Hardware vs software jigglers: two different bargains.
The supermarket sells a €15 dongle; the internet sells a hundred jiggler apps. They solve the same problem with opposite trade-offs, and most pages selling either won't tell you the other half. Here's the whole picture — we make a software one, and the facts below still hold.
How each one works
A hardware jiggler is a USB device that identifies itself as a mouse and sends tiny movements on a loop. To Windows it is a mouse: input from it carries no software flag, because it isn't software input. (A second family — turntables you place a real optical mouse on — doesn't even touch USB.)
A software jiggler is a program that injects mouse events through the Windows API. Injected input works everywhere, but it carries a documented flag (LLMHF_INJECTED) visible to any program that inspects input at a low level. Most office software never looks; endpoint-security tools can. That asymmetry is the honest core of this comparison — more depth in can a mouse jiggler be detected?.
Side by side
| Hardware dongle (~€10–20) | Software app | |
|---|---|---|
| Input carries an injected flag | No — it's a real USB device | Yes, visible to software that inspects input |
| Visible on the machine | A USB device in Device Manager, and your cursor drifting on a fixed rhythm | A process in Task Manager |
| Stops when you grab the mouse | No — it keeps nudging while you work, fighting your cursor | A good one pauses instantly (AwaySitter does) |
| Movement pattern | Fixed loop, metronome timing | Can be randomized and human-shaped |
| Waits for real idleness before acting | No — always on while plugged | Yes, threshold you choose |
| Needs a free USB port / travels with you | Yes / it's one more thing to carry and hide | No hardware at all; portable exe on a stick |
| Works on a locked-down PC where you can't run programs | Yes — often the only option | No, you must be able to run an exe |
| Cost | ~€10–20 once | Free–$30; AwaySitter is $12.99 with a 3-day trial |
Pick hardware if…
- You can't run unapproved programs on the machine at all — the dongle side-steps software entirely.
- You specifically want input with no injected flag, and a cursor that visibly drifts on a timer is acceptable to you.
Pick software if…
- You're at the desk, just not typing. The killer feature is pause-on-touch: AwaySitter acts only after real idleness and yields the instant you move the mouse. A dongle fights you for the cursor all day.
- You want it to look like a person, not a pendulum. Randomized intervals and human-shaped micro-movements versus the same 3-pixel hop every 10 seconds.
- You want nothing extra on the desk — nothing to plug, forget, or explain.
Verdict. Neither category is "undetectable" — they're differently visible, and anyone claiming otherwise is selling. Locked-down PC: hardware. Your own PC and a workflow where you're around but idle: software, and AwaySitter is our honest attempt at doing that category right — 3-day free trial, everything unlocked. How you use either one is your call.
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