Vercel Sandbox vs Namespace
Vercel Sandbox runs short bursts of untrusted or agent-written code in Firecracker microVMs, in 19 regions. Namespace is mainly a CI and build platform, and its Devboxes are remote Linux, macOS and Windows machines for people and coding agents.
The companies and products
Vercel Sandbox
Vercel is a cloud platform for web apps and agents, and Vercel Sandbox is its product for running untrusted or agent-written code in isolated Linux microVMs.
Each sandbox is a Firecracker microVM with its own kernel, started from a Vercel image, your own OCI image, or a saved snapshot. You drive it with the JavaScript or Python SDK or the sandbox CLI: run commands, move files, open ports, and set network rules. It is aimed at code interpreters, app builders, test runs and agent tools, and Vercel's docs say it is not meant to run nonstop.
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. “22nd cheapest of 345” means 21 of the other 344 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 | Vercel Sandbox: 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 | 244th of 367, with limits $3,351 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 is a compromise on both, because each session ends within 24 hours; bochka has no session cap on paid plans. | 257th of 366, with limits $3,657 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 Vercel Sandbox fits short code bursts best of the three, since it bills CPU only while code uses it; Namespace and bochka are compromises here. | 22nd cheapest of 345 $216 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 Vercel Sandbox ranks 15th for sandboxes you give your users and fits fully, while Namespace is a compromise; bochka ranks first for the same work. | 15th cheapest of 361 $1,267 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 Vercel Sandbox ranks 3rd for RL rollouts thanks to high concurrency and fast starts; Namespace is a compromise, and bochka's start limits make it one too. | 3rd cheapest of 360 $15,761 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 | 69th cheapest of 364 $1,508 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; CI runners with build caches are Namespace's main product, Vercel runs test jobs in microVMs, and bochka runs them on full VMs with Docker and /dev/kvm. | 107th cheapest of 377 $1,144 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 stop within 24 hours, so a 24/7 dev box is a compromise on each, though a Namespace Devbox wakes when you connect; a bochka machine stays up as long as you want. | 276th of 368, with limits $145 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 Neither fits fully: Vercel Sandbox has no desktop and Namespace's click API works on macOS Devboxes only; bochka streams a 60fps Linux desktop with Chromium. | 235th of 369, with limits $952 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 | 259th of 367, with limits $486 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 | 277th of 346, with limits $468 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 | 234th of 338, with limits $9,960 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 | 283rd of 360, with limits $554 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, while Vercel Sandbox and bochka are Linux only. | Can't run it | 6th cheapest of 36 $1,205 a month | Can't run it |
Key features
| Feature | Vercel Sandbox | Namespace | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolation | Firecracker microVM with its 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) | 12.96 runs/s | 21.79 runs/s | 26.69 runs/s |
| Longest session | 24 hours on Pro and Enterprise, 45 minutes on Hobby; resume starts a new session | Devboxes stop after 4, 5 or 24 hours by plan, raisable to 24 at most | No session cap on paid plans |
| Files after a stop | Filesystem snapshot on stop, billed per GB-month and kept 30 days after last use by default | A stopped Devbox keeps its storage, billed at $0.20 per GB-month used | Snapshot every minute while running and on stop; a stopped sandbox costs nothing |
| Idle stop and wake | No idle stop; runs until its timeout or until you stop it | Devboxes stop after an idle timeout (15 minutes to 8 hours) and start again when you connect | Machines run until you stop them |
| Docker and nested virtualization | Docker with sudo; no nested virtualization | Docker in Linux Devboxes; /dev/kvm on Linux compute instances | Docker, root, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine |
| Desktop and computer use | None; headless Linux only | Screenshot and click API on macOS Devboxes only; VNC and RDP for compute instances | 60fps Linux desktop and Chromium, computer-use and browser-control APIs, embeddable stream |
| Operating systems | Linux only | Linux, macOS on Apple Silicon, and Windows on Team plans and up | Linux only; Wine for Windows apps |
| Custom images | Your own OCI images from a Dockerfile, via Vercel Container Registry | Any container image you choose, plus Devbox blueprints | Named snapshots (templates), shareable by code; no Dockerfile builds |
| Reaching the sandbox | Public URLs for up to 15 ports, no built-in auth; 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 | Allow-all, deny-all or a domain and CIDR allowlist, changeable while running | Egress policies per Devbox blueprint, runner or instance: block, advisory or allow by domain | Open internet on every plan; firewall inside the VM |
| Keeping keys out of the sandbox | Credentials brokering injects headers for any HTTPS domain you allow | Egress rules inject a header from Namespace Vault, resolved outside the workload | AI credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API you register; switch a credential to another account when credits run out |
| Coding agents | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and pi preinstalled; you start them as commands | Hosts Claude Managed Agents, Cursor and Devin sessions through those partners; an MCP server lets your agent create Devboxes | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and more preinstalled, with an API to prompt, steer and stream events |
| Regions | 19 regions across the US, Europe, Asia, South America, Africa and Australia | Several regions, nearest by default; region-exclusive residency on Enterprise | EU only: Germany, Finland, France |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | Vercel Sandbox | Namespace | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | No | Yes | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | No | Yes | Yes |
| Browser | No | No | Yes |
| Computer-use API | No | 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 | No | 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 | No | 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 | No | No | No |
| Open source | No | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Spend limits | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | No | 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 | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Performance
In StarSling's run of 2026-09-29 at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, Vercel Sandbox did 12.96 Node.js build-and-test runs per second, Namespace did 21.79 and bochka did 26.69. So Namespace got through about 1.7 times as many runs as Vercel, and bochka about twice as many. This measures CPU speed only, not start time.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. 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 | Vercel Sandbox, 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 | $57 · Pro | $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 | $236 · Pro · with limits | $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 | $2,884 · Pro | $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 | $828 · Pro | $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 | $3,152 · Pro | $3,237 · Devbox (pay as you go) | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
Vercel Sandbox: Vercel bills CPU only while your code uses it, but bills memory for the whole time the sandbox runs, plus a small fee per sandbox created and a monthly fee per GB of snapshots. The $20 Pro credit is shared with your other Vercel usage.
Namespace: Devboxes are billed in Devbox Minutes at $0.004 each, pay as you go on every plan; a 4 vCPU / 8 GB Devbox uses one a minute. Plan minutes cover runners and instances, not Devboxes, and stored files cost $0.20 per GB-month.
Namespace: bochka charges a flat price per size, per second, only while the machine runs; a stopped sandbox costs nothing. Plans start at $20 a month, and all of the fee is usage credit.
Limits in those scenarios
For one agent that never stops, neither fits as one session: Vercel ends each session at 24 hours, and a Namespace Devbox is shut down after 4, 5 or 24 hours by plan, so both restart at least once a day. On Pro one Vercel sandbox is at most 8 vCPU / 16 GB, and Namespace limits instances by a vCPU and memory pool per plan without publishing an egress price. For 1,000 short jobs at once both fit, while bochka's $2,000 plan hits its start limits.
| Scenario | Vercel Sandbox | Namespace | 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 |
| None that bite |
| Sandboxes for your users | None that bite |
| None that bite |
| 1,000 short jobs at once | None that bite |
|
|
Which one should you use?
Use Vercel Sandbox when
you run many short bursts of untrusted code, give sandboxes to your own users, or need to run close to users outside Europe.
- Short bursts billed by active CPU. Useful for code interpreters and many quick jobs: CPU is billed only while your code uses it.
- Regions all over the world. Useful if your users are spread out: Vercel Sandbox runs in 19 regions, from Virginia to Tokyo and Sydney.
- Many sandboxes at once. Useful for RL rollouts and user sandboxes: Pro allows up to 10,000 sandboxes running at the same time.
Use Namespace when
you need macOS or Windows machines, faster GitHub Actions runners with build caches, or dev boxes 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 want faster GitHub Actions: Namespace is a drop-in runner with Docker, Bazel and Turborepo caching.
- Dev boxes that sleep and wake. Useful for people's dev machines: a Devbox stops when idle and starts again when you connect.
Where bochka fits
If what you are really running is agents that work for hours on one Linux machine, both Vercel Sandbox and Namespace cut the session off within 24 hours. bochka gives each agent a full VM with no session cap on paid plans, a faster CPU, Docker and /dev/kvm, a 60fps desktop, and coding agents you drive from outside.
No clock on the session
Vercel stops a session at 24 hours and Namespace stops a Devbox at 4, 5 or 24 hours, even mid-task. Processes die and your code has to restart and resume the work every day.
A Linux desktop for computer use
Vercel Sandbox is headless, and Namespace's click API works only on macOS Devboxes. A Linux agent that must check the app it built needs a desktop and VNC you set up yourself, or pricier macOS minutes.
Agents driven from outside
Vercel installs agents but you run them as plain commands, and Namespace leaves the agent loop to partners like Cursor or Devin. Either way you write the code that prompts, steers and watches each agent.
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 60fps desktop, and coding agents you drive from outside. Compare it one to one: bochka vs Vercel Sandbox and bochka vs Namespace.
Questions people ask
Is Vercel Sandbox cheaper than Namespace?
It depends on the work. Namespace costs less for one workday agent ($50 vs $57 a month) and for 50 agents in parallel ($2,198 vs $2,884). Vercel costs less for sandboxes for your users ($828 vs $1,214 a month) and for 1,000 short jobs at once ($3,152 vs $3,237). bochka came to $20, $317 and $200 in those first three scenarios.
Which is faster, Vercel Sandbox or Namespace?
On StarSling's Node.js build-and-test benchmark at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, Namespace did 21.79 runs per second and Vercel Sandbox did 12.96. bochka did 26.69 on the same test.
Can Vercel Sandbox and Namespace run Docker?
Yes. Vercel Sandbox runs Docker with sudo inside its microVM, and Namespace Linux Devboxes include Docker. For nested VMs, Namespace offers /dev/kvm on Linux compute instances and Vercel has none; bochka has Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine.
Can either run 24/7?
Not as one session. Vercel Pro and Enterprise sessions stop at 24 hours, and Namespace Devboxes stop after 4, 5 or 24 hours by plan, even while you work. bochka has no session cap on paid plans.
Do they support macOS or computer use?
Namespace runs macOS on Apple Silicon and has a screenshot and click API on macOS Devboxes. Vercel Sandbox is headless Linux only. bochka streams a 60fps Linux desktop with Chromium and computer-use APIs, but has no macOS.
Try bochka
Install the CLI, then run bochka new.
Product preview
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