Le Bureau vs E2B vs Scrapybara compared

Le Bureau vs E2B vs Scrapybara

You need somewhere for your AI agents to run. Somewhere they can write code, open browsers, manage files, install software. E2B, Scrapybara, and Le Bureau all solve this, but they make very different architectural bets.

We built Le Bureau, so take our perspective with a grain of salt. We've tried to be fair because developers can smell a rigged comparison.

Quick comparison

What they actually do

E2B spins up Firecracker microVMs. They boot in about 5 seconds, run your code, and disappear. The SDK is clean, the isolation is real (hardware-level KVM), and if your agent's job is "execute this Python, give me the output," E2B does that well. No GUI, no persistence, no desktop. By design.

## E2B: spin up, execute, tear down
from e2b_code_interpreter import Sandbox

sandbox = Sandbox()
execution = sandbox.run_code("print('hello')")
print(execution.text)  # "hello"
sandbox.close()

Scrapybara gives agents a browser they can control. Web scraping, form filling, navigating web apps. If the work lives in the browser, Scrapybara handles it well. But if your agent needs to run CLI tools, compile code, or do anything outside a browser, you'll hit walls fast.

Le Bureau gives each agent a full Linux desktop. Ubuntu 22.04 with XFCE4, Chrome, VS Code, terminal, Git. The VM persists between sessions, so your agent can install dependencies today and use them tomorrow. You get VNC to watch what the agent is doing, a terminal to send commands, and Mission Control to monitor multiple agents at once.

## Le Bureau: create a desktop via API, it persists
curl -X POST https://lebureau.talentai.fr/api/desktops \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" \
  -d '{"name": "my-agent", "workspaceId": "ws_..."}'

## Desktop stays running. Agent picks up where it left off.

Boot time is 30-60 seconds vs E2B's 5 seconds. That's the cost of running a real VM. For agents that run for hours or days, the extra startup time is irrelevant. For agents that spin up per API call, it's a dealbreaker.

Architecture trade-offs

These dictate what your agents can do.

E2B's Firecracker sandboxes are fast and isolated, but ephemeral by design. No desktop, no persistence between runs, no GUI. If your agent needs to open a browser, use a desktop app, or resume work from yesterday, E2B won't do it. Firecracker is built for short, stateless workloads and it does them well.

Scrapybara's browser instances are efficient for web-only workflows, but everything outside the browser is out of reach. CLI tools, file management, desktop apps, compilation. If your agent's scope grows beyond web automation, you'll outgrow the platform.

Le Bureau's full VMs are the heaviest option. More RAM, longer boot, more moving parts. In return, the agent gets a real computer with a persistent filesystem (20-80 GB), its own network stack, and pre-installed tooling. The VM is the agent's workspace, not a disposable container. For multi-day coding projects or research that accumulates state, this is the architecture that holds up.

Feature comparison

Pricing

E2B charges per sandbox compute time. Good for thousands of short executions, expensive for long-running agents. Le Bureau charges a flat monthly rate per desktop. A desktop running 24/7 costs the same as one running 2 hours. Predictable for continuous agents, wasteful for quick one-offs. Scrapybara scales with browser automation volume.

Pick the pricing model that matches your workload.

Current prices: /pricing.

When to use what

E2B fits code execution and stateless tasks. Code interpreters, data analysis, running untrusted code in a sandbox. If you want 5-second boot times and don't need persistence, E2B is the right call. Their open-source core means you can self-host too.

Scrapybara fits browser automation. Web scraping, form filling, testing web apps. If your agent lives in the browser and doesn't need anything else, Scrapybara is lean and focused.

Le Bureau fits agents that need a persistent workspace across sessions. Multi-day coding projects, research that builds on prior results, workflows that span browser + terminal + IDE + custom tools. Also useful if you want to watch agents work via VNC or manage a fleet through Mission Control.

Pick the one that matches your agent's scope.

Why full desktops

Consider an agent that needs to:

1. Clone a repo from GitHub
2. Read the codebase
3. Install dependencies
4. Write changes across multiple files
5. Run tests
6. Fix failures
7. Commit and push

With E2B, you'd orchestrate each step externally and shuttle state between ephemeral sandboxes. With Scrapybara, most of these steps aren't browser tasks. With Le Bureau, the agent has Git, Node, Python, and VS Code on a persistent desktop. It clones the repo, does the work, and the repo is still there next week.

Research works the same way. An agent can open browser tabs, save notes to files, run analysis scripts, and pick up where it left off across sessions. The desktop is the agent's office.

Then there's fleet management. When you're running 10+ agents, you need to know which ones are stuck, which are idle, and which need attention. Mission Control gives you that overview.

Migrating from E2B or Scrapybara

From E2B: The mental model changes. E2B is "spin up sandbox, execute, destroy." Le Bureau is "create desktop once, send commands over time." You'll refactor synchronous sandbox calls into persistent interactions via REST API, but you stop managing sandbox lifecycle and state transfer between runs.

From Scrapybara: If everything you do is browser-based, Le Bureau is heavier than you need. If you're starting to need CLI tools, file management, or desktop apps alongside browser work, Le Bureau handles that without extra plumbing.

Hybrid: Some teams use E2B for quick code execution and Le Bureau for sustained agent work. The two are complementary.

Getting started

Le Bureau is free during beta. Full desktop, 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 20 GB persistent storage. No credit card.

Sign up at lebureau.talentai.fr, create a workspace, launch a desktop, and start sending tasks.

More details in our guide to cloud desktops for AI agents.

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Questions? contact@talentai.fr