Mechanical keyboard switches get described with a lot of adjectives. Underneath, the differences are simple and mechanical, and once you know the three families you can ignore most of the marketing.

The three families

• Linear. The keypress travels straight down with no bump. Quiet and consistent; popular with people who bottom out every key.
• Tactile. A bump partway through tells your finger the keystroke has registered, so you can stop pushing. Useful for long typing sessions.
• Clicky. A tactile bump plus a deliberate audible click. Satisfying to some, genuinely annoying to anyone sharing the room.

Actuation force and travel

Actuation force is how hard you press before the key registers; travel is how far the key moves. Lighter switches reduce effort but make accidental presses easier. Neither is better in the abstract — it depends on whether you type all day or game in bursts.

Hot-swap sockets

A hot-swap board lets you change switches without soldering. If you are unsure what you like, that is the single most useful feature to look for, because it turns an expensive guess into a cheap experiment.