One Station, both agents, and nothing resets between sessions.
Anthropic and OpenAI each run their agent in their own cloud, and both are good for handing off a task and getting a pull request back. A Station runs both agents on the same files and keeps your work running across sessions.
$39/month for one Station, plus your own AI subscription. Your first hour is free, no card needed. After that, a card starts a 7-day free trial (one per customer). Checkout shows the exact date of your first charge.
How to decide.
- 01
Ask what has to keep running
A one-off change, or an app, a database and a preview that should still be there tomorrow?
- 02
Count what you already pay for
Claude Code and Codex cloud come with your Claude or ChatGPT plan. Station is $39/month on top. Price the work you actually do.
- 03
Try the same job on both
Build something on each, walk away for a day, then come back and try to share a link to it.
Side by side.
| What matters | Defang Station | Claude Code or Codex cloud |
|---|---|---|
| With your laptop shut | Yes. | Yes, both. |
| Price | $39/month, on top of your Claude or ChatGPT plan. | Included in your plan: Claude Pro, Max, Team or eligible Enterprise seats for Claude Code; ChatGPT Plus and above for Codex. |
| What carries over | The whole Station: your files, your tools, your signed-in agents, and whatever you left running. | Claude Code: each new session starts from a snapshot of your environment’s setup, rebuilt about every seven days, without anything that was running. Codex: each new task starts from a clean copy of your published setup. |
| When you walk away | Never reclaimed for sitting idle while your subscription is active. | Claude Code: an idle session stops and its computer is reclaimed; reopening it restores the conversation on a fresh one, but not background work. Codex: by default, a task’s saved state can be recovered for up to seven days after you last start a turn or resume it. |
| Link to the running app | Yes. Claude Code publishes it at your Station’s own address, or at a domain you own. | Claude Code: artifacts publish a single page with no backend; the cloud session docs don’t describe serving the running app. Codex: the cloud docs don’t describe one; ChatGPT Sites (public beta) hosts websites and web apps separately. |
| Both agents together | Claude Code and Codex on the same Station, on the same files. | Each maker’s cloud runs its own agent. |
| Work started by events | GitHub, Linear or your own app, once your agent sets it up. | Claude Code: routines (a research preview) start on a schedule, on GitHub pull request or release events, or from an API call. Codex: scheduled tasks run on a schedule or, on eligible plans, when a Gmail, Slack or GitHub pull request event arrives; in GitHub, a pull request comment can ask Codex for a review, or it can review new pull requests automatically; the legacy cloud experience keeps Linear and GitHub integrations, which OpenAI plans to deprecate. |
| Where your code lives | On your Station. Push to GitHub when you like. | Claude Code: GitHub to push and open pull requests; a local repository can be uploaded without it. Codex: a GitHub repository. |
| Path to production | Defang Deploy, to your own cloud account. | A pull request on GitHub; deploying it is up to you. |
| Machine size | Sized for coding-agent work (an ARM machine). Email support@defang.io if you need more. | Bigger on paper. Claude Code: 4 vCPUs, 16 GB of RAM, 30 GB of disk. Codex: 2 vCPUs, 8 GiB of memory and 8 GiB of disk on Plus; 4 vCPUs, 16 GiB and 32 GiB on Pro and above. |
Defang put this together from each product’s own documentation, reviewed 2026-09-30. We didn’t test speed. Check current terms before you choose.
When Anthropic’s or OpenAI’s cloud fits better
Hand off a task on a GitHub repository, or many tasks at once, and get pull requests back. Each cloud is included in the plan you already pay for, runs on a bigger machine than a Station, and needs little more than a connected GitHub account.
When Station fits better
Use a Station when you want both agents, or when the work has to keep running. Claude Code and Codex work side by side on the same files, and your app and its database stay up between visits at a link anyone can open. Once your agent connects your Station, an event from GitHub, Linear or your own app can wake an agent, and Defang Deploy takes the result to production in your own cloud account.
You can use both
Keep your code on GitHub, hand a quick fix to a cloud session, and let your Station keep the app running. You sign in to the same Claude and ChatGPT accounts either way.
Before you start.
Do I still need my Claude or ChatGPT plan?
Yes. Station runs the official Claude Code and Codex, signed in with your own accounts, so your plan’s usage and limits apply either way.
Was this a performance benchmark?
No. We compared what each product’s documentation says on 30 September 2026, and linked it all below. We’re Defang, so read Anthropic’s and OpenAI’s own pages too.
Sources and further reading
- Anthropic: Use Claude Code in the cloud (read 2026-09-30)
- Anthropic: Configure cloud environments (read 2026-09-30)
- Anthropic: Automate work with routines (read 2026-09-30)
- OpenAI: Codex cloud (read 2026-09-30)
- OpenAI: Codex cloud environments (read 2026-09-30)
- OpenAI: Codex pricing and plans (read 2026-09-30)
- OpenAI: ChatGPT Sites (read 2026-09-30)
- OpenAI: Codex automations (read 2026-09-30)
- OpenAI: Codex in GitHub (read 2026-09-30)
Bring your agent. Give it Superpowers.
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