# Maritime vs Modal Sandboxes

> Maritime and Modal Sandboxes score within a point of each other for code sandboxes, 66.5 and 65.9 out of 100. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/maritime-vs-modal-sandboxes
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/maritime-vs-modal-sandboxes.md (~2,700 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/maritime-vs-modal-sandboxes.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/maritime-vs-modal-sandboxes.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
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-10-21

Maritime and Modal Sandboxes score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 66.5 (B) and 65.9 (B). Modal Sandboxes leads on reliability, security & auth, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do code sandboxes.

- Maritime: grade B, 66.5/100, rank #318 of 1197. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/maritime.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/maritime.json
- Modal Sandboxes: grade B, 65.9/100, rank #343 of 1197. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/modal-sandboxes.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/modal-sandboxes.json
- Best code execution sandboxes for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/code-sandboxes/index.md
- All 171 sandboxes comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/code-sandboxes/index.md
- Best GPU and serverless compute for AI workloads: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/gpu-compute/index.md
- All 171 gpu compute comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpu-compute/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Maritime (B)

Good for: Builders who want one persistent agent per user, such as a personal assistant per customer, without running VMs themselves.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 79
- Agent ergonomics, 87 against 67
- Payments & pricing, 55 against 20

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Free to start without a card
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 4.0 against 3.3 out of 5

Watch for: No status page, SLA or security.txt.

### Modal Sandboxes (B)

Good for: GPU work inside a sandbox, or agents already running on Modal.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 55 against 45
- Security & auth, 79 against 58
- Maintenance & community, 93 against 81
- Transparency & trust, 77 against 58

Watch for: No REST API, and the JavaScript and Go SDKs are beta


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Maritime | Modal Sandboxes | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 45 | 55 | Modal Sandboxes +10 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 79 | Maritime +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 67 | Maritime +20 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 58 | 79 | Modal Sandboxes +21 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 55 | 20 | Maritime +35 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 81 | 93 | Modal Sandboxes +12 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 58 | 77 | Modal Sandboxes +19 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66.5 · B** | **65.9 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Maritime | Modal Sandboxes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | SDK + MCP |
| Vendor | Maritime AI, Inc. | Modal |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.maritime.sh/mcp` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |  |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Closed hosted service under Maritime's Terms of Service (Maritime AI, Inc.), last updated 17 May 2026. The TypeScript and Python SDKs are MIT-licensed. | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 9 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-16 | 2026-10-15 |
| Terms last updated |  | 2026-05-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated |  | 2023-05-17 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 514 stars, 941k npm/wk, 10.1M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (4) | 3.3/5 (8) |

## Verdicts

**Maritime.** Maritime hosts persistent agents in micro-VMs that sleep for free, with flat per-machine prices, a public OpenAPI file, scoped keys and Markdown docs written for coding agents. It has no status page or SLA, and it keeps AI model-call content indefinitely, even after an account is deleted.

**Modal Sandboxes.** GPU sandboxes at the same per-second rates as the rest of Modal. No REST API, and the JavaScript and Go SDKs are beta.

## Before you call either

### Maritime

1. Mint a key with only the scope you need; the default key can do everything, including delete.
2. Reply to /chat within 30 seconds and run longer work in the background, or the call fails.
3. Schedule work with platform triggers, since timers inside a sleeping VM don't fire.
4. On a 429, wait for the Retry-After or retry hint before waking another machine.
5. Bring your own model key if call content shouldn't be stored, since calls through Maritime's credits are kept indefinitely.

### Modal Sandboxes

1. Pass `timeout=` when you create a sandbox. The default lifetime is 5 minutes
2. Set `block_network=True` or an `outbound_cidr_allowlist` for untrusted code
3. Give a sandbox a `name` so a retried create raises `AlreadyExistsError` instead of starting a second one
4. Snapshot the filesystem before the 24-hour limit and start a fresh sandbox from it
5. Catch `ResourceExhaustedError` from `Sandbox.create()` on SDK 1.6.0 and later, since create now waits until scheduled

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Maritime or Modal Sandboxes?

Maritime and Modal Sandboxes score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 66.5 (B) and 65.9 (B). Modal Sandboxes leads on reliability, security & auth, maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

### Can an agent call Maritime and Modal Sandboxes without installing anything?

Maritime has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.maritime.sh/mcp. No hosted endpoint is listed for Modal Sandboxes.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Maritime or Modal Sandboxes

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

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