# 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-runloop
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-runloop.md (~1,400 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-runloop.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-runloop.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: 2026-10-05

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.

- Daytona: grade B, 64.4/100, rank #183 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/daytona.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/daytona.json
- Runloop Devboxes: grade B, 65/100, rank #177 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/runloop.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/runloop.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Daytona for transparency & trust (+7).

Pick Runloop Devboxes for agent ergonomics (+11).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Daytona | Runloop Devboxes | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 85 | Daytona +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 55 | 66 | Runloop Devboxes +11 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 63 | 60 | Daytona +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 50 | 50 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 83 | Runloop Devboxes +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 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

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

### Runloop Devboxes

1. Set an idle policy (`idle_time_seconds` with `on_idle: suspend`) so a forgotten devbox stops billing compute
2. Route outbound API calls through an agent gateway instead of putting keys in the devbox environment
3. Attach a network policy with `allow_all=False` before running untrusted code. Egress is open by default
4. Restart background services after every resume. Nothing in memory survives
5. Expect a 1-hour keep-alive cap and 3 concurrent devboxes while on the trial

## Other comparisons with Daytona or Runloop Devboxes

- [Blaxel Sandboxes vs Daytona](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blaxel-sandboxes-vs-daytona.md)
- [Blaxel Sandboxes vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blaxel-sandboxes-vs-runloop.md)
- [Cloudflare Sandbox SDK vs Daytona](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-sandbox-sdk-vs-daytona.md)
- [Cloudflare Sandbox SDK vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-sandbox-sdk-vs-runloop.md)
- [Daytona vs E2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-e2b.md)
- [Daytona vs Modal Sandboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-modal-sandboxes.md)
- [Daytona vs Vercel Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-vercel-sandbox.md)
- [E2B vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/e2b-vs-runloop.md)
- [Modal Sandboxes vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-sandboxes-vs-runloop.md)
- [Runloop Devboxes vs Vercel Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/runloop-vs-vercel-sandbox.md)