Agent sandboxes / Amika alternative

An Amika sandbox alternative for a growing agent environment

Amika connects coding agents to hosted rigs or machines a team already owns. Its account pricing distinguishes active people, service-account concurrency, and hosted resources. Separate those product choices before comparing the persistent Linux environment underneath.

Start building Compare capabilities ↓

Reviewed 2026-10-18 · Published by the Sandbox0 team

When Amika fits

Amika fits teams that want coding-agent sessions, editor and SSH access, shared development workflows, and the ability to use existing machines. Its presets and optional Docker environment prepare common repository workflows.

When to consider Sandbox0

Consider Sandbox0 when your application supplies a durable per-user cloud computer whose complete writable RootFS grows online. Its supported paused Files API access can manage persistent state without requiring an active SSH session or running agent.

Capabilities

Amika and Sandbox0: what persists?

Feature comparison with documentation and verification status
Capability	Amika	Sandbox0
Environment and runtime lifetime	AmikaStop/start controls are documented, but active duration and retained state depend on the selected hosted or own-machine rig.View evidence ↗	Sandbox0ttl and hard_ttl default to 0 (disabled). Configure idle pause and deletion policies for the same persistent sandbox identity; an idle running sandbox still accrues compute charges.Read documentation →
Persistent files	AmikaStop/start and volume-cleanup controls are documented; verify the precise retained paths for the chosen hosted or own-machine rig.View evidence ↗	Sandbox0The writable RootFS survives successful checkpoints, including software, system configuration, dependencies, and user data.Read documentation →
Whole RootFS	AmikaPreset and provider-image selection do not establish a uniform whole-RootFS persistence contract across hosted and local rigs.View evidence ↗	Sandbox0Persistence extends beyond /workspace to paths such as /usr/local, /etc, and /home. Runtime tmpfs and virtual filesystems are excluded.Read documentation →
Release compute, keep state	AmikaStop enters the stopped/paused state; start returns a rig to active service.View evidence ↗	Sandbox0Pause compute between tasks; resume on available capacity. Default resume starts fresh processes from the saved filesystem.Read documentation →
Memory and process state	AmikaThe reviewed rig lifecycle does not explicitly guarantee retained RAM or processes.View evidence ↗	Sandbox0Experimental memory checkpoints can preserve compatible process state. Use memory: true on both pause and resume on a compatible deployment. A filesystem checkpoint alone does not preserve running processes.Read documentation →

Online RootFS growth

On growth-enabled images, Sandbox0 automatically expands the writable RootFS as free space runs low, within a configured sparse logical ceiling up to 64 TiB. Agent processes keep running. Growth is enabled in the qualified Cloud region; confirm activation for other regions. Existing images and snapshots retain their captured storage geometry. The ceiling is logical capacity, not preallocated host disk.

Amika presets and rig lifecycle controls do not establish automatic free-space-triggered expansion of an entire persistent RootFS. Evaluate the actual provider and attached volumes for the chosen hosted or own-machine path.

Files while compute is paused

Sandbox0's Files API reads persistent files without resuming compute. Filesystem-only pauses also permit edits; retained-memory pauses are read-only and reject mutations with 409. SSH, SFTP, file watching, and runtime-only mounts require running compute.

The documented Amika SSH and SCP path requires an active rig. A separate offline file API is not established by those guides; Sandbox0 explicitly supports persistent Files API operations during compute pauses.

See paused file operations →

Own-machine usage and hosted compute have different costs

Amika does not meter hours on connected machines, but the owner still operates and pays for that infrastructure. Hosted rigs use published CPU, memory, and storage rates. Compare the intended execution location and operational responsibility rather than treating own-machine access as free cloud capacity.

Source 1 ↗

The active-user threshold changes the whole account bill

The Free plan permits three active users. Beyond that threshold, Amika says the organization moves to Team and every active user is billed. Service-account sandboxes use a separate concurrent count on hosted or owned machines; stopped and paused instances do not count toward it.

Source 1 ↗

A preset is a starting environment, not a storage-growth contract

Amika resolves hosted presets to provider images or snapshots and documents stop/start plus deletion controls for associated volumes. Its local Docker server images are a separate implementation. Confirm filesystem and RAM retention for the chosen hosted or own-machine path rather than extending one provider’s behavior to every rig.

Source 1 ↗Source 2 ↗

Pricing

Compare billing models, then price your workload

CPU allocation, memory, billing minimums, disk, plan fees, and supported workload differ. These meters are not equal-performance machine quotes. Confirm region, resource units, and included allowances before estimating a total.

Amika

Pricing reviewed 2026-10-18

Free plan: $0 per month; Up to three active users and ten concurrent service-account sandboxes; own-machine hours are not metered by Amika.; Rate source ↗
Team active users: $30 per active user-month; Once Free’s active-user limit is exceeded, every active user is billed.; Rate source ↗
Additional service-account concurrency: $2 per concurrent sandbox-month; Above the ten included on Team, prorated by day; this is separate from hosted compute.; Rate source ↗
Hosted CPU: $0.1008 per vCPU-hour; Rate source ↗
Hosted memory: $0.0324 per GiB-hour; Rate source ↗
Hosted storage: $0.00216 per GiB-hour; Rate source ↗

Hosted resources are billed per second after applicable credits. Bring model credentials; Amika does not include model tokens. Its pricing page provides a waitlist entry point, so confirm effective hosted access, resource availability, and stopped-storage terms for the selected environment.

Check current Amika pricing ↗

Sandbox0

$0.015/GiB-hour compute (billed by the second at approximately $0.000004167/GiB-second), plus $0.02/GiB-month of retained incremental RootFS and memory checkpoint data. Shared base images and platform recovery retention are excluded; paused sandboxes accrue storage charges only.

Compute / GiB-hour: $0.015
Retained data / GiB-month: $0.02
Paused compute: $0.00

A 4 GiB agent, 100 running hours

$6.00 compute

4 GiB × 100 hours, billed by the second. Keeping 20 GiB of billable incremental data for a full billing month adds $0.40. CPU is derived from memory by the platform; choose a tier that fits your workload.

Understand storage billing →

Before migrating from Amika

Identify hosted versus own-machine rigs, active users, service accounts, presets, volumes, and every file that must survive deletion.
Export the needed state and port repository setup, agent configuration, credentials, SSH/editor workflows, and preview services.
Test tool compatibility, repeated tasks, whole-RootFS growth, paused file access, and the full account, compute, storage, and model bill.

Common questions

Is Sandbox0 a drop-in Amika replacement?

Evaluate API compatibility and product scope. A shared sandbox category does not make SDKs, lifecycle semantics, or limits interchangeable.

Does keeping files also keep a running agent?

Filesystem state and volatile process state are separate. Sandbox0 requires explicit compatible memory checkpoints to preserve running processes; its default filesystem resume starts fresh processes.

Sources and review scope

The Boat team's Battleships directory is the discovery source. References below describe the product and plan discussed on this page. Check current availability, regional terms and billing units before migrating. Where the cited material does not establish a capability or price, the comparison identifies that uncertainty.

Battleships research record ↗www.amika.dev/pricing ↗docs.amika.dev/reference/presets.md ↗docs.amika.dev/guides/rig-lifecycle.md ↗Sandbox0 RootFS capacity →

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