E2B vs Daytona
Agent-native side-by-side. Scores are curated estimates on a 0–10 scale. Lock-in: higher = worse. Prefer JTBD picks via /api/decide when choosing for a job.
| Dimension | E2B | Daytona |
|---|---|---|
| Overall | 8.6 | 8.2 |
| Capability fit | 9.4 | 8.8 |
| Price / performance | 8.0 | 8.2 |
| Latency / reliability | 8.6 | 8.2 |
| Developer & agent DX | 9.4 | 8.8 |
| Privacy / data retention | 8.5 | 8.0 |
| Lock-in risk (higher = worse) | 4.0 | 3.0 |
| Maturity / track record | 8.0 | 7.2 |
| Pricing | Firecracker microVM sandboxes billed per second; templates; code interpreter for agents. | As of 2026-09-14 (daytona.io/pricing live): PAYG per-second — vCPU **$0.0504/h**, Memory **$0.0162/GiB-h**, Storage **$0.000108/GiB-h** (first 5 GiB free). $200 free compute signup. Windows $0.0858/vCPU-h. GPU preemptibl… |
| Tagline | Depot default code sandbox for agents. Use for untrusted code; Daytona when you need persistent… | Choose when agents need sticky filesystems and full dev environments. E2B for disposable code exec. Confirm… |
E2B
Depot default code sandbox for agents. Use for untrusted code; Daytona when you need persistent devworkspaces. Also the depot default Linux desktop sandbox for computer-use (e2b-desktop + VNC stream) when you already standardize on E2B. Strengths: Purpose-built for LLM code execution; Strong isolation (microVMs); Excel
Strengths
- Purpose-built for LLM code execution
- Strong isolation (microVMs)
- Excellent agent SDK fit
Weaknesses
- Per-sandbox-second costs add up
- Less persistent than Daytona workspaces
- Younger than hyperscalers
Daytona
Choose when agents need sticky filesystems and full dev environments. E2B for disposable code exec. Confirm licensing after 2026 closed-source shift. Strengths: Persistent coding environments for agents; OSS + cloud; Fast workspace spin-up.
Strengths
- Persistent coding environments for agents
- OSS + cloud
- Fast workspace spin-up
Weaknesses
- Container isolation ≠ Firecracker
- Positioning overlaps E2B/Modal
- Ecosystem still scaling
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