Head to head · Sandbox code · October 2026 research run
Daytona vs Runloop Devboxes
Runloop Devboxes has a score of 65 (B) against Daytona's 64.4 (B). Both do sandbox code. The largest gap is agent ergonomics, 11 points.
DaytonaDaytona · HTTP API
B64.4/100#183 of 452
Runloop DevboxesRunloop · HTTP API
B65/100#177 of 452
Which one, for what
Pick Daytona for
- transparency & trust (+7)
Pick Runloop Devboxes for
- agent ergonomics (+11)
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Daytona | Runloop Devboxes | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 60 | 60 | even |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 87 | 85 | Daytona +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 55 | 66 | Runloop Devboxes +11 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 63 | 60 | Daytona +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 50 | 50 | even |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 80 | 83 | Runloop Devboxes +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 58 | 51 | Daytona +7 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 64.4 · B | 65 · B |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Daytona | Runloop Devboxes |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Daytona | Runloop |
| Hosted endpoint | https://app.daytona.io/api | https://api.runloop.ai |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (SDKs and API clients), AGPL-3.0 (CLI) | MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-09-08 |
| Popularity | 6 stars, 706k npm/wk, 1.4M PyPI/wk | 34 stars, 23k npm/wk, 136k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 3/5 (2) |
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.
Runloop Devboxes
Gateway credentials remain on Runloop servers, with access tokens bound to one devbox. Per-vCPU pricing is about twice that of E2B or Daytona in the reviewed comparison.
Before you call either
Daytona
- Pick a Linux VM class for untrusted code or when memory must survive a pause. Container sandboxes stop and archive instead
- Set autoStopInterval yourself. The 15-minute idle default can stop a sandbox while the agent is still thinking
- Give the agent a key without
delete:sandboxesif it shouldn't destroy work - Read
Retry-After-{throttler}on a 429 before retrying sandbox creation - Check the organisation's tier before relying on outbound calls from inside the sandbox
Runloop Devboxes
- Set an idle policy (
idle_time_secondswithon_idle: suspend) so a forgotten devbox stops billing compute - Route outbound API calls through an agent gateway instead of putting keys in the devbox environment
- Attach a network policy with
allow_all=Falsebefore running untrusted code. Egress is open by default - Restart background services after every resume. Nothing in memory survives
- Expect a 1-hour keep-alive cap and 3 concurrent devboxes while on the trial
Other comparisons with Daytona or Runloop Devboxes
Machine-readable
/api/v1/tools/daytona.json·/api/v1/tools/runloop.json- This page as Markdown,
/compare/daytona-vs-runloop.md