F 
Fly.io
Run app containers and fast-booting VMs close to users.
NOT REALLY
why this verdict
Keep it — Anthropic has not replaced it
Anthropic's version overlaps, but does not finish the dev tools job, so this one is still worth keeping open.
- A named launch, not a vibe named, unlinked
- Agent sandbox providers moved into the same on-demand compute niche. Anthropic, March 1, 2025 — no announcement link recorded yet.
- How much of the job it covers not the job editorial call
- Parts of it. The job still needs the tool to get finished.
- Is there a free way to do it? yes
- 2 of 3 listed replacements have a usable free tier: E2B and Modal.
- What the call is worth nothing to cancel
- No paid entry tier tracked, so there is no subscription to cancel.
Reason composed from the fields above missing: announcement linked recorded: free replacement listed recorded: two or more escape hatches
- Threatened by
- Anthropic
- Since
- March 1, 2025
- List price
- free
- Per year
- —
The backstory
Fly's Machines API — boot a hardware-isolated VM in a second, kill it when idle — turned out to be the right primitive for AI agents that need somewhere disposable to run code. It went from a Heroku alternative to infrastructure that other AI companies build sandboxes on.
Escape hatches
R 
Railway Simpler deploys.
railway.com open_in_new E 
E2B Purpose-built agent sandboxes.
e2b.dev open_in_new M 
Modal Better for GPU workloads.
modal.com open_in_new2 of 3 replacements have a usable free tier.
