Comparison

Containarium vs Runloop

Both give coding agents their own Linux environment. Runloop is a managed platform: microVM Devboxes you drive from a Python or TypeScript SDK, plus tooling for benchmarking and training agents. Containarium is open source and self-hostable: persistent boxes an agent drives directly over MCP. Here's where each one fits.

Choose Containarium when…

You want to self-host on a VM you own, under Apache 2.0, without an enterprise contract.
Your agent speaks MCP and should drive the box directly, with no SDK glue.
Boxes should stay up and host services on a real HTTPS hostname.
You want GPU passthrough on hardware you already own.

Choose Runloop when…

You want microVM isolation between tenants, fully managed, with SOC 2 Type II.
You're benchmarking or fine-tuning agents and want that tooling on the same platform.
Your orchestration is written against a Python/TypeScript SDK.
You'd rather buy a platform than run one.

Same job, different ownership model: boxes you run vs devboxes you rent.

Side-by-side

Dimension	Containarium	Runloop
Primary interface	MCP server in every box + CLI; any MCP agent drives it	SDK-first (Python, TypeScript) + API
Isolation	LXC system container (shared host kernel) or a Kubernetes pod; optional gVisor on K8s	MicroVM isolation between tenants
Persistence	Long-lived; disk, installs and caches survive until you delete the box	Suspend/resume keeps disk state; in-memory state is lost. Idle policy can shut down or suspend
Networking	Routable hostname with TLS and SSH via the built-in sentinel	Network policies
Self-hosting	First-class: install on one VM, Apache 2.0	VPC deployment on the Enterprise plan
Open source	Yes — Apache 2.0 (CLI, daemon, sentinel, in-box MCP)	Hosted platform; API clients published on GitHub
GPU	NVIDIA passthrough on your own hardware	Optional GPU devboxes
Pricing	OSS: your VM's cost. Cloud: free tier, then usage	Free tier + usage; Pro $250/mo + usage; CPU $0.108/CPU-hr, memory $0.0252/GB-hr

Runloop details checked against its public docs and pricing pages in September 2026. Check Runloop's own docs for current specifics.

Managed microVMs vs a box you own

Runloop's pitch is operational: a managed, SOC 2 Type II platform with microVM isolation between tenants and an on-call team behind it. That is a real advantage if you're running other people's agents and don't want to operate the substrate.

Containarium's pitch is ownership. The whole stack is Apache 2.0 and installs on one VM, so the source, the build artifacts and the agent's working state stay inside your network — no enterprise contract needed to get there. The trade: an LXC box shares the host kernel, so for genuinely hostile code we say so plainly in how to run untrusted agent code.

SDK vs MCP

With Runloop you orchestrate devboxes from your own code through its SDK. With Containarium, every box runs an MCP server (shell and file tools) reached over SSH stdio, so Claude Code, Cursor, Codex or Goose use it with a few lines of config and nothing to write. A human gets the same surface through the containarium CLI.

Persistence

Runloop suspends devboxes to disk and bills only storage while suspended — useful, but in-memory state is lost. A Containarium box is simply a long-lived Linux machine: services keep running, and the agent comes back to exactly what it left.

FAQ

What is the difference between Containarium and Runloop?

Runloop is a managed platform of microVM Devboxes for coding agents, driven from a Python or TypeScript SDK, with tooling for benchmarking and training agents. Containarium is an open-source (Apache 2.0) runtime that gives each agent a persistent Linux box it drives over MCP, and it can be self-hosted on a single VM.

Can I self-host Runloop?

Runloop offers VPC deployment on its Enterprise plan. Containarium is self-hostable by default: the open-source install runs on any Ubuntu VM you own.

Which has stronger isolation?

Runloop isolates tenants in microVMs, which is a stronger boundary than a shared-kernel container. Containarium boxes are LXC system containers or Kubernetes pods (optionally under gVisor). For code you treat as actively hostile, a microVM boundary is the safer default.

Does Containarium work with Claude Code and other MCP agents?

Yes. Every box runs an MCP server reached over SSH stdio, so any MCP-aware agent — Claude Code, Cursor, Cline, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, Goose — drives it with a config entry and no SDK.