Amphetamine vs Mainspring: Keeping a Mac Awake
Amphetamine is the go-to free app for stopping a Mac from sleeping, and it is far more capable than the name suggests. Mainspring includes a keep-awake feature too, so here is an honest comparison of that one overlap.
What it is
Amphetamine is a free Mac App Store utility dedicated to keeping your Mac awake. It supports timed sessions, triggers based on connected displays, apps, drives or Wi-Fi networks, and a lot of fine-grained control.
Where they overlap
Both can keep your Mac awake for a set duration without the Terminal, and both can keep it running with the lid closed.
Where they differ
- Depth. Amphetamine's trigger system is far more capable than Mainspring's keep-awake, which offers preset and custom durations.
- Breadth. Keep-awake is one feature of 90+ in Mainspring, alongside Dock, Finder, keyboard and privacy settings.
- Price. Amphetamine is free. Mainspring is a one-time 29 dollars for the whole set.
Which should you use?
If keeping your Mac awake is the specific problem you have, Amphetamine is free, excellent and more powerful at that one job. If you want it as part of a broader set of settings you can flip and reverse, it is built into Mainspring. Also worth knowing that macOS has a built-in caffeinate command and a lid-closed setting you can use without any app at all.
Every setting here is a one-click, reversible toggle in Mainspring — no Terminal, and an undo button on all of it.
Mainspring turns 90+ hidden macOS settings into labelled, reversible toggles, each with an undo button. It records every change it makes, so nothing you try is permanent. No Terminal, no subscription.
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