# Mobilebox, Limrun or Mobilerun: which fits your agent?

Limrun builds and runs apps on cloud iOS and Android simulators, Mobilerun sells plans, hosted phones and its own agent, Mobilebox gives your agent phones over REST and MCP.

Comparisons3 min read

In this article

Pick Limrun if your agent builds iOS and Android apps and you want cloud Xcode and simulators to build and run them on. Pick Mobilerun if you want monthly minute plans, dedicated phones or its own hosted agent; pick Mobilebox, cloud Android phones for AI agents at $0.01 a minute and ready for a first screenshot in 19.4 s in our November 2026 benchmark, if your own agent should get phones over REST and MCP, billed per second.

Sources reviewed on November 8, 2026: [limrun.com](https://limrun.com/), [Mobilerun pricing](https://mobilerun.ai/pricing/), [the Mobilerun repository](https://github.com/droidrun/mobilerun) and the [official MCP registry](https://registry.modelcontextprotocol.io/v0/servers?search=android). Each row quotes the vendor’s own pages; where a page doesn’t say something, the table says "not stated". All three are good products for different jobs.

Measured timings: [/benchmarks](https://mobilebox.dev/benchmarks).

## What each one is

- **Limrun** describes "real-time remote Xcode, iOS & Android Simulators" for agents that build, test and share mobile apps, with an MCP server at mcp.limrun.com/mcp and warm builds from a cache. Pricing "is split between idle and build time"; the home page shows no rate.

- **Mobilerun** started as an open-source agent framework and now sells plans of device minutes for "on-demand Android phones" (free 60 minutes, then $20 for 600 up to $299 for 9,000, extra minutes $0.03), plus dedicated phones by the month, billed yearly: an Android phone with a dedicated residential IP for $64, a "real, physical iPhone" for $160, or your own phone connected for $4.

- **Mobilebox** gives your agent cloud Android 14 phones, iPhones and iPads and real Android devices over one REST API and a hosted MCP server. Your agent does the reasoning; Mobilebox bills phone-minutes per second.

## Side by side

|  | Limrun | Mobilerun | Mobilebox |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Phones | iOS and Android simulators, cloud Xcode | Android plan phones, dedicated Android and physical iPhones, your own phone | Cloud Android, iPhone and iPad, real Android |
| Agent connection | MCP, API, CLI | Framework, harness, hosted agent | Hosted MCP and REST |
| Price | Not stated on the home page | Monthly minute plans; $0.03 extra minutes | $0.01 per Android phone-minute, iPhone $0.05, real Android $0.03; per second |
| Stopped phone | Not stated | Keeps apps and data, no minutes billed | Parked: keeps apps, data and logins, free |

## How to decide

- **Your agent writes an iOS app and has to build it:** Limrun’s cloud Xcode does the build step. Mobilebox runs the app on an iPhone once you have the build; see [testing iPhone apps your agent built](https://mobilebox.dev/blog/test-iphone-apps-your-agent-built).

- **You want an agent included:** Mobilerun’s framework and hosted agent bring their own. With Mobilebox you bring yours: Claude Code, Cursor, Codex or any framework in [Integrations](https://mobilebox.dev/integrations).

- **You pay for what runs:** Mobilebox has no plan or minimum beyond one minute per session, and boot time is free.

Run the same APK on each shortlisted service and keep the calls, errors and billed time. The [wider comparison](https://mobilebox.dev/blog/cloud-android-for-ai-agents-compared) adds phonebox.dev, Clousd and Ramus, and [Mobilebox or Mobilerun](https://mobilebox.dev/blog/mobilebox-vs-mobilerun) goes deeper on the framework question.

## Try it in your agent in 60 seconds

Paste this into Claude Code, Cursor, Codex or any agent that can read a web page. It asks for your email, gets its own key at once and adds the phone tools; the 6-digit code from your inbox keeps the workspace.

```
Set up Mobilebox for me: read https://mobilebox.dev/setup.md?via=mobilebox-vs-limrun and follow it.
```

[What your agent reads](https://mobilebox.dev/setup.md?via=mobilebox-vs-limrun)

In this article

[All articles](https://mobilebox.dev/blog)

## Next questions

- [How do I add it to Cursor, Codex or VS Code?](https://mobilebox.dev/blog/android-mcp-cursor-codex-vscode?via=next-setup)

- [Can my agent run 50 phones in parallel?](https://mobilebox.dev/blog/run-android-phones-in-parallel?via=next-parallel)

- [Can my agent use an iPhone?](https://mobilebox.dev/ios?via=next-iphone)

- [Can each phone get a residential IP?](https://mobilebox.dev/blog/residential-ip-per-phone?via=next-residential-ip)

- [Does my agent stay logged in between runs?](https://mobilebox.dev/blog/park-resume-android?via=next-logins)

- [Can I watch my agent work live?](https://mobilebox.dev/live-view?via=next-live)

- [What does it cost for a team?](https://mobilebox.dev/blog/mobilebox-pricing-for-teams?via=next-team)

- [How fast do cloud phones start, measured?](https://mobilebox.dev/benchmarks?via=next-benchmarks)