# Freestyle vs Runloop Devboxes

> Runloop Devboxes scores 64.8 (B) on agent readiness against Freestyle's 58.5 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do sandbox code. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freestyle-vs-runloop
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freestyle-vs-runloop.md (~2,350 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freestyle-vs-runloop.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freestyle-vs-runloop.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- 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
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Runloop Devboxes scores 64.8 (B) on agent readiness against Freestyle's 58.5 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do sandbox code.

- Freestyle: grade C, 58.5/100, rank #520 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/freestyle.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/freestyle.json
- Runloop Devboxes: grade B, 64.8/100, rank #305 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/runloop.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/runloop.json

## Which one, for what

### Freestyle (C)

Good for: Suited to long-running agent work that needs a full Linux VM, memory-preserving pause, snapshots to branch from and private networking.

Watch for: No terms of service or service agreement found on the site, and the privacy policy covers the website only

### Runloop Devboxes (B)

Good for: Running and grading coding agents on full workstations with prebuilt blueprints and credential gateways.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 60 against 43
- Security & auth, 60 against 53
- Payments & pricing, 50 against 45
- Maintenance & community, 83 against 71
- Transparency & trust, 49 against 41

Watch for: About twice the per-vCPU price of E2B or Daytona


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Freestyle | Runloop Devboxes | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 43 | 60 | Runloop Devboxes +17 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 86 | 85 | Freestyle +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 69 | 66 | Freestyle +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 53 | 60 | Runloop Devboxes +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 45 | 50 | Runloop Devboxes +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 83 | Runloop Devboxes +12 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 41 | 49 | Runloop Devboxes +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **58.5 · C** | **64.8 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Freestyle | Runloop Devboxes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Freestyle Cloud Inc. | Runloop |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.freestyle.sh/v5` | `https://api.runloop.ai` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service with no published terms of service found. The `freestyle` SDK and CLI package on npm is MIT | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-27 | 2026-09-08 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| 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 |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 72k npm/wk | 34 stars, 23k npm/wk, 136k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Freestyle.** A public OpenAPI 3.1 file describes 88 operations with a stable error code on every failure, and per-VM identity tokens keep the team API key away from end users. No terms of service, product privacy policy, request rate limit or incident history was found, and the only SDK is TypeScript.

**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

### Freestyle

1. Send a `firewall` object on every `POST /v5/vms`. It is required, and a VM with no rules has no outbound internet
2. Ask the owner to run `freestyle login` in a browser once, then mint a key with `freestyle tokens create --output json`
3. Do not retry an exec that answers 409 `VM_NON_RESPONSIVE`. The command may already have run
4. Keep `exec-await` under its 300,000 ms cap and use a PTY session or `x-freestyle-background-after-secs` for longer work
5. Call the `/v5` paths. The unversioned duplicates in the OpenAPI file are marked deprecated

### Runloop Devboxes

1. Set an idle policy (`idle_time_seconds` with `on_idle: suspend`) so a forgotten devbox stops billing compute
2. Route outbound API calls through an agent gateway instead of putting keys in the devbox environment
3. Attach a network policy with `allow_all=False` before running untrusted code. Egress is open by default
4. Restart background services after every resume. Nothing in memory survives
5. Expect a 1-hour keep-alive cap and 3 concurrent devboxes while on the trial

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Freestyle or Runloop Devboxes?

Runloop Devboxes scores 64.8 (B) on agent readiness against Freestyle's 58.5 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.

### Do Freestyle and Runloop Devboxes need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Freestyle and Runloop Devboxes without installing anything?

Yes. Freestyle has a hosted endpoint at https://api.freestyle.sh/v5 and Runloop Devboxes at https://api.runloop.ai.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Freestyle or Runloop Devboxes

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