boat vs InstaVM

boat costs $0.009 per vCPU-hour and InstaVM costs $0.0504 per vCPU-hour. boat runs full VMs and has no session limit. InstaVM runs Firecracker microVMs.

Updated Oct 14, 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

InstaVM

Hardware-isolated microVMs for AI agent code.

Isolation: Firecracker microVM
Free tier: $50 credit
Max session: Not listed

Visit site InstaVM profile

What is different

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

Field

boat

InstaVM

vCPU, per hour: boat: $0.009; InstaVM: $0.0504
RAM, per GiB-hour: boat: Included; InstaVM: $0.0162
Storage: boat: Free; InstaVM: $0.0002 per GiB-hour after 10 free GiB
Free tier: boat: Free trial with 25 hours; InstaVM: $50 credit
Paid plan from: boat: $20 / month; InstaVM: $100 / month
Billing: boat: Bundled machine time; InstaVM: Per second
Concurrent sandboxes: boat: Up to 2,000; InstaVM: Up to 100
Isolation: boat: Full VM; InstaVM: Firecracker microVM
SDKs: boat: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript; InstaVM: Python, TypeScript

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

boatdocs.boat.dev/pricingdocs.boat.dev

InstaVMinstavm.io/pricing

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: boat: $0.009; InstaVM: $0.0504
RAM, per GiB-hour: boat: Included; InstaVM: $0.0162
Storage: boat: Free; InstaVM: $0.0002 per GiB-hour after 10 free GiB
Free tier: boat: Free trial with 25 hours; InstaVM: $50 credit
Paid plan from: boat: $20 / month; InstaVM: $100 / month
Billing: boat: Bundled machine time; InstaVM: Per second

Limits

Max session: boat: No limit; InstaVM: Not listed
Idle stop: boat: Not listed; InstaVM: Not listed
Largest sandbox: boat: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB; InstaVM: Not listed
Concurrent sandboxes: boat: Up to 2,000; InstaVM: Up to 100

Platform

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

Developer

SDKs: boat: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript; InstaVM: Python, TypeScript
Integrations: boat: MCP; InstaVM: Not listed

Trust

License: boat: Not listed; InstaVM: Not listed
BYOC: boat: Not listed; InstaVM: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

boat

InstaVM

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: boat: $0.009; InstaVM: $0.083
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: boat: $0.018; InstaVM: $0.166
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: boat: $0.036; InstaVM: $0.331

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.
You want the lower list price: $0.018 against $0.166 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.

InstaVM fits when

You want each sandbox in its own microVM.
You need SOC 2 Type II.

More comparisons

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boat

InstaVM

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

boat fits when

InstaVM fits when

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