CharMap vs Kangxi Board
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
CharMap
Explore and manage Unicode characters with this utility. Organize favorites, view details, and copy characters to your clipboard. Use the custom keyboard to insert them anywhere and sync collections across devices.
- Browse curated character categories
- Organize favorite characters
- View character details and copy to clipboard
- Insert characters with custom keyboard
- Discover characters and blocks
- Sync collections across devices
- Preview system fonts
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CharMap allows to you discover, organize, and use unicode characters. FEATURES • Browse a collection of curated character categories, and organize your favourite characters into custom collections. • View character details and copy characters to the clipboard in a variety of formats. • Enable the CharMap keyboard to insert characters wherever custom keyboards are supported. • Discover unicode characters and blocks using a dedicated unicode browser. • Automatically sync your collections between devices. • Quickly access your custom collections using the collection widget. • Browse system fonts and view font metadata. • No ads, trackers, or analytics. Your data is stored on-device, and optionally synced across your private iCloud account.
Kangxi Board
This custom keyboard allows users to input over 90,000 CJK characters using a two-stage radical-based system. It also provides access to a wider range of fonts for use within other applications.
- Input over 90,000 CJK characters
- Two-stage radical input method
- Character selection by Kangxi radicals
- Expanded font library for iOS
- Install fonts for use in other apps
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This is a custom keyboard which lets you enter 90000+ CJK characters by using two-stage input. It lets you choose characters by Kangxi radicals. It comes with a number of fonts greatly expanding characters available on iOS. Fonts can be installed for use in other apps.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Kangxi Board at 100% against CharMap's 54%. Kangxi Board also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.0) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 4 months). CharMap's advantage is ratings volume (57 vs 3). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Kangxi Board holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: CharMap has 57 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 54% of CharMap's written reviews are positive against 100% of Kangxi Board's.
CharMap ships an update every 4 months, Kangxi Board every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | CharMap | Kangxi Board |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (57 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 53.7% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 57 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 28 MB | 95 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Conor Mulligan | Ziga Kranjec |
Customer experience
CharMap
Kangxi Board
Bugs and requests
CharMap
Reported bugs
12 issues- Characters omitted in other apps
- Keyboard looks like white rectangle in some apps
- Private Use Area characters not shown
- Collections feature quit working
- App crashes every time it's opened
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- App crashes on iPad Pro
- App crashes on iPad
- Everything gone after update
- App doesn't open after update
- Some symbols are not shown
- Keyboard not showing up immediately
- Preferences -> font closes app
Requested features
20 requests- Add return/enter key
- Batch add characters to collections
- Multi-font support
- Unicode 18.0 support
- Add Unicode 17.0
Show 15 moreShow fewer
- Ability to select characters with single click
- Add 'raised to the power of x' symbol
- Add superscripts in letter, equation, and inequality form
- Option to format characters (LTR/RTL)
- Make fonts usable in 'Unicode'
- Implement custom font API
- Search for character option
- Search by character name
- Add Sutton SignWriting block
- Add symbol search
- Update UI with SF symbols
- Add dark mode support
- Rename collections
- Backup and Restore collections
- Put collections on top of list when using as keyboard
Kangxi Board
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
CharMap
No in-app purchases
Kangxi Board
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is CharMap free?
Is Kangxi Board free?
Which has better reviews, CharMap or Kangxi Board?
Do CharMap or Kangxi Board have ads?
Which is updated more often, CharMap or Kangxi Board?
Other comparisons
