# Offscreen vs Sandbox0

> Offscreen scores 62.9 (B) to Sandbox0's 55.1 (C) for code sandboxes. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-sandbox0
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-sandbox0.md (~2,750 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-sandbox0.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-sandbox0.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: 2026-10-22

Offscreen scores 62.9 (B) on agent readiness against Sandbox0's 55.1 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Sandbox0 leads on schema & documentation and maintenance & community. Both do code sandboxes.

- Offscreen: grade B, 62.9/100, rank #467 of 1199. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/offscreen.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/offscreen.json
- Sandbox0: grade C, 55.1/100, rank #764 of 1199. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sandbox0.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/sandbox0.json
- Best code execution sandboxes for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/code-sandboxes/index.md
- All 190 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:
- Reliability, 55 against 38
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 40
- Transparency & trust, 56 against 48

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source
- No incidents deducted, where Sandbox0 loses 3 points for them

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

### Sandbox0 (C)

Good 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:
- Schema & documentation, 77 against 67
- Maintenance & community, 76 against 66

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

Watch for: No status page, incident history or SLA found


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Offscreen | Sandbox0 | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 38 | Offscreen +17 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 77 | Sandbox0 +10 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 74 | even |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 62 | 58 | Offscreen +4 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 40 | Offscreen +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 66 | 76 | Sandbox0 +10 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 56 | 48 | Offscreen +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **62.9 · B** | **55.1 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Offscreen | Sandbox0 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | SDK + MCP | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Mark Phelps | Lougao, LLC (Sandbox0) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.sandbox0.ai` |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary 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 documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-16 | 2026-10-21 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked |  |
| Customer content may train models |  |  |
| Terms restrict automated access |  |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  |  |
| Popularity | none | 88 stars, 268 npm/wk, 82 PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | 3/5 (4) |

## 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.

**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

### 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

### 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, Offscreen or Sandbox0?

Offscreen scores 62.9 (B) on agent readiness against Sandbox0's 55.1 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Sandbox0 leads on schema & documentation and maintenance & community.

### Can an agent call Offscreen and Sandbox0 without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Offscreen. Sandbox0 has a hosted endpoint at https://api.sandbox0.ai.

### Are Offscreen and Sandbox0 open source?

Offscreen is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Sandbox0.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-sandbox0.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-sandbox0.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "offscreen", "b": "sandbox0"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare offscreen sandbox0`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/offscreen.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/sandbox0.json

## Other comparisons with Offscreen or Sandbox0

- [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 Sandbox0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-code-interpreter-vs-sandbox0.md)
- [Blaxel Sandboxes vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blaxel-sandboxes-vs-offscreen.md)
- [Blaxel Sandboxes vs Sandbox0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blaxel-sandboxes-vs-sandbox0.md)
- [Cloudflare Sandbox SDK vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-sandbox-sdk-vs-offscreen.md)
- [Cloudflare Sandbox SDK vs Sandbox0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-sandbox-sdk-vs-sandbox0.md)
- [Daytona vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-offscreen.md)
- [Daytona vs Sandbox0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-sandbox0.md)
- [Deno Sandbox vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-offscreen.md)
- [Deno Sandbox vs Sandbox0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-sandbox0.md)
- [E2B vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/e2b-vs-offscreen.md)
- [E2B vs Sandbox0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/e2b-vs-sandbox0.md)
- [Freestyle vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freestyle-vs-offscreen.md)
- [Freestyle vs Sandbox0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freestyle-vs-sandbox0.md)
- [Maritime vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/maritime-vs-offscreen.md)
- [Maritime vs Sandbox0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/maritime-vs-sandbox0.md)
- [Microsoft Execution Containers vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-execution-containers-vs-offscreen.md)
- [Microsoft Execution Containers vs Sandbox0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-execution-containers-vs-sandbox0.md)
- [Modal Sandboxes vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-sandboxes-vs-offscreen.md)
- [Modal Sandboxes vs Sandbox0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-sandboxes-vs-sandbox0.md)
- [Morph Cloud vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/morph-cloud-vs-offscreen.md)
- [Morph Cloud vs Sandbox0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/morph-cloud-vs-sandbox0.md)
- [Offscreen vs SPACE](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-perplexity-space.md)
- [Offscreen vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-runloop.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 Sandbox0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/perplexity-space-vs-sandbox0.md)
- [Runloop Devboxes vs Sandbox0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/runloop-vs-sandbox0.md)
- [Sandbox0 vs Sprites](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sandbox0-vs-sprites.md)
- [Sandbox0 vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sandbox0-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)
- [Sandbox0 vs Vercel Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sandbox0-vs-vercel-sandbox.md)
- [Agent 37 Cloud vs Sandbox0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent37-vs-sandbox0.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-offscreen.md)
- [DeltaBox Lite vs Sandbox0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-sandbox0.md)

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