Let’s be honest: Monkeytype is excellent at what it does — a minimal, fast, endlessly customizable typing test. If all you want is the purest words-per-minute loop, it’s hard to beat, and this page isn’t here to trash it.
Eletypes started from the same inspiration but grew in a different direction: instead of going deeper into one loop, it became the place where typing practice meets everything around it. The typing test itself covers English and Chinese (Pinyin), words and sentence modes, 15–90s timers, and the same live stats you’d expect. Around it, you get things Monkeytype doesn’t try to be: vocab cards for English learners (GRE, TOEFL, CET-4/CET-6 decks where you type to learn, with a recite mode that hides the word and tests recall); Keyboard Lab, a 3D keyboard design playground in your browser (7 layouts, 8 keycap profiles, KLE import); no account, ever — your history lives in localStorage and the leaderboard needs only a display name you invent; plus a QWERTY trainer, 30+ achievement badges, challenge links that let friends type the exact same seeded text, and one-click shareable result cards.
Who should pick which? If you want the most refined minimal typing test with a huge community, stay with Monkeytype. If you want typing + vocabulary learning + keyboard tinkering in one tab — especially if you type in Chinese or are learning English — give Eletypes a run. It’s free, open-source (GPL-3.0), and takes about ten seconds to judge for yourself.