When building a PC, everyone thinks of the processor and graphics card, but not everybody pays as much attention to the device we use every time we interact with our gaming rig or workstation: the keyboard. And because most of us do not have the luxury of a separate sound-proofed room dedicated to our battlestation, we want our keyboard to give us every bit of precision and enjoyment possible without destroying the eardrums of our nearby colleagues/roommates/significant others. So to help you find the best keyboard possible that makes as little noise as possible, here is a guide to the highest-quality, quietest mechanical keyboards available in 2019.
The basic essentials of mechanical keyboards
Mechanical keyboards are loved for their precision, reliability, and customizability. But one of the drawbacks for many mechanical keyboards is the loud click or thock that accompanies typing on them. Luckily, this can be mitigated and more and more manufacturers are making ‘silent’ mechanical keyboards.
The most important factor in terms of noise for a keyboard is the switch type. There are three main switch types: clickies (e.g. blue switches), tactiles (e.g. brown switches), and linears (e.g. red switches or black switches). Clickies offer a loud click on actuation, so by nature, they are not silent and should be avoided! Tactiles have a small bump or feedback on actuation, but no click. Linears have no bump or click and offer no physical acknowledgement of actuation.
The next most important factors are the quality of the stabilizers to avoid rattling, and the typing style of the person. If you ‘bottom-out’, meaning you press the keys all the way down instead of stopping at the actuation point, you will have more noise from the keycap hitting the plate. High-quality stabilizers will have tighter tolerances, leading to less rattle when pressing the spacebar or shift key.
With those things in mind, let’s take a look at some of the keyboards available that don’t sacrifice quality while still keeping that decibel level as low as possible.
Best Quiet Mechanical Keyboards – My Recommendations
| Best Quiet Mechanical Keyboards | Design | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Best Overall Quiet Mechanical Keyboard |  | Fnatic miniSTREAK MX Silent Red |
| Best Quiet Workstation Mechanical Keyboard |  | CHERRY G80-3000 Keyboard |
| Best Quiet Compact, Wireless Mechanical Keyboard |  | Anne Pro 2 60% keyboard w/ Gateron Brown switches |
| Best Quiet Typing Mechanical Keyboard |  | Matias Mini Quiet Pro |
| Best Quiet Full-Size Mechanical Keyboard |  | Corsair K70 RGB MK.2 MX Silent Red keyboard |
Best Overall Quiet Mechanical Keyboard
For your best overall-use quiet mechanical keyboard, the Fnatic miniSTREAK MX Silent Red keyboard is hard to beat. The Cherry MX Silent Red switches offer a top-of-the-line linear gaming switch with a not-too-hard-not-too-soft actuation weight. Cherry MX Red switches are a favorite in the community, and the Silent versions keep everything typists love while reducing the noise. The tenkeyless form factor is the sweet spot for most people, keeping the arrow keys but getting rid of the numerpad that most don’t find all that useful.
The keyboard uses quality parts like a metal top-plate and high-quality stabilizers, and includes some nice features, like RGB lighting and a leather wrist rest. The only improvement we would make is to include some high-quality PBT keycaps, but the ABS keycaps that come with the keyboard are smooth and offer windowed lettering to see that sweet RGB, so they are by no means bottom-of-the-barrel.
At $100, this keyboard offers good price-performance with high-quality Cherry MX Silent Red switches and the tenkeyless form factor is a great compromise between the full size and 60% styles.
Best Quiet Workstation Mechanical Keyboard
If you are looking for something specifically for bringing into the office and want to avoid flashy gamer style keyboards, the CHERRY G80-3000 Keyboard is a great choice. The MX Silent Black switches will be heavier than the MX Silent Red switches, avoiding any accidental key presses while typing and making it more difficult to bottom-out and make that clacking noise people associate with mechanical keyboards.
This keyboard may not have as many features as a gamer style keyboard (no RGB, no wrist rest), but Cherry keyboards are known to last and use durable parts in their cables, PCB’s, and switches. The full-size form factor includes the numpad, a necessary tool for anyone working with Excel regularly or inputting numbers in another software.
For anyone looking for a new mechanical keyboard to bring into the office, your colleagues will love the silence, your boss will think you’re a serious professional without that “RGB gamer stuff”, and you’ll like the feel of the MX Silent Black switches that put any membrane keyboard to shame. For right near $93, not a bad deal.
Best Quiet Compact, Wireless Mechanical Keyboard
While some people need a numberpad or arrow keys, others prefer as compact a package as possible. And nowadays, everyone is moving towards a wireless existence which can make wired keyboards seem outdated. For someone looking for a minimalist set-up and full Bluetooth compatibility, the Anne Pro 2 60% keyboard w/ Gateron Brown switches offers a nice package of moderate quietness and fully-packed feature set.
First and importantly, the Gateron Brown switches are tactile switches without the silencing mechanism found in some silent switches. So while they should still be quiet, and much quieter than any MX Blue or clicky style switch, they may not be as quiet as some of the other keyboards listed in this guide. On the other hand, the Anne Pro 2 offers wireless Bluetooth compatibility, a super-compact 60% (no arrow keys, no F-row) form factor, USB-C connection, and high-quality PBT keycaps.
If you are looking for a quiet-but-not-silent keyboard, you’re potentially interested in doing some modding (which we’ll discuss at the end), or you just need wireless and a small keyboard, this $120 board with Gateron Brown switches might just check all your boxes.
Best Quiet Typing Mechanical Keyboard
For some people, high tactility is the best part of a mechanical keyboard and sacrificing any of that sweet bump is just impossible. You don’t game, you don’t do much number inputting in Excel, but you write non-stop emails or essays or blog posts, and love the accuracy that comes with a great tactile switch. If you want that great tactility but need to keep things quiet, the Matias Mini Quiet Pro focuses purely on the typing experience, offering tactile typing performance with no frills or annoyances.
Matias switches are different from MX style switches because they are based on the older Alps design, known for being used in 1980’s Apple mechanical keyboards. These Matias Quiet switches are the descendants of those Alps switches and keep the high tactility, but add a small rubber insert to reduce noise as much as possible. The Quiet Mini Pro takes these switches and puts them in a compact, but not overly compact 75% form factor that will let any typist have complete access to arrow keys and function keys, but won’t waste any more space than necessary.
Matias keyboards aren’t cheap considering the no-frills straightforward approach, so this one comes in at $120. But if you love to type on tactile switches and want to keep the noise down, this keyboard is a compelling option.
Best Quiet Full-Size Mechanical Keyboard
Maybe you need a full-size keyboard with numberpad, but you still want a gamer-style keyboard and a bit more style than the Cherry G80-3000. Maybe you have a bit more to spend on a mechanical keyboard that has all the bells and whistles and comes from a well-known big name manufacturer. But maybe you still want something as quiet as possible to avoid waking up that significant other or your roommates. If you fall into that category, the Corsair K70 RGB MK.2 MX Silent Red keyboard is perfect.
This keyboard is the most expensive one in this list, coming in at $146, but it offers just about everything you could want. Fully customizable RGB, high-quality Cherry MX Silent Red switches, an anodized aluminum frame, macro programming capability, USB passthrough…the list goes on. Our only gripe with Corsair keyboards in general is their choice to use a non-standard bottom row with a smaller spacebar, so if you ever decide to get custom keycaps, be careful to see if the keyset is compatible with the Corsair bottom row.
This is your high-end quiet mechanical gaming keyboard, and if you can justify the price, there is not much you will miss out on and not many other keyboards out there that can match it for features and options.
Conclusion
Buying a keyboard is personal and some people find they prefer tactiles, especially if they find themselves typing a lot, while others prefer linears, especially if they are mostly gaming or performing repetitive key movements. Both can be found in ‘silent’ styles, which keep the noise level down at the cost of a slightly different feel that some love and some hate. The best thing to do is to test tactiles vs. linears in one of your local retailers, and then buy online the board that uses that style switch in a silent variation.
Out of the boards above, each one has its strength and weaknesses so it is important to think about what is important for you when it comes to the keyboard you will use as a daily driver.
And for those that want to go the extra mile, the absolute most silent keyboard would include band-aid modding and clipping the stabilizers, adding o-rings or GMK dampeners to each switch, and adjusting your typing style to avoid bottoming-out. There are numerous guides online to doing these mods, especially at reddit.com/r/mechanicalkeyboards.
If you buy an already quiet keyboard and add in all of these modifications, you might have a claim for a truly ‘silent’ mechanical keyboard.
| Best Quiet Mechanical Keyboards | Design | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Best Overall Quiet Mechanical Keyboard | | Fnatic miniSTREAK MX Silent Red |
| Best Quiet Workstation Mechanical Keyboard | | CHERRY G80-3000 Keyboard |
| Best Quiet Compact, Wireless Mechanical Keyboard | | Anne Pro 2 60% keyboard w/ Gateron Brown switches |
| Best Quiet Typing Mechanical Keyboard | | Matias Mini Quiet Pro |
| Best Quiet Full-Size Mechanical Keyboard | | Corsair K70 RGB MK.2 MX Silent Red keyboard |