boat vs Modal

boat costs $0.009 per vCPU-hour and Modal costs $0.070956 per vCPU-hour. boat runs full VMs and has no session limit. Modal runs gVisor, offers GPUs and limits a session to 24 hours.

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

Modal

Serverless compute with sandboxes and GPUs.

Isolation: gVisor
Free tier: $30 credit every month
Max session: 24 hours

Visit site Modal profile

What is different

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

Field

boat

Modal

vCPU, per hour: boat: $0.009; Modal: $0.070956
RAM, per GiB-hour: boat: Included; Modal: $0.024012
Free tier: boat: Free trial with 25 hours; Modal: $30 credit every month
Paid plan from: boat: $20 / month; Modal: Pay as you go
Billing: boat: Bundled machine time; Modal: Per second
Max session: boat: No limit; Modal: 24 hours
Isolation: boat: Full VM; Modal: gVisor
GPU: boat: No; Modal:
SDKs: boat: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript; Modal: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript, Go
Integrations: boat: MCP; Modal: Claude Agent SDK

Full comparison

18 fields, at each provider's list price

boatdocs.boat.dev/pricingdocs.boat.dev

Modalmodal.com/pricing

Pricing

vCPU, per hour: boat: $0.009; Modal: $0.070956
RAM, per GiB-hour: boat: Included; Modal: $0.024012
Storage: boat: Free; Modal: Not listed
Free tier: boat: Free trial with 25 hours; Modal: $30 credit every month
Paid plan from: boat: $20 / month; Modal: Pay as you go
Billing: boat: Bundled machine time; Modal: Per second

Limits

Max session: boat: No limit; Modal: 24 hours
Idle stop: boat: Not listed; Modal: Not listed
Largest sandbox: boat: 16 vCPU · 32 GiB; Modal: Not listed
Concurrent sandboxes: boat: Up to 2,000; Modal: Not listed

Platform

Isolation: boat: Full VM; Modal: gVisor
GPU: boat: No; Modal:
Snapshots: boat:; Modal:
Pause and resume: boat:; Modal: Not listed

Developer

SDKs: boat: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript; Modal: Python, JavaScript / TypeScript, Go
Integrations: boat: MCP; Modal: Claude Agent SDK

Trust

License: boat: Not listed; Modal: Not listed
BYOC: boat: Not listed; Modal: Not listed

Hourly cost

One sandbox running for one hour

Size

boat

Modal

1 vCPU · 2 GiB: boat: $0.009; Modal: $0.119
2 vCPU · 4 GiB: boat: $0.018; Modal: $0.238
4 vCPU · 8 GiB: boat: $0.036; Modal: $0.476

Compute only, at list rates.

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Which one fits

Based on the fields above

boat fits when

A session must run longer than 24 hours.
You want each sandbox to be a full VM.
You use MCP.
You want the lower list price: $0.018 against $0.238 an hour for 2 vCPU and 4 GiB.

Modal fits when

You need GPUs.
You want to pay only for usage, with no plan fee.
You use the Claude Agent SDK.
You need SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and GDPR.

More comparisons

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boat

Modal

What is different

Full comparison

Pricing

Limits

Platform

Developer

Trust

Hourly cost

Which one fits

boat fits when

Modal fits when

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