Learn touch typing for free: tools compared

You don’t have to pay to learn touch typing. Several good tools are free, and they differ more in their approach than in their price: some guide you through a course, some adapt to your mistakes, and one is mainly a typing test. We make typando, so we are not neutral. That is why the descriptions below stick to what each tool says on its official website, including the points where others offer more than we do.

The six tools at a glance

Websites change, so check the official site before you commit to a tool.

Guided lessons with extras

TypingClub, made by EdClub in Washington, DC, runs only in the browser. It is free for individuals and schools, with an optional paid School Edition and a Premium version that, among other things, removes ads. You can learn in more than 20 languages and take Dvorak or one-handed courses. It adds games, videos, stars, and badges, plus voice output and guidance on hand position.

AgileFingers is free, shows ads, and works without signing up. It supports 87 keyboard layouts, including Swiss German and Mac variants, and its interface comes in 21 languages. Besides lessons, it offers areas for teachers and students, games, flashcards, and programming lessons. You can also set the minimum accuracy anywhere from 90 to 100%.

Both suit you if you like a guided path with plenty of variety, or if you teach a class.

Practice that adapts to your mistakes

Tipp10 repeats the letters you often mistype and uses real words from the start. The online version is free but needs an account with your email address, a password, and your date of birth. It is available in English and German, with layouts such as US, German, Swiss, Neo, and Dvorak, and according to its privacy policy it uses neither ads nor tracking. According to the website, the earlier desktop version (GPL) is no longer maintained. For schools there is a paid school version with annual licenses and a free 30-day trial, currently offered on the German-language site.

keybr.com takes a different route. It starts with the most frequent letters and adds new ones as soon as you reach its target speed. Lessons are built around your weakest keys, with statistics for every key, and you practice with made-up but pronounceable words. A typing test and multiplayer races come on top. The site is free with ads; an optional premium account, paid once, removes ads and trackers. It supports around 100 layouts, including Swiss German, and its source code is open (AGPL-3.0).

typista is a German-language web app that describes itself as free and usable without signing up. Its adaptive exercises, marked as beta, repeat the letters you struggle with, and there is a typing test with a leaderboard. The website as a whole is marked as beta, and its changelog has not been updated for several years.

Choose one of these if you want your practice to follow your own mistakes. If you prefer real words from day one, Tipp10 has them; keybr.com trains letter patterns with invented words instead.

A typing test, not a course

Monkeytype measures rather than teaches. It offers many modes and themes, a very large choice of word lists and layouts, and it shows your speed live while you type. There is no paid version. Ads are optional, the project is funded by donations and merchandise, and its source code is open (GPL-3.0).

Use it to measure your speed once you can type without looking. Compare results only within the same mode; What is a good typing speed? WPM explained shows why settings change the number.

What typando does differently

typando takes a stricter path. In phase 1, you learn the key map in small steps, starting with the home row. A lesson unlocks the next one only when you reach 97% accuracy; speed does not count yet. Once you know six keys, including a vowel, you practice with words and syllables instead of key sequences. Phase 2 consists of units of about 15 minutes: a warm-up, new material, and a review of your weakest keys, always inside real words. Each unit also sets a personal speed goal, the average of your last five exercises plus 5%.

While you type, typando shows no live speed, only your progress through the text. Speed, accuracy, and your weakest keys appear in the results afterward, which is the opposite of Monkeytype’s approach. What research says about errors and speed is summarized in How to type faster: what the research says. Starting with the home row is a choice, not a proven advantage: keybr.com starts with the most frequent letters, and no randomized study has compared the two approaches.

typando offers 13 keyboard layouts in six languages, including Swiss German and Mac keyboards, and its exercise words are checked against dictionaries and exclusion lists. It is free, needs no sign-up, and keeps your progress in your browser; an optional account syncs it across devices. There are no ads in the trainer and no tracking. Phase 3 brings passages from public-domain books, rhythm exercises, and 30-second speed sprints; phase 4 adds a two-minute weekly test. Several tools above offer more layouts and games. typando suits you if you want a course with a clear rule for when to move on.

How to choose

Start with your keyboard. If you use Dvorak, Neo, or another less common layout, the choice narrows quickly, and US, UK and international keyboard layouts compared helps you find out which layout you have. Then decide how you like to learn: with games and badges, with exercises that follow your mistakes, or with a strict accuracy rule.

Whichever tool you pick, practice regularly. Short daily sessions work better than long, rare ones, as How long does it take to learn touch typing? explains. Give a tool a few weeks before you judge it.

To try the accuracy-first approach, open the first lesson in the trainer. It needs no account and starts with F, J, and the space bar.