping, and resuming machines, running commands, and launching agents such as Claude Code or Codex.

boat is aimed at developers and teams running agents or development workloads in the cloud. It offers a 7-day free trial with 25 compute hours, after which plans start at a monthly minimum. Billing is per second while a sandbox runs, with three machine sizes (small, default, large) that consume time at different rates. Self-serve plans support 100 to 2,000 active sandboxes per account, and sandboxes run in EU regions (Germany, Finland, France) with a default TTL of 1 hour.

12 alternatives to boat

Ranked by how well each tool replaces boat: shared features, audience, price and popularity.

  1. Docker

    Secure sandboxes for AI agents.

    Covers 0 of 15 key features and starts cheaper.

    Free plan
    64 out of 100 match$11/mo

  2. CodeSandbox

    Instant Cloud Development Environments

    Covers 1 of 15 key features.

    Free plan
    63 out of 100 matchContact sales

  3. DigitalOcean

    Vendor describes itself as an AI-native cloud covering compute, inference, data and agent

    Covers 0 of 15 key features and starts cheaper.

    61 out of 100 match—

  4. Sandstorm

    An open source platform for self-hosting web apps

    Covers 0 of 15 key features and is open source.

    Open source
    61 out of 100 match—

  5. Maritime

    The cloud built for AI agents. Every agent gets its own persistent micro-VM: a real Firecr

    Covers 2 of 15 key features.

    Free plan
    60 out of 100 match$20/mo

  6. Freestyle

    Freestyle provides full Linux VMs for AI agents, built for complex tasks that run for hour

    Covers 1 of 15 key features.

    Free plan
    59 out of 100 match$50/mo

  7. Vast.ai

    GPU cloud marketplace for renting compute by the hour

    Covers 1 of 15 key features and starts cheaper.

    59 out of 100 match$5/mo

  8. Thunder Compute

    GPUs for agents.

    Covers 2 of 15 key features.

    59 out of 100 matchUsage-based

  9. Dedalus Labs

    Persistent computers for AI agents

    Covers 1 of 15 key features.

    Free plan
    59 out of 100 match$20/mo

  10. Prized

    A cloud dev box that feels like localhost

    Covers 0 of 15 key features and starts cheaper.

    58 out of 100 match$10/mo

  11. Oracle VirtualBox

    Powerful open source virtualization for personal and enterprise use

    Covers 1 of 15 key features and is open source.

    Free planOpen source
    58 out of 100 matchContact sales

  12. machine0

    Powerful & persistent virtual machines

    Covers 2 of 15 key features and is open source.

    Open source
    57 out of 100 matchUsage-based