# exe.dev 115 Hacker News commenters recommended exe.dev and 56 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Spins up SSH-accessible Linux VMs in seconds with a built-in coding agent and one-click public exposure; critics cite a confusing landing page, closed source and production-unfriendly limits. ## Why people recommend it - Built-in coding agent on VM (7 comments): "exe.dev is my sandbox infra of choice. You get a new sandbox in literally a second with SSH and a coding agent (Shelley) built in." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48894207)) "I do prefer chatting with their coding agent in a browser tab to using Claude Code in a terminal window." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46494439)) "exe.dev is hands down the best experience I had on this front when the agent is literally on the VM" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48568080)) - Fast VM spin-up, SSH access (5 comments): "exe.dev is my sandbox infra of choice. You get a new sandbox in literally a second with SSH and a coding agent (Shelley) built in." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48894207)) "Spin up a VM in a few seconds with the code checked out and running online and editable over an SSH mount is the magic." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47952024)) "I really like the experience, after being a stuck I just tried to ssh from my termux on phone and it really worked!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46401031)) - Easy public exposure of apps (4 comments): "It just one-shotted a volunteer management app and with just one more click in the console I can expose it to the public." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46405888)) "I just spun up a VM on exe.dev, asked the AI to write the app, and then made the VM public-facing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48492394)) "Semi-throwaway, nearly bare-metal machines that I can put on the internet with basically 0 config" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46399559)) - Built-in auth, proxy, integrations (3 comments): "Exe also has a neat auth/https proxy that also does TLS/certs they have lots of cool tools and integrations." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49052972)) "they have really nice built in methods to take care of stuff like auth and inter-vm interactions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49817206)) "I think exe.dev's pitch is better: they provide Linux VMs, a web proxy, and integrations." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49582383)) ## What people warn about - Confusing, unhelpful landing page (4 comments): "doesn't tell you what those shared resource limits are, what the pricing is, or anything other than to ssh in" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46397807)) "Why put an SSH command in a huge banner if I have to go around and register before I can use it anyway?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46402741)) "From the home page, I figured it was some text-based game or experiment and closed the page." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46402298)) - Closed source (2 comments): "Closed source, solves a different problem, and just looks like generic agent sandboxes/VMs?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49582895)) "I like using exe but I’m not sure what to feel about this if exe itself isnt open source." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49160034)) - Not meant for production hosting (2 comments): "Those limits make it pretty clear it's not really meant for hosting a production app." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46402996)) "exe.dev isn't that cheap. Their bandwidth pricing is £7/100gb. The lowest compute tier is £20/mo" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47885996)) - Trust and privacy concerns (3 comments): "They terminate TLS. It seems like you wouldn’t want to use this service even if all those questions were answered to your satisfaction." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46402495)) "This seems to be a honeypot for associating your SSH public key with other identifying details." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46400144)) "I like the UX though. My usual question with any hosting is how do you avoid this being abused by hackers, scammers, etc.?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46402078)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Hetzner](https://hackerapproved.com/p/hetzner.md): 415 recommend - [DigitalOcean](https://hackerapproved.com/p/digitalocean.md): 133 recommend - [Hetzner Cloud](https://hackerapproved.com/p/hetzner-cloud.md): 99 recommend - [OVH hosting](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ovh.md): 81 recommend - [Amazon EC2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amazon-ec2.md): 73 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://exe.dev/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "exe.dev", https://hackerapproved.com/p/exe-dev/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).