---
title: boat
slug: boat
url: "https://toolweight.com/tools/boat"
homepage: "https://boat.dev"
categories: sandbox-providers
last_verified: 2026-11-14
dataset_version: 0738be72
license: CC-BY-4.0
---

# boat

> Persistent Ubuntu VMs for agents with SSH, Docker and disk-level fork, billed per second.

- Persistent Ubuntu VMs with root, SSH, Docker inside, a public IPv6 address with outbound IPv4, and a desktop
- Billed per second while a sandbox runs, from a $20 monthly plan; a stopped sandbox keeps its disk for at least 14 days and can be resumed or forked
- Formerly box by ASCII (box.ascii.dev); it also publishes the comparison table that the exe.dev and Islo rows are transcribed from

## Identity

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Name | boat |
| Company | boat |
| One-liner | Persistent Ubuntu VMs for agents with SSH, Docker and disk-level fork, billed per second. |
| Site | https://boat.dev |
| Docs | https://docs.boat.dev |
| Compared in | 1 |

## Where it is compared

### [Sandbox providers](https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers)
Ranked **#11 of 19** on default weights.
| Field | Value | Confidence | Verified | Source | Note | Permalink |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Cold start | - | Unknown | - | - | - | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--cold_start_measured |
| Cold start (claimed) | - | Unknown | - | - | - | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--cold_start_claimed |
| Isolation | vm | Vendor-claimed | 2026-11-14 | https://boat.dev | - | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--isolation_tech |
| Root in guest | ● | Vendor-claimed | 2026-11-14 | https://docs.boat.dev/llms.txt | - | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--root_access |
| Egress control | open | Inferred | 2026-11-14 | https://docs.boat.dev/hosting/firewall.md | No first-party egress rules: the docs show blocking with your own firewall rules inside the VM. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--egress_control |
| Max runtime | 30d | Vendor-claimed | 2026-11-14 | https://boat.dev | - | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--max_runtime |
| Persistent FS | ◐ | Vendor-claimed | 2026-11-14 | https://docs.boat.dev/llms.txt | The disk survives stop and resume and can be saved as a snapshot, but it is deleted with the sandbox; there is no separate volume to reattach. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--persistent_fs |
| Snapshot & fork | ◐ | Vendor-claimed | 2026-11-14 | https://boat.dev/ | Fast disk-level fork from a snapshot; memory and running programs are not saved. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--snapshot_fork |
| Custom images | ◐ | Inferred | 2026-11-14 | https://docs.boat.dev/snapshots/templates.md | Every sandbox starts from one Ubuntu base; you build on it and save the disk as a template. No arbitrary base image. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--custom_images |
| GPU | ○ | Vendor-claimed | 2026-11-14 | https://boat.dev | - | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--gpu |
| Runtimes | python, javascript-typescript, bash, go, rust, java, ruby, php, any-oci-image | Vendor-claimed | 2026-11-14 | https://docs.boat.dev/machines/tools.md | any-oci-image because Docker runs inside the VM; the base image itself is fixed (Ubuntu 24.04). | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--language_runtimes |
| Preview URLs | ● | Vendor-claimed | 2026-11-14 | https://docs.boat.dev/llms.txt | - | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--preview_urls |
| Browser inside | ◐ | Inferred | 2026-11-14 | https://docs.boat.dev/llms.txt | Chrome comes pre-installed and can be streamed, but the docs document no CDP endpoint. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--browser_in_sandbox |
| File up/download | ● | Vendor-claimed | 2026-11-14 | https://docs.boat.dev/llms.txt | - | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--file_transfer_api |
| Sydney region | ○ | Vendor-claimed | 2026-11-14 | https://boat.dev | - | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--sydney_region |
| Concurrent limit | 100 sandboxes | Vendor-claimed | 2026-11-14 | https://docs.boat.dev/limits.md | The $20 plan: 100 at once. Self-serve plans go to 2,000 at once on the $2000 plan. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--max_concurrency |
| MCP server | ○ | Inferred | 2026-11-14 | https://docs.boat.dev/ai-tools.md | boat runs an MCP server for its docs only; agents drive sandboxes with the boat CLI. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--mcp_server |
| SDKs | python, typescript, cli | Vendor-claimed | 2026-11-14 | https://docs.boat.dev/llms.txt | - | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--sdk_languages |
| Streaming output | ● | Inferred | 2026-11-14 | https://docs.boat.dev/llms.txt | - | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--streaming_stdout |
| Price / hour | $0.018/hr | Vendor-claimed | 2026-11-14 | https://docs.boat.dev/llms.txt | The small size; billed per second from a $20 monthly plan, whose price comes back as sandbox time. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--price_per_hour |
| Meter | per-second | Vendor-claimed | 2026-11-14 | https://boat.dev | - | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--billing_granularity |
| Idle cost | free-when-stopped | Vendor-claimed | 2026-11-14 | https://boat.dev | - | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--idle_billing |
| GitHub stars | - | Unknown | - | - | - | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--github_stars |
| Funding | - | Unknown | - | - | - | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--funding_stage |
| Shipped | - | Unknown | - | - | - | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--launched |
| Positioning | Full Linux VMs for AI agents, billed per second and free when stopped. | Vendor-claimed | 2026-11-14 | https://boat.dev/ | - | https://toolweight.com/compare/sandbox-providers#boat--positioning |

**Verdict.** A real long-lived VM with a per-second meter and fork, but every claim is the vendor's own and nothing is measured yet.

## Alternatives

- [Blaxel](https://toolweight.com/tools/blaxel), Agent-first cloud claiming ~25 ms microVM boots from snapshots.
- [Cloudflare Sandbox](https://toolweight.com/tools/cloudflare-sandbox), Container sandboxes driven from a Worker, addressed through Durable Objects.
- [CodeSandbox SDK](https://toolweight.com/tools/codesandbox-sdk), Firecracker VMs with memory snapshots, from the online IDE, now owned by Together AI.
- [Daytona](https://toolweight.com/tools/daytona), Sub-second container sandboxes for agent workloads, from a team that built a dev-env manager.
- [Self-hosted Firecracker](https://toolweight.com/tools/diy-firecracker), The baseline: Firecracker on your own metal, plus every hard part you now own.
- [E2B](https://toolweight.com/tools/e2b), Open-source Firecracker sandboxes with Python and TypeScript SDKs for AI agents.
- [exe.dev](https://toolweight.com/tools/exe-dev), Persistent VMs you SSH into, with root, apt and systemd, on a flat monthly plan.
- [Fly.io Machines](https://toolweight.com/tools/fly-machines), Raw Firecracker microVMs with a REST API, durable volumes and 35+ regions.
- [Freestyle](https://toolweight.com/tools/freestyle), Run untrusted JavaScript and full dev servers, with git hosting and domains built in.
- [GitHub Codespaces](https://toolweight.com/tools/github-codespaces), Devcontainer-backed cloud VMs built for humans, occasionally repurposed for agents.
- [Islo](https://toolweight.com/tools/islo), Per-agent isolated cloud sandboxes with enterprise policy controls, from Incredibuild.
- [Modal](https://toolweight.com/tools/modal), Serverless Python compute with a Sandbox API bolted onto a GPU-first platform.

## Logo & brand colours

SVG files: https://toolweight.com/teams/boat/logo.svg and https://toolweight.com/teams/boat/mono.svg. JSON: https://toolweight.com/api/v1/brands/boat.

| Hex | oklch |
| --- | --- |
| #263fa9 | oklch(42.0% 0.172 267.8) |

## Licence and attribution

Data from Toolweight (https://toolweight.com), licensed CC-BY-4.0.

- Licence: [CC-BY-4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
- Canonical HTML: https://toolweight.com/tools/boat
- Machine-readable: https://toolweight.com/tools/boat.md · https://toolweight.com/api/v1 · https://toolweight.com/mcp
- Toolweight takes no affiliate revenue and sells no placements.