Digital piano vs keyboard: which should you buy?

The short answer

Buy a digital piano if your goal is to learn or play piano. It has 88 fully weighted keys and is built to recreate an acoustic piano, so the technique you build transfers cleanly to the real thing. Buy a keyboard if you mainly want hundreds of sounds, built-in rhythms and a light, portable board for songwriting, live arranging or casual play. The two overlap in price, which is what makes the choice confusing, but they are built for different jobs. If piano is the point, the Yamaha P-145 at £419 or the Roland FP-30X at £649 is the right starting point, not a 61-key keyboard.

The five real differences

1. The keys

This is the heart of it. A digital piano has 88 fully weighted hammer keys with around 50 to 60 grams of down-weight and roughly 10 mm of travel, recreating the resistance of an acoustic piano. A typical keyboard has lighter, unweighted or semi-weighted keys, often needing only 30 to 40 grams, and frequently fewer of them: 61 or 76 rather than the full 88. The weighted action is what builds proper finger strength and lets you control how loud each note sounds. We explain the gram weights in detail in our guide to weighted versus semi-weighted keys.

2. The number of keys

An acoustic piano and every digital piano on this site have 88 keys, a full seven and a quarter octaves. Many keyboards stop at 61 keys, five octaves, to save money and space. That is enough for a lot of pop and synth parts, but it runs out of range for proper classical and jazz repertoire, where the bottom and top octaves are used regularly. If you ever plan to play graded pieces, 88 keys is not optional.

3. The sounds

Here the keyboard wins on quantity. A digital piano focuses its effort on one thing: a handful of beautifully sampled instrument voices, led by a concert-grand piano, with maybe 10 to 56 voices in total. Our six pianos range from 10 voices on the Yamaha to 56 on the Roland. A keyboard, by contrast, often offers 400, 600 or more sounds, plus built-in drum rhythms, auto-accompaniment and arranger features. For piano practice the single grand voice is what matters; for songwriting and live sets, a keyboard's huge palette is genuinely useful.

4. Weight and portability

A weighted hammer action is physically heavier. Our pianos weigh between 7.5 kg and 14.8 kg, and a furniture-style console piano can be far more. A 61-key keyboard often weighs 4 to 6 kg and slips into a gig bag. If you carry your instrument to lessons, rehearsals or gigs every week, that difference matters; if it lives in one room at home, it does not.

5. The price overlap

This is what causes the confusion. A good 88-key weighted digital piano starts around £279 and most sit between £400 and £730. A feature-packed arranger keyboard can cost just as much, or more. So you cannot simply assume the cheaper option is the keyboard. The right way to decide is not by price but by purpose: what do you actually want to play?

Two worked examples

Example one: a parent buying for a child starting lessons. The teacher will set graded pieces that use the full keyboard and demand weighted-key technique. A £150 61-key keyboard seems like the safe, cheap start, but within a term the child hits the range limit and learns a touch that does not transfer to the school's acoustic piano. The £279 Alesis Recital Pro or the £419 Yamaha P-145 costs more up front and saves the cost of replacing the keyboard later. The digital piano is the right call.

Example two: a songwriter who already plays guitar. They want to sketch chord ideas, lay down synth pads and strings, and use built-in drum patterns, all from a light board they can move around the flat. They have no plan to play classical piano. Here a 61-key arranger keyboard with hundreds of sounds is the better, cheaper fit, and a weighted 88-key digital piano would be heavier and more limited for the job. The keyboard is the right call. The instrument follows the purpose, not the other way round.

Can you learn piano on a keyboard?

You can start, but you will hit a wall. The two limits are the same ones we keep coming back to: the keys and the range. A light, unweighted action teaches a touch that does not transfer to an acoustic piano, so you end up relearning dynamics and finger strength later. A 61-key range runs out for any repertoire that uses the full keyboard, which most graded pieces do by the early grades. Plenty of people have begun on a borrowed keyboard, and that is far better than not starting at all. But if you already know you want to play piano, buying an 88-key weighted instrument from the start saves money and avoids the frustrating upgrade. The Korg B2 at £379 and the Casio PX-S1100 at £599 are both proper pianos that will not hold you back.

Which is right for you?

Choose a digital piano if you or your child want to learn piano, you plan to take grade exams, you want an instrument that doubles as a quiet practice piano with headphones, or you ever expect to play an acoustic. That is most people. Start with our best digital piano for beginners picks and our full buying guide.

Choose a keyboard if you want maximum sounds and rhythms for songwriting or live arranging, you value the lightest possible board to carry, or you are a synth or organ player rather than a pianist. There is no shame in either choice; there is only the wrong instrument for the job. Match the instrument to what you actually want to play, and you will be happy with it for years.