Quick comparison
| Feature | Shake It On | Lungo |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.99 one-time | $4 one-time |
| How it prevents sleep | Mouse movement | System API |
| Smart conditions | 12+ conditions | Power adapter only |
| Camera detection | ✓ | ✗ |
| Focus/DND awareness | ✓ | ✗ |
| Day-of-week scheduling | ✓ | ✗ |
| Timed activation | ✓ | ✓ |
| Shortcuts integration | ✓ | ✓ |
| URL scheme | ✗ | ✓ |
| Keeps remote sessions alive | ✓ | ✗ |
| Works with locked MDM settings | ✓ | Maybe not |
| Allow display to sleep | ✓ | ✓ |
| Snooze | ✓ | ✗ |
| Session stats | ✓ | ✗ |
How they differ
The core difference is mechanical. Lungo tells macOS not to sleep using the system API, wrapped in a clean menu bar interface. Your Mac stays awake, but it's not generating any user activity.
Shake It On takes a different route: it moves your mouse with subtle, natural-looking motion. macOS sees this as real input and resets the idle timer. This distinction matters if you're in a corporate environment with MDM-locked settings, use remote desktop, or need messaging apps like Slack and Teams to show you as active. System API calls don't register as user activity. Mouse movement does.
Where Lungo wins
Lungo is cheaper at $4. If all you need is a clean toggle to prevent your Mac from sleeping, it's a great deal. Sindre Sorhus makes well-crafted Mac utilities, and Lungo is no exception. The UI is minimal and polished.
It also has both Shortcuts integration and a URL scheme, which makes it easy to automate from other tools. If you want to activate Lungo from a Raycast command or a shell script, you can.
For someone who just wants an on/off switch in the menu bar with a timer option, Lungo does that job with zero friction.
Where Shake It On wins
Shake It On's conditions are where the gap shows up. Lungo can detect whether you're on a power adapter. That's its only condition. Shake It On has 12+ conditions:
- Camera detection: Pauses automatically when your camera turns on, so it won't interfere with video calls
- Focus/DND awareness: Pauses when a Focus mode is active
- App-based conditions: Only shake when a specific app is running, or pause when a specific app is in the foreground
- Day-of-week scheduling: Run only on weekdays, or only on specific days during specific hours
- Audio, Wi-Fi, external display, CPU, external disk: Additional "Only Shake If" triggers
Then there's the mouse movement itself. If your work involves remote desktop sessions (VNC, TeamViewer, Screen Sharing) or corporate environments where IT has locked down sleep settings with an MDM profile, system-level sleep prevention may not be enough. Mouse movement bypasses both of those limitations because macOS treats it as genuine user activity.
The verdict
Choose Lungo if you want a simple, inexpensive sleep toggle with a nice UI. It does one thing and does it well. If you don't need conditions beyond a timer and power adapter detection, $4 is a fair price for a polished tool.
Choose Shake It On if you need your Mac to be smart about when it stays awake. If you work in a corporate environment, use remote desktop, want camera-aware pausing, or need scheduling by day and hour, the extra $6 pays for itself quickly. Mouse movement also means Slack and Teams will show you as active, which the system API approach can't do.