Best keyboard layouts April 2024

The best computer keyboard layouts for English and programming, as at April 2024.

QWERTY is the best keyboard layout ... or is it? Isn't Dvorak better? Or what about Colemak? Or is HandsDown the hands-down winner?

To answer these and other pressing questions, we have evaluated over 700 different keyboard layouts, in ANSI and ergo form factors, and list the winners in different categories. You can peruse the Top 30 in each category from the links below, or see the shorter Top 10s lower down.

The Top 30 pages have links to each layout's analysis.
Your favourite layout not there? Look up how it did in the Internet Letter Layout DB.

See the testing methodology and layout selection.

ANSI Top 30 with pictures	Ergo Top 30 with pictures
All	All
Conventional	No AltGr layer
Unconventional	Uses AltGr layer
Conventional + QWERTY shift pairs	No letters on thumbs
Conventional + QWERTY shift pairs + ZXCV	No letters on thumbs or AltGr
Conventional + QWERTY shift pairs + ZXCV + Colemak punctuation

ANSI Top 10	Ergo Top 10
All full-maks-minimo.en.ansi hands-down-neu-sym.eu.ansi hands-down-neu-angle.ts.eu.ansi hands-down-neu.ts.eu.ansi g-ansi-maks.en.ansi uciea-gcsv.en.ansi uciea-pcrw.en.ansi kyudi.en.ansi uiy-g-ansi-maks.en.ansi kyu-anglemod.en.ansi	All vckb2.en.ergodox vckb.en.ergodox maks-ex.en.ergodox hands-down-gold-ts.eu.ergodox maks-sx.en.ergodox x1.en.ergodox hands-down-vibranium-ts.en.ergodox hands-down-vibranium-vp.ts.eu.ergodox hands-down-titanium-ts.eu.ergodox x1_atreus-44-keys.en.ergodox
Conventional g-ansi-maks.en.ansi uciea-gcsv.en.ansi uciea-pcrw.en.ansi kyudi.en.ansi uiy-g-ansi-maks.en.ansi uciea-keyboard.en.ansi n-ansi-maks.en.ansi uciea-vanilla-mod-gergely.en.ansi uiy-n-ansi-maks.en.ansi uciea-vanilla.en.ansi	No AltGr layer vckb2.en.ergodox vckb.en.ergodox hands-down-gold-ts.eu.ergodox hands-down-vibranium-vp.ts.eu.ergodox hands-down-titanium-ts.eu.ergodox hands-down-vibranium-vf.ts.eu.ergodox hands-down-silver-ts.eu.ergodox hs-indeks.en.ergodox full-maks.en.ergodox hands-down-vibranium-vb.ts.eu.ergodox
Unconventional full-maks-minimo.en.ansi hands-down-neu-angle.ts.eu.ansi hands-down-neu-sym.eu.ansi hands-down-neu.ts.eu.ansi kyu-anglemod.en.ansi kyu.en.ansi uciea-vanilla-mod-1.en.ansi uhiea-davison.en.ansi uciea-vanilla-mod-2.en.ansi hieaqmtsrn.en.ansi	Uses AltGr layer maks-ex.en.ergodox maks-sx.en.ergodox x1.en.ergodox hands-down-vibranium-ts.en.ergodox x1_atreus-44-keys.en.ergodox hands-down-platinum-ts.en.ergodox x4.en.matrix beakl-mod-ctgap.en.ergodox ctgap-3.en.ergodox hands-down-alt-tx-ts.en.ergodox
Conventional + QWERTY shift pairs g-ansi-maks.en.ansi uciea-gcsv.en.ansi uciea-pcrw.en.ansi kyudi.en.ansi uiy-g-ansi-maks.en.ansi n-ansi-maks.en.ansi uciea-vanilla-mod-gergely.en.ansi uiy-n-ansi-maks.en.ansi uciea-vanilla.en.ansi s2-klopt.en.ansi	No letters on thumbs x1.en.ergodox x1_atreus-44-keys.en.ergodox hs-indeks.en.ergodox full-maks.en.ergodox x4.en.matrix beakl-mod-ctgap.en.ergodox ctgap-3.en.ergodox dsend-thumbshift.en.ergodox hands-down-neu.ts.eu.ergodox iena.en.ergodox
Conventional + QWERTY shift pairs + ZXCV k-u_tea_shrt-pnct.en.ansi poqtea-klopt.en.ansi poqtea-sqp-multi.en.ansi poqtea.en.ansi poqtea-qp.en.ansi poutea.en.ansi colemak-cousin.en.ansi zxcv-fingers.en.ansi middlemak-nh.en.ansi oneproduct-zxcv.en.ansi	No letters on thumbs or AltGr hs-indeks.en.ergodox full-maks.en.ergodox dsend-thumbshift.en.ergodox hands-down-neu.ts.eu.ergodox uciea-vanilla.en.ergodox beakl-4-mod-ian-1.en.ergodox poqtea.en.ergodox hands-down-reference-ts.en.ergodox beakl-opted36.en.ergodox hands-down-alt-ts.en.ergodox
Conventional + QWERTY shift pairs + ZXCV + Colemak punctuation poqtea-qp.en.ansi zxcv-fingers.en.ansi middlemak-nh.en.ansi colemak.en.ansi colemak-lf.en.ansi asrt.en.ansi colemak-asrt.en.ansi colemak-mod-fox.en.ansi colemak-lite.en.ansi colemak-uk.en.ansi