Solari vs Boat: Price, Speed and Fit
How does Solari compare with boat?
Solari vs Boat: Solari browsers start in 8 ms and its Enterprise sandbox hour is $0.0114; Boat sells persistent full Ubuntu VMs for agents.
Solari is the faster choice for agents that browse, starting a browser session in 8 ms on Steel's open-source benchmark, while Boat sells persistent full Ubuntu VMs; Solari's Enterprise sandbox hour is $0.0114.
What Is Solari?
Solari is agent infrastructure from Pinetree Research that gives AI agents cloud browsers, AI sandboxes and computer desktops from one API.
A Solari sandbox runs by default on a microVM of its own.
What Is Boat?
Boat sells persistent Linux VM sandboxes for AI agents, full Ubuntu machines with SSH, Docker and a desktop.
Boat runs seven coding-agent harnesses, including Claude Code and Codex, inside each sandbox.
Which Is Faster, Solari or Boat?
Solari browsers are ready in 8 ms.
On Steel's open-source benchmark, a Solari browser session averages 199.9 ms end to end across 5,000 runs, in a pull request that is still open.
A Solari VM starts usually in about a second.
Boat says it delivers a VM in a second.
Which Is Cheaper, Solari or Boat?
Solari bills a sandbox hour at $0.0114 on Enterprise for 4 vCPU, 8 GB and 20 GB of disk.
Solari bills a browser hour at $0.005 on Enterprise, a tenth of Team's rate.
Solari bills every environment per second while it runs.
Boat lists one hourly rate per machine size, billed per second while a sandbox runs.
Solari | Boat | |
|---|---|---|
Products | Browsers, sandboxes, desktops | Full Linux VM sandboxes |
Browser | Cloud browser sessions over CDP | Browser on the VM desktop |
Billing | Per second | Per second |
Idle machine | Pause saves memory and processes | Stop keeps the disk |
Source |
How Do Pause and Resume Differ?
Solari pauses an idle VM by default and saves its state, so the next connect picks up where the agent left off.
A paused Solari VM does not count against the plan's limit on running VMs.
Boat says "there is no pause", so a Boat stop keeps the disk while running processes end.
Boat says a resume or fork is ready in a few seconds, whatever the size of the disk.
How Many Environments Run at Once?
Solari supports up to 100,000 concurrent sandboxes or desktops on Enterprise, so you can run a whole fleet of agents in one pass.
Boat publishes a sandboxes-at-once limit for each plan and offers custom plans above its largest one.
Where Each Fits
Solari fits teams whose agents need a browser, a code sandbox and a desktop from one account and one API key.
Boat fits teams that want a full Ubuntu VM with /dev/kvm for nested virtualization and coding agents preinstalled.
Boat is the specialist in persistent full VMs with coding agents built in; Solari moves faster on browser startup speed and fleet-scale price.
Key Facts
Solari browsers are ready in 8 ms (Solari).
Solari averages 199.9 ms end to end on Steel's open-source benchmark, 5,000 runs, PR open (browserbench PR #4).
Solari bills $0.0114 per sandbox hour for 4 vCPU, 8 GB on Enterprise (Solari pricing).
Solari bills $0.005 per browser hour on Enterprise (Solari pricing).
Solari supports up to 100,000 concurrent browsers on Enterprise (Solari pricing).
Boat runs full Ubuntu VMs with SSH, Docker and a desktop (Boat docs).
Boat gives every sandbox /dev/kvm, so QEMU, Firecracker and the Android emulator run inside it (Boat docs).
FAQ
What is the best Boat alternative? Solari is the best Boat alternative for agents that need browsers, sandboxes and desktops from one API. A Solari browser session starts in 8 ms on Steel's open-source benchmark.
Is Solari faster than Boat? For browser agents, yes. A Solari browser session is ready in 8 ms and averages 199.9 ms end to end on Steel's open-source benchmark. Boat says it delivers a VM in a second.
How does Solari price compare with Boat? Solari bills $0.0114 per sandbox hour for 4 vCPU and 8 GB on Enterprise, per second while it runs. Boat lists one hourly rate per machine size, also billed per second.
Does Boat include a browser? Yes. Boat runs a browser on the desktop of each VM. Solari sells cloud browsers as their own product, driven with Playwright, Puppeteer or any CDP client, at $0.005 per browser hour on Enterprise.
Can a Solari sandbox keep its state between runs? Yes. Solari pauses an idle machine by default and saves its state, so the next connect resumes where the agent stopped. A paused VM does not count against the plan's running-VM limit.
Sources
Pricing checked 8 November 2026.
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