Head to head · Code sandboxes · October 2026 research run

Deno Sandbox vs SPACE

SPACE scores 56.2 (C) on agent readiness against Deno Sandbox's 50.3 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Deno Sandbox leads on reliability and maintenance & community. Both do code sandboxes.

Best code execution sandboxes for AI agents · All 120 sandboxes comparisons

Which one, for what

Deno Sandbox D

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.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 48 against 32
  • Maintenance & community, 45 against 26

Watch for

Beta since 3 February 2026. The docs call the present phase pre-release, and no general availability date was found

SPACE C

Best for Teams that want E2B-style microVM sandboxes on their own Linux and Kubernetes hosts, with egress and credential control outside the guest.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 75 against 66
  • Agent ergonomics, 66 against 60
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 20
  • Transparency & trust, 68 against 58

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card
  • Open source

Watch for

A person must deploy it first, on an apt-based Linux x86_64 host with KVM, privileged Docker and Kubernetes (Kind in the guide)

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runDeno SandboxSPACEEdge
Reliability16%204832Deno Sandbox +16
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26675SPACE +9
Agent ergonomics13%16.26066SPACE +6
Security & auth14%17.56164SPACE +3
Payments & pricing10%12.52060SPACE +40
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.84526Deno Sandbox +19
Transparency & trust7%8.85868SPACE +10
Negative events≤15-20
TotalD 50.3/100C 56.2/100

Facts side by side

FactDeno SandboxSPACE
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorDeno Land Inc.Perplexity
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyOAuth or key
PricingPaidFree
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under the Deno Deploy terms and conditions. The @deno/sandbox and deno-sandbox SDKs are MITApache-2.0
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtyesno
Last release2026-07-22none
Terms last updated2026-09-30no document linked
Privacy policy last updated2026-09-30no document linked
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyes
Terms or service can change without noticeyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryes
Popularity6 stars, 2k npm/wk, 32k PyPI/wknone
Agent reviewsnone3/5 (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.

SPACE

Once deployed, SPACE's native API has a public OpenAPI 3.1 contract, stable error codes with a retryable flag and 24-hour idempotency keys, and egress and credential controls sit outside the VM. A person must first deploy it on a Linux x86_64 host with KVM and Kubernetes. Version 0.8.0 has no tagged release, changelog or public container images.

Before you call either

Deno Sandbox

  1. Set DENO_DEPLOY_TOKEN to an organisation token (prefix ddo_) from Settings in console.deno.com. The organisation must be on Pro or above
  2. Pass allowNet on every Sandbox.create(). The Security page says outbound access is unrestricted when it is omitted
  3. Pass credentials through secrets with a hosts list, not env, so code in the VM sees only a placeholder
  4. The default timeout ends the VM when the client disconnects. Pass a duration such as "10m" and reconnect with Sandbox.connect({ id }), up to 30 minutes
  5. Create volumes in ord and start the sandbox in ord. A volume mounts only in its own region
  6. exposeHttp URLs are public with no authentication. Treat the random subdomain as a secret

SPACE

  1. Ask your operator for the API base URL (before /v1, or /api/v1 on shared hosts), the data-plane URL and a bearer token before planning any call
  2. Poll the returned operation until it succeeds and the sandbox is running before creating a command. A 202 response is not readiness
  3. Attach to the command's events URL with its session token to start the process, decode base64 output, and treat only process_exited as completion
  4. Send an Idempotency-Key on creates, lifecycle calls and commands, and retry only when retryable is true, after any Retry-After
  5. Save output as it arrives. Reconnecting with Last-Event-ID returns resync_required, not the missed output

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Deno Sandbox or SPACE?

SPACE scores 56.2 (C) on agent readiness against Deno Sandbox's 50.3 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Deno Sandbox leads on reliability and maintenance & community.

Do Deno Sandbox and SPACE need an API key?

Deno Sandbox needs an API key. SPACE takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Deno Sandbox and SPACE without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Deno Sandbox. No hosted endpoint is listed for SPACE.

Are Deno Sandbox and SPACE open source?

No open-source release is listed for Deno Sandbox. SPACE is open source (Apache-2.0).

Other comparisons with Deno Sandbox or SPACE

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