The Freewrite Wordrunner is a new mechanical keyboard for writers

For all its charms, the Freewrite Alpha works best as a first draft machine more than anything else. Astrohaus sells multiple standalone writing devices depending on the form factor you’re looking for, but besides Postbox, an online tool for organizing and downloading work you’ve written on a Freewrite device, it hasn’t really tried to touch the revision part of the writing process.

At CES 2025, the company is partnering with Kickstarter to do just that by launching an entirely new product. It’s called the Freewrite Wordrunner, and it’s a mechanical keyboard made with writers in mind and designed to work with desktop computers, tablets, and phones. The keyboard is launching on Kickstart this year, but here’s what we know about the Freewrite Wordrunner so far.

The Freewrite Wordrunner is the mechanical keyboard designed for writers

The tenkeyless design sports some unique skills

At a glance, the Freewrite Wordrunner probably shares many similarities with the keyboard you might already have on your desk. Each key switch on the tenkeyless (with a function row but without a number pad) aluminum design is backlit and purpose-built to be satisfying to type on, according to Astrohaus, as all mechanical keyboards should be. It can connect to multiple different devices over Bluetooth, and quickly switch between them with a keystroke. It even has a built-in wrist rest to keep typing comfortable, and ideally a bit more ergonomic.

The big difference between the Wordrunner and the Keychron keyboard I’m using right now is everything else it has, based on what Astrohaus sees as an untapped part of the keyboard market. As the company explains in its product announcement, the mechanical keyboard space has boomed in the last few years, but even with all of those new great keyboards, there hasn’t been one that caters to writers specifically. The Wordrunner is an attempt to do that, building on Astrohaus’ experience making keyboards for its standalone writing devices.

So what does that actually mean? Among the Wordrunner’s unique features are a redesigned function row, new macro keys, a red joystick for controlling media playback, a built-in timer for tracking writing sprints and something Astrohaus has dubbed the “wordometer,” which is basically a mechanical word counter. The company originally tried to launch the Maestro, its take on a mechanical keyboard, a few years ago, but without some of these unique features. “The biggest difference from the Maestro to the design today is that there’s an onboard counter for words and for the timers,” Colin Butts, Astrohaus’ Head of Marketing, shared with me in a briefing. Butts says Astrohaus considered using a screen for some of these features — the team is a fan of Work Louder’s Nomad [E] keyboard — but once the idea of a “Wordometer” came up in a meeting, it was too charming to ignore.

Freewrite / Pocket-lint

Word count on the Wordometer is persistent unless reset, but the whole thing looks deliciously tactile based on the renders Astrohaus shared. The vision here, if this all works, is that by offloading some of these utilities onto your keyboard, you can have an even cleaner and more distraction-free interface to write in, whether it’s Scrivener, Craft, or Google Docs.

Butts wasn’t able to share if the Wordrunner’s unique function keys like find, replace, undo, or redo would be able to be reassigned to their original roles once the keyboard launches, but the macro keys — Zap, Pow, and Bam — will be. That gives you a lot more flexibility in terms of how you use the keyboard.

Price, Kickstarter launch date, and availability

The Freewrite Wordrunner’s Kickstarter campaign launches soon

Freewrite / Pocket-lint

The Freewrite Wordrunner is launching on Kickstart in February and hopes to ship the final version of the keyboard to backers by the end of the year. Astrohaus has worked with both Kickstarter and Indiegogo to launch products in the past, but chose Kickstarter this go-around, in part, because it wanted to help the keyboard get some extra exposure at CES.

There’s no price available for the Wordrunner yet, but backing the keyboard on Kickstarter (with its attendant risks) will get you a lower price at the very least. If you’d prefer to go the traditional route, you can also make a $1 reservation on the Freewrite website to lock in the best price possible when the Freewrite Wordrunner is available to order directly from Astrohaus.

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