boat vs DigitalOcean MicroVMs

boat costs $0.009 per vCPU-hour and DigitalOcean MicroVMs costs $0.022 per vCPU-hour. boat runs full VMs and has no session limit. DigitalOcean MicroVMs runs Firecracker microVMs.

Updated Oct 15, 2026

boat

Persistent Ubuntu VMs with SSH, Docker and a desktop.

Isolation: Full VM
Free tier: Free trial with 25 hours
Max session: No limit

Visit site boat profile

DigitalOcean MicroVMs

Lightweight virtual machines that run a container image in their own kernel and pause when idle.

Isolation: Firecracker microVM
Free tier: Not listed
Max session: Not listed

Visit site DigitalOcean MicroVMs profile

What is different

5 fields differ. The rest are the same or not listed.

Field

boat

DigitalOcean MicroVMs

vCPU, per hour: boat: $0.009; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.022
RAM, per GiB-hour: boat: Included; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.0085
Storage: boat: Free; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.05 per GiB per month, charged when running or paused. Checkpoints are charged until deleted.
Billing: boat: Bundled machine time; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Per second
Isolation: boat: Full VM; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Firecracker microVM

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

boatdocs.boat.dev/pricingdocs.boat.dev

DigitalOcean MicroVMsdocs.digitalocean.com/products/microvms/details/pricingdocs.digitalocean.com

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: boat: $0.009; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.022
RAM, per GiB-hour: boat: Included; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.0085
Storage: boat: Free; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.05 per GiB per month, charged when running or paused. Checkpoints are charged until deleted.
Free tier: boat: Free trial with 25 hours; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Paid plan from: boat: $20 / month; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Billing: boat: Bundled machine time; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Per second

Limits

Max session: boat: No limit; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Idle stop: boat: Not listed; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: After 5 minutes
Largest sandbox: boat: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB
Concurrent sandboxes: boat: Up to 2,000; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed

Platform

Isolation: boat: Full VM; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Firecracker microVM
GPU: boat: No; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Snapshots: boat:; DigitalOcean MicroVMs:
Pause and resume: boat:; DigitalOcean MicroVMs:

Developer

SDKs: boat: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
Integrations: boat: MCP, Claude Code; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed

Trust

License: boat: Not listed; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed
BYOC: boat: Not listed; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

boat

DigitalOcean MicroVMs

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: boat: $0.009; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.039
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: boat: $0.018; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.078
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: boat: $0.036; DigitalOcean MicroVMs: $0.156

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

boat fits when

You want each sandbox to be a full VM.
You use MCP or Claude Code.
You want the lower list price: $0.018 against $0.078 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.
You need a desktop in the sandbox.

DigitalOcean MicroVMs fits when

You want each sandbox in its own microVM.

More comparisons

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boat

DigitalOcean MicroVMs

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

boat fits when

DigitalOcean MicroVMs fits when

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