A friend of mine is one of the nerdiest guys I know but has suffered from RSI most of his life. He exclusively uses DataHand keyboards (which he buys used and refurbishes or parts out). I notice you don't have a picture of those in your gallery. It's an interesting idea (having 5 switches per finger without moving your hand) but I'm more hopeful that chording will become the default.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DataHand

Good idea.

I've added it (though as it's unavailable, it doesn't show up by default). I've also added the Lalboard (http://lalboard.com/), which is an open-source project to recreate it.

Yes, exactly right. If you are going to make the jump it's smart to do it all the way. Intermittent steps will help some people, but won't always solve the RSI problem fully.

What a great site, thanks. Really brings home how strange this corner of the market is. Every split keyboard with nice keyswitches has a different layout from every other, and most of them miss one or more of F keys, symmetrical meta keys, standard navigation cluster layout, volume buttons, and so on. Quite extraordinary, considering how much this type of device relies on muscle memory to work. It's like their designers want the device to be less useful, not more!

Particularly annoying when there's such a wide range of non-split keyboards with nice keyswitches. You've got all the bizarre layouts you can eat, but you still get the option of a more standard one too.

I wish people would just copy the MS Natural Ergonomic 4000, but with better keyswitches.

People tend to use layers to get at extra keys like F keys, volume keys, etc. I think it goes too far when they omit the number row, but honestly I mostly type numbers in a numpad layer, so I see the appeal. Basically, people see pressing two keys at once as less work than moving their hand off of home row, and being one of those people myself, I think it's the right thing. I fear that the standard keyboard layout was chosen for discoverability, not productivity. Giving your two best fingers (the thumb) one key between them (the space bar) is kind of crazy, in my opinion. Once you accept that your thumbs can do different things, and even many different things, the keyboard layout design space is significantly enhanced.

Having said that, I did make myself a split ergonomic keyboard with a full set of keys (107, if I recall correctly). Here's a picture:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/XPvTVdwaP2tog8zj6

I ended up not liking the arrows where they were (was used to the Ergodox layout where they are not an inverted T but wrap the big right thumb keys) and stopped using it. Having the number pad was great for Blender, but hard to reach.

With cheap keyswitches, cheap microcontrollers, and cheap 3D printers around... there is no reason not to build a keyboard that meets your exact requirements. I use an Ergodox EZ, though, but may experiment more in the future.

> most of them miss one or more of F keys, symmetrical meta keys, standard navigation cluster layout, volume buttons, and so on

This is why I made the gallery -- it's an easy way to compare a lot of options, even if not all options have filters.

I have just added the C989 Ergo, which was mentioned elsewhere in the discussion. That seems to be the closest mass-produced, mechanical keyboard to the MS Natural: https://c9ergo.com/

> I wish people would just copy the MS Natural Ergonomic 4000, but with better keyswitches.

I replaced my MS keyboard with a Kinesis Gaming Edge - it's a pretty good replacement, and I've found being able to separate the two halves of the keyboard and put them about shoulder width apart makes for a very nice typing experience. No numpad, and I'm not a huge fan of the home/end/pgup/pgdown placement, but you can add a numpad in a second later if you want to.

If you’re already typing correctly, you’re relying on muscle memory. Adding some layers into the mix isn’t too much of a leap. I would argue that a good split keyboard is much more useful than a standard keyboard; better positioning for ergonomics or desk space, easily stowed when not in use, truly programmable (firmware not software) that works between systems with little or no setup and a keymap that works for the user instead of against.

I like having all my often used keys in the home row. I don’t have to move my hands to use arrow keys because I use vim bindings on a layer. Hyphen,underscore, grave and tilde are on the home row, too. I can program a key to be a combination of key presses, too. My workflow is much improved using my own custom keymap and keyboard.

>It's like their designers want the device to be less useful, not more!

The main focus of most of these keyboards is ergonomics. Even if it comes at the cost of learnability.

This is also why there's a lot of variation. People are dropping and moving keys to deal with things like hand size and existing RSI.

>I wish people would just copy the MS Natural Ergonomic 4000, but with better keyswitches.

You can probably get someone to 3d print and solder you a one-off keyboard that fits the bill. It's doubtful anyone other than MS will mass produce such a thing though.

I've never used a better keyboard other than durability issues. I usually burn through one every couple years. (I game alot)

It's kind of you to compile this list. Please add this very good product: https://www.goldtouch.com/ergonomic-keyboards/

I am a very satisfied user.

I have used ergonomic keyboards for long time. Some have been passable, such as one or two models of Adesso and Microsoft keyboard. Nothing has offered the combination of qualities that the Goldtouch offers. Comfort, robustness, adjustability, cost.

I've not added "normal" (traditional layout, non-mechanical, mass-market) keyboards, since there are plenty of other sites that gather reviews etc.

I have added a link at the very end to one such site, http://xahlee.info/kbd/ergonomic_keyboards_index.html , where the Goldtouch is listed and reviewed.

Hmm, that author likes the Microsoft Natural more than the Goldtouch. Too opinionated to see clearly.

That's a great gallery! I would add the Kinesis Freestyle Edge (https://gaming.kinesis-ergo.com/edge/) , which adds mechanical switches and macro keys.

Thanks for the suggestion, I've added it.

Looks like the filtering is a bit strange. If I filter mass produced only then ergodox ez is misisng, if I filter source only then ergodox ez is missing, but if I filter both then it appears? I know it's both open source and mass produced but filters should display the keyboard if at least one of them matches...

Thanks.

I've fixed the filter. I'd tried to do it entirely with CSS classes, but I think that was unrealistic.

(I also removed ErgoDox EZ, leaving only ErgoDox. It's the same design, and other keyboards where there are one or more manufacturers making the device to whatever quality aren't split out like this.)

Moonlander is listed. Newest board from the same company

Thanks for the list, do you have recommendations for one hand keyboards? It would be helpful for those with accessibility needs[1].

[1]https://needgap.com/problems/96-one-hand-keyboard-keyboard-a...

Only at pre-order stage but one I learned of recently is:

https://trulyergonomic.com/ergonomic-keyboards/

This is actually Truly Ergonomic's second of their keyboard. The fact that their site has wiped any existence of the previous version is not encouraging.

Anandtech reviewed it seven years ago:

https://www.anandtech.com/show/6682/first-impressions-the-te...

I added both, it's worth including as it's not especially well-known.

Great list! If you were ever bored would be nice to see programmable and backlit as options.

Nice site, but it looks like you're missing the Ergodox EZ

It is currently 9th in the list, although the order is shuffled each time the site is built.

(Maybe you did a case-sensitive search, or set some filters? I have it as "ErgoDox EZ".)

Hmm, now I see about 3x more than I did before. Perhaps there was some sort of bug that was preventing some keyboards from showing previously?

ErgoDone - cheap clone of ErgoDox, available on aliexpress.

Thanks -- this one was already there (depending on filters).

wow, why does only one keyboard have a soft wrist rest?

no wrist rest, or a hard plastic or wood one is leaving a lot of ergonomics, uh, off the table.