A good mechanical keyboard for professional programing on Mac

Question

tl;dr

I'm searching for a keyboard with the following specs, in order of importance:

1. Cherry Brown switches
2. Mac keys (⌃ control ⌥ option ⌘ command)
3. Durable, easy-to-clean construction
4. 1st- or 2nd-party drivers for macOS High Sierra, 3rd-party ones proven reliable over many years
5. Number pad
6. Programmable RGB backlighting
7. Built-in USB hub

It would be nice if it were less than $200, but I might be able to stomach more expensive ones if they're much better.

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Rationalle / Backstory

I work on a Mac, professionally. The silicone-dome keyboards Apple makes have really gotten under my skin. At home, I use a Corsair K70 RGB with Cherry Browns for coding, gaming, and writing.

For the last few weeks I've swapped these, and used the mechanical one at work. After fiddling with 3rd-party drivers I eventually got it to work similar to how it does at home and I love it. I love the satisfying feel of the switches, the lower actuation force, my color scheme making it easier for me to find things at a glance, the durable metal construction, the switches being above the board for easier cleaning, the whole shebang.

There are downsides, though:

• The backlighting can't be customized when working with macOS without using a 3rd-party driver, and it's a bit crashy.
• It uses the Windows modifier key layout (Ctrl ❖ Alt), which gets quite confusing when figuring out a keyboard shortcut. Even when mapped, the key sizes don't feel right when used on macOS. Additionally, there's no fn key or brightness buttons so I had to try to map those appropriately.
• No USB hub means I have to unplug the keyboard or an external drive to charge my mouse/trackpad.

An ideal solution would address all these as well.

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Candidates so far

^{(live-updating spreadsheet)}

Answer 1

Here's a fairly detailed write up I did a while back for someone looking for something similar to what you want, recommending the "Anne Pro":

https://hardwarerecs.stackexchange.com/a/7633/6475

I'll go through your list to address your needs specifically:

• Brown Switches = Yes

• Mac Keys - Yes. The board has four layout profiles; one of them is dedicated for Mac and the other is fully customize-able including Mac key functions. The keyboard comes with Windows printed keycaps but they are standard size so finding keycaps with the Mac print on them should be easy enough.

• Construction - This category is a mixed bag with the Anne. It's plate mounted, has quality keycaps, and feels / sounds sturdy despite the plastic housing. I will say the stabilizers can be a little rattly out of the box, mine was enough that I spent maybe 3-5 hours finding and performing modifications to resolve the issue. I'll be happy to provide more info on my specific mods if you'd like, but it was less than $10 in materials and I'm very happy with the result. So it's not perfect but it's certainly something you can work with.

• Driver - There isn't an app or anything but Anne Pro works out of the box with MacOS. There are apps for Windows 7/8/10, Android, and iOS that you can use to customize the lighting and key layout.

• Numpad - No dice, this is a 60% board so it does not feature a numpad or dedicated arrow keys. I have my Fn button set to the CAPS LOCK key, and arrows bound to the function layer at WASD and IJKL, this layout works extremely well. Yes I miss the numpad, I will likely end up buying or building a mechanical one to pair with the Anne Pro at some point.

• Programmable RGB - Yes. There are a few dynamic light modes as well. Programmable RGB layouts are only possible as a static layout, you can't currently make custom dynamic layouts (though this feature is supposedly coming with the 1.5 firmware promised over a year ago, sooooo yea). The only other thing about the firmware that blows is that the on-board macros don't work, but I assume you can live without that since you didn't list it in your post.

• USB hub - The Anne doesn't have one of these unfortunately.

So it's got just about everything aside from the numpad and the USB hub. Amazon usually has them for ~$60. It may cost you an extra $5-10 and a half a Saturday morning to get it where you want it, but you might be really happy with it right out of the box too. I'd recommend reading the answer I linked as it addresses some aspects of the board that weren't listed in your post in greater detail. There's also a dedicated community on reddit for this keyboard, so you can swing by over there to get a feel for common problems / solutions and popular modifications.

If you have other questions about this board feel free to ask and I'll edit in my responses. Best of luck with the search!