Replit vs Docker Cloud Sandboxes
Replit is an app builder: you describe an app, Replit Agent writes it and Replit hosts it. Docker Cloud Sandboxes gives each coding agent its own small Linux VM with Docker inside, started from the same sbx CLI you use on your laptop, for up to 24 hours at a time.
The companies and products
Replit
Replit is an AI app builder and hosting platform: you describe an app in chat, Replit Agent writes it, and Replit publishes it.
You work in a browser workspace where Replit Agent sets up the project, writes the code, tests it and fixes problems, with system packages managed by Nix. When the app is ready you publish it as an Autoscale, Static, Scheduled or Reserved VM deployment, with Postgres and object storage next to it. It is built for people and teams who want a working app, not for programs that need to create many machines by API, so this page compares the parts where the two overlap.
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.
- Launched
- September 24, 2026
- Session length
- 1 hour by default, extendable to 24 hours from creation
- Default quota
- 10 concurrent and 50 stored sandboxes per account
- Regions
- Not published
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. “181st cheapest of 367” means 180 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 | Replit: price rank | Docker Cloud Sandboxes: 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 runs 10 at once, Replit drives one app at a time through Replit Agent, and bochka ranks 3rd. | 181st of 367, with limits $2,000 a month | 280th of 367, with limits $4,928 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 on Replit is a Reserved VM that runs and bills all month as a published app, while a Docker session ends 24 hours after creation. | 202nd of 366, with limits $2,033 a month | 276th of 366, with limits $5,110 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 Docker fits short code runs better, with small sandboxes billed by the second and memory kept on stop; Replit's Autoscale comes lower here but it is a web host, not a code runner. | 228th of 345, with limits $146 a month | 119th of 345, with limits $233 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 more than Docker's default 10 sandboxes at once, and Replit does not publish how many deployments can run at once. | 233rd of 361, with limits $825 a month | 136th of 361, with limits $1,628 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 | 258th of 360, with limits $4,226 a month | 114th of 360, with limits $7,000 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 | 265th of 364, with limits $685 a month | 167th of 364, with limits $1,400 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 jobs that build containers can run Docker on Docker Cloud Sandboxes, which Replit's Nix-based environments do not document, and only bochka exposes /dev/kvm for emulators and VMs. | 275th of 377, with limits $425 a month | 172nd of 377, with limits $672 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB A Replit workspace is a good place to code by hand, while a Docker dev box ends 24 hours after creation; a bochka sandbox can stay on all month. | 165th of 368, with limits $109 a month | 127th of 368, with limits $204 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 Replit's VNC pane shows a desktop to a person with no API for an agent, Docker's sandboxes are terminal only, and bochka has a 60fps desktop with computer use. | 190th of 369, with limits $619 a month | 268th of 369, with limits $1,400 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 Browser agents need a real browser inside the machine, which bochka ships with Chromium and neither Replit nor Docker provides. | 229th of 367, with limits $317 a month | 277th of 367, with limits $700 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 | 234th of 346, with limits $217 a month | 262nd of 346, with limits $350 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 | 150th of 338, with limits $4,378 a month | 190th of 338, with limits $7,000 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 | 208th of 360, with limits $215 a month | 248th of 360, with limits $350 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 | Replit | Docker Cloud Sandboxes | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kind of product | AI app builder with browser workspaces and app hosting | Cloud microVMs for coding agents, run from the sbx CLI | Sandboxes you create, stop and fork by API, SDK or CLI |
| Isolation | Not documented; the security page says strong logical separation between users | MicroVM with its own Linux kernel; hypervisor not named | Full VM with its own kernel on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts |
| Session length | Reserved VM runs continuously at a fixed monthly price | 1 hour by default, at most 24 hours from creation | No cap on paid plans; you set the time to live, and stopping ends the bill |
| Machines at once | Not published for deployments; each always-on machine is a published app | 10 by default; no published way to raise it | 100 on the $20 plan, up to 2,000 on higher plans |
| Docker inside | Not documented; system packages come from Nix | Yes, its own Docker Engine; the agent runs as a non-root user with sudo | Yes, with root and systemd |
| Nested virtualization | Not documented | Not documented | Yes, /dev/kvm for Android emulators and VMs |
| Stop and resume | Workspace files and Agent checkpoints; published apps should not rely on their filesystem | Stop keeps memory and files; resume picks up where it left off | Disk saved every minute and on stop; a stopped sandbox costs nothing |
| Fork a running machine | Not documented | Snapshot with disk, or disk and memory, then restore it as a new sandbox | Fork a running sandbox with its disk |
| Desktop and computer use | VNC pane that streams a desktop to your browser; no computer-use API | Terminal sessions only | 60fps Linux desktop with Chromium, computer use and browser control |
| Coding agents | Replit Agent, which an MCP client can drive (create, update, ask, publish) | Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, OpenCode and more, attached from the sbx CLI | Seven agents preinstalled, with a prompt, steer and events API to drive them from outside |
| Keeping keys out of the machine | Managed keys for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and OpenRouter models; other keys are app secrets | Cloud proxy sets the auth header for built-in AI services and custom hosts | Credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API; switch a credential to another account when credits run out |
| Reaching the machine | Published apps on HTTPS and custom domains; SSH into the workspace on paid plans | Public HTTPS URL per published port, not behind Docker sign-in; SSH with Docker-issued certificates | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected; raw TCP; dedicated IPv4 or IPv6; SSH |
| Laptop and cloud | Browser workspace in the cloud | Same microVM and CLI locally or in the cloud; move a sandbox either way | Cloud only |
| Regions | North America, Europe, Asia, South America and Australia for published apps on Core and up | Not published | EU only: Germany, Finland, France |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | Replit | Docker Cloud Sandboxes | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | No | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | No | No | Yes |
| Root | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | No | Not published | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | Yes | No | Yes |
| Browser | No | No | Yes |
| Computer-use API | No | No | Yes |
| SSH | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Persistent disk | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pause/resume | No | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic snapshots | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Fork/clone | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Memory fork | No | Yes | No |
| Custom image (Docker or snapshot) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ≥24 h sessions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | Yes | No | No |
| Wake on request | Yes | Not published | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Public IPv4 | No | No | No |
| Egress allowlist | No | Yes | No |
| Secret proxy | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | No | Yes | Yes |
| Preinstalled agents | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Agent harness API | Yes | No | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | Yes | No |
| GPU | No | No | No |
| Windows | No | No | No |
| Arm64 | Not published | Yes | No |
| Self-hosting | No | No | No |
| BYOC | No | No | No |
| Open source | No | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Spend limits | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | Yes | No | Yes |
| Audit logs | Yes | Not published | No |
| SSO | Yes | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | No | No |
| HIPAA | No | No | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | No | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Performance
There is no comparable measurement for either one. Neither Replit nor Docker Cloud Sandboxes is in StarSling's hpc-sandbox-benchmarks runs, and Docker does not say what hardware it uses. bochka did 26.69 Node.js build-and-test runs per second at 4 vCPU / 8 GB on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hosts.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Replit and Docker Cloud Sandboxes 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 | Replit, a month | Docker Cloud Sandboxes, 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 · Pro $100 (annual) · with limits | $49 · Docker Agentic Platform (pay-as-you-go) | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $122 · Pro $100 (annual) · with limits | $204 · Docker Agentic Platform (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 | $1,330 · Pro $1,000 (annual) · with limits | $2,464 · Docker Agentic Platform (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 | $403 · Pro $250 (annual) · with limits | $700 · Docker Agentic Platform (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 | $825 · Pro $1,000 (annual) · with limits | $1,400 · Docker Agentic Platform (pay-as-you-go) · with limits | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
Replit: Replit plans (Core $20, Pro from $100) turn into monthly credits for Agent work and hosting, then usage goes on to pay-as-you-go. A Reserved VM has a fixed monthly price per size and bills whether busy or idle, while Autoscale charges only while it serves requests.
Docker Cloud Sandboxes: Docker bills per second for the size you pick, such as $0.14 an hour for 2 vCPU / 4 GiB and $0.28 an hour for 4 vCPU / 8 GiB, with no monthly fee. A stopped sandbox costs nothing, and model calls are billed by your model provider.
Docker Cloud Sandboxes: Plans start at $20 a month, and the whole fee is usage credit spent per second on running sandboxes. A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Limits in those scenarios
Replit is not a fit in any scenario because it is an app platform: one Reserved VM is one published app that runs all month, it does not document Docker, and it does not publish how many deployments can run at once. Docker Cloud Sandboxes fits one coding agent on workdays, but its 24-hour session cap rules out an agent that never stops, and its default of 10 sandboxes at once rules out 50 agents, sandboxes for your users and 1,000 short jobs. bochka fits every scenario except the 1,000-job burst, where starts above 90 a minute are queued and the $2,000 plan allows fewer starts per day than it needs.
| Scenario | Replit | Docker Cloud Sandboxes | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays |
| None that bite | 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 Replit when
you want Replit Agent to build a web app from a description and host it for you, with a database, hosting that sleeps when idle, or regions outside Europe.
- An app built and hosted for you. Useful if you want a working app from a description: Replit Agent builds, tests and publishes it, with Postgres and storage.
- Hosting that costs nothing when idle. Useful for web apps with uneven traffic: Autoscale wakes on the first request and costs nothing while idle.
- Regions on five continents. Useful if your users are far from Europe: published apps can run in North America, Europe, Asia, South America or Australia.
Use Docker Cloud Sandboxes when
you already run agents in sbx on your laptop and want a few of them 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. Useful for agents that pause between steps: a stopped sandbox comes back with its memory and running processes.
- Outbound rules at the proxy. Teams that must limit where an agent connects can set allow and deny rules by host, enforced outside the VM.
- The same sandbox on your laptop. If you already run sbx locally, the cloud is the same microVM and CLI, and you can move work between them.
Where bochka fits
If what you are really running is coding agents started by your own code, Replit is built around people making apps and Docker caps each sandbox at 24 hours and 10 at once. bochka gives each agent a full VM that can run for weeks, by the dozen, with Docker, /dev/kvm and a desktop, and an API to drive the agent inside.
Runs as long and as wide as the work
On Docker your code has to stop and resume an agent before the 24-hour mark, and the eleventh agent waits. On Replit each always-on agent is a published Reserved VM billed all month. bochka has no session cap on paid plans and runs 100 at once from the $20 plan.
A whole machine, screen included
Replit does not document Docker, systemd or /dev/kvm, and Docker's sandboxes have Docker but no /dev/kvm and no screen, so a mobile app test or a browser task needs a separate service. Every bochka sandbox has /dev/kvm and a 60fps desktop with Chromium.
Agents driven from your app
Replit's MCP server drives only Replit Agent, with no event stream. On Docker you attach to an agent's terminal, so you write a wrapper and parse its text. bochka lets you prompt, steer and stream events from Claude Code, Codex and others.
Use bochka when your own code starts agents that run for days or by the dozen, need Docker, Android emulators, a desktop or a browser, and have to be driven through an API. Compare it one to one: bochka vs Replit and bochka vs Docker Cloud Sandboxes.
Questions people ask
Is Replit cheaper than Docker Cloud Sandboxes?
For one coding agent on workdays, Docker is lower at $49 a month against $122 on Replit, because a Replit Reserved VM bills all month. For 50 agents in parallel Replit comes to $1,330 against $2,464 on Docker, but neither fits that job as is. bochka comes to $20 and $317 a month for the same two scenarios.
Which is faster, Replit or Docker Cloud Sandboxes?
We cannot say: neither is in the public benchmark we use, and Docker does not publish its hardware. bochka did 26.69 Node.js build-and-test runs per second at 4 vCPU / 8 GB in the same benchmark.
Can Replit run Docker?
Replit's docs set up environments with Nix packages and do not describe running Docker inside a workspace or a published app. Docker Cloud Sandboxes gives each sandbox its own Docker Engine, and every bochka sandbox has Docker with root and systemd.
Can a Docker cloud sandbox run longer than 24 hours?
Not in one session. A Docker cloud sandbox expires after one hour by default, and extensions cannot go past 24 hours from creation. A Replit Reserved VM runs continuously, and bochka has no session cap on paid plans.
Can I drive the agents from my own code?
Partly on both. Replit's MCP server lets an MCP client create, update and publish an app through Replit Agent, and Docker lets you attach to an agent's terminal from the sbx CLI. bochka lets your app prompt, steer and stream events from Claude Code, Codex and other agents inside each sandbox.
Where does my data run?
Replit hosts data mainly on Google Cloud in the United States, and on Core and up you can publish apps in North America, Europe, Asia, South America or Australia. Docker does not publish its regions. bochka runs only in the EU, in Germany, Finland and France.
Try bochka
Install the CLI, then run bochka new.
Product preview