AI · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to Sandock

Persistent Docker Workspaces for Coding Agents

Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Prices are shown for the 5 we have checked on their own sites, 5 of them free or with a free tier.

1. 1
   Replicas▲239

   Hey HN! I'm Connor, creator of Replicas. I'm a heavy Codex/Claude Code user, and I wanted to hand off tasks to agents like I would to an engineer - kick something off before work, let it scaffold while I'm at lunch, even come back to a ready PR. The problem: existing alternatives use workspace VMs that are black boxes. I have no access to any of them - they can't run tests, read logs, or use tools like the Playwright MCP (which I use to verify agents actually fixed what they claim to fix). Replicas gives agents real cloud workspaces where they can: - Run your test suite and read the…

   Jun 2026 · replicas.dev · its alternatives →

2. 2
   Agent 37▲401

   Hey HN, I noticed there are 1,000+ MCP skills on GitHub with zero way for creators to charge for them. So I built Agent37. Selling Claude skills today means asking customers to download your skill, set up Claude Code on their laptops, configure MCP servers, and pray it works. No trial, no updates, often you're just handing over the source. Agent37 lets creators upload a skill, share a link, and anyone can try it instantly (no Claude account needed). Built-in Stripe, creators keep 80%. Looking for feedback on the approach. Would you use something like this?

   Mar 2026 · agent37.com · its alternatives →

3. 3
   Sandbox Agent SDK – unified API for automating coding agents▲41

   We’ve been working with automating coding agents in sandboxes as of late. It’s bewildering how poorly standardized and difficult to use each agent varies between each other. We open-sourced the Sandbox Agent SDK based on tools we built internally to solve 3 problems: 1. Universal agent API: interact with any coding agent using the same API 2. Running agents inside the sandbox: Agent Sandbox provides a Rust binary that serves the universal agent API over HTTP, instead of having to futz with undocumented interfaces 3. Universal session schema: persisting sessions is always problematic, since…

   Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

4. 4
   Agentmemory▲310

   Persistent memory for Claude Code, Codex & coding agents

   May 2026 · agent-memory.dev · its alternatives →

5. 5
   Runtimefree tier, from $99/mo▲303

   Sandboxed coding agents for everyone on your team

   May 2026 · runtm.com · its alternatives →

6. 6
   Remote OpenClaw▲81

   13,000+ MCP servers, skills & plugins for AI coding agents

   Jul 2026 · codexmarketplaces.com · its alternatives →

7. 7
   Clawk – Give coding agents a disposable Linux VM, not your laptop▲226

   Give coding agents a disposable Linux VM, not your laptop - clawkwork/clawk

   Jul 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

8. 8
   Epho▲156

   Hey folks, Burak here. Epho is an API that allows running Claude Code, Codex or Opencode in a sandbox in the cloud. It abstracts away sandboxes, and allows running coding agents with a single HTTP request. Epho came out of our own struggles with building our own AI analyst: - Sandboxes give you bare machines; you need to configure them for agentic workloads. - Each agent behaves differently, and you need to build integrations with each of them. - Sandbox providers are not very reliable, which means you need to figure out a multi-provider strategy to avoid failures. - Logging, artifacts,…

   Aug 2026 · epho.io · its alternatives →

9. 9
   PaperPodfree tier, from $0.0001/mo▲85

   Hi HN, I’ve been working on PaperPod, an experiment in making compute native to AI agents. PaperPod is a sandbox runtime where coding agents like Claude Code can autonomously execute code, write files, run background processes, expose ports (preview URLs) etc. and pay per ms of usage via the agent native x402 payment protocol. No API keys or complex setup needed. This is early (alpha), but fully usable today with free compute included, no wallets needed, just use your email as X-User-Id in the request! A sample prompt to get started: To use PaperPod compute: 1. Get session: POST…

   Mar 2026 · paperpod.dev · its alternatives →

10. 10
    Agent Sandbox Starter▲7

    Run Claude Agent SDK in sandboxed environments

    Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

11. 11
    Buda▲197

    Run a full AI agent team in the cloud — no hardware, no setup. Persistent memory, browser automation, parallel agents. The OpenClaw alternative built for teams. Start free.

    May 2026 · buda.im · its alternatives →

12. 12
    OpenAI Agents SDK▲122

    Build production agents with harness and sandbox

    Apr 2026 · openai.com · its alternatives →

13. 13
    AgentBox – SDK to Run Claude Code, Codex, or OpenCode in Any Sandbox▲8

    Hi HN, AgentBox is an SDK for running coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode) inside sandboxes (Docker, E2B, Modal, Daytona, Vercel). One API. Swap the agent or the sandbox and your code doesn't change. Think of it as what the AI SDK did for LLMs, but for agent + runtime. Most wrappers call agents in non interactive mode (claude --print, codex exec). AgentBox instead boots each agent's native server inside the sandbox (Codex app-server over JSON-RPC, OpenCode serve over HTTP/SSE, Claude Code's SDK WebSocket transport) and drives it from the host, behaving like an interactive…

    Apr 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

14. 14
    AnyFrame▲96

    Spawn sandboxes at the speed of natural language. Pause, resume, and snapshot the full state of an agent’s workspace — filesystem, processes, memory — and pick up later without losing context.

    May 2026 · anyframe.dev · its alternatives →

15. 15
    Skill that lets Claude Code/Codex spin up VMs and GPUs▲138

    I've been working on CloudRouter, a skill + CLI that gives coding agents like Claude Code and Codex the ability to start cloud VMs and GPUs. When an agent writes code, it usually needs to start a dev server, run tests, open a browser to verify its work. Today that all happens on your local machine. This works fine for a single task, but the agent is sharing your computer: your ports, RAM, screen. If you run multiple agents in parallel, it gets a bit chaotic. Docker helps with isolation, but it still uses your machine's resources, and doesn't give the agent a browser, a desktop, or a GPU to…

    Feb 2026 · cloudrouter.dev · its alternatives →

16. 16
    MemoryCustodian▲145

    Repo-native memory for coding agents

    Jul 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

17. 17
    Boxes.devfree tier, from $19/mo▲112

    Hi HN, we’re Nick and Drew, and we’re building boxes.dev – the first cloud-only agentic dev environment (ADE) that gives every Codex and Claude Code agent its own cloud computer. We’re two engineers who previously built Gem (co-founder/CTO and first hire), and we spent the last year coding almost exclusively using Codex and Claude Code. It’s been a huge change to how we code, and it’s been exhilarating seeing the models keep getting better – but we eventually realized that developing on localhost was holding us back: - Git worktrees are clunky to set up and use for parallelizing work -…

    Jun 2026 · boxes.dev · its alternatives →

18. 18
    Aether▲26

    Since coding agents like Claude Code and Codex came out, I've been pretty obsessed with them. It's hard not to when you're getting a 20x discount on inference. I've also been frustrated by them a lot. I hated walking around with my laptop lid open while connected to a hotspot on my phone, having to tediously accept commands so I don't lose my root directory, and running out of RAM when running multiple agents that were spinning up dev servers in different worktrees at once. A lot of people would say existing cloud agents are the solution to this, as none of the above problems apply to any…

    Jul 2026 · runaether.dev · its alternatives →

19. 19
    pi pod – run your pi coding agent in sandboxes on your own serverfree▲121

    pi pod runs your pi session in a cloud pod. pipod.dev

    19d ago · pipod.dev · its alternatives →

20. 20
    agents-cli▲145

    The CLI your coding agent uses to ship agents

    Jul 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

21. 21
    SuperHQ▲95

    Hey HN, I built SuperHQ, an app that lets you run coding agents in local sandboxes (powered by Shuru). No custom UI wrapping the agents, they run as CLI/TUI like they were designed to. It just provides you the tools most of us (okay, maybe just me?) needed for running multiple coding agents in parallel without worrying about breaking your system or work environment. Each agent runs in its own microVM. You mount your projects in, writes go to a tmpfs overlay so your host is never touched, and you get a unified diff view to accept or discard changes. API keys never enter the sandbox, they…

    Apr 2026 · superhq.ai · its alternatives →

22. 22
    Agent Sandboxfree tier, from $0.00025/mo▲97

    Your agent's personal remote computer and drive

    Feb 2026 · agentsandbox.co · its alternatives →

23. 23
    spacecake▲79

    Run Claude Code agents in terminal with a visual editor

    Feb 2026 · spacecake.ai · its alternatives →

24. 24
    Self-hosted company OS, Claude Code and Codex agents in departments▲50

    Hi HN, i am Dimitris, I have been using Claude Code and Codex agents, for some time now from the beggining i had been using them from inside my terminal mainly for coding. For the past 3 years i kept building so i have a homelab and a business server, which already has a lot of vms, so a lot of things to manage. So i decided to start building my own ideal version of using claude code, and codex flexibly and connect them easily with all my vms and infra but at the same time keep using them for coding, and as a personal assistant for daily use. So for the past months I built OtoDock. Its a…

    Sep 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →