# DeltaBox Lite vs E2B

> E2B scores 68.3 (B) to DeltaBox Lite's 52.3 (D) for sandbox fs. 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
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- Updated: 2026-10-17

E2B scores 68.3 (B) on agent readiness against DeltaBox Lite's 52.3 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. DeltaBox Lite leads on payments & pricing. Both do sandbox fs.

- 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
- E2B: grade B, 68.3/100, rank #241 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/e2b.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/e2b.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

### 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:
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 50

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

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

### E2B (B)

Good for: Code interpreters and agent workspaces that pause and resume with memory, and teams that may want to self-host later.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 60 against 37
- Schema & documentation, 92 against 68
- Security & auth, 62 against 47
- Maintenance & community, 88 against 43
- Transparency & trust, 68 against 40

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: Two major incidents over an hour in September 2026, on sandbox creation and on creating from snapshots


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | DeltaBox Lite | E2B | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 37 | 60 | E2B +23 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 92 | E2B +24 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 65 | DeltaBox Lite +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 47 | 62 | E2B +15 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 50 | DeltaBox Lite +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 43 | 88 | E2B +45 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 40 | 68 | E2B +28 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **52.3 · D** | **68.3 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | DeltaBox Lite | E2B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | SDK + MCP | HTTP API |
| Vendor | DeltaBox (delta-box) | E2B |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.e2b.app` |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-14 | 2026-10-01 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2024-12-04 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2024-04-08 |
| 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 |  | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | none | 13k stars, 2.2M npm/wk, 1.4M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.8/5 (4) | 3/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**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.

**E2B.** Firecracker microVM with its own kernel per sandbox. Two major incidents over an hour in September 2026, on sandbox creation and on creating from snapshots.

## Before you call either

### 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.

### E2B

1. Set a timeout when you create a sandbox. The default is 5 minutes
2. Pause rather than kill when you'll come back. Resume takes about a second and nothing is billed while paused
3. Use `Secret.fill` in network transforms instead of passing API keys into the sandbox environment
4. Pace sandbox creation. Hobby allows 1 a second and 20 running at once
5. Move to the v2 sandbox endpoints. SDK 2.51.0 and later use them by default

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, DeltaBox Lite or E2B?

E2B scores 68.3 (B) on agent readiness against DeltaBox Lite's 52.3 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. DeltaBox Lite leads on payments & pricing.

### Can an agent call DeltaBox Lite and E2B without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for DeltaBox Lite. E2B has a hosted endpoint at https://api.e2b.app.

### Are DeltaBox Lite and E2B open source?

Yes. DeltaBox Lite is open source (Apache-2.0). E2B is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-e2b.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-e2b.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "deltabox-lite", "b": "e2b"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare deltabox-lite e2b`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deltabox-lite.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/e2b.json

## Other comparisons with DeltaBox Lite or E2B

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