Comparison

Keys for Safari vs Vimlike

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Keys for Safari

Navigate the web efficiently without a mouse or trackpad. This app overlays keyboard shortcuts directly onto web pages, prioritizing existing text for a cleaner user experience. It offers customizable activation and functional backspace for seamless browsing.

Highlights
  • Mouseless web browsing
  • On-page keyboard shortcuts
  • Customizable activation key
  • Functional backspace
  • Deactivate with click, scroll, or escape
Features
Read full description

Now, Keys is available on MacOS and iPadOS! Of course, the iPadOS version of this app is only useful if you own an iPad-compatible keyboard. If you have a motor disability or other accessibility issue, please email me at shockerellaapps@gmail.com for 100% off this extension. No questions asked. Keys for Safari lets users browse the web without reaching for a mouse or trackpad. It differs from other mouseless navigation extensions in that it attempts to render keys stylishly on the page to improve the user experience. Specifically, it generates floating gibberish sparingly and prefers to use text already on the page as a key. - Click away, scroll away, or press escape to deactivate - Customizable activation key - Funcitonal backspace Just press G to generate shortcuts, then type any shortcut to click it.

About

Vimlike

Enhance web browsing with keyboard shortcuts, mimicking a Vim-like editor experience. Navigate pages, manage tabs, and interact with links using customizable key bindings. Offers features like dark mode and reader view for a streamlined workflow.

Highlights
  • Keyboard shortcuts for navigation
  • Customizable key mappings
  • Link interaction (open, new tab)
  • Tab management (new, close, switch)
  • Insert and normal modes
  • Reader view and dark mode
Features
Read full description

Vimlike puts vim's keys on every page in Safari. j and k scroll, f labels every link, o opens one bar for tabs, history, search and the AI. Version 2.0 adds an assistant that works the page, shortcuts and clean-ups the AI makes for each site, signed site packs and a keyboard editor. Free. No in-app purchases, no account, no tracking. iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision Pro. KEYBOARD h j k l, gg, G, d, u. Link hints turn every link on screen into a one- or two-letter jump: f labels them, type the label to open, ⇧F opens in a background tab. t new tab, x close, q and w previous and next, ⇧Z reopen, g1…g9 by number. ⇧H back, ⇧L forward, gu up one URL level, yy copy the URL. Normal mode to navigate, Insert to type; Esc returns, and ` or § can stand in for it on iPad keyboards. Video full screen and picture in picture, zoom, and ? for the cheat sheet. SEARCH BAR Press o and type. The bar searches your open tabs, your local history, your top sites and the web in one list. ↩ opens the highlighted row; ⌘↩ sends the text to the AI instead. ↑ on an empty bar walks back through what you ran, like a shell. : opens your saved commands; / finds a link on the page by name. AI ASSISTANT Ask about the page, or have it do the work. It clicks, types, picks from menus, pulls tables out, opens tabs and reads your other tabs, with 28 tools. It asks before anything it cannot undo. Saved commands like :sum, :table, :translate and :links, plus your own. Five kinds of tool, each Allow, Ask or Deny, and a step limit per run. A long answer opens as a page you can copy as Markdown or print. Pick Apple Intelligence as the provider and it runs free on Apple's Private Cloud Compute, nothing to sign up for, nothing kept (iOS 27, iPadOS 27 or macOS 27 with Apple Intelligence on). Or use your own key for Claude, OpenAI, Gemini or DeepSeek; the key goes in the Keychain. Or Open in browser mode, which opens ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity or DeepSeek in a new tab with your prompt and the page's text already typed in. SHORTCUTS AND CLEAN-UPS FOR EACH SITE Suggest shortcuts reads the page's places and proposes keys: gj JavaScript, gl Learn, gb the blog. The keys work while you try them; Save keeps them, Esc discards. A key is a click or an address, never a script. Clean up this page hides ads, banners, the sidebar or comments with styles you can remove later; the main text can never be hidden. By hand, gk on any page: click an element, press a key, name it. KEYBOARD EDITOR Settings › Keyboard lists every command. Pick a command, record a key, exclude it on sites where it gets in the way. Conflicts are flagged as you go. Script mode keeps the settings script for anyone who prefers to write it. SITE PACKS One signed file for one website: keys for its places, a few AI commands, CSS, and the Vimlike keys it hands back so the site's own shortcuts still work. YouTube, Gmail, Google Search and News, Reddit, Wikipedia, GitHub, Hacker News, Netflix and more. Verified on your device each time it runs, no JavaScript. Updates keep your switches and re-keyed keys. VISUAL AND CARET MODE v starts a selection, ⇧V selects by line, c places a caret you move first. Then vim's motions: hjkl, w b e, 0 $, f and t to a character, aw a word, as a sentence. y copies, / finds text, : asks the AI about the selection. PRIVACY No account and no server. Nothing about your browsing is collected. The bar's history is stored on the device and can be deleted in Settings. API keys live in the Keychain, never given to the page. Settings sync through your own iCloud, or stay on one device. With an AI provider, your prompt and the page's text go to the provider you chose and nowhere else. Languages: English, Korean, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Cantonese, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese. Requires iOS and iPadOS 16.6 or later, or macOS 13 or later. Vimlike needs access to websites to take over the keyboard shortcuts; you choose which sites in Safari.

Screenshots

Vimlike4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Vimlike at Free against Keys for Safari's $1.99. Vimlike also leads on update cadence (every 2 months vs every 5 months) and ratings volume (30 vs 2). Keys for Safari's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.7). On review sentiment, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Vimlike is free to download; Keys for Safari costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Keys for Safari holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Vimlike has 30 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 81% of Keys for Safari's written reviews are positive against 85% of Vimlike's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Keys for Safari ships an update every 5 months, Vimlike every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Keys for Safari versus Vimlike: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterKeys for SafariVimlike
Price$1.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better4.7 (30 ratings)
Positive reviews80.8% of reviews84.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings230 — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS15.0 — better16.6
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB37 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAppccessibility ShoxJasmine Studios

Customer experience

Keys for Safari

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews26 reviews
Positive80.8%
Neutral11.5%
Negative7.7%

Vimlike

All ratings30 ratings
Positive93.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative6.7%
Written reviews52 reviews
Positive84.6%
Neutral11.5%
Negative3.8%

Bugs and requests

Keys for Safari

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Vimlike

Reported bugs

14 issues
  • Default mode setting does not work
  • Scrolling bug on iPadOS
  • Cannot use 'f' to press buttons on webpage
  • Hitting F again does not cancel navigation
  • Extension not working after a while, requires reinstallation
Show 9 more
  • Scrolling no longer works on iPadOS
  • Memory leak after Ventura update
  • Issues with custom bindings in Gmail
  • Scrolling animation feels choppy
  • Scrolling stuttery on iPad Pro with ProMotion
  • Cannot get out of YouTube fullscreen with control+u
  • Reconfigs don't work
  • Safari no longer inserts username/passwords
  • Extension not working on Google Domains

Requested features

15 requests
  • Open search result in current tab
  • Customized new tab URL
  • Support for opening bookmarks/favorites
  • Visual mode for highlighting text
  • Custom search URL support
Show 10 more
  • Ability to move tabs left/right
  • Option to disable scrolling animation
  • More subtle color scheme for link selection
  • Website specific settings to exclude key bindings
  • Simulate 'o' and 'O' from other Vim plugins
  • Command focus the URL of the page
  • Specify keys for ACTIVATE_LINK command with 'Ignore keyboard layout'
  • Command for changing tab order
  • Easy in-app config for exclusion list
  • Dark mode option

In-app purchases

None

Keys for Safari

No in-app purchases

None

Vimlike

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Keys for Safari free?
Keys for Safari costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Vimlike free?
Vimlike is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Keys for Safari or Vimlike?
Keys for Safari is rated higher. Keys for Safari averages 5.0 out of 5 from 2 ratings, while Vimlike averages 4.7 from 30 ratings.
Do Keys for Safari or Vimlike have ads?
Neither Keys for Safari nor Vimlike shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Keys for Safari or Vimlike?
Keys for Safari ships an update every 5 months, and Vimlike every 2 months. Most recently, Keys for Safari was updated on October 21, 2026 and Vimlike on October 25, 2026.

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