Certified power switches: hard power control for machines that don't have it

A power switch — a smart plug or an inline relay module — cuts and restores mains power to a machine on command. It is the recovery rung below everything else this product does: when a machine is so far gone that no magic packet and no software can reach it, cutting the power and putting it back is the one move that always remains. Servers get that rung built in as IPMI or iDRAC; this is the same ability for the machines that never had it.

This page is the list of models we certify, what each form factor is for, and what to know before you buy one. We deliberately sell none of this hardware — you buy a standard, safety-approved device from a retailer, and Rooster Wake drives it.

Where it sits: the last rung, never the first choice

Hard power cycling is the backstop, not the routine. The ladder runs: wake by magic packet; ask the machine's own agent for a graceful shutdown or restart; and only when the machine can hear neither — a hung kernel, a crash, a box a power cut left dark — cut and restore the mains through the switch. On the paid plans, which carry the power actions, that order is enforced: a power cycle tries the graceful route first wherever the machine has an agent, and the hard cut is never one click.

Cutting power to a running machine is a dirty cut: whatever was unsaved is lost, exactly as if you had pulled the plug by hand — because that is what it is. That is the point — it is what you would do standing next to the machine, when the alternative is driving there — and the setup guide covers the one BIOS setting that decides whether the machine comes back afterwards.

The certified models

Certified means we drive it ourselves: these models are the driver's entire allowlist, and a switch that is not on this list is refused rather than guessed at — answering on the network is not a qualification for switching somebody's mains. Verified is a stronger word and we use it precisely: it means the full ladder has been run against the physical device on our bench — power cut, power restored, a real machine watched all the way back up. Each item below says so only when it is true: the reference unit has been through that bench pass, and the rest carry a plain "not yet" until their own turn on the bench.

Shelly Plus Plug UK — plug-in adapter, 13 A, one channel, power metering. The reference unit our drivers are built against. Bench-verified: discovered, claimed and switched on real hardware, with its metering feeding the readings we show.
Shelly Plug S Gen3 — plug-in adapter, 12 A, one channel, power metering. Not yet bench-verified.
Shelly 1PM Mini Gen4 — inline relay module, 8 A, one channel, power metering. Not yet bench-verified.
Shelly Plus 1PM — inline relay module, 16 A, one channel, power metering. Not yet bench-verified.
Shelly Plug S (Gen1) — plug-in adapter, 10 A, one channel, power metering. Not yet bench-verified.
Shelly 1PM (Gen1) — inline relay module, 16 A, one channel, power metering. Not yet bench-verified.

Plug-in adapters: for the machine at a wall socket

A plug-in adapter sits between the machine's plug and the socket — no tools, no wiring, entirely self-serve. It is the right form factor for a desktop, a NAS, or anything else that plugs into a socket you can reach.

One UK-specific note before you buy: on a standard UK double socket, an adapter's body is wider than the plug it replaces and can overhang the second outlet. If both outlets are in use, check the adapter's width against the gap first — or give the adapter the outlet with free space beside it.

The current ratings above are the relay's rating, not a promise about the load: a desktop and its monitor sit far inside any of them, but do not put a heater, a kettle, or an extension strip of unknown appliances behind one.

Inline relay modules: for fixed installations — fitted by an electrician

An inline relay module wires into the circuit itself — behind a socket, in a machine's supply, on a DIN rail in a cabinet. It is the tidy answer for signage, kiosks and racked machines, where a plug-in adapter would dangle or get unplugged by a well-meaning cleaner, and the higher-rated modules switch loads a plug-in adapter never should.

In the UK, fitting one means working on fixed mains wiring. That is a job for a qualified electrician — in England and Wales it falls under Part P of the Building Regulations — and nothing on this site will ever instruct you to do it yourself. Buy the module, hand it to the electrician, and say which machine's supply it is for; the Rooster Wake half of the setup only begins once the module is safely on the wire and on your network.

No cloud account, no vendor app, no internet

The switch needs no cloud account, no vendor app, and no internet access at all: firewall it off from the internet and it still works, because the only path to it is a Rooster Wake device on your own network, speaking to it over local HTTP. During setup you decline the vendor's cloud rather than joining it. That is a sentence no cloud-tethered plug can say, and it means the vendor's outages, logins and firmware pushes are simply not in your recovery path.

What that design asks of you: a Rooster Wake device on the same network as the switch. The dongle is the guaranteed answer — being always on is its entire design — and the free agent on another machine works too, for as long as that machine is awake. An agent on the machine you want to cycle cannot do this job, by definition: when that machine hangs, everything running on it hangs with it.

We sell none of this hardware, on purpose

There is no Rooster Wake-branded plug and no marked-up bundle. You buy a standard, mass-market, safety-certified device from a retailer — the reference unit is the Shelly Plus Plug UK on Amazon — and the subscription drives it. We would rather certify good hardware than resell it: the safety approvals and the warranty stay the vendor's, and you never pay us a margin on a relay in a plastic box.

Hard power cycling sits with the other power actions — sleep, restart, shut down — on the paid plans; waking stays free on every plan. The plans say which plan carries what, and the setup guide walks the whole arrangement through before you spend anything.

Questions before you buy

Will any smart plug work?

No, and that is a safety decision rather than a missing feature. The driver speaks only to the certified list above and refuses anything else, because a device we have never driven should not be pointed at somebody's mains on the strength of it answering the network. The list grows when a model earns its place on our bench — if yours is not on it, tell us which one and what you would use it for.

Do I need a Rooster Wake device for the switch to work?

Yes — one on the same network as the switch: a dongle, or the free agent on another machine that stays awake. That requirement is the security design, not a limitation of it: the switch is driven over local HTTP by your own device, which is exactly what lets it work with no cloud account, no vendor app and no internet access at all.

Is cutting the power bad for my PC?

It is a dirty cut, and we would rather say so than soften it: unsaved work is lost, exactly as if you had pulled the plug by hand. Modern filesystems and hardware tolerate it far better than the folklore says, but it is a recovery action, not a convenience — which is why the ladder tries a graceful shutdown through the agent first wherever one is reachable, and why the hard cut is never one click.

What does "not yet bench-verified" mean?

That the drivers are written against the model's documented behaviour, and our own bench has not yet cut power on the physical device and watched a machine come all the way back. The list is published ahead of those bench sessions so you can see which models we support, and a model is marked verified only from its own bench result — the same standard the dashboard applies to your own machine's recovery.

Can I fit an inline module myself?

Not on our advice. In the UK, inline modules go into fixed mains wiring — electrician territory, and in England and Wales Part P of the Building Regulations applies — so this site never carries wiring instructions for them. If you want the self-serve option, that is exactly what the plug-in adapters are for: they need nothing but a free socket.

Which plans include power cycling?

The paid plans — hard power cycling sits with sleep, restart and shutdown as part of the power ladder, while waking stays free on every plan. A switch on the free plan does nothing yet, and we would rather you know that before buying one; the pricing table is the complete list of what each plan carries.

Where to go next

Read the setup guide See the plans Check your PC can be woken at all The free agent