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exe.dev

Hacker Approved

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.

Summarized from 255 comments.

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.

recommend
115
criticize
56
months recommended
11 of 13

Why people love it

  • Built-in coding agent on VM · 7

    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.

    Jul 2026 · comment

    I do prefer chatting with their coding agent in a browser tab to using Claude Code in a terminal window.

    Jan 2026 · comment

    exe.dev is hands down the best experience I had on this front when the agent is literally on the VM

    Jun 2026 · comment
  • Fast VM spin-up, SSH access · 5

    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.

    Jul 2026 · comment

    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.

    Apr 2026 · comment

    I really like the experience, after being a stuck I just tried to ssh from my termux on phone and it really worked!

    Dec 2025 · comment
  • Easy public exposure of apps · 4

    It just one-shotted a volunteer management app and with just one more click in the console I can expose it to the public.

    Dec 2025 · comment

    I just spun up a VM on exe.dev, asked the AI to write the app, and then made the VM public-facing.

    Jun 2026 · comment

    Semi-throwaway, nearly bare-metal machines that I can put on the internet with basically 0 config

    Dec 2025 · comment
  • Built-in auth, proxy, integrations · 3

    Exe also has a neat auth/https proxy that also does TLS/certs they have lots of cool tools and integrations.

    Jul 2026 · comment

    they have really nice built in methods to take care of stuff like auth and inter-vm interactions

    Sep 2026 · comment

    I think exe.dev's pitch is better: they provide Linux VMs, a web proxy, and integrations.

    Sep 2026 · comment

What people warn about

  • Confusing, unhelpful landing page · 4

    doesn't tell you what those shared resource limits are, what the pricing is, or anything other than to ssh in

    Dec 2025 · comment

    Why put an SSH command in a huge banner if I have to go around and register before I can use it anyway?

    Dec 2025 · comment

    From the home page, I figured it was some text-based game or experiment and closed the page.

    Dec 2025 · comment
  • Closed source · 2

    Closed source, solves a different problem, and just looks like generic agent sandboxes/VMs?

    Sep 2026 · comment

    I like using exe but I’m not sure what to feel about this if exe itself isnt open source.

    Aug 2026 · comment
  • Not meant for production hosting · 2

    Those limits make it pretty clear it's not really meant for hosting a production app.

    Dec 2025 · comment

    exe.dev isn't that cheap. Their bandwidth pricing is £7/100gb. The lowest compute tier is £20/mo

    Apr 2026 · comment
  • Trust and privacy concerns · 3

    They terminate TLS. It seems like you wouldn’t want to use this service even if all those questions were answered to your satisfaction.

    Dec 2025 · comment

    This seems to be a honeypot for associating your SSH public key with other identifying details.

    Dec 2025 · comment

    I like the UX though. My usual question with any hosting is how do you avoid this being abused by hackers, scammers, etc.?

    Dec 2025 · comment

What hackers pick instead

Every quote

The 40 most detailed of 255 comments. Each links to the original.

  1. 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.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Grok uploaded my user directory to xAI's servers”

  2. I like the UX though. My usual question with any hosting is how do you avoid this being abused by hackers, scammers, etc.?

    Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “Exe.dev/”

  3. It just one-shotted a volunteer management app and with just one more click in the console I can expose it to the public.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Exe.dev/”

  4. 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.

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Zed is 1.0”

  5. I really like the experience, after being a stuck I just tried to ssh from my termux on phone and it really worked!

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Exe.dev/”

  6. Exe also has a neat auth/https proxy that also does TLS/certs they have lots of cool tools and integrations.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Fly.io CEO Kurt Mackey is stepping down”

  7. I do prefer chatting with their coding agent in a browser tab to using Claude Code in a terminal window.

    Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “Claude Code On-the-Go”

  8. exe.dev is hands down the best experience I had on this front when the agent is literally on the VM

    Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “Running local models is good now”

  9. I just spun up a VM on exe.dev, asked the AI to write the app, and then made the VM public-facing.

    Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “Why AI hasn't replaced software engineers, and won't”

  10. I have a monthly subscription and it's really cool to just vibe code a little website with Shelley

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Claude Is Not a Compiler”

  11. Semi-throwaway, nearly bare-metal machines that I can put on the internet with basically 0 config

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Exe.dev/”

  12. This is awesome. I just maxxed out my tokens in Shelley, but was able to vibe code this Rails app

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Exe.dev/”

  13. they have really nice built in methods to take care of stuff like auth and inter-vm interactions

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Claude Opus 5.5”

  14. You can use exe.dev VMs for running your agent. But you can also use it for hosting your site.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Exe.dev/”

  15. Multiple VMs available over with SSH with an LLM pre-configured has been the latest level up.

    Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “Ask HN: How is AI-assisted coding going for you professionally?”

  16. I like using exe but I’m not sure what to feel about this if exe itself isnt open source.

    Mixed · Aug 2026 · in “Devtools must be open source”

  17. I think exe.dev's pitch is better: they provide Linux VMs, a web proxy, and integrations.

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Cloud in a Bottle: making self-hosting accessible to everyone”

  18. Those limits make it pretty clear it's not really meant for hosting a production app.

    Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “Exe.dev/”

  19. It's also handy for asking the AI to do random sysadmin stuff, since it can use sudo.

    Mixed · May 2026 · in “The agent harness belongs outside the sandbox”

  20. They terminate TLS. It seems like you wouldn’t want to use this service even if all those questions were answered to your satisfaction.

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “Exe.dev/”

  21. doesn't tell you what those shared resource limits are, what the pricing is, or anything other than to ssh in

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “Exe.dev/”

  22. Why put an SSH command in a huge banner if I have to go around and register before I can use it anyway?

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “Exe.dev/”

  23. exe.dev isn't that cheap. Their bandwidth pricing is £7/100gb. The lowest compute tier is £20/mo

    Criticizes · Apr 2026 · in “I Am Building a Cloud”

  24. This seems to be a honeypot for associating your SSH public key with other identifying details.

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “Exe.dev/”

  25. From the home page, I figured it was some text-based game or experiment and closed the page.

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “Exe.dev/”

  26. Closed source, solves a different problem, and just looks like generic agent sandboxes/VMs?

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “Cloud in a Bottle: making self-hosting accessible to everyone”

  27. Traffic that may have converted to users if they didn’t meet such a useless landing page

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “Exe.dev/”

  28. i tried this and it's pretty cool, that being said for my use case of spinning up many agents working on my app I'd need a way to specify the docker images

    Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “Exe.dev/”

  29. exe.dev works quite well for giving an agent a computer and managing it remotely, but seems to require a fair bit more configuration

    Mixed · Aug 2026 · in “Launch HN: Hoplite (YC S26) – Effortlessly deploy cloud coding agents”

  30. This is cool. I am currently using GitHub codespaces and I would love a version of it with nothing but a web based terminal.

    Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “Exe.dev/”

  31. You click the 'About' link in the footer, and get a direct explanation of what it is, pricing and the entire documentation.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Exe.dev/”

  32. To me, exe.dev (with possibly a reverse proxy to preclude the agent from ever having access to my API tokens) is sufficient

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Show HN: Plimsoll, a self-hosted sandbox for code your AI agent writes”

  33. I do eventually expect the co-founders at exe.dev, David & Josh, to workout someway to meet the promises laid out in TFA.

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “I Am Building a Cloud”

  34. It is a paid service, delivering a valuable developer tool, and which indeed uses ssh keys for authentication.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Exe.dev/”

  35. The difference with exe.dev is multiple VMs. I have over 20 now with isolated apps, branches of the same app

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Zed is 1.0”

  36. it prefers to use ssh or or just directly within the browser itself and that certainly helps with the trust

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “GhostBox – disposable little machines from the Global Free Tier.”

  37. a similar project which i think is a lot better than this (in fact it's so good i'm jealous of its genius)

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Cloud in a Bottle: making self-hosting accessible to everyone”

  38. That's brilliant UX. I was vibe coding a webpage in minutes, and I could immediately check the results.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Exe.dev/”

  39. very nice service, i'm using it to build out an agent orchestration system and so far it's quite good.

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Series A for Exe.dev”

  40. Exe.dev I think is the first service I've seen that's so passkey centric and it makes a lot of sense.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Exe.dev/”

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