Docker Cloud Sandboxes vs Claude Managed Agents

Docker Cloud Sandboxes gives each coding agent its own microVM with Docker inside, for up to 24 hours, and you bring the agent. Claude Managed Agents is Anthropic's hosted agent: you send Claude a task, and it works in a small container that Anthropic runs and puts to sleep between messages.

The companies and products

Docker Cloud Sandboxes

Docker Cloud Sandboxes runs Docker's sbx coding-agent microVMs on Docker-managed compute instead of your laptop.

Each sandbox is a microVM with its own Linux kernel and its own Docker Engine, started from the same sbx CLI you use locally, with Claude Code, Codex and other agents ready to run. You can move a sandbox from your laptop to the cloud and back, publish HTTPS ports and SSH in. It launched on September 24, 2026, is billed pay-as-you-go on a personal Docker account, and is built for developers who want their local agent sandboxes to keep going off their machine.

Isolation: MicroVM per sandbox with its own Linux kernel and its own Docker Engine
Launched: September 24, 2026
Machine sizes: 1 vCPU / 2 GiB up to 16 vCPU / 32 GiB, CPU only, amd64 or arm64 by account
Session length: 1 hour by default, extendable to 24 hours from creation
Default quota: 10 concurrent and 50 stored sandboxes per account
Account: Pay-as-you-go plan on a personal Docker account, even inside an organization
Regions: Not published

Claude Managed Agents

Claude Managed Agents is Anthropic's ready-made agent harness: Claude runs as an autonomous agent in a cloud sandbox that Anthropic manages, and you talk to it through an events API.

This is an agent platform, not a sandbox you rent. You define an agent (model, prompt, tools, MCP servers, skills) and an environment, then start sessions, send messages as events and stream back what Claude does; the harness handles tool calls, prompt caching and compaction. Each session gets its own Ubuntu container, or runs its tools on a worker you host yourself. It is built for teams that want Claude doing long tasks without building their own agent loop or sandbox.

Isolation: Each session gets its own isolated Linux container on Anthropic-managed infrastructure
Sandbox size: Ubuntu 24.04, x86_64, up to 8 GB memory and 10 GB disk; vCPU count not published
Models: Claude models only, through Anthropic's own harness
Billing: Model tokens at API rates, plus a session runtime fee that accrues only while a session is running
Self-hosted sandboxes: Tools can run on a worker in your own infrastructure while Anthropic keeps the orchestration
Data location: Workspace geo, which sets where data is stored and code runs, is US only today; inference can be global or US
Status: Beta, behind the managed-agents-2026-04-01 header; not eligible for Zero Data Retention or a HIPAA BAA

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. “280th cheapest of 367” means 279 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	Docker Cloud Sandboxes: price rank	Claude Managed Agents: price rank	bochka: price rank
Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month A software factory runs many agents for days; Docker stops each sandbox at 24 hours and allows 10 at once, and Managed Agents caps memory at 8 GB with Docker only in limited availability, while bochka gives each agent a full VM with no session cap.	280th of 367, with limits $4,928 a month	106th of 367, with limits $964 a month	3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month
Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB Managed Agents suits an assistant that waits between messages, since idle time is free, but its sandbox state is kept only 30 days; Docker's sessions end after 24 hours.	276th of 366, with limits $5,110 a month	219th of 366, with limits $2,511 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 For short code runs Docker fits best of the three: small sandboxes billed by the second, stopped with their memory between runs.	119th of 345, with limits $233 a month	163rd of 345, with limits $756 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 Serving your own users needs many sandboxes and a way to open them; Docker allows 10 at once by default, and Managed Agents has no inbound ports, while bochka gives HTTPS URLs on up to 50 ports.	136th of 361, with limits $1,628 a month	231st of 361, with limits $823 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	114th of 360, with limits $7,000 a month	252nd of 360, with limits $3,978 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	167th of 364, with limits $1,400 a month	244th of 364, with limits $320 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 CI that builds Android apps or VM images needs /dev/kvm, which bochka exposes and neither Docker nor Managed Agents documents.	172nd of 377, with limits $672 a month	227th of 377, with limits $96 a month	4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month
24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB A dev box needs SSH and a machine that stays on; Docker has SSH but a 24-hour cap, and Managed Agents has no SSH at all.	127th of 368, with limits $204 a month	224th of 368, with limits $48 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 Computer-use agents need a screen; Docker is terminal only, Managed Agents ships headless Chromium, and bochka streams a Linux desktop at 60fps.	268th of 369, with limits $1,400 a month	127th of 369, with limits $288 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 Managed Agents can script headless Chromium with Playwright, Docker ships no browser, and bochka shows Chromium on a live desktop you can watch or take over.	277th of 367, with limits $700 a month	126th of 367, with limits $288 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	262nd of 346, with limits $350 a month	127th of 346, with limits $390 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	190th of 338, with limits $7,000 a month	155th of 338, with limits $4,798 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	248th of 360, with limits $350 a month	179th of 360, with limits $160 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	Can't run it	Can't run it	Can't run it

Key features

Feature	Docker Cloud Sandboxes	Claude Managed Agents	bochka
What it is	An agent sandbox: a microVM per agent, started from the sbx CLI, locally or in the cloud	A hosted Claude agent: Anthropic's harness runs Claude in a sandbox and you send it events	A sandbox platform: each agent gets its own full Linux VM, with coding agents built in
Isolation	MicroVM with its own Linux kernel and its own Docker Engine	Isolated Linux container per session	Full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts
Machine size	1 vCPU / 2 GiB up to 16 vCPU / 32 GiB, amd64 or arm64 by account	Up to 8 GB memory and 10 GB disk; vCPU not published; not configurable	Up to 16 vCPU / 32 GB on the $100 plan and above
Session length	1 hour by default, at most 24 hours from creation	No session cap published; sandbox state is kept only 30 days after it is created	No cap on paid plans; you set the time to live, and the disk lasts as long as you keep it
Sandboxes at once	10 by default; no published way to raise it	No concurrent cap published; 300 creates per minute per organization and usage-tier spend limits	100 on the $20 plan, up to 2,000 on higher plans, self-serve
Docker inside	Yes, its own Docker Engine; agent runs as a non-root user with sudo	Limited availability; root and systemd not documented	Yes, with root and systemd
Nested virtualization	Not documented	Not documented	Yes, /dev/kvm for Android emulators and VMs
Stop and resume	Stop keeps memory and files; resume picks up with processes still running	Idle sessions are checkpointed, cost no runtime and resume on the next message	Disk saved every minute and on stop; a stopped sandbox costs nothing and resume boots it again
Fork	Snapshot a running sandbox with disk or disk and memory, then restore it as a new one	No fork or clone of a session or sandbox	Fork a running sandbox with its disk
Browser and desktop	Terminal sessions only	Headless Chromium with Playwright; no desktop or computer-use tool	60fps Linux desktop with Chromium and computer use
Inbound access	Public HTTPS URL per published port; SSH with Docker-issued certificates; not a TCP tunnel	No inbound ports or SSH; reached only through the sessions and events API	HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected by default; raw TCP; SSH
Agents	Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, OpenCode and more, attached to from the sbx CLI	Anthropic's harness with Claude models only, with events, steering, memory stores and webhooks	Claude Code, Codex and five more preinstalled, driven from outside with a prompt, steer and events API
Outbound rules	Allow and deny rules by host, with allow-all, balanced and deny-all presets	Unrestricted, or limited to listed hosts plus optional package registries and MCP servers	Open internet, no provider-side allowlist
Where it runs	Regions not published; the same sandbox also runs on your laptop	US workspace geo only; tools can also run on workers you host	EU only (Germany, Finland, France)

Every feature Battleships tracks (43)

Feature	Docker Cloud Sandboxes	Claude Managed Agents	bochka
Full VM (own kernel)	Yes	No	Yes
Docker inside	Yes	Not published	Yes
Nested virtualization	No	No	Yes
Root	Yes	Not published	Yes
Systemd	Not published	Not published	Yes
Desktop GUI	No	No	Yes
Browser	No	Yes	Yes
Computer-use API	No	No	Yes
SSH	Yes	No	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	No	Yes	No
Wake on request	Not published	Yes	No
HTTPS preview URLs	Yes	No	Yes
Raw TCP inbound	Not published	No	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	Yes	Yes
MCP server	Yes	Yes	No
GPU	No	No	No
Windows	No	No	No
Arm64	Yes	No	No
Self-hosting	No	Yes	No
BYOC	No	Yes	No
Open source	No	No	No
Scoped API keys	Not published	Not published	Yes
Spend limits	Not published	Yes	Yes
Usage per sandbox (API)	No	Yes	Yes
Audit logs	Not published	Not published	No
SSO	Yes	Yes	No
SOC 2	No	Yes	No
HIPAA	No	No	No
EU data residency	No	No	Yes
Zero data retention	Not published	No	Yes

Performance

Docker Cloud SandboxesNot measured

Claude Managed AgentsNot measured

bochka26.69 runs/s

Neither has a comparable measurement: Docker Cloud Sandboxes launched in September 2026 and is not in the hpc-sandbox-benchmarks runs, and Anthropic does not publish how many vCPUs a Managed Agents sandbox gets. bochka did 26.69 runs per second on the Node.js build-and-test benchmark at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts. On Managed Agents, much of a session's time is often spent waiting on the model rather than the CPU.

Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Docker Cloud Sandboxes and Claude Managed Agents 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	Docker Cloud Sandboxes, a month	Claude Managed Agents, 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	$49 · Docker Agentic Platform (pay-as-you-go)	$13 · Claude API (pay-as-you-go, usage tiers) · with limits	$20 · $20/mo
One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month	$204 · Docker Agentic Platform (pay-as-you-go) · with limits	$53 · Claude API (pay-as-you-go, usage tiers) · 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	$2,464 · Docker Agentic Platform (pay-as-you-go) · with limits	$634 · Claude API (pay-as-you-go, usage tiers) · 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	$700 · Docker Agentic Platform (pay-as-you-go) · with limits	$360 · Claude API (pay-as-you-go, usage tiers) · 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	$1,400 · Docker Agentic Platform (pay-as-you-go) · with limits	$796 · Claude API (pay-as-you-go, usage tiers) · with limits	$2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits

Docker Cloud Sandboxes: Docker bills per second for the size you pick, from $0.07 an hour for 1 vCPU / 2 GiB to $1.12 an hour for 16 vCPU / 32 GiB, with no monthly fee. A stopped sandbox costs nothing; model calls are billed by your model provider.

Claude Managed Agents: Managed Agents bills model tokens at API rates plus a session runtime fee that accrues only while a session is running, including time spent waiting on the model. The table shows runtime only; tokens come on top and usually cost more.

Claude Managed Agents: Plans start at $20 a month, and the whole fee is usage credit. You pay per second while a sandbox runs, and a stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.

Limits in those scenarios

Docker ends every sandbox 24 hours after creation, so one agent that never stops does not fit in a single session, and its default of 10 concurrent sandboxes rules it out for 50 agents in parallel, sandboxes for your users and 1,000 short jobs at once. Managed Agents is a different kind of product with an unpublished machine size, Docker not confirmed inside and no published concurrency cap, so no scenario counts as a clean fit for it. bochka fits every scenario except the 1,000-job burst, where even the $2,000 plan queues starts above 90 per minute.

Scenario	Docker Cloud Sandboxes	Claude Managed Agents	bochka
One coding agent, workdays	None that bite	adjacent product, not a like-for-like sandbox machine size not published different kind of product: agent-platform machine size per session not published	None that bite
One agent that never stops	Docker Agentic Platform (pay-as-you-go): sessions capped at 24 h	adjacent product, not a like-for-like sandbox machine size not published different kind of product: agent-platform machine size per session not published	None that bite
50 agents in parallel	Docker Agentic Platform (pay-as-you-go): max 10 concurrent	adjacent product, not a like-for-like sandbox not confirmed: Docker inside machine size not published different kind of product: agent-platform	None that bite
Sandboxes for your users	Docker Agentic Platform (pay-as-you-go): max 10 concurrent	adjacent product, not a like-for-like sandbox machine size not published different kind of product: agent-platform not confirmed: how many machines can run at once (you need 300; the typical published limit is 50)	None that bite
1,000 short jobs at once	Docker Agentic Platform (pay-as-you-go): max 10 concurrent	adjacent product, not a like-for-like sandbox machine size not published different kind of product: agent-platform not confirmed: how many machines can run at once (you need 1,000; the typical published limit is 50)	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)

Which one should you use?

Use Docker Cloud Sandboxes when

you already run coding agents in sbx on your laptop and want a few to keep going in the cloud for up to a day, with memory kept across stops and strict outbound rules.

Stop and fork with memory. For agents that pause between steps: a stopped sandbox comes back with its memory and running processes, and can be forked.
Bring any coding agent. Teams that use Claude Code, Codex or Copilot can run them as they are, in a microVM with its own Docker Engine.
The same sandbox on your laptop. If you already run sbx locally, the cloud is the same microVM and CLI, and a sandbox can move between them.

Use Claude Managed Agents when

you want Claude itself to do long tasks with no harness or sandbox to build, idle time that costs nothing, and the option to run tools on your own workers.

No agent loop to build. Teams that want Claude doing long tasks get the harness, caching, compaction, memory and webhooks ready to use.
Idle sessions sleep for free. Agents that wait a long time between messages pay runtime only while working, and wake on the next message.
Tools on your own workers. Teams with strict network rules can run every tool call on their own infrastructure while Anthropic keeps the orchestration.

Where bochka fits

If you are choosing between these two because you want agents doing real work for a long time, bochka gives each one a full VM with no session cap, a desktop and open ports. Like Docker, you bring any agent; like Managed Agents, you drive it through an API instead of a terminal.

Runs as long and as wide as the work

Docker ends a sandbox 24 hours after creation and runs 10 at once by default, so your code must restart agents and queue the rest. Managed Agents keeps sandbox state only 30 days. bochka has no session cap on paid plans.

A whole machine, screen included

Docker's sandboxes are terminal only, and Managed Agents gives a container with up to 8 GB and headless Chromium. Neither documents /dev/kvm, so Android emulators and computer use need another service. bochka has both, plus Docker and systemd.

Any agent, driven and opened from outside

On Docker you attach to an agent's terminal, so an app has to wrap and parse its text. Managed Agents has an API but runs only Claude and has no inbound ports. bochka drives seven agents by API and serves HTTPS on 50 ports.

Use bochka when your agents run for days or by the dozen, need Docker, emulators, a desktop or ports you can open, and you want to drive Claude Code, Codex or other agents from your own app. Compare it one to one: bochka vs Docker Cloud Sandboxes and bochka vs Claude Managed Agents.

Questions people ask

Is Docker Cloud Sandboxes cheaper than Claude Managed Agents?

For runtime alone, Managed Agents costs less in every scenario on this page, for example $53 against $204 for one agent that never stops. But Managed Agents adds model tokens on top, which usually cost more than the runtime, and its sandbox is smaller and not a like-for-like machine.

Which is faster?

There is no comparable measurement for either. Docker Cloud Sandboxes is not in the hpc-sandbox-benchmarks runs, and Anthropic does not publish a Managed Agents sandbox's vCPU count. bochka did 26.69 runs per second on the same benchmark at 4 vCPU / 8 GB.

Can Docker Cloud Sandboxes and Claude Managed Agents run Docker?

Each Docker cloud sandbox has its own Docker Engine inside its microVM. In Managed Agents, Docker is listed as limited availability. bochka runs Docker with root and systemd, and also exposes /dev/kvm.

Can I run Claude Code on each?

On Docker Cloud Sandboxes, yes: Claude Code, Codex and other agents are ready to run from the sbx CLI. Managed Agents runs Anthropic's own harness with Claude models, not Claude Code. bochka has Claude Code, Codex and five other agents preinstalled.

How long can a session run?

A Docker cloud sandbox expires after one hour by default and cannot go past 24 hours from creation. Managed Agents publishes no session cap, but sandbox state is kept only 30 days after it is created. bochka has no session cap on paid plans.

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.

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