Sandboxer vs Coasty

Coasty is a computer-use API: submit a goal to POST /v1/tasks and its agent drives a managed Linux or Windows machine, or your own enrolled device. It differs from Sandboxer by focusing on GUI task automation rather than a general-purpose developer VM. Pick Coasty for desktop and Windows computer-use tasks; pick Sandboxer for full Ubuntu VMs with SSH, Docker and coding agents.

Checked against Coasty's public docs on October 24, 2026. Sources are linked in the table and listed below.

At a glance

Sandboxer and Coasty compared
Capability	Sandboxer	Coasty
Isolation	microVM Cloud Hypervisor, its own kernel	Coasty-hosted VM (technology not stated)
Full Linux with root	Ubuntu 24.04, sudo, systemd	SSH user is ubuntu; root not stated.
Docker inside	Preinstalled
Nested virtualization (/dev/kvm)
Pause and resume with memory	Running processes come back	partial Machines can be stopped, suspended or started; memory preservation not stated.
Fork a sandbox	Copy-on-write disk copy that boots fresh	partial Snapshots at $0.01 each; restore boots the latest snapshot (Linux only).
HTTPS URL per port	Private with a token, or public
Longest session	No limit on paid plans Auto-stop is up to 30 days or off	TTL 5 min to 7 days, or none
Billing	Per second, flat rate per size Stopped sandboxes are free	per minute: Linux $0.05/h running, $0.01/h stopped Windows $0.09/h; wallet-based.
GPUs
Self-host or open source		partial You can enrol your own device as an external machine; the platform is not self-hostable.
Regions	US East (Virginia) and EU Central (Finland)

= not documented publicly.

Where Coasty is strong

Windows and Linux machines with a desktop GUI option.
Enrol your own device as a machine.
Task API that runs an agent from a single goal, plus workflows and schedules.
Low flat hourly rate for running machines, with an OpenAPI schema.

Where Sandboxer differs

Built for GUI computer-use tasks, not as a developer VM with SSH, Docker and nested KVM.
Hourly rate appears flat per machine state; the docs read do not tie it to CPU/RAM size.
TTL maximum 7 days per machine; Sandboxer paid plans allow no time limit.
Sandboxer has coding agents, MCP server and CLI/SDKs rather than a computer-use agent.

Pick Coasty if

You need a computer-use agent for desktop or Windows software.
You want to drive your own device through the same API.
You want a managed task API rather than raw VMs.

Pick Sandboxer if

You want a full Ubuntu VM with root, Docker, systemd and SSH.
You want coding agents driven via a prompt API and MCP server.
You want any port as an HTTPS URL and stopped machines free.

Sources

Products change. If something here is out of date, email hello@sandboxer.com and we'll fix it. Coasty is a trademark of its owner. Sandboxer is an independent product and is not affiliated with Coasty.

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