Compare · agental and Daytona
agental or Daytona? Here is when to pick each.
Both give an agent a sandbox to work in. Daytona's is a container unless you ask for a VM; ours is always a VM. They differ in size, in price, and in what comes with it.
Pick Daytona for GPUs, sandboxes made in milliseconds, macOS or Windows, or a region near your users. Pick agental for a whole VM every time, bigger machines and a much smaller bill, and for an agent that needs mail, a browser you drive or outbound rules.
Pick Daytona if…
- ✓Sandboxes in millisecondsDaytona says its sandboxes are made in under 90 ms. Every one of ours boots a whole VM, which takes longer.
- ✓GPUsDaytona rents GPU sandboxes, from an RTX 4090 to a B300. We have none.
- ✓Five regions, or your own computeDaytona runs in the US, the UK, Germany and India, and on your own servers with its control plane, once enabled. We run in one region today.
- ✓macOS and WindowsDaytona has macOS and Windows sandboxes as well as Linux. Ours are Linux.
- ✓A fork that keeps memoryDaytona's VM sandboxes fork with their memory, as well as pause with it. Ours keep memory across a stop of the same sandbox only.
- ✓More languages, more creditSDKs for Python, TypeScript, Ruby, Go and Java, and $200 of compute to start, no card needed.
Pick agental if…
- ✓About a sixth of the priceThe same 2 vCPU and 4 GiB costs $0.027 an hour here and $0.1656 at Daytona.
- ✓A VM every time, not a containerDaytona's sandboxes are containers unless you start one from a VM snapshot. Every one of ours has its own kernel.
- ✓Bigger machinesUp to 8 vCPU, 16 GiB and 160 GB of disk here. Daytona stops at 4 vCPU, 8 GB and 10 GB of disk without a sales contract.
- ✓Outbound rules on every planChoose what each sandbox may reach from the first plan. Daytona restricts the network below a $500 top-up, and lets you set your own rules only from there.
- ✓Its own email addressEach sandbox receives mail. E2B, Daytona, Modal and Vercel don't offer it.
- ✓Your Playwright drives its ChromeConnect your own browser automation to the Chrome inside the sandbox, from your computer.
By what you are building.
Kinds of agent, and which of the two we would choose for each, Daytona included.
The same month at each.
Five coding agents on 2 vCPU and 4 GiB, 8 hours a working day, their disks kept in between.
agental: Free, no fee; $27.50 of top-ups that add $27.50; 880 h at $0.027, 2,770 h stopped at $0.00135. Daytona: No plan; $0.1656 an hour, and its largest disk, 10 GB, past the free 5 GiB at $0.000108 per GiB-hour while stopped.
Side by side.
Every difference we know of, including the ones we lose.
| What | agental | Daytona | Better at it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price of 2 vCPU · 4 GiB, an hourEach one's list price. | $0.027 | $0.1656 | agental |
| A month of five coding agents8 hours a working day, plan fees in. | $27.50 | $147.22 | agental |
| A virtual machine of its ownIts own kernel, not a shared one. | Every sandbox | Containers, unless made from a VM snapshot | agental |
| The largest sandboxWithout a sales contract. | 8 vCPU · 16 GiB · 160 GB | 4 vCPU · 8 GB · 10 GB | agental |
| How fast one is madeAs each says. | A VM boots | Under 90 ms, they say | Daytona |
| Stopped and started againWhat comes back. | Its disk, and its memory if asked | Its disk; a VM can pause with its memory | Even |
| What a stopped sandbox costsWhile nothing runs. | 5% of its price, 10% with its memory | Its disk past 5 GiB | Daytona |
| Fork a sandboxA copy with the same disk. | Every sandbox | VM sandboxes, memory too | Even |
| Your own outbound rulesWhat a sandbox may reach. | Every plan | From a $500 top-up | agental |
| SSH from any clientYour terminal, your editor, scp. | ✓ | ✓ with a token | Even |
| An email address of its ownMail in to the sandbox. | ✓ | — | agental |
| Its Chrome driven from your computerYour own Playwright connects. | ✓ | — | agental |
| A desktop for computer useA screen, clicks and keys. | Linux | Linux, Windows, macOS | Daytona |
| GPUsBy the hour. | — | ✓ RTX 4090 to B300 | Daytona |
| Metrics to your own collectorOpenTelemetry, where you keep the rest. | ✓ | ✓ | Even |
| A create that is safe to retrySent twice, makes one sandbox. | ✓ | — | agental |
| Run it on your own serversYour compute, their control. | Enterprise, on request | Once enabled for you | Daytona |
| RegionsWhere sandboxes run. | One | US, UK, Germany, India | Daytona |
| SDKsOfficial libraries. | Python, TypeScript, CLI | Python, TypeScript, Ruby, Go, Java, CLI | Daytona |
Daytona read from daytona.io, daytona.io/pricing and daytona.io/docs on 27 October 2026. Tell us if something changed: [email protected].
The same calls, by their names here.
What you use at Daytona today, and what it is called in agental's TypeScript SDK. The Python SDK has the same names.
| At Daytona | becomes | At agental |
|---|---|---|
daytona.create({ snapshot }) | agental.sandboxes.create({ template })Answers when the machine is running. | |
sandbox.process.executeCommand(cmd) | sandbox.exec(cmd)A command that fails is an answer: read its exit code. | |
sandbox.fs.uploadFile() / downloadFile() | sandbox.files.write() / read()Or copy files with scp over SSH. | |
sandbox.stop() / start() | sandbox.stop() / start()The same names. The disk is kept, and the memory too with stop({ keepMemory: true }). | |
sandbox.getPreviewLink(port) | sandbox.expose(port)An HTTPS address for a port, public if you say so, no token header to send. | |
sandbox.computerUse.start() | sandbox.desktop.on()In every sandbox, with clicks, keys and screenshots. |
What we don't do yet.
If one of these decides it for you, Daytona is the better choice today.
- —GPUsNot offered.
- —A fork with its memoryA fork copies the disk: programs start again in it.
- —macOS and WindowsLinux only.
- —A second regionNot yet. We will say so here when there is one.
- —Running it on your own serversEnterprise, on request; not yet something you turn on.
Questions people ask.
Is agental a drop-in replacement for Daytona?
No. The idea is the same (make a sandbox, run commands, move files, stop and start it), but the SDK is different, so the calls are rewritten. Most of them map one to one: the table above shows how.
Why is agental so much cheaper?
We run on dedicated servers we rent by the month, not on a cloud's machines rented by the hour.
Is an agental sandbox a container?
No. Every sandbox is a virtual machine with its own kernel, so root inside it, Docker included, stays inside it. At Daytona that is a VM sandbox, which you start from a VM snapshot.
Does a stopped agental sandbox keep its memory?
When you ask: `sandbox.stop({ keepMemory: true })` keeps its memory as well as its disk, and start puts back every process as it was, in seconds. Writing the memory takes up to about 2 minutes for a large sandbox that is full. Stopped so, it costs 10% of its running price. The memory is not kept across an upgrade of the server it is on: the sandbox then starts from its disk. Daytona's VM sandboxes can also fork with their memory; ours cannot.
How long can an agental sandbox run?
Until you stop it. You can give it a time limit, and you or the agent in it can move that limit as often as the work needs.
Where do Daytona's numbers come from?
From daytona.io, its pricing page and its docs, read on 27 October 2026. If something there has changed, tell us at [email protected] and we will fix this page.