ProvidersChecked 2026-10-28
Ubuntu VMs in the EU, billed per second, with seven coding agents preinstalled and no pause at all.
Short answer: One always-on personal agent (2 vCPU / 4 GiB / 20 GiB) costs about $20.00 a month here, the 3rd cheapest of the 11 providers that run it as described. The AI model adds about $14.70 a month on top (GLM 5.3, 30 requests a day at 40k tokens each, median zero-retention price; from $6.84 at the cheapest host). Fits well: An ordinary Ubuntu server per agent: own kernel, Docker, SSH, root and a desktop for $26.28 a month always on.
Boat sells whole Ubuntu virtual machines, one per sandbox, priced per second, aimed at running coding agents and agent-generated code. Each has its own kernel, a dedicated IPv6 (sometimes IPv4), Docker, SSH, SCP and a 60 fps virtual desktop.
It is built around three audiences: people running agents on their own work, platforms giving each end user a machine, and teams that want a cheap always-available dev box.
Seven coding-agent harnesses are preinstalled on every machine and can be prompted by name through one API call. Boat also runs an AI credentials proxy so sandboxes hold placeholder model keys.
| Who it is for | People who want a normal Ubuntu server per agent, cheap always-on capacity in the EU, and preinstalled coding agents without building an image. |
|---|---|
| Isolation | Full Ubuntu 24.04 KVM virtual machine with its own kernel, root, Docker and SSH. Shared vCPUs on a dedicated host. No GPU and no ARM: x86-64 only. |
| Sizes | Four fixed sizes, all with 51 GB of disk except the largest: small 2 vCPU / 4 GB, default 4 / 8, large 8 / 16 (111 GB), xlarge 16 / 32 (251 GB). No custom size, no extra disk, no volumes. |
| A personal agent here | About $20.00 a month for one always-on 2 vCPU / 4 GiB machine (small: 2 vCPU / 4 GiB / 51 GiB), before the AI model. Change the numbers |
| Recommended in |
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Our reading of the sourced material on this page, not a provider claim.
| Model | Monthly plan that is prepaid machine time plus limits, with a separate dollar wallet for overage. |
|---|---|
| Meter | Per second while the machine exists, at a flat hourly rate per size: $0.018, $0.036, $0.072 or $0.200. |
| While stopped | Zero machine time, and the disk is kept free for 14 days. After that the data is gone unless you saved a snapshot. |
| Plan fee | The plan is not a fee: $20 buys $20 of VM time, but unused plan time expires monthly. Overages, extra saved snapshots and paid starts draw from the wallet. |
| Minimum | $20 a month, and there is no free tier. The 7-day trial needs a card and is capped at 25 hours of compute. |
How Boat lets you try before paying is on Trials and free tiers.
| Dashboard | Yes: sandboxes with type, monthly cost and a desktop button, snapshots you can browse and download, environment settings, AI sign-ins, organisation, billing and account. |
|---|---|
| Without code | Partly. You can watch and drive a machine, connect an AI subscription and edit what new sandboxes get, all by clicking. Creating and prompting a sandbox is boat new then boat prompt; there is no wizard and no gallery. |
| Signup | A card, and a terminal for the installer. There is no free tier; the first plan starts with a 7-day trial through Stripe Checkout. Agents can sign themselves up through auth.md, but a human still claims the account and enters the card. |
| Docs and support | About 100 Mintlify pages, each also as Markdown, plus llms.txt and a docs MCP server. Support is email and Discord, with a public status page. |
Every capability the guide checks, with the catch where Boat's version falls short. Compare all providers
From the profile's company section: the legal entity, who funds it, and what a buyer can check before signing.
Dedale AI, Corp., a Delaware corporation with a Dover mailing address. Card statements show DEDALE AI.
“boat is provided by Dedale AI, Corp., a Delaware corporation.” boat.dev docs-confirmed
Anicet Nougaret (CEO) and Kirill Makarov (CTO); Y Combinator Fall 2026.
“Kirill Makarov Co-founder and CTO” everydev.ai third-party
A reported $500k pre-seed from Entrepreneur First and Founders, Inc. No priced round is published.
“Ascii raised $500k in pre-seed funding from Entrepreneurs First (EF) and Founders, Inc.” nordic9.com third-party
Launched as box in July 2026 and renamed boat on 15 September 2026; box surfaces still answer.
“Box became boat on September 15, 2026.” docs.boat.dev docs-confirmed
No SLA on any plan, and the terms disclaim uptime and availability.
“We do not guarantee that sandbox will be uninterrupted” boat.dev docs-confirmed
SOC 2 in progress. No published report, ISO 27001 or HIPAA claim.
“SOC 2 in progress.” docs.boat.dev docs-confirmed
Shown as the research found them. A contradiction means the provider's own pages disagree; an open question means the answer is not published.
Stop saves the disk, removes the machine, and loses memory and hand-started processes. Every resume is a reboot with a new IP, although Docker containers and enabled systemd units come back.
Boat snapshots the disk every minute while a sandbox runs, but only the newest snapshot can be resumed or forked. There is no point-in-time restore.
Docs and FAQ say 14 days; the Terms say up to about 30 days. A box untouched for two weeks returns 409 snapshot_data_expired.
The homepage still says three sizes and pause billing; the docs list four sizes and state there is no pause.
battleships.dev is built by the Boat team, but its Boat entry is dated 2026-09-30 and disagrees with today's docs on disk sizes, egress caps, snapshot retention and whether xlarge needs an operator.
List-price illustrations from the calculator, not quotes. Prices checked 29 October 2026.
A · 1,000 short tasks
$20.00
small: 2 vCPU / 4 GiB / 51 GiB (plan: $20 plan)
B · One always-on box
$26.28
default: 4 vCPU / 8 GiB / 51 GiB (plan: $20 plan)
C · Three hours a day
$20.00
small: 2 vCPU / 4 GiB / 51 GiB (plan: $20 plan)