KeyClu is free. So is Keysi. Here's what the $14.99 adds.

KeyClu is a good app, actively maintained, and free. If all you want is a panel that shows the frontmost app's shortcuts when you ask, use KeyClu. This page is about what's different.

The difference: KeyClu shows. Keysi teaches.

A shortcut reference, KeyClu included, waits to be asked. You realise you don't know a shortcut, open the tool, and read it. That only helps when you already know you're missing something.

The costly case is the one you never notice: going to the menu forty times a week for a command that had a shortcut all along. You don't look it up, because it doesn't occur to you there's anything to look up.

Coach mode is for that. When you pick a menu command by hand that has a shortcut, Keysi shows one quiet reminder you can dismiss, then stops mentioning the ones you've started using. A cooldown keeps it from becoming noise, you can mute it per shortcut or entirely in Settings ▸ Coach, and it keeps a list of what you're still learning so you can work through it.

It also measures whether it worked. Keysi times your own menu trips (from the menu opening to your pick), so it can say "your menu trips typically take 2.4s, and you've skipped 412 of them." Both numbers are counted, not estimated, and both are shown so you can check the arithmetic.

That's why the cheat sheet itself is free here. I'm not going to charge for a reference you can already get for nothing. The $14.99 is for the part that makes the reference unnecessary.

KeyClu's "Learn" feature is not the same thing

The names sound alike. KeyClu's Learn hides shortcuts you already know, so the list shows what's still unfamiliar when you open it. It's a good idea and it works well.

It still only acts when you open KeyClu, and it filters what's shown. Coach acts when you didn't open anything, for the shortcut you weren't going to look up.

The other differences, briefly

• Click a row to run it. Keysi reads the live menu tree, so clicking a row fires that exact menu action.
• Conflict warnings. Keysi flags app shortcuts that macOS will intercept first, before you press them.
• Localization. Keysi ships in 17 languages. KeyClu ships 4 built in (English, German, Chinese and Japanese), with more via community translation.
• Custom sheets. Keysi ships fourteen curated sheets (Figma, Slack, Discord, Linear, Notion, Obsidian, Excel, Word, Ghostty, Vim, tmux, Emacs, Helix and Zellij) and, since 1.0, an editor for your own. Both are free. KeyClu has ready-made sets you import from KeyClu Extensions, lets you register your own shortcuts by hand, and pairs with a separate CustomShortcuts app. Different approaches, both real.

Compared on 2026-09-09 against KeyClu's own website, and re-checked there on 2026-10-06. Where this page says Keysi does something KeyClu doesn't, it means KeyClu's site doesn't mention it, not that it's provably absent. Check KeyClu directly rather than taking a competitor's word.

And Keylume, which coaches too

Keysi is not the only app that coaches. Keylume is a menu-bar app that shows the active app's shortcuts while you hold the right ⌘ key, read live from its menu bar, and shows a small toast ("Use ⌘N instead") when you click a menu item that has a shortcut. It also tracks which shortcuts you've adopted and which need practice, runs locally, and says it never logs keystrokes. It's $12 once for 3 Macs, with a 14-day free trial. If those nudges are what you want, it's a good app and the cheaper one. Try it.

What's different, going by Keylume's own site on 2026-10-06:

• The overlay is free for good. Keylume says it is fully functional for 14 days, after which you buy a licence to keep using it. Keysi's overlay, panel, click-to-run, cheat sheets and Markdown and PDF export are free with no time limit, and its 14 days of Pro end in that free tier, not a locked app.
• What the $14.99 covers beyond the nudge. Unlimited Practice Mode with spaced repetition (one drill a day is free), a suggested key combination for commands you keep clicking that have none, and "New" marks on the shortcuts an app update added.
• Things Keylume's site doesn't mention. Warnings when macOS or another app's hotkey will take a shortcut first, your own remapped shortcuts read from VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Xcode, Vim and Emacs, cheat sheets for tools with no menu bar, export, Raycast, Alfred, Shortcuts and terminal integrations, and localisation (Keysi ships in 17 languages). Not mentioned is not the same as absent; check Keylume directly.

And KeyMinder, which is free and open source

KeyMinder does what Keysi's free tier does, and it's free and open source (GPLv3). It reads the frontmost app's menu bar live, opens on a hotkey or a double-tap of ⌘, ⌥ or ⌃, lets you search and click a row to run it, and adds favourites, ignore lists, the macOS system shortcuts, Markdown export, a flash-card quiz and 24 languages. If you want an open-source lookup panel, it's a good one. Use it.

What's different, going by KeyMinder's own site on 2026-10-11:

• Shortcuts that aren't in a menu. Keysi ships cheat sheets for Vim, tmux, Emacs, Figma, Slack and seven more, has an editor for your own, and reads the shortcuts you remapped yourself in VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Xcode, Vim and Emacs. All of that is free.
• Conflict warnings. Keysi flags a shortcut macOS or another app's hotkey (Raycast, Rectangle) will take first, on the row itself.
• Learning, past flash cards. Keysi Pro reminds you when you use the menu for a command that has a shortcut, schedules drills with spaced repetition (one a day is free), and tracks which shortcuts you've picked up.

Where KeyMinder is ahead: it's open source, and it claims more languages (24 on its site, 17 in its README, against Keysi's 17). Both can sync settings through iCloud Drive: Keysi through a folder of your choice, off until you turn it on.

The six-way table

KeyCue, Keylume, KeyMinder and the discontinued CheatSheet belong here too. Only claims confirmable on each project's own site are marked, apart from the click-to-run row, whose sources footnote 7 names. Where a site doesn't say either way, the table says so instead of guessing.

Compared on 2026-09-09 and re-checked on 2026-10-06, against each project's own website: ergonis.com/en/keycue/features, sergii.tatarenkov.name/apps/keyclu, keylume.app, keyminder.app. CheatSheet's page now redirects to Media Atelier's GrandTotal; its column comes from the archived page, which says it was discontinued because it no longer works with macOS Sonoma. ¹ KeyCue pricing read from Ergonis's own pricing page on 2026-09-11 and again on 2026-10-06: Basic $39.99 one-time for 2 devices, covering minor updates within the current major version only; Advanced $19.99/yr for 3 devices, covering major updates; Business $39.99/yr per user for 5 devices. All excluding VAT; their wording is "All prices excl. VAT." ² KeyClu has a "Learn" feature, but it hides shortcuts you already know. It doesn't teach the ones you're missing, which is the opposite direction from Coach mode. ⁴ KeyClu's own feature line now reads "English, German, Chinese and Japanese out of the box", with a link to request more on Crowdin. Re-verified 2026-10-06. ⁵ Checked on 2026-09-13 against KeyCue's features page and its product page: neither states an export, save or print capability. ³ KeyClu offers "Ready-made Sets" you import from KeyClu Extensions, lets you register your own shortcuts manually, and pairs with a separate CustomShortcuts app. Its site also lists "Export to Markdown". "Not stated" means the feature isn't mentioned on that project's site either way, not that it's absent. KeyClu's row re-checked against its own page on 2026-09-11 (free, v0.33): click-to-run and interception warnings are not mentioned there, and the two footnotes above quote what it does say. The reminder, adoption-tracking, practice-drill and interception rows were re-checked for KeyCue and KeyClu on 2026-10-06; neither site mentions them. ⁷ Not every competitor's own product page says so, so this row cites what does: Ergonis's help-centre article "How to start with KeyCue" says its window's items can be clicked to run the command (seen in search on 2026-10-06; the page itself refuses automated reads), and MacStories' CheatSheet review says you could click commands while holding ⌘. Click-to-run is not something only Keysi does. ⁶ Keylume read from its own site on 2026-10-06 (v1.1.2, macOS 14 or later, universal): a shortcut overlay while you hold right ⌘, "Coaching Nudges" and "Usage Analytics"; $12 one-time for 3 Macs, with free updates; "fully functional for 14 days", after which a licence is needed to keep using it. The site has no separate changelog or FAQ page to check further. ⁸ KeyMinder read from its own site and its GitHub repository on 2026-10-11 (v1.0.195, Sep 14 2026, macOS 14 or later): free, GPLv3 from v1.0.129; opens on a hotkey (⌥⌘K by default) or a double-tap of ⌘, ⌥ or ⌃; click or Tab to run; Quiz Mode flash cards; a system shortcuts section; Markdown export; experimental iCloud settings sync. Its site says 24 languages and its README lists 17.

Reasons to pick KeyClu instead

• It's free, and it's not crippled. No upsell, no nag screen, nothing held back. That's rare.
• You want to register arbitrary custom shortcuts rather than use curated per-app sheets.
• You're not on macOS 14. Keysi requires macOS 14 or later.
• You don't want to be told anything. If a reminder popping up sounds annoying, skip Pro; coaching is the point of it. You can turn Coach off, but then you'd be paying for a lookup panel you can get free.

Decide it by running it, not by reading a table

Run Keysi for a week in the app you use most and see how often Coach catches you. If it's rarely, you already know your shortcuts, and KeyClu or Keysi's free tier is the right call. The $14.99 only makes sense if it's more often than you'd like. Every install starts with 14 days of Keysi Pro, no account or card, and ends in the free tier, not a locked app. Pro refunds are 30 days, no questions asked.

Related

• KeyMinder vs Keysi: free and open source
• Coming from CheatSheet?
• Looking at KeyCue instead?
• How to see any Mac app's keyboard shortcuts
• How to learn keyboard shortcuts on a Mac
• Full FAQ, including the Accessibility permission