boxes.dev vs Replicas

At a glance

As of September 2026.

How environments are made

Replicas builds each workspace from environment settings and hook scripts, and boxes.dev copies a machine where your app already runs.

A Replicas organization has a Global environment plus team and personal environments. Warm hooks, set in the app or in a replicas.yaml file in the repository, install dependencies and run builds ahead of time. Replicas snapshots the result and keeps a pool of ready workspaces, five by default for a team environment. Start hooks run at boot for work such as starting dev servers, applying migrations, or pulling current data. Replicas bills workspace time by the minute while a workspace is awake, and a Full seat covers the work that person starts, up to 150 hours a month on Developer.

boxes.dev first sets up your full development environment on a cloud machine called the Template box, with the tools, databases, services, and data your app needs, so an agent can run the app and test its changes end to end. A setup agent can port the environment from your laptop, including the files, local data, agent settings, and skills you choose to upload, or build it from a GitHub repository. boxes.dev then saves the Template box as a snapshot, and every task runs on its own devbox, a full, isolated copy of that machine. A maintenance script can keep the Template box current as your code changes, running on a schedule or when files such as a lockfile change, and each successful run saves a new snapshot. Team Templates let an admin prepare one starting environment for everyone on the team.

You'd never let an engineer ship code they hadn't run, and a full environment holds the agent to the same standard. On a boxes.dev devbox, the agent runs your whole app, with its databases, services, and data, and tests its changes in the browser as it builds. It reproduces bugs in the real app to find the root cause instead of guessing from the code, so it writes better code and makes fewer mistakes. It can also take screenshots and record video for you to review, so you can hand it most repetitive manual testing.

Reaching the running app

In both products, you and the agent can use the app running in the cloud, and boxes.dev also gives your project one address that you can move between devboxes.

Every Replicas workspace has a streamed desktop with Chrome that you can watch or take over. You or the agent can register a workspace port as a public preview link, optionally behind a Replicas login, and detached services keep dev servers running across turns and sleep. The CLI and the desktop app can tunnel a workspace port to the same port on your computer.

Each boxes.dev devbox runs a browser that you and the agent share, so you can watch the agent test the app, click through it yourself, or comment on page elements to show the agent what to change. Ports forwards the app to the same localhost port on your laptop, a public link shares it with anyone, and a Project URL gives your project one stable public address that you can point at any devbox, for OAuth callbacks and webhooks.

Working with your team

Both take requests in Slack threads, and Replicas can also watch whole channels. Every Replicas member can open any workspace, and on boxes.dev, teammates read your threads, while only teammates you allow can send your agent work from Slack.

Every member of a Replicas organization can open any workspace, and shared workspaces list their contributors. A workspace uses its creator's coding-agent credentials, or the organization's when the creator has none, and Replicas's docs describe members as trusted users who can retrieve the organization's shared credentials through the agent or terminal. Pull requests come from the Replicas bot unless you turn on attribution, which uses the requester's own code-host login. Mentioning @Replicas in Slack starts a workspace, and later mentions in that thread go to the same workspace. Replicas's Mothership agent can also watch the channels you choose and decide which messages need a reply or a workspace. Long-term memory carries team decisions and lessons from past work into later workspaces.

Each boxes.dev devbox belongs to one person and works with their access, such as their GitHub login and cloud credentials. Anyone who can prompt its agent could act with that access, so in the app, teammates get read-only access to your work. You can share a thread as a link, and a team admin can let teammates read every thread that isn't marked private and browse each other's projects in a Team workbench. Teammates can't send prompts, open your terminal, or control your devbox.

In Slack, mentioning @boxes.dev in a thread starts Codex or Claude Code on a new devbox, and later mentions in that thread send follow-ups to the same conversation. By default, only you can start work in your project from Slack or follow up on it. If you allow teammates, they can also start work there with @boxes.dev @YourName and send follow-ups, and their requests run with your access and usage. boxes.dev sends you a DM with links to each task a teammate starts. Agents can read earlier threads, and commits can link to the thread that produced them.

What comes with every boxes.dev devbox

The boxes.dev desktop app opens the same set of tools for whichever devbox you select:

• Terminal, with tabs that keep running after you close the app.
• Files, a file browser and editor with search across the workspace.
• Git/Review, for branch history and diffs, where comments on changed lines go to the agent together as one message.
• Browser, the browser on the devbox that you and the agent share.
• Ports, for forwarding to your laptop, stable .localhost addresses, and public links.
• Activity, which shows the processes using the machine's CPU and memory.

Agents can start other agents on new or existing devboxes, message each other, and leave notes in a shared /project folder, and you can branch a conversation onto a new devbox with the current files.

Where Replicas shines

• Eight agents. Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, and others, with chats that can move to another agent and keep their context.
• Slack channel triage. Mothership watches the channels you choose, decides which messages need a reply or a workspace, and follows instructions you set for each channel.
• Automations on outside events. GitHub events, Sentry alerts, and Slack messages can start fresh workspaces, and a run can report its verdict as a GitHub check.
• Mobile app testing. Agents can build and test iOS and Android apps on cloud simulators and emulators from a workspace.

Pricing

As of September 2026.

A box-hour is one default devbox awake for an hour, and sleeping devboxes don't use any. On Starter, 40 box-hours works out to about two hours of devbox time each working day, and Pro's 250 to about twelve, spread across as many as ten devboxes at once. Your Claude or ChatGPT plan covers the agents' usage. See Plans, seats, and box-hours.

A Developer Full seat's 150 hours cover the workspaces that person starts, whatever their size, and two workspaces running for an hour use two hours. At 150 hours, that seat's workspaces pause until the next billing period. Work that the API or automations start is billed to the organization by the minute. See Replicas's pricing and billing docs.

Using both

Replicas and boxes.dev can work on the same repositories and pull requests. You can keep Replicas for Slack channel triage and event-driven automations, and use boxes.dev when a task needs Claude Code or Codex on a copy of your full running environment.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use my Claude and ChatGPT subscriptions with both?

Yes. Replicas connects a Claude subscription with replicas claude-auth and supports ChatGPT sign-in for Codex. boxes.dev runs Claude Code with your Claude plan and Codex with your ChatGPT plan, or with an API key.

What's the difference between a Replicas workspace and a boxes.dev devbox?

Both are isolated cloud machines that sleep when idle and keep their running processes. A Replicas workspace starts from an environment's warm snapshot and is archived, then deleted, after long inactivity. A boxes.dev devbox starts as a copy of your Template box and stays until you delete it.

Can I open a devbox in my own editor?

Yes. dvb ide opens a devbox in VS Code or a JetBrains IDE over SSH. See Install and use the CLI. Replicas can open a workspace in VS Code through replicas code.

Sources

• Replicas: overview, workspaces, environments, repository config, Canvas, chat forking, long-term memory, workspace identity, static egress IP, credentials, Claude Code, Codex, CLI, desktop app, iOS app, Slack, Linear, GitHub, automations, MCP, mobile testing, team, billing, changelog, and pricing.
• boxes.dev: How boxes.dev works, Update your Template box and snapshots, Startup, teardown, and maintenance, Sleep, wake, and recover a devbox, Review a page with your agent, Preview your app, Project URLs, Browse, edit, and transfer files, Create and publish a Team Template, Connect Codex and Claude, Use the agent's terminal view, Environment files and secrets, Add MCP servers, Install agent plugins, Organize and share threads, Team access and roles, Branch a conversation, Shared project storage, Commit, push, and open a pull request, Install and use the CLI, Work from Slack, Work from Linear, Create an automation, Use boxes.dev on your phone, and Plans, seats, and box-hours.