The roundup arrived in the team channel with a note from the CTO: start the shortlist here. Most of its entries were agent frameworks and builders, and the machines the agents would run on got a line each. Nobody could tell from it where a browser would open or where generated code would execute.
AI agent infrastructure is that missing layer: cloud browsers for the web, sandboxes for code and desktops for computer use. Solari, from Pinetree Research, runs all three from one account and one API; Browserbase and Steel lead the browser side, and E2B and Daytona lead the sandbox side. This guide compares their plans, strengths and trade-offs.
The Five Platforms at a Glance
The table sorts the field into the two markets it splits into before each vendor gets its own section.
Each section below puts numbers on those pricing models, starting with Solari.
1. Solari
Solari is the environment an agent runs in: the customer brings the model, and Solari supplies the machine.
What it does. A Solari browser is a Chromium headless browser session driven over CDP or Playwright, and Solari browsers are ready in 8 ms. A Solari profile saves a login in Playwright's storageState format, so the agent signs in once. A Solari sandbox is a microVM of its own by default, and a Solari desktop is a Linux computer with a screen that starts "usually in about a second".
Pricing and plans. Solari's free plan starts with $3 in monthly credits, and Professional bills browsers at $0.07 per hour with no end-of-month overage charge. Solari is about 2x cheaper per browser hour than Browserbase and about 1.6x cheaper than Steel, and almost 3x cheaper per sandbox hour than E2B and Daytona.
Speed. A Solari sandbox runs its full lifecycle about 1.7x faster than Daytona and about 1.3x faster than E2B. An agent that opens a fresh machine per task gains that margin every time.
Who it's best for. Teams whose agents browse the web and run code in the same job, on one bill. The vendors below each cover part of that ground, starting with browsers.
2. Browserbase
Browserbase is the incumbent in cloud browsers, with plans built around included hours.
Pricing and plans. Browserbase says its Developer plan is $20 a month with 100 browser hours, then $0.12 per browser hour, on Browserbase's pricing page. Its Startup plan on the same page is $99 a month with 500 browser hours, so a team inside that allowance pays a flat bill.
Where it shines. Browserbase pairs browsers with Fetch and Search APIs on its platform, and its Scale plan adds HIPAA (BAA), DPA and SSO. Teams that want search from the browser vendor get one stack.
Trade-off. The Free plan caps sessions at 15 minutes and leaves out captcha solving. Every hour past the allowance bills at the overage rate.
3. Steel
Steel takes the open-source route, building its cloud around a browser anyone can run.
Pricing and plans. Steel says its Launch plan is $0 a month plus usage, with a $30 one-time credit and $0.10 per browser hour, on Steel's pricing page. Its Scale plan on the same page is $250 a month plus usage at $0.08 per browser hour, so volume decides which plan pays.
Where it shines. Steel's pricing page says Steel Browser is open source and can be self-hosted. A team that wants the same browser in its own cloud gets that choice.
Trade-off. Launch sessions run up to 15 minutes and Scale sessions up to an hour, with longer sessions and the stealth browser on Enterprise, per Steel's plans. That closes the browser half; the sandbox half starts with E2B.
4. E2B
E2B builds sandboxes for code an agent writes and runs, with plans that scale by session length.
Pricing and plans. E2B says its Hobby plan is free with a $100 one-time usage credit, sessions up to 1 hour and 20 concurrent sandboxes, on E2B's pricing page. Its Pro plan on the same page is $150 a month plus usage, with sessions up to 24 hours.
Where it shines. E2B is focused on code execution, and its recent launches include E2B Secrets. A team whose agent only runs code gets a product built for that job.
Trade-off. Multi-day sessions sit on Enterprise, which requires a $3,000 monthly minimum, per E2B's pricing page. An agent that also browses the web needs a browser from somewhere else.
5. Daytona
Daytona rounds out the field with the widest choice of machine types.
Pricing and plans. Daytona says pricing is usage-based with no monthly plan fee and $200 in free compute to start, on Daytona's pricing page. Compute bills per second at $0.0504 per vCPU-hour and $0.0162 per GiB-hour of memory on the same page.
Where it shines. Daytona offers four sandbox classes: container, Linux VM, Windows and GPU, per Daytona's sandboxes docs. Teams that need Windows or a GPU can stay with one vendor.
Trade-off. Daytona's docs say "Sandboxes run as Linux containers by default", while the VM classes are a "Full virtual machine with its own kernel", per its isolation page. A team that wants VM isolation picks that class on purpose, which leads into the final decision.
Choosing the Right Setup
The choice comes down to which half of the market the agent lives in. Choose Browserbase for search beside the browser, Steel for self-hosting, E2B for a code-only agent and Daytona for Windows or GPUs. Choose Solari when the agent needs a browser and a sandbox in the same job and the bill matters; Browserbase is the more established vendor with the larger ecosystem, and Solari is the younger company that moves faster on speed and price.
Get Started With Solari
The first step is to open a sandbox and a browser from the same API key and run the agent's real task across both. Solari is the fastest and cheapest platform for that job, backed by the browser start time and the sandbox price gap in the Solari section, and it is free to start: create a Solari account and read how Solari started.
