bochka vs netcup

netcup is a German hosting company: you rent a KVM server for a fixed term and set it up yourself. bochka starts sandbox VMs from an API, with Docker and /dev/kvm ready, saves them every minute, and ships coding agents you drive from outside.

Where bochka stands out

Nested virtualization and Docker ready

Every bochka sandbox has root, systemd, Docker and /dev/kvm ready, so agents can run Android emulators, Firecracker or their own VMs. netcup's FAQ says the SVM flag is disabled on its systems and cannot be turned on, on VPS and root servers alike.

State saved every minute, and forks

bochka snapshots a running sandbox every minute and again when it stops, so a bad agent step loses at most a minute. You can fork a running sandbox into copies, or save it as a named template others start from. On netcup you take snapshots by hand, online snapshots only restore in place, and a new server comes from an exported offline snapshot.

Coding agents you drive from outside

bochka ships Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and other agents in every sandbox, and one API prompts them, steers them mid-task and streams their events. Its credentials proxy keeps real AI keys out of the sandbox, and each sandbox can show a 60fps desktop for computer use. On netcup you install the agents, write the glue to run them over SSH, and store keys on the server.

The companies and products

bochka

bochka.xyz runs sandboxes for AI agents: each one is a full Linux VM with its own kernel.

You start a machine with one command or one API call, then SSH in, run Docker, open a desktop, or let a built-in agent (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and others) work in it. The disk stays between sessions, and a stopped sandbox costs nothing.

Isolation: Full VM per sandbox, own kernel
Hardware: Dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (Zen 5) hosts
Regions: EU: Germany, Finland, France
Plans: From $20 a month, all of it usage credit, 7-day trial

netcup

netcup is a German hosting company that rents VPS, dedicated-core root servers, ARM64 servers, web hosting and domains.

A netcup VPS is a KVM virtual machine with shared vCPU cores, fixed RAM and SSD, root access and a public IP, which you order in a web shop for a 1, 12 or 24 month term and then manage yourself. It is a VPS host, not a sandbox product: there is no per-second billing, no agent tooling and no managed HTTPS in front of the server. It fits people who want a cheap server that runs all month in Europe, the US or Singapore.

Isolation: KVM virtual servers; VPS cores are shared, Root Server cores are dedicated AMD EPYC 9645
Billing: Fixed monthly fee on a minimum term of 1, 12 or 24 months; longer terms cost less
VPS Lite terms: Price-optimized Lite plans with per-size minimum terms, for example 3 months for VPS Lite 2
Locations: Vienna, Nuremberg, Amsterdam, Manassas (USA) and Singapore
Nested virtualization: The SVM flag is disabled on its systems and cannot be turned on
GPUs: vGPU root servers with slices of an Nvidia H200, shown as sold out and not available at the time of checking
Certifications: ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 since 2023, audited yearly by TÜV Nord

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. “3rd cheapest of 367” means 2 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	bochka: price rank	netcup: price rank
Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month A software factory starts and stops many machines a day; bochka does that by API and bills per second, while each netcup server is rented for a whole term.	3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month	95th of 367, with limits $851 a month
Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB Both can keep an assistant running for months; bochka adds saved state every minute and a built-in agent API, while on netcup you install and watch everything yourself.	5th cheapest of 366 $657 a month	91st of 366, with limits $251 a month
Code interpreter bursts 100 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 200,000 sessions of 1 min a month Neither suits many one-minute code runs well: netcup bills by the month, and bochka's start limits make big bursts a compromise.	186th of 345, with limits $2,000 a month	135th of 345, with limits $296 a month
Sandboxes for your users 300 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 23 min a month Handing a fresh sandbox to each of your users needs fast starts and stops; netcup servers are ordered in a web shop and rented by the month.	Cheapest of 361 $209 a month	132nd of 361, with limits $1,509 a month
RL rollouts 1,000 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 1,000,000 sessions of 3 min a month	34th of 360, with limits $2,000 a month	87th of 360, with limits $5,029 a month
Agent evals 250 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 15,000 sessions of 20 min a month	10th cheapest of 364 $200 a month	193rd of 364, with limits $2,128 a month
CI runners 40 at once · 8 vCPU / 16 GB · 6,000 sessions of 12 min a month Both run CI jobs on real VMs, but netcup turns off nested virtualization, so Android emulators and Firecracker tests need /dev/kvm elsewhere.	4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month	166th of 377, with limits $614 a month
24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB netcup fits one server that runs all month very well: a 4 vCPU / 8 GB VPS with root and a public IP for a low flat fee.	18th cheapest of 368 $26 a month	4th cheapest of 368 $15 a month
Computer-use agents 50 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 20,000 sessions of 15 min a month bochka streams a 60fps desktop with Chromium for computer use; a netcup VPS is headless until you install and stream a desktop yourself.	6th cheapest of 369 $200 a month	162nd of 369, with limits $426 a month
Browser-use agents 50 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 10 min a month	7th cheapest of 367 $200 a month	216th of 367, with limits $251 a month
Scraping & bots (startup scale) 50 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 100,000 sessions of 3 min a month	6th cheapest of 346 $90 a month	205th of 346, with limits $148 a month
Mass scraping & bots (undetectable) 1,000 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 3,000,000 sessions of 2 min a month	71st of 338, with limits $1,800 a month	107th of 338, with limits $2,958 a month
Parallel red teaming 200 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 5,000 sessions of 30 min a month	2nd cheapest of 360 $200 a month	315th of 360, with limits $1,006 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
macOS agents 5 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 1,000 sessions of 20 min a month	Can't run it	Can't run it

Key features

Feature	bochka	netcup
What it is	Sandbox VMs for agents, started and stopped from an API	KVM servers rented on 1 to 24 month terms that you set up yourself
Isolation	Full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts	KVM VM; VPS shares vCPU cores, Root Server has dedicated EPYC cores
Starting a machine	A new sandbox from the API in seconds, billed per second	Ordered in the web shop on a minimum term; the fee is paid for the whole term
Nested virtualization	/dev/kvm on every machine	Disabled on all systems; the SVM flag cannot be turned on
Docker, root and systemd	Ready on every machine	Full root on the VM; you install Docker yourself
Saved state	Snapshots every minute and on stop; a stopped sandbox costs nothing	Manual snapshots: offline (disk) or online (with running state, restore in place only)
Fork and templates	Fork a running sandbox; named snapshots as templates, shareable by code	No fork; an offline snapshot can be exported once for free and imported into another server
Desktop and computer use	60fps desktop and Chromium, computer use and browser control, embeddable stream	Headless server with a remote console for setup and rescue
Coding agents	Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and more preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API	None built in; you install agents and run them over SSH
Keeping keys out of the machine	AI credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API you register	None; secrets live inside the server
Reaching the machine	HTTPS URLs with TLS for up to 50 ports, token-protected; raw TCP; dedicated IPv6 or IPv4	Public IPv4 and IPv6, all ports; domains and TLS are yours to set up
Outbound traffic rules	Open internet on every plan; no provider-side allowlist	Free network firewall with outgoing rules by IP, port and protocol
CPU types	x86 only (AMD Zen 5)	x86 VPS and root servers, plus separate ARM64 VPS plans
Regions	EU only: Germany, Finland, France	Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, the US (Manassas) and Singapore
Compliance and transparency	SOC 2 is in progress. We're open about where we stand: live status and data retention policy.	No SOC 2 report published

Every feature Battleships tracks (43)

Feature	bochka	netcup
Full VM (own kernel)	Yes	Yes
Docker inside	Yes	Yes
Nested virtualization	Yes	No
Root	Yes	Yes
Systemd	Yes	Yes
Desktop GUI	Yes	No
Browser	Yes	No
Computer-use API	Yes	No
SSH	Yes	Yes
Persistent disk	Yes	Yes
Pause/resume	Yes	No
Automatic snapshots	Yes	No
Fork/clone	Yes	No
Live fork (no pause)	Yes	No
Memory fork	No	No
Custom image (Docker or snapshot)	Yes	Yes
≥24 h sessions	Yes	Yes
Idle auto-stop	No	No
Wake on request	No	No
HTTPS preview URLs	Yes	No
Raw TCP inbound	Yes	Yes
Public IPv4	No	Yes
Egress allowlist	No	Yes
Secret proxy	Yes	No
Secret proxy for any API	Yes	No
Preinstalled agents	Yes	No
Agent harness API	Yes	No
MCP server	No	No
GPU	No	No
Windows	No	No
Arm64	No	Yes
Self-hosting	No	No
BYOC	No	No
Open source	No	No
Scoped API keys	Yes	Not published
Spend limits	Yes	Not published
Usage per sandbox (API)	Yes	No
Audit logs	No	Not published
SSO	No	No
SOC 2	No	No
HIPAA	No	No
EU data residency	Yes	Yes
Zero data retention	Yes	Not published

Performance

bochka26.69 runs/s

netcupNot measured

netcup is not in the hpc-sandbox-benchmarks run, so there is no comparable CPU measurement for it. bochka was measured on that Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, and the table shows its score. netcup's VPS uses shared vCPU cores and its Root Server dedicated cores; we don't guess how either would score.

Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. netcup has no published run in this suite yet, so there is no like-for-like number to compare.

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	bochka, a month	netcup, 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	$20 · $20/mo	$9 · Usage account · with limits
One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month	$26 · $20/mo	$9 · Usage account · with limits
50 agents in parallel 50 machines of 4 vCPU / 8 GB at once, 8-hour sessions, 1,100 sessions a month, Docker inside	$317 · $20/mo × 3 seats	$426 · Usage account · with limits
Sandboxes for your users 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 30,000 sessions of 10 minutes a month, up to 300 at once	$200 · $100/mo × 2 seats	$1,509 · Usage account · with limits
1,000 short jobs at once 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 1,000 at once, 3 minutes each, 200,000 jobs a month	$2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits	$5,029 · Usage account · with limits

bochka: You pick a monthly plan from $20, and all of it becomes usage credit spent per second on running sandboxes. A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.

netcup: netcup charges a fixed monthly fee per server on a minimum term, and bills it in advance for the whole term, whether the server is busy, idle or off. Longer terms are cheaper per month, and the Lite plans need 2 to 12 months up front depending on the size.

Limits in those scenarios

On netcup the limit that bites is the term: the cheapest 4 vCPU plan needs 3 months up front, so even a workday agent pays for whole months. netcup publishes no limit on how many servers one account can run, so 300 user sandboxes or 1,000 short jobs at once mean renting and checking that many servers for full terms. VPS cores are shared, so heavy, sustained CPU use can slow down. On bochka, concurrency goes from 100 to 2,000 by plan, but start-rate limits mean even the top plan can't launch 1,000 short jobs at once without queueing.

Scenario	bochka	netcup
One coding agent, workdays	None that bite	2-12 months (per size) commitment monthly cap reached
One agent that never stops	None that bite	2-12 months (per size) commitment
50 agents in parallel	None that bite	2-12 months (per size) commitment monthly cap reached how many machines can run at once: limit not published, probably fine at 50 (the typical published limit is 50)
Sandboxes for your users	None that bite	not confirmed: how many machines can run at once (you need 300; the typical published limit is 50) 2-12 months (per size) commitment monthly cap reached
1,000 short jobs at once	max 2,400 starts/day (needs ~6,667) max 600 starts/hour (needs ~1,000) bursts above 90 starts/min are queued (a burst of 333 takes ~4 min to start)	not confirmed: how many machines can run at once (you need 1,000; the typical published limit is 50) shared vCPUs on this tier 1-month term (net EUR converted)”): heavy, sustained CPU use can be slowed by other tenants 2-12 months (per size) commitment monthly cap reached

Which one should you use?

Use netcup when

you want one cheap server that runs all month, ARM64 machines, or a server in the US or Singapore.

One server that runs all month. Useful for one always-on server: a low flat fee buys a 4 vCPU / 8 GB VPS with traffic included.
US and Singapore locations. Useful if your users are in America or Asia: netcup has servers in Manassas and Singapore.
ARM64 servers and network firewall rules. Useful if you build for ARM or want outbound rules outside the machine: netcup sells ARM64 VPS plans and a network firewall.

Use bochka when

agents start, stop and fork machines all day: each sandbox is a full VM from an API with /dev/kvm, saved every minute, with a desktop and coding agents you drive from outside.

Nested virtualization and Docker ready. Agents that test mobile apps or build microVMs need /dev/kvm. On netcup there is no plan that turns it on, so that work must move to another host.
State saved every minute, and forks. Agents sometimes wreck an install or delete files. With manual snapshots you must remember to take one first, and splitting one good machine into ten parallel attempts means stopping it, exporting and renting ten servers.
Coding agents you drive from outside. On a plain VPS the agent's API keys sit on a disk the agent can read and leak. You also build and maintain the code that starts, prompts and watches each agent yourself.

Questions people ask

Is bochka cheaper than netcup?

For one machine that runs all month, netcup is cheaper: $9 against $26 a month on bochka, though the cheapest plan needs a 3 month term. For 50 agents in parallel it is $317 on bochka against $426, and 300 sandboxes for your users come to $200 on bochka against $1,509. For 1,000 short jobs at once, neither fits.

Does netcup support nested virtualization?

No. netcup's FAQ says the SVM flag is disabled on its systems for security and stability and cannot be activated, and suggests containers instead. Every bochka sandbox has /dev/kvm.

Does netcup have hourly billing?

Its VPS and root servers are rented on minimum terms of 1, 12 or 24 months, with the fee billed in advance for the term. bochka bills per second while a sandbox runs, and a stopped one costs nothing.

Can I run Claude Code on a netcup VPS?

Yes, you get root and can install it yourself, then run it over SSH with your API key on the server. bochka preinstalls Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and others, drives them through an API, and keeps real keys out of the sandbox with its credentials proxy.

Where do bochka and netcup run?

bochka runs only in the EU, in Germany, Finland and France, with EU data residency. netcup has servers in Vienna, Nuremberg, Amsterdam, Manassas in the US and Singapore.

Is bochka SOC 2 compliant?

SOC 2 is in progress. We're open about where we stand: live status at status.bochka.xyz and our data retention policy at docs.bochka.xyz/data-retention.

Start a sandbox

Install the CLI, then run bochka new.

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