Typing is pretty much a fundamental skill in today’s day and age. Regardless of how old you are, or what you do for a living, chances are you interact with computers on a daily basis, and fast typing is a skill that will definitely save you a lot of time. So, if you’re still typing with two fingers, looking at your keyboard all the time, and you want to improve your typing speed and experience, you’re in the right place. Here are the 10 best tools and websites to learn touch typing like a pro:
Software and Websites to Learn Touch Typing
As you might expect, there are a lot of websites and software out there that can help you learn touch typing easily. In this article, we are sharing the 10 best tools to learn touch typing including free and paid tools. We are also including both online tools as well as downloadable software that you can use.
Like always, you can use the table of contents below to navigate between all the options on this list.
Best Websites to Learn Touch Typing
First up, let’s take a look at some of the best websites that you can use to learn touch typing at your own pace.
1. Typing.com
One of the most popular online tools to learn touch typing is Typing.com. The website is used by many schools, teachers, and students to practice typing and learn faster and more accurate touch typing. With Typing.com you will get access to a well organized curriculum that will help you learn touch typing quickly.
Typing.com comes with an approachable interface, as well as a slightly gamified UX. As a result, you will always feel motivated to learn more while using this website. Lessons are divided into three main sections: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. Alongside that, the website also constantly calculates and shows you your typing speed, which is a good indicator of your overall progress. Typing.com is available to use for free, but you can upgrade to a premium account to remove ads from the interface if you’d like.
Overall, Typing.com is definitely one of the best online tools to learn touch typing and you should definitely check it out.
2. Ratatype
Another free web-based tool to learn touch typing, Ratatype is also something you can check out. Similar to Typing.com, Ratatype also brings a well organized catalog of lessons. With Ratatype’s lessons, you will be able to go from a typing beginner to a pro-touch-typist in no time.
Ratatype’s interface is not the best out there, but it’s good where it matters the most. Moreover, Ratatype’s lessons focus a lot on building good typing habits, and finger placement on the keyboard, which is something that will definitely help you learn touch typing faster. The website also shows your progress in terms of typing speed as well as accuracy, and gives awards for the same in order to motivate you to perform better and improve everyday. When you’re done with your course, you can even take a typing test and earn a certificate to show off to your friends and colleagues.
3. Typing Club
While the first two options on this list are definitely really nice, if you don’t want to make an account on yet another website, you should check out Typing Club. Just like the other tools on this list, Typing Club offers a catalog of different lessons for you to learn touch typing. You start off by learning the home row keys, the placement of fingers on the keyboard, etc. Over time, the website will teach you everything from typing complex words, to punctuation, and more.
Typing Club also puts a lot of emphasis on helping users build speed with its speed focused lessons that are spread out along the course. Moreover, you will also get to learn all about how to utilize special keys such as the Shift key without drastically impacting your typing speed.
One thing I really like about Typing Club is its focus on helping you get really used to typing some of the most common words in English. This way you will build muscle memory for a lot of words that you type on a daily basis, and your overall typing speed will be increased as well.
4. Keybr
Next up is Keybr. Unlike the options we’ve covered so far, Keybr doesn’t bring a course to help you learn touch typing. Instead, the website brings a simple typing tool which gives you random sentences to type, usually with words that have no sense. Even so, these exercises will help develop finger dexterity while typing, and can be really helpful in drastically improving your typing speed.
While you’re typing, the website continuously shows your typing speed, as well as the number of errors you’ve made. It even brings a score meter which goes up and down based on how fast you’re typing and how accurate your typing is. What’s more, if you get bored of typing on the website, you can go to the multiplayer section where you will be able to compete against other people using the website. It’s a fun way to practice typing, which can be very useful when you just want to have some fun while also honing your skills.
Overall, Keybr is a wonderful, free tool to learn touch typing online and you should definitely check it out.
5. The Typing Cat
The Typing Cat is another website that is dedicated to teaching users how to touch type. The website brings a number of courses, similar to the other tools on this list, that aim to help users learn and practice touch typing. While the basic module is available for free to anyone visiting the website, if you want to get deeper into touch typing and practice advanced skills such as punctuation, capitalization, and more, you will have to subscribe to Typing Cat’s paid plans.
By paying, you will unlock access to not only the advanced module, but also Ngrams, and a lot of other features. One of the best features in Typing Cat is the profession-wise typing practice options. The website offers typing practice for medical workers, students, business jargon, legal typists, and more. Each of these modules focuses on words that are most commonly used in the respective fields, to ensure that you are highly efficient at your job. Typing Cat also offers typing tests, as well as typing games that you can play to get better at typing some of the most common words in the English language.
Pricing for Typing Cat starts at $2.69 per month when paid annually.
Best Software to Learn Touch Typing
If websites are not what you’re looking for, and you’d rather just use a native application to learn touch typing on your Windows PC, Mac, or Linux computer, here are the best software that you can use to learn touch typing.
6. Typesy
As far as software for learning touch typing are considered, Typesy is one of the best options out there. The software brings a lot of advanced features to help you improve your typing speed. You get specially crafted exercises to improve your typing speed, along with experts that are available to help you. Moreover, the software brings advanced analytics to help you measure your progress. You can also set up goals in the software to make sure you stay on track throughout your learning journey.
Typesy’s powerful drills are scientifically designed to help you get better quicker. Moreover, you can use pretty much any article online and convert it into your own personal typing exercise. That way, you can learn to type faster while reading your favourite articles online. Overall, Typesy offers a lot of advanced and useful features that make it an effective and fun way to learn touch typing on your Windows PC or Mac. If you’re looking for a software that can help you get faster at typing, you should definitely consider giving Typesy a try.
Check out Typesy ($29.95; 7 day free trial)
7. RapidTyping
If you don’t like Typesy, or you’re not willing to spend that much money on a software to learn touch typing, you should give RapidTyping a spin. This free typing tutorial software is great for people of all skill levels, and brings a number of different tests as well as exercises and lessons that can be used to improve typing speed.
For starting out, RapidTyping’s beginner and introductory courses will prove very useful to you. However, as you progress, you can start using the Experienced, Advanced, and Testing courses to reinforce your knowledge and get even better and faster at typing on your keyboard. The software also helps you learn which keys should be accessed by which finger using a virtual keymap, and supports three different types of keyboard designs as well.
To keep a track of your progress, RapidTyping brings a detailed progress tracking screen with various metrics that you can use to measure how much you’ve improved in your typing skills. You can even export this data in various formats including PDF, CSV, HTML, and more.
Download RapidTyping (Free)
8. GNU Typist
Linux users and fan of GNU software rejoice, if you were looking for a FOSS option to help you learn typing on your Windows or Linux computer, GNU Typist might be what you’re looking for. The software brings a number of typing tutorials in a number of different languages including English, Spanish, Russian, Czech, and more.
Unlike Typesy and RapidTyping, GNU Typist is not a very comprehensive program. However, it does bring a number of lessons that you can complete and that should help you increase your typing speed by a considerable margin. Do keep in mind that the GNU Typist software has not been updated in a while. However, if you want, you can contribute your time to maintaining the project and even add new lessons to the software.
Download GNU Typist (Free)
Best Games to Practice Typing and Improve Typing Speed
Websites and software with lessons are all great, but when it comes to practicing typing, why not do it with games, right? After all, that way you will be more excited to practice typing, and it’s also a fun way to pass the time while doing something that helps you improve your skills. Here are the best games you can use to practice typing.
9. ZType
ZType is a game from the makers of Typesy. In this game, you’re flying a spaceship, and your mission is to destroy asteroids coming towards you. That sounds pretty much like the classic Asteroids game, doesn’t it? However, there’s a twist. Instead of aiming and shooting, you have to type words that come up with every asteroid in order to shoot at the asteroid and destroy it. It’s a fun game, and it really tests your typing speed once you cross a certain threshold.
10. MonkeyType
If you’re looking for a slightly gamified typing test, but not something that’s too much of a game (like ZType), you should definitely give MonkeyType a shot. This free online typing practice tool comes with a neat and good looking UI. You can set up the test parameters and choose between a timed test, a quote-based test, word-limit based test, and more. There’s even a Zen mode for times when you just want to type whatever you want, as fast as you can.
Once the test is completed, MonkeyType shows up your results in a neat graph along with data like your typing speed in WPM, errors, consistency, and more. It’s a fun way to see just how fast you can type.
Use These Tools and Websites to Learn Touch Typing Like a Pro
Touch typing is a skill that might feel difficult when you’re starting off, but once you start to get the hang of it, the rewards are amazing. Typing is a lot of fun once you don’t need to constantly look at the keyboard and hunt for keys. Plus, faster typing will help you in school, college, and even at your job, so it’s obviously a good idea to learn how to type faster and more accurately. These 10 tools should help you learn how to type faster regardless of whether you are a beginner or an advanced typist, and if you think we missed out on some useful tools that should be on this list, do comment down below and we will definitely check them out.
