Switches
A silent switch has rubber or silicone pads on the stem so it does not strike bare plastic at either end of its travel. Both the bottom-out and the return are damped, which is what makes them quiet: almost all of a keyboard’s noise is those two impacts.
They are the right answer to a real problem. If you share an office, share a room, or take calls, a silent switch is the difference between a keyboard being fine and being a thing people mention.
The trade-off is honest and worth knowing before you buy. Something compressible now sits where the plastic used to stop, so the bottom of the press feels slightly soft or mushy rather than crisp, and the sharp bottom-out that the current generation of switches is built around is exactly what the damping removes. A silent switch is quieter and less defined, and no amount of tuning gets both.
8 of the 48 switches indexed here, from 35 gf to 55 gf. 6 have at least one force figure left blank, because the sources disagreed or published something impossible.
Wingtree
A silent linear at 35 gf actuation and 45 gf bottom-out, factory lubed, 3.8 mm of travel. Silencing is done with silicone on the stem, so both the bottom-out and the return are damped, and the switch gives up some of the crispness a non-silent linear has in exchange. Light and quiet is a shared office combination rather than a sound-test one.
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KTT
A light silent tactile at 40 gf, which is unusual: most tactiles start heavier because the bump needs force behind it to be felt. The compromise here is a gentle bump rather than a sharp one, so it reads as texture in the travel rather than a distinct step. The same POM and TPE stem as the Phantom does the silencing. The vendor's spec block lists two actuation figures, so only the 40 gf from the product name is recorded.
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KTT
A silent linear built around a POM and TPE composite stem, where the TPE does the dampening rather than separate pads. 43 gf to actuate and 55 gf to bottom out, so the press builds noticeably towards the end instead of staying flat. The quietest category of switch there is, and priced low enough that silencing a full board does not become a project in itself.
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Cherry
An MX2A-generation silent linear with an RGB-friendly clear housing, aimed at boards with per-key lighting where a milky housing would muddy the colour. 45 gf, 1.6 mm pre-travel, and an extra-polished top housing that Cherry uses to smooth the stem's travel rather than relying on lubricant. The vendor lists a 100 gf bottom-out force, which is implausible for a switch that actuates at 45 gf and is almost certainly a typo, so that figure is deliberately not recorded here.
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Cherry
Cherry's silent tactile, and a departure from the company's reputation for restraint: 45 gf with a 1.9 mm pre-travel and a bump you can actually feel. Cherry's silencing is built into the stem and housing rather than added as pads, which is why it does not feel as damped as most silent switches. Factory lubed. If Cherry MX Brown always felt vague to you, this is the same idea done properly and quietly.
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Gateron
Gateron's silent linear at a light 45 gf, and one of the easier ways to make a loud board quiet without rebuilding it. Silencing a switch means putting rubber where plastic would otherwise hit plastic, and that always costs a little crispness: the bottom-out feels slightly cushioned rather than firm. The KS-9 3.0 handles that trade better than most, helped by a dual-stage spring that keeps the press from going mushy near the end. A sensible pick for an office, or for anyone typing next to someone else.
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Gateron
Gateron's EF line builds the silencing into the switch rather than adding pads after the fact, which is why it stays firmer at the bottom than most silent switches manage. 50 gf on a full 4 mm of travel. Worth considering if you have tried silent switches and found them too soft: this is the version that keeps some definition, while staying quiet enough for a shared room.
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Gateron
The tactile version of the same silent housing, at 55 gf with a short 1.5 mm pre-travel, so the bump arrives early and the key registers soon after it. Tactile and silent is a harder combination than either alone, because the dampening that kills the noise also blunts the bump. This keeps enough of it to feel deliberate. Heavier than the Pink, and the right choice if you want feedback from a switch nobody else can hear.
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Brands represented here: Cherry, Gateron, KTT, Wingtree.