# Offscreen vs Runloop Devboxes

> Runloop Devboxes scores 64.8 (B) to Offscreen's 62.9 (B) for code sandboxes. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-runloop
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-runloop.md (~2,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-runloop.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-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
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.
- Updated: 2026-10-17

Runloop Devboxes scores 64.8 (B) on agent readiness against Offscreen's 62.9 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Offscreen leads on agent ergonomics, payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do code sandboxes.

- Offscreen: grade B, 62.9/100, rank #456 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/offscreen.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/offscreen.json
- Runloop Devboxes: grade B, 64.8/100, rank #374 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/runloop.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/runloop.json
- Best code execution sandboxes for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/code-sandboxes/index.md
- All 153 sandboxes comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/code-sandboxes/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Offscreen (B)

Good for: A coding agent working on a macOS or iOS app on the developer's own Apple silicon Mac, which needs to run UI tests, the Simulator or the built app without taking the screen.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 74 against 66
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 50
- Transparency & trust, 56 against 49

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source

Watch for: First commit 11 October 2026, version 0.0.5 and labelled beta, with JSON field names that may change before 1.0

### Runloop Devboxes (B)

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

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 60 against 55
- Schema & documentation, 85 against 67
- Maintenance & community, 83 against 66

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

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


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Offscreen | Runloop Devboxes | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 60 | Runloop Devboxes +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 85 | Runloop Devboxes +18 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 66 | Offscreen +8 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 62 | 60 | Offscreen +2 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 50 | Offscreen +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 66 | 83 | Runloop Devboxes +17 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 56 | 49 | Offscreen +7 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **62.9 · B** | **64.8 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Offscreen | Runloop Devboxes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | SDK + MCP | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Mark Phelps | Runloop |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.runloop.ai` |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-16 | 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 | none | 34 stars, 23k npm/wk, 136k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | 3/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Offscreen.** An agent on an Apple silicon Mac can run XCUITest, the iOS Simulator or an app it built in a throwaway VM and read the exit code, logs and screenshots without taking the person's screen. The project is six days old at v0.0.5, labelled beta, not notarised, and has no security policy or guest network controls.

**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

### Offscreen

1. Read `.offscreen.toml` before running anything and use its `project` key and task names. Don't guess them
2. Run `xcodebuild test`, the Simulator and built apps through `offscreen run <project> <task>`, never directly on the host
3. Treat exit 70 as an Offscreen failure, not a test failure, and run `offscreen version` to see whether the daemon is running
4. Ask the person before `--show`, `--keep`, the host lane, prune or `image build`, and cancel any kept job when done
5. Read screenshots and `.xcresult` bundles from the directory `offscreen artifacts <job>` prints

### 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, Offscreen or Runloop Devboxes?

Runloop Devboxes scores 64.8 (B) on agent readiness against Offscreen's 62.9 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Offscreen leads on agent ergonomics, payments & pricing and transparency & trust.

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

No hosted endpoint is listed for Offscreen. Runloop Devboxes has a hosted endpoint at https://api.runloop.ai.

### Are Offscreen and Runloop Devboxes open source?

Offscreen is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Runloop Devboxes.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Offscreen or Runloop Devboxes

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

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