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Developer Tools · head to head

Atlantis vs Daytona

Atlantis logo

Atlantis

Developer Tools

Runs Terraform plan and apply from pull request comments, self-hosted and free

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Daytona logo

Daytona

Developer Tools

Infrastructure for spinning up secure, sub-second sandboxes to run AI-generated code

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Atlantis there is no company, no service level agreement and no paid support at any price, and the six maintainers are volunteers with day jobs, which some risk committees will not accept for a component holding production cloud credentials.; Daytona pricing is purely usage-based with no flat monthly plan, which can make costs harder to predict for steady workloads.
  • They diverge on capability: Atlantis covers Pull request plans, Daytona covers Sub-second sandbox creation.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Atlantis and Daytona actually diverge.

Attributes where Atlantis and Daytona differ
AttributeAtlantisDaytona
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feeusage-based
PlatformsLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, Self-hostedweb, linux, windows, api

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Developer Tools).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Atlantis

  • Pull request plans
  • Comment driven apply
  • Workspace locking
  • Policy checking
  • Multi-platform webhooks
  • Custom workflows

Only in Daytona

  • Sub-second sandbox creation
  • Per-second billing
  • GPU instances
  • Windows OS support
  • Enterprise BYOC

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Atlantis

  • Making Terraform review meaningful by putting the actual plan output in front of the approvernot Daytona
  • Removing local applies and the credential sprawl that comes with every engineer holding production keysnot Daytona
  • Getting pull request driven infrastructure without paying a per-user subscription for a hosted platformnot Daytona
  • Enforcing Conftest policies as a blocking check before an apply can runnot Daytona

Daytona

  • Running AI agent-generated code in a disposable, isolated sandboxnot Atlantis
  • Executing untrusted user code for a coding platformnot Atlantis
  • Running GPU workloads on demand without provisioning dedicated serversnot Atlantis
  • Testing Windows-specific code paths in a sandboxnot Atlantis

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Atlantis

  • There is no company, no service level agreement and no paid support at any price, and the six maintainers are volunteers with day jobs, which some risk committees will not accept for a component holding production cloud credentials.
  • The security surface is inherently sharp, because it is an internet-reachable webhook endpoint that executes applies with privileged credentials, gated by pull request comment authorisation that is coarse next to a real policy engine.
  • It is stateful, holding a working directory and lock database on local disk, so high availability and horizontal scaling are awkward and you own upgrades, webhook plumbing, secret rotation and the host itself.
  • It lacks the features that distinguish the commercial alternatives, with no native drift detection, no cost estimation, no managed state interface and no policy engine beyond the Conftest integration.
  • Terragrunt and monorepo layouts are not first-class, requiring hand-written custom workflows and repository configuration that becomes a growing maintenance burden as the number of repositories increases.

Daytona

  • Pricing is purely usage-based with no flat monthly plan, which can make costs harder to predict for steady workloads.
  • GPU instances are priced separately and can be significantly more expensive than standard compute for AI-heavy use cases.
  • Enterprise features like SSO, audit logs, and BYOC are only available by contacting sales rather than self-serve.

Pricing, plan by plan

Atlantis

Free
  • AtlantisFree
    • Apache-2.0, no usage limits and no seat count
    • No commercial edition and no paid support tier
    • Community support through GitHub and the CNCF Slack channel

Daytona

Free
  • Pay-as-you-go$undefined/mo
    • $0.0504 per vCPU/hour
    • $0.0162 per GiB memory/hour
    • $0.000108 per GiB storage/hour after 5 free GiB
  • Startup Program$undefined/mo
    • Up to $50,000 in free credits for qualifying startups
  • Enterprise$undefined/mo
    • Custom usage limits
    • SSO
    • Audit logs

Which should you pick?

Choose Atlantis if

  • You need pull request plans.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Self-hosted.
  • You also want comment driven apply.
Atlantis review

Choose Daytona if

  • You need sub-second sandbox creation.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on web, linux, windows, api.
  • You also want per-second billing.
Daytona review

Questions people ask

Is Atlantis or Daytona better?
Neither clearly leads. Atlantis starts at Free and Daytona at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Atlantis or Daytona?
Atlantis starts at Free and Daytona at Free.
Does Atlantis or Daytona run on more platforms?
Atlantis runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Self-hosted. Daytona runs on web, linux, windows, api.
Can I use Atlantis for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Atlantis best used for?
Atlantis is most often used for making terraform review meaningful by putting the actual plan output in front of the approver, removing local applies and the credential sprawl that comes with every engineer holding production keys, getting pull request driven infrastructure without paying a per-user subscription for a hosted platform, enforcing conftest policies as a blocking check before an apply can run. Of those, making terraform review meaningful by putting the actual plan output in front of the approver and removing local applies and the credential sprawl that comes with every engineer holding production keys are not what Daytona is typically brought in for.
What can Atlantis do that Daytona cannot?
Atlantis covers Pull request plans, Comment driven apply, Workspace locking, Policy checking. Daytona covers Sub-second sandbox creation, Per-second billing, GPU instances, Windows OS support.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Atlantis: Is there a company behind Atlantis?

No. It runs as a series of LF Projects under the Linux Foundation and is maintained by volunteers. There is no vendor to buy support from and no service level agreement.

Daytona: How is Daytona usage metered?

Usage is billed per second across vCPU, memory, and storage consumed, with separate per-hour rates for GPU and Windows instances.

Source
Atlantis: Is it a CNCF project?

No. It uses a channel in the CNCF Slack, which is often misread as membership, but the project sits under LF Projects rather than the CNCF.

Daytona: Is there a free plan, and what are its limits?

There is no flat free plan, but new signups receive $200 in free compute credit with no credit card required to start.

Source
Atlantis: Does it work with OpenTofu?

Yes, there is a dedicated integration guide alongside Terraform, and it also has configuration for working with hosted Terraform backends.

Daytona: Are discounts available for startups?

Yes, the Startup Program offers up to $50,000 in free credits for qualifying companies.

Source
Atlantis: What does it not do that a paid platform does?

Drift detection, cost estimation, a managed state and run interface, and a real policy engine. Atlantis does pull request plan and apply well and stops there.

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