Daytona alternatives in 2026

01Why teams look for Daytona alternatives

• Containers by default. A default Daytona sandbox shares a kernel; fork and pause need VM sandboxes [1] [7].
• Self-hosting. Its GitHub repository says it is no longer maintained, and BYOC keeps Daytona's control plane [3] [4].
• Enterprise-only controls. SSO, audit logs and BYOC are listed under Enterprise [5] [11].
• Network rules by tier. Lower tiers cannot override the default network restrictions [8].

02Daytona alternatives at a glance

Listed in no order of merit. Each line sums up the comparison page it links to, where every fact cites that vendor's own pages.

03The short verdict

Choose Daytona if

• you need GPUs in a sandbox, up to 8 per sandbox [12];
• you need Windows or macOS sandboxes as well as Linux [2];
• you want cheap container sandboxes and VMs only where you need them [1];
• you need SOC 2 and HIPAA paperwork today [14].

Choose kosa8 if

• every sandbox must be a VM with its own kernel, not a container by default [16];
• sandboxes must run on laptops, your servers or an air-gapped site you fully operate [17];
• you want API keys added by an egress broker so the sandbox never holds them [25];
• you want a verifiable audit log without an Enterprise plan [23].

04Daytona and kosa8, feature by feature

Bracketed numbers point to the sources. "Not documented" means the vendor's own pages did not say on 2026-11-14; it does not mean the feature is missing.

05Where Daytona is stronger

• GPUs. NVIDIA and AMD, up to 8 per sandbox, with spot pricing [12]; kosa8 has none [24].
• More operating systems. Windows and macOS sandboxes [2]; kosa8 sandboxes run Linux.
• Compliance paperwork. SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA and ISO/IEC 27001 listed in its Trust Center [14]; kosa8 has no SOC 2 report yet [25].
• Free credit and live network rules. $200 of compute without a card [5], and egress rules that change on a running sandbox [8].

06Where kosa8 is different

• A microVM every time. Daytona's default is a container sharing a kernel [1]; every kosa8 sandbox has its own kernel [16].
• You can run all of it. Daytona's BYOC keeps its control plane [4]; kosa8 runs fully on your hardware, offline if needed [17].
• Rewind. kosa8 keeps checkpoints and puts the machine back, processes included [18].
• Freeze and verify. An organization freeze on kosa8 Cloud and a hash-chained log on every plan [21] [23].

07Moving from Daytona to kosa8

Daytona's quickstart creates a sandbox, runs code and a command, and deletes it [13] [15].

Daytona, from its docs:

from daytona import Daytona, DaytonaConfig
config = DaytonaConfig(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY") # Replace with your API key
daytona = Daytona(config)
sandbox = daytona.create()
response = sandbox.process.code_run('print("Hello World")')
print(response.result)
response = sandbox.process.exec("ls -la")
print(response.result)
sandbox.delete()

The same on kosa8 Cloud (Python, pip install kosa8):

from kosa8 import Kosa8Cloud

cloud = Kosa8Cloud()  # reads KOSA8_API_KEY
box = cloud.sandboxes.create(template="python", sleep_after_s=600)
r = box.exec(["python3", "-c", "print('hello')"])
print(r.exit_code, r.stdout)
box.delete()

• process.code_run(code) becomes exec(['python3', '-c', code]); process.exec('ls -la') becomes exec(['ls', '-la']).
• response.result becomes r.stdout, with r.exit_code beside it.
• Daytona's auto-stop maps to sleep_after_s; sandbox.delete() stays box.delete() [18].
• domainAllowList maps to --egress-allow on a local sandbox [20]. GPU sandboxes have no kosa8 equivalent.
• Each kosa8 Cloud exec runs in a fresh container on the sandbox's disk: files under /workspace persist between commands, background processes do not. A buffered exec stops at 90 seconds; send stream: true for longer commands [18].
• Templates today are base (Alpine), python (Python 3.12) and node (Node.js 22) [18].
• An organization runs up to 20 sandboxes at once on kosa8 Cloud unless you ask for more [19].

08Questions

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