QMK firmware
Hacker ApprovedKeyboard firmware in Keyboards & input
People recommend QMK for deep, free keyboard customization, from layers and hotkeys to remapping keys in hardware. Some critics call its software annoying and its user experience poor.
People recommend QMK for deep, free keyboard customization, from layers and hotkeys to remapping keys in hardware. Some critics call its software annoying and its user experience poor.
22 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 18
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 82%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 18 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Deep customization for personal workflows
“Once you start though, you'll start thinking of ways to tweak it for your own workflow and pretty soon you won't be able to go without it.”
Comment from 30 Jul 2026 in “Keychron announces first open-source firmware for gaming mice” “a ludicrous amount of QMK customisation with tap-dance functionality”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Arno's Engram Keyboard Layouts” “After switching to something like QMK, I wouldn't want to go back.”
Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “I Like Small Keyboards” - Comment from 13 Mar 2026 in “Hammerspoon”
- Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “My Favorite Keyboards”
- Comment from 10 Jun 2026 in “I Hate (Most) Keyboard 'Fn' Keys”
Works with many keyboards
“picking up any QMK or ZMK compatible keyboard would let you do it in firmware too”
Comment from 15 Nov 2025 in “One Handed Keyboard” “QMK-powered keyboards can do this out of the box”
Comment from 15 Jul 2026 in “Neverclick: Desktop application for performing mouse actions with your keyboard” “Many keyboards use the qmk firmware these days”
Comment from 11 Nov 2025 in “Toucan Wireless Split Keyboard with Touchpad” - Comment from 10 Jun 2026 in “I Hate (Most) Keyboard 'Fn' Keys”
Layers and hardware key remapping
“It's fun to combine with qmk, which gives you a bunch more options for hotkeys on your keyboard via layers.”
Comment from 13 Mar 2026 in “Hammerspoon” “I'm much happier with a qmk-enabled keyboard where I remap keys in hardware.”
Comment from 26 Jul 2026 in “Ruff v0.16.0 – Significant new updates – 413 default rules up from 59” “It gives me Shift plus Caps Lock with just one key.”
Comment from 18 Apr 2026 in “Thumb-Shift Keyboard” - Comment from 15 Jul 2026 in “Neverclick: Desktop application for performing mouse actions with your keyboard”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Configuration software seen as poor
“the apparently terrible UX of the QMK and ZMK software is not just acceptable but beneficial”
Comment from 11 Nov 2025 in “Toucan Wireless Split Keyboard with Touchpad” “QMK software was extremely annoying from my own perspective”
Comment from 23 Aug 2026 in “OpenLogi”
What people recommend instead
The same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QMK firmwareThis page | 18 | 4 | 82% | 8 | — | Approved |
| ZMK firmware | 13 | 2 | 87% | 8 | — | Approved |
What people said
21 of the 23 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“QMK software was extremely annoying from my own perspective”
“made a very usable web front-end to QMK for configuration”
“IME mostly useful when you can't use j/k or pgdn/pgup or similar.”
“Once you start though, you'll start thinking of ways to tweak it for your own workflow and pretty soon you won't be able to go without it.”
“QMK is a mess of a monolithic repository.”
“I'm much happier with a qmk-enabled keyboard where I remap keys in hardware.”
“QMK-powered keyboards can do this out of the box”
“After switching to something like QMK, I wouldn't want to go back.”
“QMK gives you a lot of options to do what you want.”
“remap it further than you might ever want”
“get something programmable with zmk or qmk”
“but it made me less frustrated and feel more free.”
“It gives me Shift plus Caps Lock with just one key.”
“a ludicrous amount of QMK customisation with tap-dance functionality”
“My QMK Tmux "layer" is still one of my favourite customisations.”
“It's fun to combine with qmk, which gives you a bunch more options for hotkeys on your keyboard via layers.”
“its free software cousin QMK are super flexible”
“people like to do stuff like configure their QMK keyboards”
“picking up any QMK or ZMK compatible keyboard would let you do it in firmware too”
“the apparently terrible UX of the QMK and ZMK software is not just acceptable but beneficial”
“Many keyboards use the qmk firmware these days”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.