The best keyboard apps for Mac

App	Price	How you pay	Mac	App Store	Developer	Setapp	Rating
Karabiner-Elements	Free, open source	Free					Too few ratings
BetterTouchTool	$15 once	Pay once					Too few ratings
Hyperkey	Free	Free					Too few ratings
Homerow	$49.99 once	Pay once					Too few ratings
Klack	$4.99 once	Pay once					Too few ratings

Swipe the table sideways to see more

1. 1

   Karabiner-Elements

   Free, open sourceOur pick

   Pick it if you want Caps Lock or another idle key to do something useful, for free.

   Caps Lock wastes one of the best spots on your keyboard, and macOS only lets you remap a handful of modifier keys. Karabiner-Elements remaps anything, from a simple swap in its settings to community rules for Vim-style arrows, mouse keys or blocking an accidental Command-Q. It is free and public domain but fiddly, and if you only want Caps Lock as an extra modifier, Hyperkey is simpler.

   Prices and full verdictDeveloper's siteCompare
   
2. 2

   BetterTouchTool

   $15 once

   Pick this if you want keys, gestures and mouse buttons all mapped to your own actions in 1 app.

   macOS gives you a fixed set of trackpad gestures and window snapping to halves, while BetterTouchTool maps almost any gesture, mouse button or key to an action and chains actions into small automations. It also has a launcher with clipboard history and AI agents that work with OpenAI, Anthropic or local models. It costs $15 with 2 years of updates or $25 for life, and building a setup takes real time.

   Prices and full verdictDeveloper's siteCompare
   
3. 3

   Hyperkey

   Free

   Pick it if you build custom shortcuts and only want Caps Lock turned into an extra modifier key.

   Hold Caps Lock and it acts as Control, Option, Command and Shift at once, a combination no app already uses, so every shortcut you build on it stays clash-free. You can also remap Caps Lock to another key, and it pairs well with Rectangle, the free window manager from the same developer. It is free with no upgrade, though Karabiner-Elements is the better pick if you want to remap far more than 1 key.

   Prices and full verdictDeveloper's siteCompare
4. 4

   Homerow

   $49.99 once

   Pick this if you want to click buttons and links from the keyboard, for $49.99 once.

   Command-Tab gets you to an app from the keyboard, but clicking a button inside it still means reaching for the trackpad, and Homerow fixes that by putting letter labels on every button, link and menu so you type to click. It also scrolls by keyboard, finds buttons by name and works in Safari, Chrome, Slack, Finder and most other apps. At $49.99 it is pricey, so let the free trial show whether the habit sticks.

   Prices and full verdictDeveloper's siteCompare
5. 5

   Klack

   $4.99 once

   Pick this if you miss the sound of a mechanical keyboard while typing on a MacBook.

   If you miss the sound of a mechanical keyboard while typing on a MacBook, Klack plays a clack for every key, with separate down and up sounds and a small pitch change so it never sounds like a loop. It costs $4.99 once on the Mac App Store, with every update included. The developer's standalone version is a separate purchase with extra features, so pick one store and stick with it.

   Prices and full verdictDeveloper's siteCompare
   

• Karabiner-Elements vs BetterTouchToolPick this if you want keys, gestures and mouse buttons all mapped to your own actions in 1 app.
• Karabiner-Elements vs HyperkeyPick it if you build custom shortcuts and only want Caps Lock turned into an extra modifier key.
• BetterTouchTool vs HyperkeyPick it if you build custom shortcuts and only want Caps Lock turned into an extra modifier key.