E2B vs Dejima
E2B and Dejima both put AI agents in sandboxes, but at opposite ends of the spectrum. E2B is a managed cloud for spinning up ephemeral sandboxes that run AI-generated code, built for teams shipping agent products. Dejima is a free, self-hosted runtime for running your own coding agents on your own box. Where your code and your money live is the real question.
Verified as of June 2026. Competitor products change quickly, so every claim here is dated and the sources are listed at the bottom of this page.
Short version: if you're building an agent product and want a hosted sandbox you call from an SDK, with enterprise support behind it, E2B is built for that. If you want to run your own coding agents on hardware you own, for free, with the code never leaving your perimeter, that's Dejima.
What E2B is
E2B calls itself the enterprise AI agent cloud. It gives you secure, isolated sandboxes that boot in about 150 milliseconds and run sessions up to 24 hours, created from an SDK so the agents your product runs can execute code safely. It's open source, and it's used heavily; the company cites Perplexity, Manus, and most of the Fortune 100.
The product is the cloud. There's a free Hobby tier with a one-time credit, a Pro tier around $150 a month plus usage, and an Enterprise tier for bring-your-own-cloud and on-prem with support. You can also self-host E2B yourself in your own cloud from the open-source repo, without an enterprise plan. The default experience is still the managed cloud.
What Dejima is
Dejima starts from the other side: self-hosted first, free, on hardware you already own. See the overview.
You run a fleet of coding agents in islands, persistent containers each with their own home, credentials, and git worktrees. You bring your own agents and keys. The agents' model calls go out, but your source, your files, and your credentials never leave your box, because there's no managed cloud in the loop. Host access is deny-all and brokered, every crossing written to a tamper-evident log, and the whole thing installs with one command on a Mac mini or a server.
Side by side
| What you need | Dejima | E2B |
|---|---|---|
| Free and self-hosted on your own hardware | ✓ | ~ DIY |
| Your code never leaves your perimeter | ✓ | ~ cloud by default |
| Persistent agents you attach to and watch | ✓ | ✗ ephemeral |
| SDK to spin up sandboxes for generated code | ~ | ✓ |
| Boots a fresh sandbox in ~150ms | ✗ | ✓ |
| No monthly fee or per-second usage bill | ✓ | ✗ Pro + usage |
| Brokered deny-all host access + audit ledger | ✓ | ✗ |
| One dashboard for your whole fleet | ✓ | ✗ |
E2B's default product is the managed cloud (Hobby and Pro). Self-hosting is do-it-yourself in your own cloud from the open-source repo; Enterprise adds BYOC and on-prem with support.
When E2B is the better choice
Pick E2B if you're shipping an agent product and code execution is a feature of it. You want sandboxes on demand from an SDK, fast cold starts, generous concurrency, and an enterprise contract with BYOC when you need it. That's a real and different need, and E2B serves it well. Dejima is not a sandbox API for your application to call.
When Dejima is the better choice
Pick Dejima if the agents are yours and the box should be too. You want Claude Code and Codex running on your own Mac mini or server, for free, with your code staying inside your perimeter and no usage meter running. You want persistent sessions, one dashboard, brokered host access, and an audit trail you can verify. If you want self-hosting that's first-class and free rather than a do-it-yourself afterthought, this is the one.
Common questions
Is E2B free to self-host?
Yes. You can self-host E2B yourself in your own cloud from the open-source repo, without an enterprise plan; E2B's default product is the managed cloud. Dejima is self-hosted first: one command on hardware you own, with the dashboard, brokered host access, and audit built in.
Should I use E2B or Dejima for my agents?
Use E2B if you're building a product that runs AI-generated code in ephemeral cloud sandboxes via an SDK. Use Dejima if you want to run your own coding agents, like Claude Code, on your own hardware, persistently, with your code staying inside your perimeter and no usage meter.
Does my code stay private with E2B?
By default E2B runs in its managed cloud, so your code runs on their infrastructure unless you self-host it yourself. With Dejima your source and credentials never leave your box; the agents' model calls go out, but there's no Dejima cloud holding your work.
Sources, last verified June 2026: E2B pricing · E2B enterprise (self-host). Competitor details change; tell us if something here is out of date.
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