The best custom keycaps in 2024

How we choose

Regardless of the product, choosing the right piece of kit can be a painstakingly slow process.

We have selected each of these custom keycap sets for a reason, every selection offers top-tier design and quality for the price. Choosing can be tricky so we scoured the web to ensure only the best custom keycap sets make our selection process.

Once we have made our selections we narrow our lists down and get hands-on with the products we recommend.

How we test

Testing the products is a huge part of the overall process in our best of guides. Testing ensures we can conclude that our recommendations are the best out there for the job.

So how do we test custom keycaps? Well to ensure a product is the best and displays better qualities than the competition we simply start installing these on the vast amounts of keyboards we have here at the office!

We are looking for stunning design, beautiful color contrasts, and fonts, to ultimately find the best custom keycap sets on the market.

What to consider when it comes to buying custom keycaps

Before buying your next keycap set, there are going to be a few things to consider, like all products really. Finding the best custom keycap set can actually be pretty tough, they are sold all over and have different attributes that may or may not benefit your needs.

Compatibility

The majority of custom keycaps appear to be compatible with Cherry MX switches, and this is down to the brand’s dominance. Luckily a lot of switch manufacturers share the same “X” fitting as they are clones of Cherry MX, meaning there is some cross-compatibility. That being said, there are other switch types with keycaps to fit, so always check your switches and new keycaps are compatible!

Keycap material

The majority of keycaps produced these days are released with ABS keycaps as standard. Some premium keyboards may feature PBT, but what does it all mean?

ABS (Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) is generally a material considered to be of less quality. As mentioned above, these are widely mass-produced, leading to thinner, lower quality caps than your standard PBT. While this is a general opinion on ABS keycaps that doesn’t mean there aren’t any good quality options. Some ABS keycaps are double shot or sometimes triple shot injected and can be much thicker than some PBT caps.

PBT (Polybutylene terephthalate) caps are generally thicker and more durable. Of course, there is no rule to say which type of keycap you go for; it is just down to preference. PBT keycaps vary in much the same way ABS keycaps vary, only with subtle lifespan differences. PBT caps are generally considered to be of higher quality than ABS, but there is more to it than that. Check out our PBT vs ABS guide page for a more in-depth dive into the details.

Layout

This is an oft-overlooked but very important aspect of custom keycaps. Many people (including the author of this article) have waited in anticipation for their nice new keycaps to arrive only to have their hopes of custom keycap glory to be mercilessly dashed to the ground. This is because they didn’t pay attention to the layout.

The layout is frequently confused with form factor, but it’s very different, essentially the layout defines the shape, size, and relative spacing between different keys, and purchasing a set of lovely keycaps, only to discover that they won’t fit because they’re the wrong layout is an emotional explosion that rivals the death of a family member. We’ve explained in more detail what this means on our ANSI vs ISO route guide page. take a gander and educate yourself before dropping big bucks deluxe on a set of custom keycaps.

Size and profile

As with most aspects of PC gaming technology, there are a few confusing and needlessly vague terms when it comes to custom keycaps. The most egregious of which is keycap profile. You might have spotted the term ‘OEM profile’ being bandied about on various subreddits, Etsy storefronts, and group buy pages, but what does it mean?

Keycap profile refers to the shape of the keys, not from a top-down view, but from a cross-sectional perspective. As you descend from the top row of the keyboard to the spacebar row, the keys change shape very slightly, this is for ergonomic reasons. OEM profile is the profile that is standard on almost all consumer keyboards, shortly followed by the Cherry profile keycaps, made famous by the eponymous switch manufacturer. Other popular keycap profiles include DSA, XDA, and SA all with very slightly different physical characteristics, some have rounded tops, and some are entirely flat.

So make sure the profile is something you’re going to be happy with. Having a few clicks and lacks on a friend’s keyboard with different caps is the most cost-effective way of testing these. There are a few different reasons why one might prefer one profile over the other, usually a mixture of ergonomics and personal preference, any decent mechanical keyboard community like the folks over at r/mechanicalkeyboards will have additional insight should you ask.

It’s worth noting here that the phrase ‘low-profile’ doesn’t refer to the profiles mentioned above, but to keycaps of reduced sizes often found on low-profile keyboards like the Corsair K70 Mk2 Low Profile keyboard.

A word of warning, however, low profile keyboards are hugely divisive, so be very sure it’s a good fit for you before splashing out on some low-profile keycaps.

Blank, artisan, and pudding keycaps

So we’ve covered the big stuff, but there are some more niche types of custom keycaps out there, and some of them can get very, very cool. If you’ve ever lusted after a limited edition ducky keyboard like the Ducky Year of the pig keyboard, you’ll be familiar with just how fancy keycaps can get, but fancy custom keycaps aren’t only available on rare limited editions boards, so let’s have a look at the different types you can get to replace your current caps.

Black keycaps

There’s not a lot to say about these as they are self-explanatory. Essentially these are caps with no legends whatsoever, just black plastic. Beholden by minimalists everywhere, these are as minimalist as it gets. We really like them here at WePC, however, you must be very confident in your touch-typing ability if you what to purchase these as blank keycaps, unsurprisingly, offer no visual queue for fixing a typo. Buy blank keycaps at your own risk.

Artisan keycaps

These are where it gets very cool and very expensive. Artisan keycaps do not utilize the aforementioned profiles and are entirely custom in their shape and design. You might have seen some of these around the internet in the form of miniature landscapes or adorable sculptures of Gengar (My coworker Danielle’s personal favorite pocket monster.). As these are functionally useless for typing, they are usually positioned on the escape key as a little accent to the overall board. taking a quick look over at drop.com, previously known as Massdrop will explain the ridiculous pricing of these caps better than we can.

Pudding keycaps

These are great fun, and a must-have for the RGB nerds amongst you. Pudding keycaps feature a dual-layer design, wherein the lower section is translucent, and the top of the keycap is opaque. If you want to show off your RGB lighting, pudding keycaps are the best option for sure, many different companies have started to make these and with the rise in popularity of RGB lighting, so too has the popularity of pudding keycaps.

They are available in all the aforementioned profiles and layouts so you’ll be able to find a set of pudding keycaps without too much trouble. It’s with quickly noting that some pudding caps, like those made by Razer, have the tendency to split where the layers join after a while, so check around for some with good build quality. Glorious and HyperX make some of the best. For more info, check out our ‘What are pudding keycaps‘ page.