# Daytona vs Offscreen

> Daytona scores 64.3 (B) to Offscreen's 62.9 (B) for code sandboxes. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-offscreen
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- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-offscreen.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
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.
- Updated: 2026-10-17

Daytona scores 64.3 (B) on agent readiness against Offscreen's 62.9 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Offscreen 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
- Offscreen: grade B, 62.9/100, rank #456 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/offscreen.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/offscreen.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 55
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 67
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 66

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

### Offscreen (B)

Good for: A coding agent working on a macOS or iOS app on the developer's own Apple silicon Mac, which needs to run UI tests, the Simulator or the built app without taking the screen.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 74 against 55
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 50

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

Watch for: First commit 11 October 2026, version 0.0.5 and labelled beta, with JSON field names that may change before 1.0


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Daytona | Offscreen | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 55 | Daytona +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 67 | Daytona +20 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 55 | 74 | Offscreen +19 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 63 | 62 | Daytona +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 50 | 60 | Offscreen +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 66 | Daytona +14 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 56 | 56 | even |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **64.3 · B** | **62.9 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Daytona | Offscreen |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | SDK + MCP |
| Vendor | Daytona | Mark Phelps |
| 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) | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-10-16 |
| 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) | 3/5 (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.

**Offscreen.** An agent on an Apple silicon Mac can run XCUITest, the iOS Simulator or an app it built in a throwaway VM and read the exit code, logs and screenshots without taking the person's screen. The project is six days old at v0.0.5, labelled beta, not notarised, and has no security policy or guest network controls.

## 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

### Offscreen

1. Read `.offscreen.toml` before running anything and use its `project` key and task names. Don't guess them
2. Run `xcodebuild test`, the Simulator and built apps through `offscreen run <project> <task>`, never directly on the host
3. Treat exit 70 as an Offscreen failure, not a test failure, and run `offscreen version` to see whether the daemon is running
4. Ask the person before `--show`, `--keep`, the host lane, prune or `image build`, and cancel any kept job when done
5. Read screenshots and `.xcresult` bundles from the directory `offscreen artifacts <job>` prints

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Daytona or Offscreen?

Daytona scores 64.3 (B) on agent readiness against Offscreen's 62.9 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Offscreen leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing.

### Can an agent call Daytona and Offscreen without installing anything?

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

### Are Daytona and Offscreen open source?

No open-source release is listed for Daytona. Offscreen is open source (MIT).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Daytona or Offscreen

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

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