Crast
Crast vs. LazyWork, Lumous & AFK Assistant
Why a plain mouse jiggler doesn't cut it anymore, and how Crast's one-time price stacks up against the subscription tools in this space.
Why plain mouse jigglers get flagged
Hubstaff, Time Doctor, ActivTrak, DeskTime, and similar trackers have caught up. Most now run some form of unusual-activity detection specifically built to spot the repetitive, too-perfect movement pattern a $10 USB mouse jiggler or a simple jiggler app produces.
- A hardware jiggler or basic jiggler app only ever does one thing: nudge the cursor. That's an easy, obvious pattern for an "unusual activity" model to key in on.
- Trackers with AI-based reports (Time Doctor's Unusual Activity report is one example) are built specifically to flag exactly this kind of single-signal, repetitive input.
- Real work looks like a mix of signals: mouse, keyboard, switching between browser tabs and other apps, at irregular intervals, not one motion on a loop.
Crast is a configurable activity simulator, not a mouse jiggler: mouse movement, real keyboard taps, browser tab switching, and app switching, each on its own independently adjustable schedule, built to stay undetectable when it's set up correctly. A basic jiggler can't say the same no matter how it's configured, since a single repetitive motion is the whole product. See How It Works for the full breakdown.
Crast vs. LazyWork
LazyWork is a legitimate tool in the same space, priced in US dollars across three plans. Browser tab switching specifically isn't even in their cheapest plan, you have to move up a tier to get it.
Crast
- One-time payment, no subscription, no recurring charge, ever
- Free updates for life included
- Runs 100% locally; nothing leaves your computer except a one-time license check
- Auto presets (Low / Mid / High) or full manual control
- Browser tab switching across Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, and Firefox
- Independent app switching across everything else you have open
LazyWork Personal
- Roughly ₱490-500/month, roughly ₱5,900-6,000/year paying monthly
- Cursor movement, keyboard activity, scrolling, app switching
- No browser tab switching on this plan
- Single computer only
LazyWork Professional
- Roughly ₱900-930/month, roughly ₱11,000/year paying monthly
- Or $150 billed yearly, roughly ₱9,200-9,300/year
- Adds browser tab switching, multi-computer use, mouse clicking
- The tier that actually matches what Crast already includes at ₱599
Pay for a Crast license once and it's yours for good, no monthly charge ever shows up again. Matching what Crast already does at its lowest price means paying LazyWork's higher tier, which runs into the thousands of pesos a year. Feature list and pricing sourced directly from LazyWork's own pricing page; peso estimates use exchange rates at the time of writing and will drift slightly day to day. Crast isn't affiliated with LazyWork, Hubstaff, Time Doctor, or any other tracker or tool named on this page, and none of those names imply endorsement.
Crast vs. Lumous
Lumous is the fairest-priced subscription we found. One plan, no features locked behind a pricier tier: browser tab switching and app switching are both included from their cheapest option.
Crast vs. AFK Assistant
AFK Assistant follows the same pattern as LazyWork: their cheapest plan leaves out scrolling, browser tab switching, and application switching entirely.
Why we don't think local software needs a subscription
Most tools in this space, including the ones named above, are genuinely well-built. Our disagreement isn't with the software. It's with how it's sold.
- These are desktop programs. The mouse movement, keyboard taps, scrolling, and tab switching all happen locally on your own computer, not in the cloud, not on a server running around the clock.
- A subscription makes more sense for something with ongoing infrastructure costs, an AI service running on GPUs, or a tool like Idle Pilot that manages your Slack status from the cloud. Most activity simulators aren't that. They're a program that runs on your machine and does its job.
- Several also split ordinary desktop features (scrolling, application switching, browser tab switching, running quietly in the background) into higher-priced tiers, the same features, just gated behind paying more per month.
Crast was built the other way around: pay once, own it, and every feature (including the ones other tools save for a pricier plan) is there from the start. No accounts, no recurring charge just because another month happened.
Crast vs. most subscription alternatives, at a glance
| Crast | Most Subscription Alternatives |
|
|---|---|---|
| One-time purchase | ✓ | ✗ |
| Monthly fee | ✗ | ✓ |
| Runs locally | ✓ | ✓ |
| Needs a cloud check to keep your subscription valid | ✗ | Usually |
| Works fully offline day-to-day | ✓ | Sometimes |
| You own it forever | ✓ | ✗ |
Pricing and features for LazyWork, Lumous, and AFK Assistant are sourced directly from their own public pricing pages; peso estimates use exchange rates at the time of writing and will drift slightly day to day. Crast isn't affiliated with LazyWork, Lumous, AFK Assistant, Idle Pilot, Hubstaff, Time Doctor, or any other tracker or tool named on this page, and none of those names imply endorsement.
It's not just about the price
Even if the numbers didn't line up this clearly, there's more to the difference than what you pay.
No account, no login, no dashboard
Crast is a license key, not an account. No sign-up form, no billing portal, no password to remember, no "your trial is ending" popup. Install it, activate it once, and it just runs.
Nothing to report, because nothing's being watched
Crast doesn't log your activity anywhere, not even for us. The only thing it ever sends is a one-time check at activation, a license code and a device fingerprint, nothing about what you actually do. See our Privacy Policy for the specifics.
The price you pay today is the price
Subscriptions can raise their rates whenever they want, and you find out at renewal. A one-time purchase can't quietly get more expensive six months from now.