Mobilerun is broader: an agent framework, a coding-agent harness, a hosted agent and cloud phones including iOS and physical devices. Mobilebox is narrower: hosted Android 14 arm64 virtual sandboxes over REST and remote MCP, driven by your own agent. Decide where reasoning runs and which phone you need.
Scope from Mobilebox’s implementation and Mobilerun’s own pages, reviewed on October 30, 2026; not a benchmark, and nothing unlisted is claimed absent.
Mobilerun’s three paths
- The framework (github.com/droidrun) is “an open-source framework for mobile app testing, QA, and running AI agents on real Android and iOS devices”. You run the agent and choose its model provider.
- Mobile Harness gives a coding agent you already use a Python control API. It needs shell access, Python 3.11 to 3.13, and a local phone over ADB or Mobilerun’s Portal, or a cloud key.
- The hosted agent brings Mobilerun’s agent into Claude Code, Cursor and VS Code over remote MCP, billed from credits with no model-provider key.
Compare the contract
| Question | Mobilebox | Mobilerun |
|---|---|---|
| Where reasoning runs | Your agent | Your agent (harness), its framework, or its hosted agent |
| How your agent connects | REST, or remote MCP with no local install | Python API via the harness, or hosted MCP |
| Phones | Hosted Android 14 arm64 virtual sandbox | Local phones; cloud virtual and physical phones, including iPhones |
| After a stop | Saved app data kept by park; apps restart | Pricing page: a stopped phone keeps its apps and data |
| Billing | $0.01 per ready phone-minute, per second, prepaid | Monthly plans with pooled device minutes |
| Access today | Existing beta keys; provider sign-in not enabled yet | Check its signup |
Not parity: a virtual Android minute is not a plan with physical phones, and neither price includes your model.
Which fits
Mobilebox fits when your agent speaks MCP but should not get a shell, Python or ADB, when CI or a backend calls phones over REST, and when Android is enough. The agent guide is the whole contract. Mobilerun fits when you need iOS, a physical or local phone, or a ready-made agent.
Settle it with one task
On each chosen path, install your APK, save one record, reopen the app, stop, resume and confirm it. Record calls, errors and billed time. Mobilebox’s version of that run is the recorded demo with its evidence manifest; it proves that workflow, not your app. Start from the quickstart and MCP setup.