CharMap vs Unicode Character Map FREE
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.
Unicode Character Map FREE
Access and copy a vast range of Unicode characters supported by your device. Easily find symbols, emoticons, and characters from various alphabets to use in any application. Save favorites and build custom character strings.
- View supported Unicode characters
- Copy characters to clipboard
- Search by character name or block
- Access characters from multiple alphabets
- Save frequently used characters
- Build custom character strings
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Select and copy characters from your iPhone and iPad to all your applications! This app shows you all the characters from the Unicode character set that are supported by iPhone and iPad. It excludes all those that routinely appear as little boxes on these devices. Simply tap the character to copy it to the clipboard. This app makes it so easy to send emoticons, stars, hearts, music notes and other symbols in text messages and emails. Special features: - see only those characters supported by iPhone and iPad - easily find characters from other alphabets including Greek, Cyrillic, Gujarati, Arabic, Hebrew and Braille - search for a particular character using its individual name (eg, theta, check) - or browse the name of the block (eg, dingbats, number forms, arrows) - easy-to-browse and well-presented character list - simply scroll down! - select one character to copy, or build an infinite string, using the options - save frequently used characters to the favourites bar Use the ad-supported version free of charge or buy the ad-free version today!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: CharMap at 4.0 against Unicode Character Map FREE's 3.4. CharMap also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and update cadence (every 4 months vs every 14 months). Unicode Character Map FREE's advantage is iOS requirement (7.0 vs 26.0). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
CharMap holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 3.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 57 and 35 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 54% of CharMap's written reviews are positive against 51% of Unicode Character Map FREE's.
CharMap ships an update every 4 months, Unicode Character Map FREE every 14 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | CharMap | Unicode Character Map FREE |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (57 ratings) — better | 3.4 (35 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 53.7% of reviews — better | 50.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 57 — better | 35 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months — better | Every 14 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 7.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 28 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Conor Mulligan | The Festivals App |
Customer experience
CharMap
Unicode Character Map FREE
User reviews
CharMap
From 57 App Store ratingsWhat 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
Unicode Character Map FREE
From 35 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 📚 Comprehensive Unicode character library with all known characters
- 💰 Free app with no ads or paywalls required
- ⚡ Fast and responsive when functioning properly
- 🎨 Useful for customizing social media bios and creative text
- 🌍 Supports multiple languages and writing systems
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent freezing and crashing issues
- ⚠️ Incompatible with newer iOS versions
- 🚫 App abandoned by developer with no updates
- ⏱️ Character popup information disappears too quickly to read
- 🔧 Poor search functionality and navigation
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 moreShow fewer
- 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
Unicode Character Map FREE
Reported bugs
11 issues- App crashes or freezes every 3-5 seconds
- Freezes when scrolling through characters
- Character popup disappears before readable
- Crashes on startup with iOS 5, 7, and newer versions
- Incompatible with iOS 14.8, 15.1 and later
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- Search function lags and is unresponsive
- App redirects to web browser and App Store every 20 seconds
- Constant lagging and performance degradation
- Character names truncated with ellipses
- iPad scrolling causes freezing at certain points
- App won't open or load properly
Requested features
12 requests- Update to latest iOS versions (iOS 7, 14, 15+)
- Keyboard integration similar to emoji keyboards
- Ability to copy multiple characters at once
- Slower or persistent character information display
- Better search and alphabetical organization
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- Add missing mathematical symbols (Pi, subscripts 1-3)
- Include Apple logo character
- Add Cherokee letters N and X
- Include deathly hallows and Harry Potter symbols
- More complete font types (Times New Roman, creative fonts)
- Text expansion settings integration
- Improved iPad compatibility
In-app purchases
CharMap
No in-app purchases
Unicode Character Map FREE
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is CharMap free?
Is Unicode Character Map FREE free?
Which has better reviews, CharMap or Unicode Character Map FREE?
Do CharMap or Unicode Character Map FREE have ads?
Which is updated more often, CharMap or Unicode Character Map FREE?
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