Depot vs WarpBuild
Depot and WarpBuild both swap GitHub's runners for faster ones with a one-line runs-on change, and both throw the machine away after each job. Depot sells monthly plans with included minutes and adds Depot CI, Docker builds and agent sandboxes, while WarpBuild bills per minute with no plan fee and can run its runners in your own AWS, GCP or Azure account.
The companies and products
Depot
Depot is a build and CI platform: faster Docker builds, drop-in GitHub Actions runners, its own Depot CI, and newer sandboxes for coding agents.
Depot's main product is GitHub Actions runners: you change one runs-on label and each job runs on a fresh AWS EC2 instance that is thrown away when the job ends, with Linux, Arm, Windows and macOS sizes and a shared fast cache. It also sells remote agent sandboxes that run Claude Code in a container, and a Sandbox SDK in public beta whose sandboxes live at most 24 hours. It is built for engineering teams that want CI and builds to finish sooner, so it is a different kind of product than an agent sandbox, and this page compares where the two overlap.
WarpBuild
WarpBuild sells hosted GitHub Actions runners: you change the runs-on label and your CI jobs run on its machines.
WarpBuild is a CI service, not an agent sandbox. Each GitHub Actions job runs in its own VM on Linux (x86-64 or arm64), Windows or macOS on Apple M4 Pro, and the VM and its disk are destroyed after the build. It also sells remote Docker builders, can run the same runners inside your own AWS, GCP or Azure account, and can host Claude Managed Agents sessions on its stock runners.
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. “125th cheapest of 377” means 124 of the other 376 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 | Depot: price rank | WarpBuild: price rank | bochka: price rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month Neither keeps a runner after its job, so an agent that builds an app over days fits bochka, where the disk, Docker and /dev/kvm stay on one VM. | 331st of 367, with limits $8,688 a month | 269th of 367, with limits $4,343 a month | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB An always-on assistant outlives both: a Depot Sandbox SDK sandbox ends after at most 24 hours, and GitHub stops a WarpBuild job after 5 days. | 86th of 366, with limits $13,148 a month | 285th of 366, with limits $5,650 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 | 311th of 345, with limits $1,188 a month | 287th of 345, with limits $600 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 Your users' sandboxes need a URL; WarpBuild blocks all inbound traffic and Depot documents none, while bochka serves HTTPS on up to 50 ports and raw TCP. | 318th of 361, with limits $3,713 a month | 278th of 361, with limits $1,890 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 | 311th of 360, with limits $17,908 a month | 281st of 360, with limits $9,000 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 | 319th of 364, with limits $2,888 a month | 294th of 364, with limits $1,440 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 Both are made for this with a one-line runs-on change; in our table WarpBuild ranks 94th and Depot ranks 125th, and bochka ranks 4th as a full VM you run your own runner on. | 125th cheapest of 377 $1,736 a month | 94th cheapest of 377 $864 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB Both machines start, run a job and vanish, so a dev box that keeps its state all month fits bochka. | 199th of 368, with limits $534 a month | 182nd of 368, with limits $226 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 Neither Depot nor WarpBuild has a desktop or computer-use product; bochka streams a 60fps desktop with Chromium on every machine. | 321st of 369, with limits $2,600 a month | 264th of 369, with limits $1,320 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 | 139th of 367, with limits $1,304 a month | 280th of 367, with limits $720 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 | 139th of 346, with limits $1,763 a month | 306th of 346, with limits $878 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 | 312th of 338, with limits $35,108 a month | 275th of 338, with limits $17,550 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 | 81st of 360, with limits $863 a month | 264th of 360, with limits $435 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 Both rent macOS runners and bochka runs Linux only; Depot ranks 10th here and WarpBuild ranks 29th, at $248 against $1,520 a month. | 10th of 36, with limits $248 a month | 29th of 36, with limits $1,520 a month | Can't run it |
Key features
| Feature | Depot | WarpBuild | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | GitHub Actions runners, Depot CI, fast Docker builds, agent sandboxes and a beta Sandbox SDK | GitHub Actions runners and remote Docker builders, in its cloud or yours | VMs for AI agents that you keep, stop, fork and host from |
| Isolation | A fresh EC2 instance per CI job, destroyed after it; agent sessions in an isolated container | Each job gets its own VM, created on demand and destroyed after the build | Every sandbox is a full VM with its own kernel |
| How long a machine lives | Runners end with the job; Sandbox SDK default 120 minutes, at most 24 hours | Until the job ends; GitHub stops a self-hosted runner job after 5 days | No session cap on paid plans; runs until you stop it |
| Files after a job | Runners are never reused; agent sandboxes keep files and the Claude Code conversation; SDK snapshots are coming soon | Disk destroyed after each build; disk snapshots on Ubuntu runners, deleted after 15 days, boot in 45 to 60 seconds | Disk snapshotted every minute and on stop; a stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk |
| Fork | No fork or clone API | No fork; a later runner can boot from a saved disk snapshot | Fork a running sandbox into copies |
| Docker and nested virtualization | Docker on Linux runners; /dev/kvm only on Depot CI sandboxes, not on GitHub Actions runners | Docker on runners; /dev/kvm on Linux x86-64 runners, turned on with a label | Docker, root, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine |
| Operating systems and chips | Linux x64 and Graviton4 Arm, Windows Server 2025 and 2022, macOS 26, 15 and 14; GPU runners on Business | Linux x86-64 and arm64, Windows Server 2022 and 2025, macOS 14, 15 and 26 on Apple M4 Pro | Linux on x86-64, on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts |
| Plan fee | $20 or $200 a month, with GitHub Actions, Depot CI and Docker build minutes included | None on pay as you go; billed per minute while a job runs | Plans from $20 a month, all of it usage credit spent per second |
| Runners in your own cloud | Depot Managed in your own AWS account, on the Business plan | BYOC in AWS, GCP or Azure at $0.002 a minute on top of your cloud bill | Hosted by bochka in the EU only |
| Outbound network rules | Egress filtering on hosted Linux runners by IP, CIDR or hostname | Security-group egress rules and static egress IPs with BYOC | Open internet on every plan; no provider-side allowlist |
| Regions | United States, or the European Union if a project chooses it | Its cloud; a hosted EU region on the enterprise tier, or any region of your own cloud | EU only: Germany, Finland and France |
| Reaching the machine | SSH into a running Depot CI job for debugging; no documented inbound ports or URLs | All inbound traffic blocked; SSH into failed jobs for debugging | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected; raw TCP; SSH |
| Coding agents | Claude Code in remote agent sandboxes, started and resumed with the depot claude command | Hosts Claude Managed Agents sessions on stock runners, driven through Anthropic's API | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and more preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API |
| Keys and desktop | Secrets passed in as environment variables; no desktop or computer use | GitHub secrets passed into the runner; no desktop stream | AI credentials proxy for any HTTPS API, so real keys stay out; 60fps desktop with computer use |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | Depot | WarpBuild | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | No | Not published | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | No | No | Yes |
| Browser | Yes | No | Yes |
| Computer-use API | No | No | Yes |
| SSH | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Persistent disk | Yes | No | Yes |
| Pause/resume | No | No | Yes |
| Automatic snapshots | No | No | Yes |
| Fork/clone | No | No | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | No | No | Yes |
| Memory fork | No | 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 | No | Yes | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | No | No | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | No | No | Yes |
| Public IPv4 | No | No | No |
| Egress allowlist | Yes | Yes | No |
| Secret proxy | No | No | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | No | No | Yes |
| Preinstalled agents | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Agent harness API | Yes | No | Yes |
| MCP server | No | Yes | No |
| GPU | Yes | No | No |
| Windows | Yes | Yes | No |
| Arm64 | Yes | Yes | No |
| Self-hosting | No | No | No |
| BYOC | Yes | Yes | No |
| Open source | No | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| Spend limits | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Audit logs | Not published | Not published | No |
| SSO | Yes | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes | No |
| HIPAA | Not published | No | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Performance
There is no comparable measurement for either. Neither Depot nor WarpBuild was in StarSling's public sandbox benchmark, where bochka did 26.69 Node.js build-and-test runs per second at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, so we do not compare CPU speed here.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Depot and WarpBuild have 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 | Depot, a month | WarpBuild, 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 | $122 · Developer · with limits | $57 · Pay as you go · with limits | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $534 · Developer · with limits | $237 · 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 | $5,710 · Developer · with limits | $2,851 · Pay as you go · with limits | $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 | $1,628 · Developer · with limits | $810 · Pay as you go · with limits | $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 | $3,588 · Developer · with limits | $1,800 · Pay as you go · with limits | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
Depot: Depot plans cost $20 or $200 a month and include GitHub Actions, Depot CI and Docker build minutes; after that a 2-CPU Linux runner costs $0.006 a minute and bigger sizes multiply it. Agent sandboxes cost $0.01 a minute with no included usage.
WarpBuild: WarpBuild has no plan fee and bills runners per minute while a job runs, from $0.003 a minute for 2 vCPU; Windows costs twice the Linux x86-64 rate and macOS $0.08 a minute. Cache, snapshot storage and restores are extra, and BYOC adds $0.002 a minute.
WarpBuild: 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.
Limits in those scenarios
Neither fits the agent scenarios as sold, because a runner lives only for one CI job and keeps no disk afterwards. An agent that never stops needs restarts: every 24 hours on a Depot Sandbox SDK sandbox and every 5 days under GitHub's cap on a WarpBuild job. Both say they have no concurrency limits on Linux, but the scenarios still mark 300 and 1,000 machines at once as unconfirmed, and neither publishes egress pricing. On bochka, the 1,000 short jobs burst is the hard one: starts are capped per minute, per hour and per day, so it queues even on the $2,000 plan.
| Scenario | Depot | WarpBuild | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays |
|
| None that bite |
| One agent that never stops |
|
| None that bite |
| 50 agents in parallel |
|
| None that bite |
| Sandboxes for your users |
|
| None that bite |
| 1,000 short jobs at once |
|
|
|
Which one should you use?
Use Depot when
you want faster GitHub Actions plus Depot CI, Docker builds and Claude Code sandboxes from one vendor, with egress rules or a US or EU region on hosted runners.
- More than runners. Useful if you want one vendor for GitHub Actions runners, Depot CI, fast Docker builds and Claude Code agent sandboxes.
- Hosted egress rules and US or EU. Useful if hosted Linux runners must reach only chosen hosts, or a project must run in the US or the EU.
- Included minutes and GPU runners. Useful if a monthly plan with included minutes and a shared cache suits you, or you need GPU runners on Business.
Use WarpBuild when
you want faster GitHub Actions billed per minute with no plan fee, or runners inside your own AWS, GCP or Azure account.
- No plan fee. Useful if you want to pay only for the minutes your jobs run, with no monthly plan to pick.
- Runners in AWS, GCP or Azure. Useful if CI must run inside your own cloud account, with your security groups and static egress IPs.
- Disk snapshots and nested virtualization. Useful if Linux jobs should boot from a saved disk or need /dev/kvm on the runners themselves.
Where bochka fits
Depot and WarpBuild are CI services: a machine exists for one GitHub Actions job and is thrown away after it. If what you are really running is agents, which build for days, serve the apps they make and need their keys kept safe, bochka gives each one a full VM that stays. For plain CI speed or macOS builds, Depot or WarpBuild is the better tool.
A machine that keeps its work
Both throw a runner away after its job, so an agent loses its repo, packages and build each time. Depot's SDK snapshots are not out yet; WarpBuild's disk snapshots are billed per hour and expire after 15 days.
Apps people can reach
WarpBuild blocks all inbound traffic and Depot documents no inbound ports, so nobody can open what an agent built. bochka gives HTTPS on up to 50 ports, raw TCP and a 60fps desktop; elsewhere you add your own tunnel per job.
Agents you drive, keys kept out
Depot runs only Claude Code and WarpBuild only Claude Managed Agents, and both pass secrets in as environment variables that agent code can read. bochka ships many agents with a steer API and a credentials proxy for any HTTPS API.
Use bochka when what you run is agents: a full VM that keeps its disk, forks, serves apps on HTTPS ports and runs coding agents you drive from outside. Compare it one to one: bochka vs Depot and bochka vs WarpBuild.
Questions people ask
Is Depot cheaper than WarpBuild?
On the Linux runner rates we priced, WarpBuild is about half: one coding agent on workdays comes to $57 a month on WarpBuild and $122 on Depot, and 50 agents in parallel come to $2,851 versus $5,710. Depot's plan fee includes minutes, and on macOS Depot came out lower, at $248 against $1,520 a month.
Which is faster, Depot or WarpBuild?
We have no comparable measurement for either, since neither was in StarSling's public benchmark, so we do not rank them on speed. bochka did 26.69 Node.js runs per second there at 4 vCPU / 8 GB.
Can Depot and WarpBuild run Docker and nested VMs?
Both run Docker on their runners. WarpBuild turns on /dev/kvm on Linux x86-64 runners with a label, while Depot offers it only on Depot CI sandboxes, not on its GitHub Actions runners. bochka has Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine.
Can I run AI agents on Depot or WarpBuild?
Partly. Depot sells remote sandboxes that run Claude Code and a beta Sandbox SDK whose sandboxes last at most 24 hours, and WarpBuild hosts Claude Managed Agents sessions on fresh runners. Neither keeps a disk you can come back to or lets traffic in to the apps an agent builds.
Can I run runners in my own cloud?
WarpBuild's BYOC runs runners in your AWS, GCP or Azure account for $0.002 a minute on top of your cloud bill. Depot offers Depot Managed in your own AWS account on its Business plan. bochka is hosted only in the EU.
Where does my data run?
Depot runs in the United States, or the European Union if a project chooses it. WarpBuild offers a hosted EU region on its enterprise tier, or any region of your own cloud. bochka runs only in the EU (Germany, Finland and France), with EU data residency.
Try bochka
Install the CLI, then run bochka new.
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