Keylogger Software: 10 Best Free to Use in 2023
5. Actual Keylogger
Actual Keylogger used to be totally free but was then rebranded as shareware and renamed to Actual Spy. It has since been renamed back to Actual Keylogger although is still shareware only. The last freeware version we’ve been able to find is 2.3 from back in 2004. Amazingly, it still works on the latest versions of Windows 10 and does a better job of hiding itself than some of the newer free keyloggers.
Actual Keylogger can capture keystrokes from standard desktop apps and windows (not UWP apps) and allows you to access the program by two methods which are a hotkey (Ctrl+Shift+Alt+F7) or running the command “akstart”. The program does appear in Task Manager and the installed software list (not for Windows 7) although options like hiding the program folder, not adding a shortcut or Start menu entries do work. As an additional security feature, Actual Keylogger can be password protected.
4. Iwantsoft Free Keylogger
This free keylogger is able to log keystrokes, application/file/USB access, clipboard data, instant messengers, website addresses, social networks, and specific folders. Features like screen/webcam capture, audio recording, stealth remote installations, and reports are not available in the free version. There are a few invisibility settings such as the hidden mode hotkey (Ctrl+Shift+Alt+U), removing shortcuts from the Start menu and uninstall list.
A password option is offered on startup so you can’t open the program if it’s not known. Free Keylogger doesn’t show itself in the system tray, however, the install folder is clearly visible in Program Files, so could be deleted. Also, it’s emsvc.exe process is shown in Task Manager and can be killed. Fortunately, the process name is not blatantly obvious so stands a good chance of escaping detection by the average user. Some useful extra features are blocking selected websites and programs, and alerts for specific typed keywords.
3. Windows Keylogger
This keylogger actually appears to be quite closely related to the number one tool in our list. It has a slightly different user interface and lacks some of its more advanced features but the basic functionality is virtually the same. Windows Keylogger is able to monitor keystrokes, the clipboard, internet activity and process activity. Report delivery and screenshots are the only notable features reserved for the paid version.
A password needs to be created during setup while the main interface is opened with Ctrl+Shift+Alt+K or typing “wkshow” into the Run box. Click Load Report to show logging activity. The program does have a visible process in Task Manager but it’s hidden pretty much everywhere else, including the installed programs list, the Start Menu, desktop/tray icons, and the program’s folder. Scheduled monitoring and auto silent uninstallation is available. To uninstall manually, go to Settings > General.
2. REFOG Free Keylogger
REFOG Free Keylogger is now discontinued, no longer supported and not available to download on the REFOG website. We are looking at the last freeware version that comes from 2014. It obviously misses some of the paid options but it can still monitor keystrokes (not in Windows 10 UWP apps), visited websites, the clipboard, files/programs/activities and Skype messaging.
A tray/desktop icon is offered during install but fortunately, you can turn the option off. Two processes appear in Task Manager, one cannot be permanently killed but if you kill the other, keylogging will stop. By default, you can open the interface by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Alt+K or typing “Runrefog” into the Run dialog. These options can be changed along with adding a password/keyword to open the program.
REFOG Free Keylogger doesn’t show an uninstall entry and the main program folder is hidden (marked as a system folder) in the SysWOW64 folder on 64-bit systems. We also found out how to remove the full version of REFOG Keylogger, which turns out to be quite easy.
Download REFOG Free Keylolgger
1. Best Free Keylogger Lite
In our opinion, this is the best free keylogging program around at the moment, so Best Free Keylogger Lite lives up to its name. The feature set is quite impressive and it has all the standard logging functions for keystrokes, the clipboard, application activity, visited websites and screenshots. A limitation of the free version is only 10 screenshots can be created per day. The other premium features not available are report delivery and premium support.
During install, you will be reminded to add an antivirus exclusion and asked to set a security password. The default key combination is Ctrl+Shift+Alt+K or type “unhide” into the Run dialog. Click Load Report to populate the window with activity. There are no entries in the Start Menu or the installed programs list, the program folder is hidden and there is no tray icon or desktop shortcut. A process is visible in Task Manager but its name is obscure enough to go unnoticed by many users.
There’s a number of other potentially valuable features in Best Free Keylogger Lite. These include monitor scheduling, limit monitoring by user or application, web content filtering (with exclusions), website block or allow lists, application blocking and time limits for web access. To uninstall the program go to Settings > General > Uninstall. It can also be set to automatically uninstall on a scheduled date.
Download Best Free Keylogger Lite
Disabling Windows Defender and Adding an Exclusion
A keylogger is very likely to get flagged and deleted by your antivirus while downloading, during install or when it starts monitoring. The easiest solution is to disable the antivirus before you download the keylogger, install and add an exclusion before finally re-enabling the antivirus. We can’t show that for every antivirus because they are all different. However, Windows Defender is integrated into Windows 10 so we’ll show you how to disable and add an exclusion to Defender.
1. Click on the Windows Security icon in the tray notification area or alternatively type Security into the Start Menu/search box.
2. Click on “Virus & threat protection” then click the blue “Manage Settings” text under “Virus & threat protection settings”.
3. Switch the “Real-time protection” option to Off and leave the window open.
4. Download and install the keylogger software, it should tell you the path it’s being installed to which you can make a note of or copy from the installer window.
5. In the window where you turned off real-time protection, scroll down and click on “Add or remove exclusions”, click “Add an exclusion” > Folder and browse for the location of the keylogger software.
6. Go back to the Windows Security window and turn the real-time protection option back on. Windows Defender should now not interfere with the keylogger.
This site can’t provide a secure connectionbestxsoftware.com uses an unsupported protocol.
ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH
Unsupported protocol
The client and server don’t support a common SSL protocol version or cipher suite.
i HAVE DEMENTIA
bestxsoftware.com works just fine here, it could be an issue with your browser, try to delete the browser cache and cookies. Its SSL certificate is also good and is supplied by Cloudflare.
hi there, my pc at work, id department lock any program , so i think to install programs as portable ( not install ) how would i convert program with exe to portable? and how to get keyloger portable ? thank you
Hi, I really just wanted a keylogger that would keep track of my typing speed and analytics regarding that across all the applications that I use on my PC.
So, the idea is that I don’t want to take typing tests, but want to analyze my typing speed when I’m writing just about anything on the OS. Can you please suggest me a tool? I am not looking to track anyone but myself.
I am looking for a Keylogger that will record only the function keys in a video call so the other person can see what isn’t being typed on the screen. Do you have recommendation for that?
Hey Raymond, can you test Spytector (there’s a free version on their website) and tell your opinion? Spytector is the best I’ve found so far.
Spyrix free keylogger wanted me to connect to the internet to create an account for their keylogger??? – you couldn’t make this up. Yeah sure I want you to phone home with everything I type!
What’s the problem, just about everything else does it, including Windows itself…;)
Nope windows do not have any connection to the internet I can say that, long-long time ago. Since windows 95 when the ”piracy” was a tool for windows popularity and the best thing that happens to microsoft ever. The matter is in this case we speak for what we write to our keyboards and to have an… account to any idiot do not sounds normal.
“Nope windows do not have any connection to the internet”, I really hope you are being sarcastic with that phrase…
Do any of these work on macbooks and trace while a user is logged out?
anyone know of a keylogger that can be installed remotely via email when you do not have access to the target pc? Spytector and Ardamax do that however they make you use an exe. file to send in the email which is flagged by most email services so it can’t be done. Any ideas? Win-spy does it through dropbox or google files but I had problems downloading from their site. No good either.
As attachments are probably the number one way to be infected with malware, virtually every keylogger will get flagged in this way.
Then how do you keylog your computer without compromising it ..
With common sense and a little bit to research. By its very nature, a keylogger is a tool that could be used by anyone for malicious purposes.
Use a Rar to hide the exe or promt the user to rename the file themselves (i’d prefer first option)
what is free?
I tried a few keyloggers. They all do not correctly draw special characters like @ \ etc. Is there a free or cheap alternative?
I gave a try to the free trial version of Spytector and it found all the passwords I stored in Google Chrome.
Hi. Do you happen to have another link for Actual Keylogger Free Version (because the link to CNET no longer works [it goes to a page but there is no such version on CNET search anymore]). Thank you. (btw great site. I remember coming here years ago… just recently crashed old hard drive and having to reinstall apps and since old ones some can’t find anymore, trying new ones) if I can. john
I’ve just tried Iwantsoft Free Keylogger, and I must say it is the absolute winner for me. It records literally everything, and it includes such professional features as website blocking, alerts, quick installer builder etc. It can even deliver your logs in 4 different ways. And it is REALLY free, the advanced options are NOT locked, unlike the other programs!
PS: You have an outdated version in your review. It’s already 5.0 on their website.
Which one is that? did not see that in the list. Is it called something else here?
It’s on the second page
To be fair to Tim, the article was updated with Iwantsoft Free Keylogger some months after he posted the comment. In the previous article he saw, the product was just called “Free Keylogger”.
I am looking for a keylogger that can be used on 2 computers, iPad, android and iPhone. Suggestions?
Which key logger will show u the most info, including screenshots, run invisibly, and do they encrypt encrypted emails and messages?
Raymond, thank you very much for the very good list. I know some of the keyloggers that you posted and have used them by myself.
I can recommend Refog Keylogger and also Actual Keylogger and Revealer Keylogger. All of those programms will help you and surelly can recommend it. However, allow me to mention Rymond: none of them are free. The Trialversion is FREE as with almost all programms. But they are not free.
The Keyloggers that I like most and that I did not find on this list are: Ardamax Keylogger on the one hand ( ardamax.com/ ), and also my all time favorite Wolfeye Keylogger ( .wolfeye.us/ ). Of course they also offer a trial version, and Wolfeye Keylogger gives you a real FREE version for one computer.
But the reason I recommend these is: they both run extremely stable and take very little system resources. And also for me they are very easy to use. Finally the support is awesome which I find very important too.
I hope this helps!
FrankNY
I’m about to download and try a 5 day free trial of spyrix personal monitor ( as free one is not invisible, so defeats the purpose!!)
My question is this: is it worth the money or are there equally good products for less cost?
Thank you
Do any of these product not get picked up by virus software, not cause glitches with the mouse, AND run completely undetected?
You can’t find a free keylogger that actually works without being picked up by antivirus software. Believe me, I tried a lot :) And most of the paid for keyloggers are detected too… I read so many claims about a keylogger being undetectable to antivirus programs and then through testing I found exactly the opposite to be true. The most undetected keylogger is Spytector, search on Google for it, but a bit pricey though.
“iSam is the free keylogger”
No, its not! It is free for 3 Days! It is not free software
It was free when the article was written…
I recommend Perfect Keylogger Lite as well
All are detectable by the antivurs, I recommend Spia Net Screen that until the moment is undetectable
I just need to know which keys are used the most when I clean the keyboard (tiny alcohol prep pads- don’t want to waste them on unused keys)…maybe a uv light or something.
Do any of these detect the virtual keyboard in windows?
Do any of these keyloggers report *how long* a key was pressed (in milliseconds)? I would like to see how long my keypresses vary from key to key. Example: I press ‘j’ for an average of 150ms, but I press ‘i’ for an average of 210ms.
May you can use this code for each key. And run while your computer is on.
$(captureInput).keydown(function(event){ //Press
startDOWNPress = (new Date()).getTime();
.
. //Codigo no util para el ejemplo
.
$(captureInput).keypress(function(event){ //KeepPress
startPressUP = (new Date()).getTime();
.
.//example code
.
$(captureInput).keyup(function(event){ //Release
startUPDOWN= (new Date()).getTime();
But to do that well, you would need an specific device. It is very difficult to measure the time you are pressing a key just by software, because this data is no relevant for keyboard function, just to repeat a key, so the interval measured is much longer than 1 milisecond.
However you can install an electronic signal capturer between your keyboard and your computer in order to get all electronic signals and sending time.
Are any of them runable with startup, aside being invisible ?
Well, would this record the typed in passwords in chrome or any other browser? I don’t think so
Why don’t you think so? These are keyloggers so if you type something into a browser, they will record it.
But in the password box?
Yes, a keylogger can detect what is written in the browser password box.
Flogger is password protected to hide the virus inside!
It’s a keylogger, do you think antivirus software is always going to ignore software like this?
Even though it is a keylogger, VirusTotal gives this a detection score of 8/63, and 7 of those are just guesses and not actual “detections”.
i have an employee who consistently does not listen to me asking her to not run chat or live stream videos on her computer. She is now on our computer that has our financials on there; and I caught her again with live streaming on when I walked in. Im going to go over our employee handbook again, make her SIGN EACH paragraph and then put this on here. We’re a small non-profit, and to lose our financials would be the end of us. Yes, I do backup; but still – there’s no need for her to continue this. (I have to have solid proof of her continual lack of performing duties in order to bring this before my board for dismissal. Sad fact.)
Do these keyloggers show when the computer is turned on and when it goes dormant for a while (20 mins?) it shows computer closed? She comes in late when she knows im out and then fibs about it.) sigh…
Seems like your employee can’t follow simple instructions on the proper use of company equipment. You’ve advised her about it – I’d say it’s time to start looking for a replacement. Bonus points if you can get her to train the replacement.
instead of using key logger, might as well control your internet trafficking from the router; way more effeicent to monitor and block anything that’s internet related :P
Agreed on the filtering by router/firewall. Disable the ability to do live streaming amongst other things. If that can’t be done, what other things aren’t secure there?
how do i shut off actual keylogger if i would run it accidently
is that keylogger able to monitoring remote pc activities and how do we need to send a remote file ?
keys send to your emails which you enter in applicaton which you use
The best use for a keylogger, IMO, is to log your session, so if there are any file problems, you can recover all the text that you wrote.
I am looking for a Keylogger software (either free or paid) to mainly monitor and record the emails sent and received by the employees (Online Activities) in the company I am working for it. Can anyone advise what is the best application to be used for that purpose? Thank you.
You do not need a keylogger for that. You just need to be admin for you email server.
Have all emails copied to an external account that only you have access to.
Monitoring emails is legitimate if you have a policy (signed) by employees that states you will monitor email and browsing use. Using a keylogger is not, and I would imagine if found out you’d get some very annoyed employees who would be looking to leave very quickly and do so via a tribunal.
G³ iSam. License: “Free to try for 3 days! It is currently $37.40 to purchase which comes with a lifetime membership and 3 floating licenses or keys that can each be updated for free for life.” “Although the program is hidden when running, it shows up in task manager, program’s folder and uninstaller list.” Very bad.
Excelente el Key, me funcionó inmediatamente
WOw, this article may do me a great favor.
hi i want install a keylogger in my office system but it is strickly asking UAC admin password to install the software so how can i install i tried all portable applications i want keylogger start at windows start in system but portable keyloggers are not working at windows start is there any software without install and get good monitoring for system
Download it at a home computer and put it on a flashdrive, sd card, or a cloud system like google drive. Then just retreave it at work, boom. That simple! Hope that helps
I’m using best free keylogger. good enough for me.
yup it’s a nice app.
which of these keyloggers can be used to detect windows login password
Any of these work, if the computer just booted up then no, you have to run the program first.
But if it asks for an admin password ( Such as updating Java or Adobe Flash Player ) than yes, it will record the data.
P.S.
Stop trying to steal your moms admin password to your family desktop ;)
which key logger provides us to send information via email so that i can monitor from anywhere plz name it and it should be free
I used NetBull keylogger recently and I must say it’s very good.
Raymond, I suggest you test NetBull, it would be a good add-on to your list.
Spytector and Netbull are undetectable by most antivirus software. So you don’t have to turn your virus protection off :)
I have to use the Actual Keylogger on my computer. Is it 100% safe? I’m afraid that he’ll send my logs to the people who can misuse them.
Nice..
Im using Spyrix
Grreat and very informative about the most valuable keyloggers. I use Spyrix keylogger. Spyrix provides free keylogger software which is helpful for monitoring your children, spouse, employees in company….
Hi.
Nowdays people open their email through smart phone. If i want to purchase an keylogger to crack an yahoo password and i dont have any physical access to it, if the device is smart phone. Will it success?
Can you suggest the best keylogger to this situation.
Hi, do you have any suggestions that will work on smart phones? Looking for an App that is free, hidden and will work just like some of these keyloggers. Any information will be appreciated. Thank you.
Great list! I’m using revealer free keylogger. It’s perfect!
Thank you for the post about the top 10 keyloggers, Is it undetectable? and can it be attached to link & send it to email?
I was just wondering if there is malware in the actual keylogger . My antivirus keeps popping up and I realize that the keylogger is spy ware. I just don’t want any other malware added at the same time since I will have to give it permission to run.
Which keylogger are you talking about? Most antivirus software will complain when you install a keylogger on purpose because of what it does and the methods it uses to achieve the keylogging.
keylogger is a type of virus but (depending on which one u get) it wont do anything to harm your computer. all you need to do is turn your virus protection off>> install logger >> then turn it back on
Thx a lot good work keep going
a millon thanks raymond for your support
Many Thanks for these wonderful e-mails you sent Raymond all the best…
thanks good keyloggers
good one..
thx raymond….
gooooooooooooooood
thx raymond!
Thanks Raymond. Good one.
thanx Raymond… same with you….