Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Karabiner VS Hacker's Keyboard

Compare Karabiner VS Hacker's Keyboard and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Karabiner logo Karabiner

Karabiner, previously called KeyRemap4MacBook, is a very powerful keyboard remapper for Mac OS X.

Hacker's Keyboard logo Hacker's Keyboard

Are you missing the key layout you're used to from your computer when using an Android device?
  • Karabiner Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-06
  • Hacker's Keyboard Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-03

Karabiner features and specs

  • Customizability
    Karabiner-Elements allows users to remap keys and create complex keyboard configurations that can greatly enhance productivity and convenience.
  • Open Source
    Being an open-source tool, Karabiner-Elements is free to use and comes with the potential for community contributions and transparency in development.
  • Flexibility
    The tool supports a wide range of devices and configurations, making it adaptable to various user needs and setups.
  • Ease of Use
    The user interface is designed to be intuitive, allowing both novice and experienced users to easily configure and remap their keyboards.
  • Regular Updates
    The tool is actively maintained with regular updates, ensuring compatibility with the latest macOS versions and adding new features.

Possible disadvantages of Karabiner

  • Compatibility Issues
    Some users may experience compatibility issues with certain applications or hardware, potentially causing unexpected behavior.
  • Learning Curve
    Although the interface is intuitive, mastering its full range of features, especially for complex configurations, can require a steep learning curve.
  • System Performance
    On occasion, Karabiner-Elements may consume significant system resources, which could impact overall system performance.
  • Limited Platform Support
    As of now, Karabiner-Elements only supports macOS, limiting its utility for users on other operating systems such as Windows or Linux.
  • Potential for Errors
    Incorrect configuration or updates may lead to errors in key mappings, which can disrupt the user experience until resolved.

Hacker's Keyboard features and specs

  • Full Keyboard Layout
    Hacker's Keyboard offers a full 5-row layout, including arrow keys, numbers, and punctuation, which is beneficial for users requiring more than the standard mobile keyboard functionality.
  • Customizable Key Settings
    The keyboard is highly customizable, allowing users to tweak key sizes, colors, and functions to suit their specific needs and preferences.
  • Multiple Language Support
    It supports a wide range of languages and layouts, making it a versatile choice for users around the world who need to type in different languages.
  • ASCII Control Characters
    The keyboard allows easy access to ASCII control characters, which is particularly useful for developers and tech enthusiasts.
  • Open Source
    Being open-source, it allows users to inspect the code, contribute to development, and ensure no unwanted data collection or malware is present.

Possible disadvantages of Hacker's Keyboard

  • Complexity
    The extensive options and settings may be overwhelming for some users who prefer a simpler keyboard with fewer features.
  • Interface Design
    The default design and layout might not be as polished or aesthetically pleasing compared to other modern keyboards, potentially impacting user experience.
  • Learning Curve
    New users might need some time to get used to the full 5-row layout and extensive functionality, especially if they are accustomed to simpler keyboards.
  • Performance
    On some devices, the keyboard might not be as responsive or fast compared to other lightweight keyboard alternatives, possibly lagging during intensive typing sessions.
  • Battery Usage
    Due to its extensive features and customization options, the Hacker's Keyboard might consume more battery than simpler, less feature-rich keyboard apps.

Karabiner videos

REVIEW: Should you play the Vetterli 71 Karabiner? [Hunt Gun Review #1]

More videos:

  • Review - Vim screencast #59: Karabiner Elements
  • Review - Evolution of the Karabiner 98k, From Prewar to Kriegsmodell

Hacker's Keyboard videos

No Hacker's Keyboard videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Karabiner and Hacker's Keyboard)
Automation
100 100%
0% 0
iPhone
0 0%
100% 100
Note Taking
100 100%
0% 0
iOS Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Karabiner and Hacker's Keyboard. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Karabiner seems to be a lot more popular than Hacker's Keyboard. While we know about 273 links to Karabiner, we've tracked only 6 mentions of Hacker's Keyboard. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Karabiner mentions (273)

  • Ergonomic Mac Keyboard Setup
    I use Karabiner as the driver for keyboard customizations. Karabiner intercepts hardware keystrokes and sends keystrokes to the computer allowing me to configure Karabiner to have a flexible setup and map key(s) presses to other keys(s) or commands. - Source: dev.to / 20 days ago
  • Recommended Software for Mac that You cannot Miss
    This software is free and can be downloaded from the official website; it’s also open-source, so you can find it on GitHub Releases. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Ask HN: What macOS apps/programs do you use daily and recommend?
    Besides the usual Firefox/Chrome, Spotify, etc I use the following: - Karabiner-Elements for key remapping, specifically, for making caps lock into ctrl/esc. I don't know of anything else that does this job. Everyone who remaps keys seems to use this. - Kitty as my terminal of choice. I spend most of my time logged in remotely to a server via ssh where I attach to a tmux session. Kitty was easy enough to... - Source: Hacker News / 12 months ago
  • Ask HN: What macOS apps/programs do you use daily and recommend?
    If I had to recommend 1 app/script that I use daily: https://github.com/banga/git-split-diffs) to disable things like "Apple + Q" -> nothing worse than going to close a single tab and then your whole app quits. Also able to re-map caps-lock into escape, ect `iterm2` for terminal (colored tabs are great; albeit I disable the hell out of many of the options like "clickable urls" ect) for cli, I try to gnu... - Source: Hacker News / 12 months ago
  • Ask HN: What if we wrote HTML with [brackets][/brackets]?
    I have been using Karabiner elements (https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org), they allow keyboard customization, I have switched the colon and semicolon key, by default without pressing shift, the key will output colon (:) , I find this useful as I type lot of colon daily. Maybe you can use this software to set "<" and ">" to be the default text output without using Shift. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
View more

Hacker's Keyboard mentions (6)

  • No Alternative of Google keyboard in Dictionary, word prediction and Autocorrect
    I use 3 different keyboards 1. For the daily stuff Android Keyboard (AOSP) 2. For when I need Ctrl-C, maths symbols and operators when SSHing into my RPI's Unexpected keyboard https://github.com/Julow/Unexpected-Keyboard. - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • iPhone physical keyboard from ex-Crackberry guy
    I've tried all kinds of portable physical keyboards but for programming on android you can't beat Hackers Keyboard https://github.com/klausw/hackerskeyboard I've got a fork working with Android 14. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Does any one know where I can download a mobile Na'vi keyboard
    I forked the Hacker's Keyboard app on GitHub tweaked it, and compiled it. (using Android Studio). Source: almost 2 years ago
  • A pocket sized open-source AR device for the imaginative hacker
    Does not work with Hacker's Keyboard (https://github.com/klausw/hackerskeyboard). It closes itself after a few deciseconds, whereas usually the permanent notification feature can be tapped to open and use a keyboard anywhere. Or maybe I haven't tried using it on the new Android 11 yet and yet another of my favorite hacks broke.... Now that I try it elsewhere,... - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Using your phone as a software development platform
    I used to code NodeJS services on my phone quite a lot when I was commuting to an office. I used Termux - https://termux.dev/en/. It was brilliant, and worked far better than you'd think it would. The main problem was the keyboard because the stock Android one doesn't support a lot of symbols. I solved that with https://github.com/klausw/hackerskeyboard. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Karabiner and Hacker's Keyboard, you can also consider the following products

BTT Remote - A remote control for you Mac, using your iPhone or iPad

AnySoftKeyboard - Android (f/w 1.5+) on-screen keyboard for multiple languages.

Rectangle - Window management app based on Spectacle, written in Swift.

Gboard - Google-powered keyboard with search, GIFs, emojis and more!

SteerMouse - Advanced driver for USB and Bluetooth mouses.

Fleksy - Fleksy is the #1 private, white-label virtual keyboard SDK, enabling companies to create unimaginable products.