# Daytona vs DeltaBox Lite

> Daytona scores 64.3 (B) to DeltaBox Lite's 52.3 (D) for code sandboxes. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
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- Updated: 2026-10-17

Daytona scores 64.3 (B) on agent readiness against DeltaBox Lite's 52.3 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. DeltaBox Lite leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing. Both do code sandboxes.

- Daytona: grade B, 64.3/100, rank #394 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/daytona.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/daytona.json
- DeltaBox Lite: grade D, 52.3/100, rank #825 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deltabox-lite.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deltabox-lite.json
- Best code execution sandboxes for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/code-sandboxes/index.md
- All 153 sandboxes comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/code-sandboxes/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Daytona (B)

Good for: Agents that need a choice of machine, including Windows desktops and GPUs, and operators who want least-privilege keys.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 60 against 37
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 68
- Security & auth, 63 against 47
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 43
- Transparency & trust, 56 against 40

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: The container class shares the host kernel. Only the VM classes get their own

### DeltaBox Lite (D)

Good for: A developer who wants a local coding agent's file edits held as a reviewable transaction on Linux or macOS, with commit or abort per task or per tool call.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 67 against 55
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 50

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source

Watch for: Version 0.1.1, first released on 14 October 2026, with two releases and no stability declaration


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Daytona | DeltaBox Lite | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 37 | Daytona +23 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 68 | Daytona +19 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 55 | 67 | DeltaBox Lite +12 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 63 | 47 | Daytona +16 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 50 | 60 | DeltaBox Lite +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 43 | Daytona +37 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 56 | 40 | Daytona +16 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **64.3 · B** | **52.3 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Daytona | DeltaBox Lite |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | SDK + MCP |
| Vendor | Daytona | DeltaBox (delta-box) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://app.daytona.io/api` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio |  |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (SDKs and API clients), AGPL-3.0 (CLI) | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-10-14 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-08-22 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-08-22 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes |  |
| Popularity | 6 stars, 706k npm/wk, 1.4M PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 2.8/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**Daytona.** API keys with per-action scopes, so an agent can create sandboxes without being able to delete them. The container class shares the host kernel. Only the VM classes get their own.

**DeltaBox Lite.** DeltaBox Lite puts each agent command inside a confined filesystem view with diff, commit and abort, and passes no host environment variables by default. It is version 0.1.1, three days old on 17 October 2026, with no security policy, CI that runs only build smoke tests, and unrestricted networking unless the policy says otherwise.

## Before you call either

### Daytona

1. Pick a Linux VM class for untrusted code or when memory must survive a pause. Container sandboxes stop and archive instead
2. Set autoStopInterval yourself. The 15-minute idle default can stop a sandbox while the agent is still thinking
3. Give the agent a key without `delete:sandboxes` if it shouldn't destroy work
4. Read `Retry-After-{throttler}` on a 429 before retrying sandbox creation
5. Check the organisation's tier before relying on outbound calls from inside the sandbox

### DeltaBox Lite

1. Skip step 5 of install-prompt.txt. Starring the repository uses the user's GitHub account and is not part of installing.
2. Pass `--commit` or `--abort` to `deltabox run` explicitly. The child's exit status is preserved after that decision.
3. Wrap redirection and pipes in `sh -c '...'`. An unquoted `>` is handled by the host shell and writes outside the sandbox.
4. Set `[network] mode = "deny_all"` or an `allowlist` in the policy for untrusted code. The default allows every destination.
5. Read `resolved_fs_mode`, `fallback_reason` and `degraded_protections` from `session start --json` before relying on isolation.

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Daytona or DeltaBox Lite?

Daytona scores 64.3 (B) on agent readiness against DeltaBox Lite's 52.3 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. DeltaBox Lite leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing.

### Can an agent call Daytona and DeltaBox Lite without installing anything?

Daytona has a hosted endpoint at https://app.daytona.io/api. No hosted endpoint is listed for DeltaBox Lite.

### Are Daytona and DeltaBox Lite open source?

No open-source release is listed for Daytona. DeltaBox Lite is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-deltabox-lite.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-deltabox-lite.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "daytona", "b": "deltabox-lite"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare daytona deltabox-lite`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/daytona.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deltabox-lite.json

## Other comparisons with Daytona or DeltaBox Lite

- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Code Interpreter vs Daytona](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-code-interpreter-vs-daytona.md)
- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Code Interpreter vs DeltaBox Lite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-code-interpreter-vs-deltabox-lite.md)
- [Blaxel Sandboxes vs Daytona](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blaxel-sandboxes-vs-daytona.md)
- [Blaxel Sandboxes vs DeltaBox Lite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blaxel-sandboxes-vs-deltabox-lite.md)
- [Cloudflare Sandbox SDK vs Daytona](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-sandbox-sdk-vs-daytona.md)
- [Cloudflare Sandbox SDK vs DeltaBox Lite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-sandbox-sdk-vs-deltabox-lite.md)
- [Daytona vs Deno Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-deno-sandbox.md)
- [Daytona vs E2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-e2b.md)
- [Daytona vs Freestyle](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-freestyle.md)
- [Daytona vs Microsoft Execution Containers](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-microsoft-execution-containers.md)
- [Daytona vs Modal Sandboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-modal-sandboxes.md)
- [Daytona vs Morph Cloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-morph-cloud.md)
- [Daytona vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-offscreen.md)
- [Daytona vs SPACE](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-perplexity-space.md)
- [Daytona vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-runloop.md)
- [Daytona vs Sprites](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-sprites.md)
- [Daytona vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)
- [Daytona vs Vercel Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-vercel-sandbox.md)
- [Agent 37 Cloud vs Daytona](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent37-vs-daytona.md)
- [Agent 37 Cloud vs DeltaBox Lite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent37-vs-deltabox-lite.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Deno Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-deno-sandbox.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs E2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-e2b.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Freestyle](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-freestyle.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Microsoft Execution Containers](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-microsoft-execution-containers.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Modal Sandboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-modal-sandboxes.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Morph Cloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-morph-cloud.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-offscreen.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs SPACE](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-perplexity-space.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-runloop.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Sprites](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-sprites.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Vercel Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-vercel-sandbox.md)

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