Agents Never Sleep vs EQK: Features, Pricing & Which Is Better (2026)
A side-by-side comparison of Agents Never Sleep and EQK — features, pricing, and ideal use cases — to help you decide which AI tool fits your workflow.
Agents Never Sleep
Agents Never Sleep
A tiny $4.99 Mac menu bar app that keeps long-running AI agents alive with the laptop lid closed, using one three-level slider.
Key features
- Closed-Lid Operation: Keeps agents and background jobs running with the MacBook lid shut, which the built-in caffeinate command cannot do.
- Three-Level Slider: One control with Sleepy, Awake, and Never sleeps settings, so changing sleep behavior takes a single drag rather than a terminal command.
- Menu Bar Only: Lives entirely in the menu bar with no window, dock icon, or configuration screens to manage.
- Native and Tiny: A small native macOS binary rather than a wrapped web app, minimizing overhead on a machine already running agents.
- Zero Data Collection: No telemetry, analytics, or tracking; what runs on the machine stays on the machine.
- Safe Revert: Toggling back down restores normal sleep behavior, avoiding the common mistake of leaving sudo pmset -a disablesleep 1 permanently enabled.
- No-Questions Refund: A 14-day money-back guarantee with no form to fill in and no reason required.
Best for
- Overnight Agent Runs: Letting a coding agent work through a long task while the laptop is closed and put away.
- Long Builds and Tests: Preventing a multi-hour build, test suite, or data job from being interrupted mid-run by sleep.
- Mobile Working: Carrying a MacBook between rooms or offices without propping the lid open to keep a job alive.
- Model Downloads and Training: Keeping large model downloads or local fine-tuning runs going unattended.
- Avoiding pmset Mistakes: Replacing manual sudo pmset toggles that are easy to enable and easy to forget to undo.
- Remote Sessions: Keeping a Mac reachable and working for a remote session or background service while it sits closed on a desk.
EQK
kuja.dev (Aakashdhruv Vashisht)
Per-app macOS equalizer with on-device AI song analysis and 3,985 bundled headphone correction profiles — nothing leaves your Mac.
Key features
- Per-App Patchbay Routing: Route individual music and video apps through independent equalizers so mixed browser audio never contaminates the signal chain.
- AI Song Live Analysis: An on-device engine analyzes each track as it starts and reshapes tone in real time over the per-app EQ and headphone correction.
- 3,985 Headphone Correction Profiles: Bundled AutoEq correction curves for a wide catalog of headphones, earphones, and IEMs are read by the AI to compensate for gear response.
- User Tweaks Stay On Top: Manual EQ adjustments always sit on top of AI and correction lanes, so listener taste is never overwritten.
- Fully On-Device Privacy: All analysis happens locally with no signup, no cloud, and no accounts — nothing leaves the Mac.
- Apple-Notarized macOS App: Distributed as a notarized native app for macOS 15.6+ with a free player tier that remains free forever.
- Buy-Once License: A one-time ₹1,000 Premium purchase activates on up to two Macs and includes free updates for the EQK 1.x line.
Best for
- Audiophile Listening on Mac: Music enthusiasts pair headphone correction with AI song analysis to hear a corrected, tone-matched signal on their exact gear.
- Content Creator Monitoring: Editors and streamers route their DAW or video app through EQK to preview mixes against a corrected reference.
- Isolating App Audio: Users tune podcasts, music, or video separately so switching apps does not mean re-EQing every time.
- Privacy-Conscious Listeners: Anyone unwilling to send listening data to the cloud gets AI-driven EQ that runs entirely on device.
- IEM and Headphone Reviewers: Reviewers with many pairs compare gear against consistent AutoEq baselines and their own taste tweaks.
- Free Player for Casual Users: Users who want basic per-app EQ without AI keep the free player tier indefinitely.