Cloud sandbox
thane vs E2B
E2B runs sandboxes in the cloud. thane runs them on your machine with OS-level isolation.
TL;DR
- E2B charges per sandbox-minute; thane is free for personal use
- E2B sandboxes are remote VMs; thane uses Landlock + seccomp on Linux and App Sandbox on macOS
- thane includes a full terminal workspace (split panes, browser, workspaces) — E2B is an API-only service
- thane works offline; E2B requires an internet connection
Feature comparison
| Feature | thane | E2B |
|---|---|---|
| OS-level sandboxing (Landlock + seccomp on Linux, App Sandbox on macOS) | ||
| Per-workspace file restrictions | ||
| Network isolation | ||
| Local-first (runs on your machine) | ||
| Split panes & workspaces | ||
| Embedded browser | ||
| Agent queue management | ||
| Real-time audit trail | ||
| Cost / token tracking | ||
| Open source | ||
| Free tier | ||
| AI agent auto-detection (18 agents) | ||
| Built-in git diff viewer | ||
| Sensitive data / PII detection |
Yes / Partial / No
Pricing
thane
E2B
What E2B does well
E2B pioneered the cloud sandbox concept for AI code execution. Their SDK is clean, their startup times are fast for a cloud product, and the sandbox API is well-designed. If you need to run untrusted code in a throwaway cloud environment at scale, E2B is a serious option.
Where thane differs
thane takes a fundamentally different approach: instead of shipping your code to a remote VM, thane sandboxes it right on your machine using OS-native primitives (Landlock + seccomp on Linux, App Sandbox on macOS). This means zero network latency, no per-minute costs, and your code never leaves your laptop. thane also wraps the sandbox in a full terminal workspace with split panes, an embedded browser, and an agent queue — so you get both the safety of a sandbox and the productivity of a real development environment.
Which should you choose?
Choose E2B if you’re building a SaaS product that needs to run end-user code in isolated cloud environments at scale. Choose thane if you’re a developer who wants to safely run Claude Code on your own machine without paying per-minute fees, and you want a full-featured terminal workspace to go with it.
Ready to try thane?
Free for personal use. OS-level sandboxing, split panes, embedded browser, and real-time audit trail — all on your machine.