Lapdev’s November 24, 2025 product-change post distinguishes its current Kubernetes environment platform from the former self-hosted remote development product. Current public-beta platform pricing is separate from customer infrastructure. Read the source ↗

Development environments / Lapdev alternative

Lapdev alternative for persistent agent infrastructure

Lapdev’s official product-change post says the former Codespaces/Gitpod-style remote-devbox product was replaced by a Kubernetes environment platform. Today’s Devbox is a local development bridge into that cluster environment. Use that current scope rather than compare Sandbox0 with the older product description.

Start buildingCompare capabilities ↓

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

When Lapdev fits

Lapdev fits teams developing multi-service Kubernetes applications from their existing workloads and manifests, with personal/shared/branch environments and local debugging against cluster services. Keep it when production-aligned microservice development is the problem being solved.

When to consider Sandbox0

Consider Sandbox0 when the central need is a hosted per-user Linux agent computer with complete writable-RootFS durability, online growth and supported paused file operations. Recreate or retain multi-service cluster topology and developer traffic routing separately.

Capabilities

Lapdev and Sandbox0: what persists?

Feature comparison with documentation and verification status
Environment and runtime lifetimeLapdevNot 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 filesLapdevPersistence depends on local/cluster resources; the current guide does not define one hosted saved-machine disk.View evidence ↗Sandbox0The writable RootFS survives successful checkpoints, including software, system configuration, dependencies, and user data.Read documentation →
Whole RootFSLapdevA Kubernetes application environment/local process bridge does not establish a uniform durable complete agent RootFS.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 stateLapdevThe current Devbox bridge does not establish a hosted-machine compute-release pause/resume contract.View evidence ↗Sandbox0Pause compute between tasks; resume on available capacity. Default resume starts fresh processes from the saved filesystem.Read documentation →
Memory and process stateLapdevLocal debugging and traffic routing do not establish an arbitrary process-memory checkpoint service.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.

Cluster volumes and a developer’s local filesystem follow their own storage policies. The current Lapdev product does not establish automatic online expansion of one hosted durable agent RootFS.

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 →

The App Catalog is assembled from existing Kubernetes workloads

Current Lapdev reads workloads, configuration and services from a connected cluster and creates developer environments from them. Branch environments can share a baseline while routing selected services differently. That is an application-environment workflow, not a universal per-agent Linux-machine isolation or storage contract.

Source 1 ↗

Devbox runs the changed service locally

The current Devbox guide connects a local process to the Kubernetes environment and can route service traffic to it. Its files, kernel and resources therefore depend on the developer’s machine as well as the cluster. Do not interpret the current Devbox name as a rented durable cloud RootFS.

Source 1 ↗

Free beta platform access still uses your infrastructure

The price page states no platform subscription during public beta and explicitly leaves Kubernetes infrastructure costs with the customer. Future GA pricing is planned around active environments, with amounts not yet published. The older remote-devbox price model is not a current offer.

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.

Lapdev

Pricing reviewed 2026-10-18

Current public beta platform subscription
Free during public beta
Rate source ↗
Kubernetes infrastructure
Customer pays its own cluster/resource costs
Rate source ↗
Future GA platform pricing
Planned per active environment; numeric rates not published
Rate source ↗

Beta platform access does not include free cloud infrastructure. Personal, shared and branch environments can consume different resources; no vendor efficiency percentage is treated as a measured Sandbox0 savings claim.

Check current Lapdev 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 Lapdev

  1. Identify whether the old remote-devbox or current Kubernetes product is in use; inventory workloads, volumes, local tools and traffic-routing dependencies.
  2. Move compatible agent execution to Sandbox0 and retain or rebuild the required application topology, local debugging and integration workflow.
  3. Validate agent/system persistence separately from service routing, online growth, paused file access and all platform/infrastructure costs.

Common questions

Is Sandbox0 a drop-in Lapdev 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 ↗lap.dev/blog/lapdev-has-changed/ ↗docs.lap.dev/core-concepts/devbox.md ↗lap.dev/pricing/ ↗Sandbox0 RootFS capacity →

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