Head to head · Code sandboxes · October 2026 research run
Deno Sandbox vs Offscreen
Offscreen scores 62.9 (B) on agent readiness against Deno Sandbox's 50.3 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do code sandboxes.
Best code execution sandboxes for AI agents · All 153 sandboxes comparisons
Which one, for what
Best 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.
No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.
Watch for
Beta since 3 February 2026. The docs call the present phase pre-release, and no general availability date was found
Best 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
- Reliability, 55 against 48
- Agent ergonomics, 74 against 60
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 66 against 45
Also in its favour
- No key needed to call it
- Free to start without a card
- 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 this run | Deno Sandbox | Offscreen | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 48 | 55 | Offscreen +7 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 66 | 67 | Offscreen +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 60 | 74 | Offscreen +14 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 61 | 62 | Offscreen +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 20 | 60 | Offscreen +40 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 45 | 66 | Offscreen +21 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 58 | 56 | Deno Sandbox +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| Total | D 50.3/100 | B 62.9/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Deno Sandbox | Offscreen |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | SDK + MCP |
| Vendor | Deno Land Inc. | Mark Phelps |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Paid | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Deno Deploy terms and conditions. The @deno/sandbox and deno-sandbox SDKs are MIT | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-07-22 | 2026-10-16 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-30 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-30 | 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 | yes | |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | |
| Popularity | 6 stars, 2k npm/wk, 32k PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (4) |
Verdicts
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.
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
Deno Sandbox
- Set
DENO_DEPLOY_TOKENto an organisation token (prefixddo_) from Settings in console.deno.com. The organisation must be on Pro or above - Pass
allowNeton everySandbox.create(). The Security page says outbound access is unrestricted when it is omitted - Pass credentials through
secretswith ahostslist, notenv, so code in the VM sees only a placeholder - The default timeout ends the VM when the client disconnects. Pass a duration such as
"10m"and reconnect withSandbox.connect({ id }), up to 30 minutes - Create volumes in
ordand start the sandbox inord. A volume mounts only in its own region exposeHttpURLs are public with no authentication. Treat the random subdomain as a secret
Offscreen
- Read
.offscreen.tomlbefore running anything and use itsprojectkey and task names. Don't guess them - Run
xcodebuild test, the Simulator and built apps throughoffscreen run <project> <task>, never directly on the host - Treat exit 70 as an Offscreen failure, not a test failure, and run
offscreen versionto see whether the daemon is running - Ask the person before
--show,--keep, the host lane, prune orimage build, and cancel any kept job when done - Read screenshots and
.xcresultbundles from the directoryoffscreen artifacts <job>prints
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Deno Sandbox or Offscreen?
Offscreen scores 62.9 (B) on agent readiness against Deno Sandbox's 50.3 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.
Can an agent call Deno Sandbox and Offscreen without installing anything?
No hosted endpoint is listed for Deno Sandbox. No hosted endpoint is listed for Offscreen.
Are Deno Sandbox and Offscreen open source?
No open-source release is listed for Deno Sandbox. Offscreen is open source (MIT).
Other comparisons with Deno Sandbox or Offscreen
- Agent 37 Cloud vs Offscreen
- Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Code Interpreter vs Deno Sandbox
- Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Code Interpreter vs Offscreen
- Blaxel Sandboxes vs Deno Sandbox
- Blaxel Sandboxes vs Offscreen
- Cloudflare Sandbox SDK vs Deno Sandbox
- Cloudflare Sandbox SDK vs Offscreen
- Daytona vs Deno Sandbox
- Daytona vs Offscreen
- Deno Sandbox vs E2B
- Deno Sandbox vs Freestyle
- Deno Sandbox vs Microsoft Execution Containers
- Deno Sandbox vs Modal Sandboxes
- Deno Sandbox vs Morph Cloud
- Deno Sandbox vs SPACE
- Deno Sandbox vs Runloop Devboxes
- Deno Sandbox vs Sprites
- Deno Sandbox vs Together Code Sandbox
- Deno Sandbox vs Vercel Sandbox
- E2B vs Offscreen
- Freestyle vs Offscreen
- Microsoft Execution Containers vs Offscreen
- Modal Sandboxes vs Offscreen
- Morph Cloud vs Offscreen
- Offscreen vs SPACE
- Offscreen vs Runloop Devboxes
- Offscreen vs Sprites
- Offscreen vs Together Code Sandbox
- Offscreen vs Vercel Sandbox
- Agent 37 Cloud vs Deno Sandbox
- DeltaBox Lite vs Deno Sandbox
- DeltaBox Lite vs Offscreen
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-offscreen.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/deno-sandbox.json·/api/v1/tools/offscreen.json - From a terminal
anchor compare deno-sandbox offscreen(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "deno-sandbox", "b": "offscreen"}at/mcp, no key