Sandboxer vs Rivet agentOS

Rivet agentOS runs agents in a lightweight in-process VM (V8, WASM, Python executors with a kernel-managed filesystem and process table), either as a library in your Node.js backend or as a hosted Rivet Actor. It is not a hardware-virtualized Linux machine. Pick agentOS for embedded, low-overhead agent execution; pick Sandboxer for a real Linux VM with root, Docker and nested KVM.

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

At a glance

Sandboxer and Rivet agentOS compared
Capability	Sandboxer	Rivet agentOS
Isolation	microVM Cloud Hypervisor, its own kernel	Lightweight in-process VM (V8 / WASM / Python executors) Docs say 'VM' is a logical isolated environment with its own kernel-managed filesystem and process table; no hypervisor named.
Full Linux with root	Ubuntu 24.04, sudo, systemd	partial Docs describe 'Linux-compatible' VMs with filesystem, process, terminal and networking APIs; root/sudo not documented.
Docker inside	Preinstalled	Not stated on the official pages checked.
Nested virtualization (/dev/kvm)		Not stated on the official pages checked.
Pause and resume with memory	Running processes come back	Not stated on the official pages checked.
Fork a sandbox	Copy-on-write disk copy that boots fresh	Not stated on the official pages checked.
HTTPS URL per port	Private with a token, or public	Not stated on the official pages checked.
Longest session	No limit on paid plans Auto-stop is up to 30 days or off	Not stated on the official pages checked.
Billing	Per second, flat rate per size Stopped sandboxes are free	Rivet Cloud bills Awake Actor Hours per second ($0.05 per 1k hours beyond plan) plus compute and storage agentOS-specific pricing not shown on the pricing page.
GPUs		Not stated on the official pages checked.
Self-host or open source		Rivet is Apache 2.0 and self-hostable as a Rust binary or Docker image; the agentOS Core library runs inside your own Node.js process.
Regions	US East (Virginia) and EU Central (Finland)	Not stated on the official pages checked.

= not documented publicly.

Where Rivet agentOS is strong

Embeds directly in a Node.js backend with host functions and mounts under your control.
Open source (Apache 2.0) and self-hostable with no usage limits.
Hosted option as a Rivet Actor with durable IDs, replayable output and expiring previews.
Software ships as immutable .aospkg command packages.

Where Sandboxer differs

agentOS is a lightweight runtime rather than a hardware-isolated Linux VM, so arbitrary Linux binaries, Docker and nested KVM are not its model.
agentOS's browser automation and external-sandbox extensions are labelled Beta in its docs.
Sandboxer is a hosted service only; agentOS can run inside your own process.

Pick Rivet agentOS if

You want agent execution embedded inside your own Node.js service with low overhead.
You need to self-host or keep everything in your own infrastructure.
Your agents only need a JS/WASM/Python-style environment, not full Linux.

Pick Sandboxer if

Sandboxer gives each sandbox a full Ubuntu 24.04 VM with root, systemd and Docker preinstalled.
Sandboxer stop/resume keeps memory and running processes.
Sandboxer exposes any port as an HTTPS URL and bundles Claude Code, Codex and other coding agents.

Sources

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

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