Comparison

CharMap vs Character Pad

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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.

About

Character Pad

Easily access and use hundreds of special characters and symbols to enhance your text. Copy characters like Greek letters, math symbols, and more to paste into any application, personalizing your messages, emails, and documents.

Highlights
  • Access hundreds of special characters
  • Copy characters to clipboard
  • Paste into any application
  • Customize messages and documents
  • Includes Greek alphabet, math symbols, and more
Features
Read full description

Character Pad gives you quick access to hundreds of beautiful and useful special characters, which you can use in any application. Simply tap on a character to copy it to your device's clipboard, open any other app, and paste it anywhere you like. Done. Easy! Customise your IMs, emails, documents and other texts with this great selection of special characters & symbols. Characters include: - Greek alphabet - Numbers - Math symbols - Bullets - Letterlike symbols - Many more! What two App Store reviewers had to say about Character Pad: "Dead easy to use and works a treat! Update with more characters some time........" - Soxcat "Fast, simple, does one thing and does it seemlessly. No more having to write ½ as 1/2. Thank you, well worth the dollar!" - Auntmarge64 Please Note: Characters will be readable from any iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Mac and most PCs. Some special characters may appear as question marks (?) or squares for some recipients of text messages whom use non-iPhone mobiles.

Screenshots

CharMap4 screens
Character Pad4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Character Pad at 4.5 against CharMap's 4.0. Character Pad also leads on ratings volume (606 vs 57) and iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). CharMap's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3). On price, review sentiment, update cadence and ads 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

Both are free to download. Character Pad sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. CharMap asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Character Pad holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Character Pad has 606 ratings behind it against 57, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 54% of CharMap's written reviews are positive against 47% of Character Pad's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

CharMap ships an update every 4 months, Character Pad every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
CharMap versus Character Pad: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCharMapCharacter Pad
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (57 ratings)4.5 (606 ratings) — better
Positive reviews53.7% of reviews — better46.8% of reviews
Number of ratings57606 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 months — betterEvery 6 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.018.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size28 MB15 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperConor MulliganArmchair Engineering

Customer experience

CharMap

All ratings57 ratings
Positive71.9%
Neutral8.8%
Negative19.3%
Written reviews67 reviews
Positive53.7%
Neutral6.0%
Negative40.3%

Character Pad

All ratings606 ratings
Positive88.6%
Neutral3.3%
Negative8.1%
Written reviews126 reviews
Positive46.8%
Neutral8.7%
Negative44.4%

User reviews

CharMap

From 57 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🌟 Genuinely amazing for needs
  • 💡 Custom keyboards brilliant
  • 💯 Has every Unicode
  • ✨ Very impressive
  • 👍 Great for computer science

Room to improve

  • ❌ No return/enter key
  • ❓ Feature not obvious
  • ⚠️ Characters omitted in other apps
  • ⚪ Keyboard looks like white rectangle
  • 😵 UI is ugly and old

Character Pad

From 606 App Store ratings

What we love

  • ⭐ Great
  • 🙌 Useful
  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🔍 Essential
  • 🤩 Fun

Room to improve

  • 💰 Paid features
  • 🔒 Limited access
  • 🐛 Crashes
  • 📍 Outdated
  • 🚫 Removed features

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
Show 7 more
  • 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 more
  • 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

Character Pad

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Restore purchases not working
  • Compatibility issues with new iOS versions

Requested features

4 requests
  • More characters and symbols
  • Search functionality
  • Improved clipboard management
  • Compatibility updates

In-app purchases

None

CharMap

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Character Pad

One-time3
  • Full Upgrade - Reduced Price$1.99
  • More Characters$2.99
  • Full Upgrade - Hero Price$4.99

Questions

Is CharMap free?
CharMap is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Character Pad free?
Character Pad is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, CharMap or Character Pad?
Character Pad is rated higher. CharMap averages 4.0 out of 5 from 57 ratings, while Character Pad averages 4.5 from 606 ratings.
Do CharMap or Character Pad have ads?
Neither CharMap nor Character Pad shows ads.
Which is updated more often, CharMap or Character Pad?
CharMap ships an update every 4 months, and Character Pad every 6 months. Most recently, CharMap was updated on October 23, 2026 and Character Pad on November 1, 2026.

Other comparisons