Quick comparison
| Feature | Shake It On | Caffeine |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.99 one-time | Free |
| How it works | Mouse movement | System API toggle |
| Smart conditions | ✓ (12+ conditions) | ✗ |
| Scheduling | ✓ (hours + days) | ✗ |
| Camera detection | ✓ | ✗ |
| Focus/DND detection | ✓ | ✗ |
| Battery awareness | ✓ | ✗ |
| Configurable intervals | ✓ (6 presets) | ✗ (always on) |
| Keeps remote sessions alive | ✓ | ✗ |
| Works when IT locks Energy Saver | ✓ | ✗ |
| Actively maintained | ✓ | ✗ (legacy) |
| Snooze | ✓ | ✗ |
About Caffeine
Caffeine is one of the originals. Coffee cup icon in the menu bar. Click it, Mac stays awake. Click again, back to normal. That's the whole thing.
Millions of people used it. But the original hasn't been updated in years and may not play well with recent macOS versions. There's a newer app called Caffeinated ($0.99) with the same concept and a more current codebase. Same idea though: on/off toggle, no conditions.
Where Shake It On wins
Caffeine's simplicity is also its blind spot. It can't tell whether it should be running right now. Doesn't know you're on battery, in a video call, or that it's the middle of the night.
Shake It On handles all of that:
- Smart conditions: pauses for video calls, battery, Focus mode, specific foreground apps
- Scheduling: runs during work hours, off the rest
- Mouse movement: works on corporate Macs with Energy Saver locked, keeps remote desktop alive
- Snooze: quick pause when you need one
The other big gap: Caffeine prevents sleep at the system level but doesn't create any actual user activity. Slack and Teams still see you as idle. Remote desktop sessions can still time out. Shake It On generates real mouse input that registers everywhere.