Head to head · Sandbox code · October 2026 research run
Deno Sandbox vs Runloop Devboxes
Runloop Devboxes scores 64.8 (B) on agent readiness against Deno Sandbox's 50.3 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Deno Sandbox leads on transparency & trust. Both do sandbox code.
Which one, for what
Good 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
- Transparency & trust, 58 against 49
Watch for
Beta since 3 February 2026. The docs call the present phase pre-release, and no general availability date was found
Good for Running and grading coding agents on full workstations with prebuilt blueprints and credential gateways.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 60 against 48
- Schema & documentation, 85 against 66
- Agent ergonomics, 66 against 60
- Payments & pricing, 50 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 83 against 45
Also in its favour
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Free to start without a card
Watch for
About twice the per-vCPU price of E2B or Daytona
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Deno Sandbox | Runloop Devboxes | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 48 | 60 | Runloop Devboxes +12 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 66 | 85 | Runloop Devboxes +19 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 60 | 66 | Runloop Devboxes +6 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 61 | 60 | Deno Sandbox +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 20 | 50 | Runloop Devboxes +30 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 45 | 83 | Runloop Devboxes +38 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 58 | 49 | Deno Sandbox +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| Total | 50.3 · D | 64.8 · B |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Deno Sandbox | Runloop Devboxes |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Deno Land Inc. | Runloop |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | https://api.runloop.ai |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Pay per use |
| 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 | yes |
| Last release | 2026-07-22 | 2026-09-08 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-30 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-30 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 6 stars, 2k npm/wk, 32k PyPI/wk | 34 stars, 23k npm/wk, 136k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (2) |
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.
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
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
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
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Deno Sandbox or Runloop Devboxes?
Runloop Devboxes scores 64.8 (B) on agent readiness against Deno Sandbox's 50.3 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Deno Sandbox leads on transparency & trust.
Do Deno Sandbox and Runloop Devboxes need an API key?
Both need an API key.
Can an agent call Deno Sandbox and Runloop Devboxes without installing anything?
No hosted endpoint is listed for Deno Sandbox. Runloop Devboxes has a hosted endpoint at https://api.runloop.ai.
Other comparisons with Deno Sandbox or Runloop Devboxes
- Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Code Interpreter vs Deno Sandbox
- Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Code Interpreter vs Runloop Devboxes
- Blaxel Sandboxes vs Deno Sandbox
- Blaxel Sandboxes vs Runloop Devboxes
- Cloudflare Sandbox SDK vs Deno Sandbox
- Cloudflare Sandbox SDK vs Runloop Devboxes
- Daytona vs Deno Sandbox
- Daytona vs Runloop Devboxes
- 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 Sprites
- Deno Sandbox vs Together Code Sandbox
- Deno Sandbox vs Vercel Sandbox
- E2B vs Runloop Devboxes
- Freestyle vs Runloop Devboxes
- Microsoft Execution Containers vs Runloop Devboxes
- Modal Sandboxes vs Runloop Devboxes
- Morph Cloud vs Runloop Devboxes
- Runloop Devboxes vs Sprites
- Runloop Devboxes vs Together Code Sandbox
- Runloop Devboxes vs Vercel Sandbox
- Agent 37 Cloud vs Deno Sandbox
- Agent 37 Cloud vs Runloop Devboxes
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-runloop.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/deno-sandbox.json·/api/v1/tools/runloop.json - From a terminal
anchor compare deno-sandbox runloop(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "deno-sandbox", "b": "runloop"}at/mcp, no key