head to head · open source
sandboxd vs bex
sandboxd has 946 GitHub stars, 60 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. bex has 564 stars, 63 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sandboxd leads on adoption by 68% (946 vs 564 stars). sandboxd is written in Go under MIT; bex is written in Go under Apache-2.0. sandboxd has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, bex 11%. bex was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai-agents, paas), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| sandboxd | bex | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 946 | ★ 564 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-09 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 60 | ⑂ 63 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick sandboxd if
- You weight community size — 946 stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick bex if
- You want the bex feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and bex fits your workflow better
About sandboxd
sandboxd is an open source, self hosted AI app builder that runs a coding agent inside isolated sandboxes on your own server and gives every generated app its own live preview URL, and it is built for developers and teams who want the prompt to app workflow of hosted builders without giving up their infrastructure, code, or data.
read the full sandboxd overview →
About bex
bex is an open source, AI native platform as a service that turns a Git push into a built, deployed, HTTPS secured application on infrastructure you own, and it treats developers and coding agents as equally first class users of the same control plane.
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Frequently asked questions
Is sandboxd or bex more popular?
sandboxd has 946 GitHub stars and bex has 564. sandboxd has the larger community by that measure.
Are sandboxd and bex free?
Both are open source. sandboxd is licensed under MIT and bex under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between sandboxd and bex?
sandboxd is written in Go and bex in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, sandboxd or bex?
Choose sandboxd if you want the larger community (946 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose bex if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.