If you have ever shopped for a mechanical keyboard, you know you are usually in for a costly purchase. Hovering around the $150 to $250 mark, these satisfyingly clicky, durable, and responsive boards may be pricey, but if you’re a gamer, you know they’re worth it.
While many mechanical boards are on the higher end of the price spectrum, some gems fall below the average cost while still delivering peak performance. With a solid, budget mechanical keyboard, many won’t be able to tell the difference between a high-end, expensive keyboard. To help you find a budget-friendly and high-quality board, we’ve selected five of the best affordable keyboards on the market.
Our selection was chosen from a mix of hands-on experience and the collective thinking of the internet, which will be explained more at the end of the article. For now, let’s take a look at some mechanical keyboards that won’t break the bank.
Keychron C3 Pro
My initial curiosity about Keychron’s incredibly affordable mechanical keyboard sparked after Ars Technica ran a review in October 2023. At the time, it was only $28, but even at its current price of $37, this compact 87-key board is more than worth it.
Available with linear red or tactile brown switches, Keychron caters to both gamers and office workers with two distinct sounds. Whereas the red I tested produces a quiet, muffled click, the brown is advertised to be a little more prominent with noticeable feedback that’s better suited for typists. Unfortunately, they’re not hot-swappable, so be sure about the type you buy to avoid having to dismantle the board later.
The keyboard is made up of multiple layers that lend to a positive user experience, from foam inserts surrounding the circuit board to the gasket mount that improves sound absorption. One thing that would have made this keyboard better is if the chassis was the same heavy-duty aluminum used for many of Keychron’s products. While the C3 Pro isn’t perfect, Keychron pulls off an impressive feat by retaining much of its signature quality for a board that’s a fraction of the cost of most of its inventory.
MSI Vigor GK50 Elite LL
MSI is a pretty well-known brand for gaming computers, peripherals, and accessories. It also offers a fairly extensive line of reasonably priced products, including mechanical keyboards like the Vigor GK50 Elite. It’s not the cheapest on the line, but its Kailh Blue Switches and more advanced features are a pretty big selling point, so long as you don’t mind a hefty click.
While the GK30 is cheaper at only $50, the GK50 enhances the user experience for an additional $20 with a more durable build, partly thanks to its brushed metal chassis. Catering specifically to gamers, the board features octagonal, concave keycaps that are both aesthetically pleasing and lend to a more comfortable typing experience.
The blue switches are pretty clicky, and as Tom’s Hardware points out, the sound can get “tiring when gaming.” Even more important for gaming, though, the GK50 Elite is designed with n-key rollover and complete anti-ghosting to ensure all your inputs are recognized and registered. If you like your accessories to look nice, then you’ll appreciate the GK50 Elite’s simplistic design and metal backing, which helps the RGB lighting behind each key pop.
8Bitdo Retro Mechanical Keyboard
What gamer can possibly pass up on this 8Bitdo retro board inspired by Nintendo’s classic NES console? The aesthetics of this board is a big selling point, with the dark gray and black accent keys popping against the lighter coloring of the primary keys. There’s even a custom “B” and “A” keycap, which replace the Windows and Menu keys.
More than just a fun-looking board for gamers, 8Bitdo was sure to stock it full of features, including accessible media controls in the top left corner, n-key rollover, and more than 80 programmable keys. Beneath each dyed keycap is a Kailh Box Switch, which is on the noisier side. However, the PCB is hot-swappable, so you can use a number of different switches to achieve the sound and feedback you prefer.
8Bitdo offers three different ways to connect the retro-inspired keyboard: Bluetooth, wireless 2.4G, or a wired USB cable. The variety is nice, especially considering it’s a compact board that’s small enough to travel with, and a USB cable isn’t always practical.
While the keyboard is on the higher end of the price spectrum, $100 for a high-quality, durable mechanical keyboard with a custom design isn’t bad at all. Especially since it ships with two easily programmable buttons that can stand in for your most-used keystrokes.
Havit KB487L Mechanical Keyboard
According to PC World, the Havit KB487L is an “amazing value” that may leave some users perplexed. Why, exactly? By sporting a tenkeyless (TKL) design without actually removing the number pad that would otherwise be absent in such a build. It looks awkward at first, but making the adjustment to moving up instead of to the right of the arrow keys to use the Numpad shouldn’t be that taxing. In fact, this was PC World’s biggest complaint, which isn’t really enough to warrant writing off the unique board.
The unusual design aside, the Havit offers quite a few user-friendly features, including U-shaped keys for comfortable typing that sit atop red linear switches. Unfortunately, the PCB isn’t hot-swappable, but it’s nice that Havit went for a softer and smoother keystroke to make the board suitable for both play and work.
Speaking of play, in its test of the Havit board, Tom’s Hardware noted that there were no noticeable missed keystrokes. This is most useful for more chaotic gaming experiences, so players aren’t left vulnerable while the board tries to register every keystroke. There is a shocking disparity in pricing for the KB487L, with the official Havit store retailing it for $80 and Amazon dropping the cost down to a more budget-friendly $43.
Redragon Surara K582
Redragon is a brand I stumbled across one day, unaware at the time that it could deliver top-quality mechanical keyboard performance for about the same price as a standard board. At only $45, the Surara K582 stands up to high priced brands like Cherry with its backlit, 104-key board.
The Surara sports an ergonomic design with keycaps designed to perfectly fit your fingertips and, beneath them, soft red switches that aren’t too harsh and offer a good balance for gaming and practical use. There was a tactile blue switch option available at one point, but that’s been long since sold out.
You can swap in other Outemu-compatible switches, but the red should suffice, especially with other features like n-key rollover and anti-ghosting enhancing the experience. You can even turn off that dreaded Windows key while gaming to prevent accidentally interrupting your session.
The Surara K582 was my introduction to Redragon, and it’s kept the brand on my radar thanks to its quality build and comfortable typing. A greater variety of switches is always a welcome change at some point, but the look, feel, and price tag of the Surara K582 make up for its shortcomings.
Choosing these 5 budget-friendly mechanical keyboards
Perform a search on Amazon for mechanical keyboards in the $25 to $35 price range, and you’ll be met with a surprising number of options. They may be affordable, but the question remains, are they any good? Having tested quite a few mechanical keyboards over the past few years, I know the importance of a quality board. So, I used a combination of my knowledge and expertise as a tech reviewer and trusted resources to land on five options you should consider for your next purchase.
I’ve had hands-on experience on all but one of the keyboards, and the one I haven’t, the Havit, I’ve had my eyes on for two reasons: Black and orange are my colors, and its placement of the number keypad intrigues me. Based on reviews and Tom Hardware’s own recommendation, it’s a worthy addition.