Daytona describes its product as full composable computers for AI agents. Its current sandbox platform includes a default Linux container runtime plus Linux VM, Windows, macOS, and GPU classes, with dedicated filesystems and network stacks and a common API/SDK surface.12 AgentVM takes a narrower Linux-machine approach across supported cloud providers, with hard runtime/spend bounds, guest-native controls, durable Data Relay, secure Connections, and machine payments.34
Both platforms give agents computers. Daytona optimizes runtime breadth and fast sandbox lifecycle. AgentVM optimizes a bounded cloud-machine lease plus durable real-world data and credential boundaries.
Daytona is broad
Daytona spans Linux containers, Linux VMs, Windows, macOS, and GPU sandboxes under one platform. Its documentation emphasizes sub-90ms startup for the default container class and exposes filesystem, Git, process, terminal, code-interpreter, and computer-use tooling through its sandbox APIs.12
For teams that need several operating-system or accelerator shapes behind one sandbox abstraction, that breadth is a major advantage.
AgentVM is bounded
AgentVM deliberately keeps the primary abstraction server-shaped: approved provider capacity, Linux image, region, SSH identity, maximum runtime, visible maximum charge, and provider-backed lifecycle.3
Native guest execution, streaming and cancellation, filesystem operations, background processes, named services, telemetry, snapshots where supported, and Node/Python SDKs reduce the need to fall back to SSH while preserving a normal machine model.
Storage differs
Daytona volumes are FUSE-based shared mounts backed by S3-compatible object storage and persist independently of an individual sandbox. Daytona explicitly notes that these mounts are not block storage and are not intended for workloads such as database tables.2
AgentVM separates object mounts from persistent block-volume semantics. S3/R2/GCS mounts use root-owned rclone/FUSE, while the Hetzner persistent-volume preview uses provider-backed ext4 block volumes that survive VM destruction and are metered separately from compute.3
Network differs
Daytona exposes outbound network allowlists, block-all rules, domain controls, and an optional upstream proxy path for HTTP(S) workloads.5
AgentVM combines runtime network policy with machine-scoped Connections that inject encrypted service credentials outside the guest, plus a Hetzner preview for a separately metered static egress IPv4. On dual-stack AgentVM machines that Floating IPv4 applies to IPv4 destinations only; native IPv6 remains a separate path.
Pick the model
Choose Daytona when runtime breadth, very fast sandbox startup, Windows/macOS/GPU options, computer-use tooling, or a unified sandbox API is central.12
Choose AgentVM when the core requirement is bounded Linux infrastructure across providers with durable HTTP/OTLP/MQTT ingress, managed fan-out, credential-injecting Connections, provider-backed block volumes, normal SSH, and agent-native compute purchasing.34