Development environments / Coder alternative

A Coder alternative for hosted agents with a growing complete RootFS

Coder provisions developer and agent workspaces on infrastructure you control. Its Terraform templates decide which resources survive stop/start. This flexibility can retain an entire machine or selected volumes; it is not a uniform workspace-only storage limitation.

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

When Coder fits

Coder fits teams needing governed self-operated environments, IDE access, enterprise policy, and control over providers and template design. Keep those requirements central when evaluating its licensing and the infrastructure your platform team operates.

When to consider Sandbox0

Consider Sandbox0 for a hosted Linux agent runtime with regional-object-storage-backed whole-RootFS persistence, online growth and supported file access during pauses. A migration still needs its own developer portal, governance, IDE and agent orchestration integration where required.

Capabilities

Coder and Sandbox0: what persists?

Feature comparison with documentation and verification status
Environment and runtime lifetimeCoderNot established in this reviewSandbox0ttl 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 filesCoderTemplates can retain persistent resources and volumes while recreating ephemeral compute.View evidence ↗Sandbox0The writable RootFS survives successful checkpoints, including software, system configuration, dependencies, and user data.Read documentation →
Whole RootFSCoderTemplates can be fully persistent, but complete RootFS coverage is deployment-defined rather than a uniform product guarantee.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 stateCoderStop/start retains configured persistent resources and destroys/recreates configured ephemeral ones.View evidence ↗Sandbox0Pause compute between tasks; resume on available capacity. Default resume starts fresh processes from the saved filesystem.Read documentation →
Memory and process stateCoderThe general resource lifecycle does not promise arbitrary execution-memory restoration.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.

A Coder template may use storage that supports resizing, but the reviewed general contract does not provide one automatic whole-RootFS growth policy. Compare the chosen template/provider workflow with Sandbox0’s enabled online RootFS expansion.

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.

See paused file operations →

Persistence is a template decision

Coder allows fully ephemeral, fully persistent and mixed templates. A common pattern deletes costly compute on stop while retaining storage volumes. The lifecycle therefore depends on the actual Terraform resources and their start_count rules; do not assume that stopping every Coder workspace keeps or discards the same filesystem paths.

Source 1 ↗Source 2 ↗

System tools need an explicit durable path or rebuild recipe

The official customization tutorial shows Homebrew disappearing after restart until its install prefix receives a persistent volume. That is a concrete template example, not a universal Coder restriction. Track installed system tools and template updates as deliberately as source code, and use immutable resource identities to avoid accidental storage replacement.

Source 1 ↗Source 2 ↗

Free Community software is separate from infrastructure cost

The price page offers Community free, Premium with annual per-user terms, and AI Premium at custom pricing. Its current comparison caps active Coder Agents at five in Community/Premium and removes that cap in AI Premium. Those are agent-product entitlements, not a claim that Community permits only five ordinary workspaces.

Source 1 ↗

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.

Coder

Pricing reviewed 2026-10-18

Community software
Free
Infrastructure and operations are separate.
Rate source ↗
Premium
Annual per-user commercial terms; numeric amount not published here
Rate source ↗
AI Premium
Custom pricing
Rate source ↗
Active Coder Agents entitlement
Up to 5 on Community/Premium; unlimited on AI Premium
Distinct from ordinary workspace count and physical capacity.
Rate source ↗

Coder software licensing is not a bundled VM-hour quote. Include your actual compute, persistent volumes, networks, model providers and platform operations. Template persistence is configurable; no universal claim that Coder loses system state or lacks resizable storage follows from one tutorial.

Check current Coder 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 Coder

  1. Inspect actual Terraform templates, persistent volumes, provider resources, workspace schedules, IDE access, governance and agent entitlements.
  2. Export required data and port compatible execution, files, credentials and networking while supplying any developer/governance interface the team still needs.
  3. Validate system packages across stop/rebuild, online growth, paused file operations, process expectations and full licensing/infrastructure/operations cost.

Common questions

Is Sandbox0 a drop-in Coder replacement?

Evaluate API compatibility and product scope. These products serve different core workflows, so a change may require a different architecture.

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 ↗coder.com/docs/admin/templates/extending-templates/resource-persistence.md ↗coder.com/docs/user-guides/workspace-lifecycle.md ↗coder.com/docs/get-started/customize-your-template/install-command-line-tools.md ↗coder.com/pricing ↗Sandbox0 RootFS capacity →

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