Blaxel vs Namespace
Blaxel is built for agent products that start many sandboxes and keep them asleep most of the time, waking in under 25 ms with memory intact. Namespace is mainly a CI and build platform whose Devboxes give people and coding agents Linux, macOS or Windows machines for up to 24 hours at a time.
The companies and products
Blaxel
Blaxel is a San Francisco company that runs cloud infrastructure for AI agents, and since September 2026 it is part of Baseten.
You get sandboxes, batch jobs, MCP server hosting and a model gateway. Each sandbox is a Firecracker microVM with its own kernel that drops to standby when nothing is connected and resumes in under 25 ms with its memory and running processes. It is built for agent products that start many sandboxes and want them asleep most of the time.
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, founded 2024
Namespace
Namespace is a dev platform for fast builds, tests and coding environments: CI runners, build caches and Devboxes, on its own hardware.
Most of Namespace is CI: a faster drop-in for GitHub Actions runners, with Docker, Bazel, Turborepo and Nix caching. Its Devboxes are remote Linux and macOS machines with persistent storage, made for people and AI coding agents, and they also host sessions for Claude Managed Agents, Cursor Cloud Agents and Devin. It is a different kind of product from bochka, so this page compares the part where they overlap: a machine an agent works on.
- Products
- GitHub Actions runners, Docker, Bazel, Turborepo and Nix caching, Devboxes, and a compute API
- Hardware
- Its own hardware in its own racks: AMD EPYC for Linux and Windows, Apple M4 Pro or M5 Max for macOS
- Linux Devboxes
- Run from a container image you choose and include Docker; the docs do not say whether each one has its own kernel
- Funding
- Announced a $42M Series B
- Compliance
- Trust center lists SOC 2 Type II
Which use cases each one fits
For each use case, Battleships prices every sandbox provider on the same workload and sorts them from the cheapest monthly bill up. “10th cheapest of 367” means 9 of the other 366 providers run that workload, with every feature it needs, for less. “With limits” means the provider runs it but misses something, so it is listed after every full match. Open a use case for its whole ranking and what each provider misses.
| Use case and its workload | Blaxel: price rank | Namespace: price rank | bochka: price rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month Blaxel fits a software factory fully while Namespace is a compromise because a Devbox stops after at most 24 hours; bochka adds /dev/kvm and a real disk on a full VM. | 10th cheapest of 367 $2,373 a month | 39th of 367, with limits $3,495 a month | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB An assistant that never stops fits on Blaxel, which sleeps and wakes on request, but not on Namespace, which shuts a Devbox down after at most 24 hours; bochka has no session cap on paid plans. | 12th cheapest of 366 $2,832 a month | 303rd of 366, with limits $6,645 a month | 5th cheapest of 366 $657 a month |
| Code interpreter bursts 100 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 200,000 sessions of 1 min a month Blaxel is the best pick of the three here: short runs that sleep right away and resume in milliseconds are what it is built for. | 14th cheapest of 345 $144 a month | 247th of 345, with limits $250 a month | 186th of 345, with limits $2,000 a month |
| Sandboxes for your users 300 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 23 min a month Blaxel's public tiers stop at 200 sandboxes at once and Namespace bills each one as a Devbox, while bochka fits 300 users at once on a self-serve plan. | 101st of 361, with limits $926 a month | 284th of 361, with limits $2,068 a month | Cheapest of 361 $209 a month |
| RL rollouts 1,000 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 1,000,000 sessions of 3 min a month | 77th of 360, with limits $4,378 a month | 356th of 360, with limits $9,012 a month | 34th of 360, with limits $2,000 a month |
| Agent evals 250 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 15,000 sessions of 20 min a month | 136th of 364, with limits $704 a month | 282nd of 364, with limits $1,043 a month | 10th cheapest of 364 $200 a month |
| CI runners 40 at once · 8 vCPU / 16 GB · 6,000 sessions of 12 min a month All three fit, and CI runners with Docker, Bazel and Turborepo caches are Namespace's main product. | 57th cheapest of 377 $431 a month | 80th cheapest of 377 $765 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB Both are compromises: Blaxel has no native SSH and Namespace stops a Devbox after at most 24 hours, while a bochka machine is one you SSH into and leave on. | 265th of 368, with limits $114 a month | 126th of 368, with limits $168 a month | 18th cheapest of 368 $26 a month |
| Computer-use agents 50 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 20,000 sessions of 15 min a month Blaxel runs a desktop and a browser on Linux, while Namespace's screenshot and click API works on macOS Devboxes only; bochka streams a 60fps Linux desktop you can embed. | 14th cheapest of 369 $634 a month | 67th of 369, with limits $982 a month | 6th cheapest of 369 $200 a month |
| Browser-use agents 50 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 10 min a month | 16th cheapest of 367 $317 a month | 285th of 367, with limits $789 a month | 7th cheapest of 367 $200 a month |
| Scraping & bots (startup scale) 50 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 100,000 sessions of 3 min a month | 16th cheapest of 346 $215 a month | 259th of 346, with limits $332 a month | 6th cheapest of 346 $90 a month |
| Mass scraping & bots (undetectable) 1,000 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 3,000,000 sessions of 2 min a month | 147th of 338, with limits $4,292 a month | 226th of 338, with limits $9,012 a month | 71st of 338, with limits $1,800 a month |
| Parallel red teaming 200 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 5,000 sessions of 30 min a month | 3rd cheapest of 360 $217 a month | 242nd of 360, with limits $339 a month | 2nd cheapest of 360 $200 a month |
| GPU eval jobs 10 at once · 8 vCPU / 32 GB · 500 sessions of 30 min a month | Can't run it | Can't run it | Can't run it |
| macOS agents 5 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 1,000 sessions of 20 min a month Only Namespace fits: it runs macOS on Apple Silicon, and neither Blaxel nor bochka has macOS. | Can't run it | 6th cheapest of 36 $1,205 a month | Can't run it |
Key features
| Feature | Blaxel | Namespace | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker microVM per sandbox, own kernel | Linux Devboxes run from a container image on Namespace's own hardware; the docs do not say if each has its own kernel | Full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts |
| CPU speed (Node.js build-and-test, 4 vCPU / 8 GB) | 19.48 runs/s | 21.79 runs/s | 26.69 runs/s |
| How long a session can run | No forced limit on an active sandbox; Tier 0 and 1 delete sandboxes after 7 or 30 days | Devboxes stop after 4, 5 or 24 hours by plan, even while you work; 24 hours at most | No session cap on paid plans |
| Idle sleep and wake | Standby a few seconds after the last connection, wakes in under 25 ms with memory and processes | Devboxes stop after an idle timeout (15 minutes to 8 hours) and start again when you connect | Machines run until you stop them; resume boots the VM again from disk |
| Nested virtualization | No: Firecracker guests do not get /dev/kvm | /dev/kvm on Linux compute instances, not on macOS or Windows | /dev/kvm on every machine, so Android emulators and VMs run inside |
| Files and disk | Files live in memory (about half the RAM); one volume can be attached at creation | A stopped Devbox keeps its storage, billed at $0.20 per GB-month used | A real disk, snapshotted every minute and on stop; a stopped sandbox costs nothing |
| Fork | Fork with memory and running processes (private preview) | No fork; compute instances can suspend and resume with RAM kept | Fork a running sandbox (disk) into a new one |
| Custom images | Custom images built from Docker images | Any container image you choose, plus Devbox blueprints | Named snapshots (templates), shareable by code; no Dockerfile builds |
| Reaching the sandbox | Preview URL per port, public or token-protected; no raw TCP or public IP | HTTPS URLs that need a Namespace login, TCP through a running CLI port-forward; no public IP | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected; raw TCP; dedicated IPv6 or IPv4 |
| Outbound rules | Domain allow and deny lists, method and path rules, static egress IPs | Egress policies by domain per Devbox blueprint, runner or instance, with an advisory mode | Open internet; filter inside the VM with nftables |
| Desktop and computer use | Desktop and browser in the sandbox, with computer use and browser control | Screenshot and click API on macOS Devboxes only; VNC and RDP for compute instances | 60fps Linux desktop and Chromium, computer use and browser control, embeddable stream |
| Coding agents | Claude Code image you drive from its terminal or your own harness | Hosts Claude Managed Agents, Cursor and Devin sessions run by those partners; an MCP server for your own agent | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and more preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API |
| Operating systems | Linux only | Linux, macOS on Apple Silicon, and Windows on Team plans and up | Linux only; Wine for Windows apps |
| Regions | Oregon, North Virginia, London, Frankfurt | Several regions; ask support for a preferred one, and region-only residency needs Enterprise | EU only: Germany, Finland, France, with EU data residency |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | Blaxel | Namespace | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | No | Yes | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | No | Not published | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Browser | Yes | No | Yes |
| Computer-use API | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SSH | No | Yes | Yes |
| Persistent disk | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pause/resume | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic snapshots | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Fork/clone | Yes | No | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | Yes | No | Yes |
| Memory fork | Yes | No | No |
| Custom image (Docker or snapshot) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ≥24 h sessions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | Yes | Yes | No |
| Wake on request | Yes | Yes | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | No | Yes | Yes |
| Public IPv4 | No | No | No |
| Egress allowlist | Yes | Yes | No |
| Secret proxy | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Preinstalled agents | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Agent harness API | No | No | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | Yes | No |
| GPU | No | No | No |
| Windows | No | Yes | No |
| Arm64 | No | Yes | No |
| Self-hosting | No | No | No |
| BYOC | Yes | No | No |
| Open source | No | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Spend limits | No | Yes | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | Yes | No | Yes |
| Audit logs | Not published | Yes | No |
| SSO | Yes | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes | No |
| HIPAA | Yes | No | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Yes | Not published | Yes |
Performance
In StarSling's public run of 2026-09-29 at 4 vCPU and 8 GB, bochka did 26.69 Node.js build-and-test runs per second, Namespace 21.79 and Blaxel 19.48. Higher is better: Namespace does about 1.1 times Blaxel's work in the same time, and bochka about 1.4 times Blaxel's and 1.2 times Namespace's. A Namespace Devbox's vCPU count is a ceiling it can boost to, not a guaranteed share.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Blaxel measured on: Sandbox (active time, RAM-only pricing, CPU bundled). Namespace measured on: Linux compute instance (unit-minutes, PAYG/overage $0.0015).
Pricing in five scenarios
Each bill is priced from the providers' public price lists by the open Battleships engine, with the cheapest plan that runs the scenario.
| Scenario | Blaxel, a month | Namespace, a month | bochka, a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, 8 hours a day, 22 days a month, files kept between days | $33 · Pay-as-you-go Tier 1 | $50 · Devbox (pay as you go) | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $120 · Pay-as-you-go Tier 1 | $176 · Devbox (pay as you go) · with limits | $26 · $20/mo |
| 50 agents in parallel 50 machines of 4 vCPU / 8 GB at once, 8-hour sessions, 1,100 sessions a month, Docker inside | $1,489 · Pay-as-you-go Tier 1 | $2,198 · Devbox (pay as you go) | $317 · $20/mo × 3 seats |
| Sandboxes for your users 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 30,000 sessions of 10 minutes a month, up to 300 at once | $396 · Pay-as-you-go Tier 2 · with limits | $1,214 · Devbox (pay as you go) | $200 · $100/mo × 2 seats |
| 1,000 short jobs at once 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 1,000 at once, 3 minutes each, 200,000 jobs a month | $876 · Pay-as-you-go Tier 2 · with limits | $3,237 · Devbox (pay as you go) | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
Blaxel: Blaxel charges for allocated RAM per second while a sandbox is active, with CPU included. In standby you pay only snapshot storage, and volumes are billed on their full size.
Namespace: Namespace bills Devboxes in Devbox Minutes at $0.004 each on every plan, one a minute for 4 vCPU / 8 GB. The Team and Business plan minutes cover runners and instances, not Devboxes, and stored files cost $0.20 per GB-month.
Namespace: Your plan payment (from $20 a month) is all usage credit, billed per second while a machine runs. A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Limits in those scenarios
Blaxel's self-serve tiers allow 10, 50 or 200 sandboxes at once, standby ones included, so 300 users at once or 1,000 jobs at once need a sales tier. Namespace's limit is time: a Devbox stops after at most 24 hours, so the agent that never stops has to restart at least once a day, and it does not publish a Devbox concurrency limit or an egress price. bochka allows 100 to 2,000 sandboxes at once by plan, but it limits starts per minute, so 1,000 jobs at the same moment get queued.
| Scenario | Blaxel | Namespace | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays | None that bite |
| None that bite |
| One agent that never stops | None that bite |
| None that bite |
| 50 agents in parallel | None that bite |
| None that bite |
| Sandboxes for your users |
|
| None that bite |
| 1,000 short jobs at once |
|
|
|
Which one should you use?
Use Blaxel when
your sandboxes sit idle most of the time and must wake in milliseconds with their memory, or when you need tight per-domain egress rules and US regions.
- Sleeps in seconds, wakes in milliseconds. Useful if sandboxes sit idle most of the time: Blaxel sleeps seconds after the last connection and wakes in under 25 ms.
- No clock on an active sandbox. Useful for agents that run past a day: Blaxel does not stop an active sandbox, while a Namespace Devbox stops by 24 hours.
- Finer network rules. Useful if agents must reach only chosen APIs: Blaxel filters by domain, method and path, and offers static egress IPs.
Use Namespace when
you need macOS or Windows machines, faster GitHub Actions runners with build caches, or Devboxes for people that stop when idle.
- macOS and Windows. Useful if your agents build iOS or Mac apps or test on Windows: Namespace runs macOS on Apple Silicon and Windows machines.
- CI runners and build caches. Useful if you also want faster GitHub Actions: Namespace is a drop-in runner with Docker, Bazel and Turborepo caching.
- Nested virtualization on Linux. Useful for emulators or VMs: Namespace's Linux compute instances expose /dev/kvm, which Blaxel's Firecracker guests do not get.
Where bochka fits
If your agents do real work for hours or days on Linux, look at bochka. Blaxel is shaped for sandboxes that sleep most of the time, and Namespace for CI and Devboxes that stop within a day. bochka gives each agent a full, faster VM that keeps running, with a real disk and the agents built in.
A whole Linux machine with /dev/kvm
Without /dev/kvm an Android emulator or a VM does not start. Blaxel's Firecracker guests never get it, and on Namespace you move to a compute instance, which still stops after 3, 5 or 24 hours by plan.
A real disk with no session clock
Blaxel keeps files in memory, about half the RAM, so a big repo fills it unless you attach a volume at creation. A Namespace Devbox is shut down by 24 hours, even mid-task, and your code must restart it.
Agents you drive from outside
On Blaxel you get a Claude Code image and build the harness yourself. On Namespace a partner such as Cursor or Devin runs the agent loop. bochka ships the agents with a prompt, steer and events API.
Use bochka when your agents work on Linux for hours or days: a full, faster VM with no session cap, Docker and /dev/kvm, a disk that stays, a 60fps desktop, and coding agents you drive from outside. Compare it one to one: bochka vs Blaxel and bochka vs Namespace.
Questions people ask
Is Blaxel cheaper than Namespace?
In the scenarios we priced, yes: one coding agent on workdays is $33 against $50, one agent running all month $120 against $176, and 50 agents in parallel $1,489 against $2,198. On bochka those three come to $20, $26 and $317 a month. For 300 users or 1,000 jobs at once Blaxel's self-serve tiers stop at 200 sandboxes, while Namespace fits.
Which is faster, Blaxel or Namespace?
On the same Node.js build-and-test benchmark at 4 vCPU and 8 GB, Namespace did 21.79 runs per second and Blaxel 19.48. bochka did 26.69 in the same run.
Can Blaxel or Namespace run Docker and Android emulators?
Both run Docker: Blaxel with its Docker-in-sandbox image, Namespace inside Linux Devboxes. An Android emulator needs /dev/kvm, which Blaxel's Firecracker guests do not get and Namespace offers on Linux compute instances only. bochka exposes /dev/kvm on every machine.
How long can a sandbox run on Blaxel or Namespace?
Blaxel does not stop an active sandbox, though its Tier 0 and 1 delete sandboxes after 7 or 30 days. A Namespace Devbox stops after 4, 5 or 24 hours by plan, even while you work, and 24 hours is the most support can raise it to. bochka has no session cap on paid plans.
Do Blaxel or Namespace run macOS?
Namespace does, on Apple M4 Pro and M5 Max machines, and it has Windows on Team plans and up. Blaxel and bochka run Linux only.
Where do Blaxel and Namespace run?
Blaxel runs in Oregon, North Virginia, London and Frankfurt. Namespace runs in several regions and lets you ask support for a preferred one, with region-only residency on Enterprise. bochka runs only in the EU, in Germany, Finland and France.
Try bochka
Install the CLI, then run bochka new.
Product preview