Keyboards under £100

Both boards here are tenkeyless: full function row and arrow keys, no numpad, and both take hot-swap switches, so you're not stuck with whatever ships in the box. Neither is wireless, which is normal at this price; the money goes on the socket and the switches instead of a battery and radio.

The Keychron C3 Pro 8K is list price £54.99 when we checked in September 2026^[1]. It's a wired TKL with a gasket-style mount, Cherry-profile double-shot PBT keycaps and an 8,000 Hz polling rate, and it comes in both ANSI and UK ISO. It runs QMK firmware and is remapped through Keychron's Launcher web app. It suits anyone who wants a hot-swap TKL to try different switches on without spending much, gamers included, given the polling rate.

The Keychron C1 Pro 8K is also £54.99 ^[2], and the two are close enough in spec that the choice mostly comes down to what's in stock: at the time we checked, Keychron's UK store listed the C1 Pro 8K's UK-layout version as sold out, which read as a stock gap rather than a discontinuation, so it's worth checking current availability before assuming either is ready to ship. The C1 Pro 8K drops the C3 Pro 8K's gasket mount for a plainer tray mount and adds south-facing LEDs, which help if you fit Cherry-profile keycaps later. The C1 Pro 8K lists VIA support as well as QMK, and both boards support Mac layouts.

The Ducky One 3 SF is £84.99 including VAT at the UK retailer we checked, for the Daybreak colourway with Cherry MX Black switches^[7]; it was showing as sold out at the time. It's a wired 65% with hot-swap sockets, double-shot PBT keycaps in Cherry profile and a choice of genuine Cherry switches, and it's sold in a UK ISO layout^[8]. Ducky doesn't offer QMK or VIA; settings are changed with key combinations on the board itself. It suits someone who wants a small board with arrow keys, a UK layout and the option to change switches later.

These two skip hot-swap sockets and RGB entirely and put the budget into branded switches and a plain, solid build instead. Neither lets you change switches without a soldering iron, so pick your switch feel up front and expect to live with it.

The Cherry KC 200 MX lists at £90.40 including VAT^[4]. It's a full-size wired office board built around Cherry's own MX2A switches under an anodised aluminium top plate, though the case underneath is plastic^[3]. There's no per-key backlighting, just small status lights for Caps Lock, Scroll Lock and Num Lock, and four keys above the numpad can be set to shortcuts through Cherry's own software rather than QMK or VIA. It suits someone who wants a numpad for data entry and a plain, durable typing board, and has no interest in lighting or switch swaps. The version we found is a UK ISO board; Cherry may also sell an ANSI one elsewhere, so check the layout on the listing if you need US legends.

The Leopold FC660M PD is £85.99 including VAT at the UK retailer we checked^[6], against a $114 US list price at Leopold's American distributor^[5]. It's a compact 65%-style board with an offset arrow cluster and double-shot PBT keycaps over Cherry MX switches, with no lighting and no configuration software. The listing we priced is US-ANSI layout only, so it's not a fit if you need a UK £ key or ISO Enter; we didn't find a UK-ISO version. It suits someone who wants a small, quiet, no-nonsense board and doesn't mind an ANSI layout.

Three of these five are hot-swap and two are soldered, and that split is roughly what to expect anywhere near £100: hot-swap costs the manufacturer extra parts and assembly steps, so it's either included on a plainer board (as with the Keychrons and the Ducky) or dropped in favour of a nicer stock switch and case finish (as with the Cherry and Leopold). If you think you'll want to try other switches later, that's worth checking before you buy rather than after; our hot-swap or soldered guide goes into how the sockets work and when soldered still makes sense.

Layout is the other thing to check carefully at this price. UK buyers need ISO with a £ key and the tall Enter, and it's common for budget boards to launch ANSI-only or US-layout-only, as the Leopold above is. Check the layout on the listing before you order. See ANSI or ISO: a layout guide for UK buyers for what changes between the two shapes and why ISO parts are rarer.

Software is the last thing that quietly varies. QMK and VIA are open and work the same way across brands; both Keychrons here run QMK. The others don't: the Ducky is set up with key combinations on the board, the Cherry uses its maker's own tool for its four shortcut keys, and the Leopold has no remapping software at all. None of the five boards here are wireless, and only the Keychrons and the Ducky have per-key RGB, so if either of those matters to you, it narrows the choice further before you even get to feel or sound.

Prices and stock move, and a board that's sold out or discounted today may not be either next month. Treat the figures above as what we found checking each source in September 2026, and see the keyboards list for current listings, including boards just over £100 if you're willing to stretch the budget a little.