This table assumes you are choosing between a good piano and a touch-sensitive keyboard that has 88 keys.
| Piano | Keyboard | |
| Cost/Investment | While naturally much more expensive, pianos can last for theoretically 100 years or more, and a very well maintained piano can possibly sell for higher than its original purchase price. | Digital keyboards can go obsolete in as quickly as five years; an outdated keyboard may be difficult to sell, and one accidental drop of effectively placed water damage can render the entire device permanently useless. |
| Maintenance | Piano-moving, occasional tuning, various on-demand maintenance (snapped strings, worn hammer felt, key clicks, etc.). More frequent maintenance needed near humid places or places with drastic weather changes | Electricity drain during use, various on-demand maintenance (broken keys/springs, etc.) |
| Portability | Not. | Very. |
| Volume/Sound Quality | The real thing, but only special uprights have a mute pedal (i.e., so no midnight practicing). |
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| Physical Touch | Unbeatable, naturally. Pedals are also solid, unlike many keyboards, whose pedals tend to be detached/separate foot pedals | Varies greatly; keyboards whose keys simulate hammers instead of springs are stellar, such as the Casio Privia PX-850, or almost any Yamaha Arius. |
| Pedals | The real thing! | Some keyboards are limited in how many tones they can simultaneously output, and many keyboards only come with one pedal, which may be annoying to manage if it is a detached foot pedal. They additionally usually only have two pedal slots, so seeing three pedals (common on acoustics) simultaneously functioning on a single keyboard is very rare. Many keyboards also have unrealistic pedaling sequences. |
| Features | No electricity drain during usage. | Potentially: MIDI capability, recording, a built-in metronome, hundreds of instrument sounds/sound effects, and software-synthesizing with a computer for further capabilities. |
It’s up to you! ☺
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