head to head · open source
sandboxd vs bex
sandboxd has 976 GitHub stars, 69 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped yesterday. bex has 578 stars, 65 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. sandboxd leads on adoption by 69% (976 vs 578 stars). sandboxd is written in Go under MIT; bex is written in Go under Apache-2.0. sandboxd has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, bex 11%. sandboxd 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 | ★ 976 | ★ 578 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 69 | ⑂ 65 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick sandboxd if
- You weight community size — 976 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 Open source, self hosted AI app builder. Prompt it and a coding agent builds real apps in isolated sandboxes on your server — each live at a preview URL. You own the infra, code, and data. MIT. 🔥 Trend of the Day on Trendshift Prompt → a real, running app on your server, at its own URL. See it in action 👇 1 · Build from a prompt — an agent builds it in an isolated sandbox, live at a preview URL. 2 · Or run an existing app — n8n, Ghost, Grafana… 80+ curated apps, one click. 3 · Or drive the API — every action is a /v1 call, headless & scriptable. ▶ Try the live demo Click around a real console with…
read the full sandboxd overview →
About bex
bex The open source, AI native alternative to Render. Deploy from Git to HTTPS on infrastructure you own—and give developers and coding agents the same first class control plane. Quickstart · Features · Screenshots · Architecture · Render parity · Contributing [!WARNING] bex is in active development and is not ready for production workloads. APIs and configuration can change. The core platform works and is continuously tested; use it today to explore, contribute, and help shape the project. Why bex Render, Heroku, and Railway proved the experience developers want: connect a repo, get a URL, and avoid operating…
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Frequently asked questions
Is sandboxd or bex more popular?
sandboxd has 976 GitHub stars and bex has 578. 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 (976 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose bex if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.