Table of Contents

Recommendations

Custom Keyboard

Notes and Updates

11/07/2025 - A full revision of the list due to outdated nature.

Recommendations

The following reccomendations are primarily prebuilds, but some custom keyboards kits will be included.

< ~50$

  • Lemokey X Series 1 : $20-40

  • Keychron C3 Pro / C3 Pro 8K 1 : $28-55

  • Logitech K120 : $15

~$50-100

  • Shortcut Studio Bridge75 2 : $85-120

  • Keychron V Max : ~$100

  • Womier SK75: $100

~$100-150

  • Swaykeys Eave65: $50 (KIT: Does not include switches, stabilisers and keycaps. High chance of hitting around 100-150)

  • Melgeek Real67 (HE): $120

  • Luminkey Luminkey60 Pro: $145

  • Melgeek Made68/84 Pro (HE): $150

  • KBDFans Tiger Lite Gaming (HE/MX): $85 (KIT: Does not include switches and keycaps. HE includes a Venom TKL HE pcb)

~150-200+

  • Qwertykeys Neo60 Core / Neo65: $100 (KIT: Does not include switches, and keycaps. High chance of hitting around 150-200+)

  • Qwertykeys Evo80: $170

  • Luminkey Luminkey65/75v2/98: $179-$220

  • Keychron Q Max: ~$200

  • HHKB Professional Classic/Hybrid/Type-S 6 (Topre) ✨

  • Realforce R3 3 (Topre) ✨

  • Venom 60/TKL HE: $65-70 (PCB: This is a PCB for hall effects, this does not include everything such as plate, switches, keycaps, stabilisers, and case. Please do extensive research before approaching this)

1 Lemokey and Keychron are sister companies, so both of them are pretty much the exact same. These boards tend to go on sale very often.
2 Choose either the standard or plus. Do NOT buy the HE model of this board.
3 Topre is a very niche and small product in the keyboard market. Thus do research on these switches if you are interested.

Avoid List

Category Brands Reasons
Gaming brands Razer, Corsair, Steelseries, Logitech, Glorious, Asus etc Expensive Models: An example is the Razer Blackwidow V4 Pro, retailing at $230 with plastic construction, worse software and internals

Poor Construction: These boards tend to use cheaper material like ABS plastic and stiffer internals which may give an undesirable typing experience Local Software: Brands often make locally saved software for their keyboards such as Razer Synapse which could affect the computer’s performance

Limited customisation: Boards often lacks customisation such as soldered PCB, irregular keycaps, and untuned stabilisers.
Budget Keyboard Brands Aula, Akko, Ajazz, Leobog, Royal Kludge, VGN, MageGee, Redragon Reliability: These boards tend to be unreliable such as some stop working partially/completely and some have even caught on fire

Repurposed OEM: It’s not necessarily bad to reuse OEMs but this can explain the trend of unreliable PCBs across other boards, and cloned keyboards where they look oddly similar (KiiBOOM Loop75/Monsgeek M1)

Software: Same as gaming brands, mostly locally saved and unstable. These also tend to be in Chinese or other foreign languages which can make them inaccessible for most people.

Custom

Custom keyboards are keyboards that you build yourself. If you do not want to tinker with this, stick with prebuilds.

If you are considering a custom keyboard, keep in mind of these factors:

  1. Budget - I recommend having a minimum budget of $200 when considering a build. While it’s possible to spend less, opting for lower-end components will compromise the overall quality, making a pre-built keyboard a more viable option.
  2. Passion: If you have an interest in the custom keyboard hobby, consider a custom keyboard
  3. Patience - Custom keyboards are produced in small batches, meaning a potentially significant wait time. These wait times can range from a few weeks to even years.
  4. Research - Researching and understanding each component in a keyboard will help you make informed decisions in selecting parts.