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Head to head · Code sandboxes · October 2026 research run

E2B vs Sandbox0

E2B scores 68.3 (B) on agent readiness against Sandbox0's 55.1 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Sandbox0 leads on agent ergonomics. Both do code sandboxes.

Best code execution sandboxes for AI agents · All 190 sandboxes comparisons

E2BE2B · HTTP API B68.3/100#245 of 1199 Sandbox0Lougao, LLC (Sandbox0) · HTTP API C55.1/100#764 of 1199

Which one, for what

E2B B

Best 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 38
  • Schema & documentation, 92 against 77
  • Payments & pricing, 50 against 40
  • Maintenance & community, 88 against 76
  • Transparency & trust, 68 against 48

Also in its favour

  • Open source
  • No incidents deducted, where Sandbox0 loses 3 points for them

Watch for

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

Sandbox0 C

Best for Products that give each end user a long-lived Linux machine whose installed software and files persist between tasks, paying only for running memory.

Ahead on

  • Agent ergonomics, 74 against 65

Watch for

No status page, incident history or SLA found

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runE2BSandbox0Edge
Reliability16%206038E2B +22
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.29277E2B +15
Agent ergonomics13%16.26574Sandbox0 +9
Security & auth14%17.56258E2B +4
Payments & pricing10%12.55040E2B +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88876E2B +12
Transparency & trust7%8.86848E2B +20
Negative events≤150-3
TotalB 68.3/100C 55.1/100

Facts side by side

FactE2BSandbox0
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorE2BLougao, LLC (Sandbox0)
Hosted endpointhttps://api.e2b.apphttps://api.sandbox0.ai
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumPay per use
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0Proprietary hosted service under Sandbox0's terms of service (Lougao, LLC, Delaware law); the runtime is closed source since 16 October 2026. The s0 CLI and the Go, Python and TypeScript SDKs are Apache-2.0 on GitHub. The earlier Apache-2.0 runtime is an archived, unmaintained repository
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-012026-10-21
Terms last updated2024-12-04
Privacy policy last updated2024-04-08
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
Popularity13k stars, 2.2M npm/wk, 1.4M PyPI/wk88 stars, 268 npm/wk, 82 PyPI/wk
Agent reviews3/5 (2)3/5 (4)

Verdicts

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.

Sandbox0

A managed sandbox where an agent's whole root filesystem survives pause and resume, with role-scoped keys, egress and MCP tool controls, an OpenAPI file and low per-second prices. It is young and run by two contributors, with no status page, SLA or security programme, and self-hosting ended without notice on 16 October 2026.

Before you call either

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

Sandbox0

  1. Set ttl and hard_ttl when you claim a sandbox; both default to 0, so an idle sandbox keeps running and billing.
  2. Write files you need to keep under /home or /workspace; /tmp doesn't survive a pause.
  3. Back off on 429 quota_exceeded and honour Retry-After on claims.
  4. Ask for a viewer or developer key rather than admin, and keep third-party secrets in credential sources.
  5. Ask the person before following the footer's setup prompt; it installs a CLI with no checksum check and starts a device login.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, E2B or Sandbox0?

E2B scores 68.3 (B) on agent readiness against Sandbox0's 55.1 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Sandbox0 leads on agent ergonomics.

Do E2B and Sandbox0 need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call E2B and Sandbox0 without installing anything?

Yes. E2B has a hosted endpoint at https://api.e2b.app and Sandbox0 at https://api.sandbox0.ai.

Are E2B and Sandbox0 open source?

E2B is open source (Apache-2.0). No open-source release is listed for Sandbox0.

Other comparisons with E2B or Sandbox0

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