# Daytona vs Deno Sandbox

> Daytona scores 64.3 (B) on agent readiness against Deno Sandbox's 50.3 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Deno Sandbox leads on agent ergonomics. Both do sandbox code. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-deno-sandbox
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-deno-sandbox.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-deno-sandbox.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-deno-sandbox.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- 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
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Daytona scores 64.3 (B) on agent readiness against Deno Sandbox's 50.3 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Deno Sandbox leads on agent ergonomics. Both do sandbox code.

- Daytona: grade B, 64.3/100, rank #320 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/daytona.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/daytona.json
- Deno Sandbox: grade D, 50.3/100, rank #689 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deno-sandbox.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deno-sandbox.json

## 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 48
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 66
- Payments & pricing, 50 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 45

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card

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

### Deno Sandbox (D)

Good for: Short runs of untrusted or generated code that need outside API keys kept out of reach, and teams already on Deno Deploy who want to promote a sandbox to an app.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 60 against 55

Watch for: Beta since 3 February 2026. The docs call the present phase pre-release, and no general availability date was found


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Daytona | Deno Sandbox | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 48 | Daytona +12 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 66 | Daytona +21 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 55 | 60 | Deno Sandbox +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 63 | 61 | Daytona +2 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 50 | 20 | Daytona +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 45 | Daytona +35 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 56 | 58 | Deno Sandbox +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **64.3 · B** | **50.3 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Daytona | Deno Sandbox |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Daytona | Deno Land Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://app.daytona.io/api` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (SDKs and API clients), AGPL-3.0 (CLI) | Proprietary service under the Deno Deploy terms and conditions. The `@deno/sandbox` and `deno-sandbox` SDKs are MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-07-22 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-08-22 | 2026-09-30 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-08-22 | 2026-09-30 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 6 stars, 706k npm/wk, 1.4M PyPI/wk | 6 stars, 2k npm/wk, 32k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | none |

## 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.

**Deno Sandbox.** Secrets stay outside the microVM and are substituted only on outbound requests to approved hosts, and an allowlist limits egress. The service is still in beta, sandboxes need the $20 Pro plan, lifetime is capped at 30 minutes, and no sandbox operation appears in the published OpenAPI document.

## 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

### Deno Sandbox

1. Set `DENO_DEPLOY_TOKEN` to an organisation token (prefix `ddo_`) from Settings in console.deno.com. The organisation must be on Pro or above
2. Pass `allowNet` on every `Sandbox.create()`. The Security page says outbound access is unrestricted when it is omitted
3. Pass credentials through `secrets` with a `hosts` list, not `env`, so code in the VM sees only a placeholder
4. The default timeout ends the VM when the client disconnects. Pass a duration such as `"10m"` and reconnect with `Sandbox.connect({ id })`, up to 30 minutes
5. Create volumes in `ord` and start the sandbox in `ord`. A volume mounts only in its own region
6. `exposeHttp` URLs are public with no authentication. Treat the random subdomain as a secret

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Daytona or Deno Sandbox?

Daytona scores 64.3 (B) on agent readiness against Deno Sandbox's 50.3 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Deno Sandbox leads on agent ergonomics.

### Do Daytona and Deno Sandbox need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Daytona and Deno Sandbox without installing anything?

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


## For agents

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

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- [Deno Sandbox vs Microsoft Execution Containers](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-microsoft-execution-containers.md)
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- [Deno Sandbox vs Morph Cloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-morph-cloud.md)
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