Comparison

CharMap vs Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards

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

Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards

Access and use over 155,000 Unicode characters with this comprehensive character map app. It features customizable keyboards for any iOS app, bundled and importable fonts, and detailed character information. Seamlessly copy, search, and organize characters for diverse writing needs.

Highlights
  • Access 155,000+ Unicode characters
  • Customizable keyboards for any iOS app
  • Install and import custom fonts
  • Detailed character information and search
  • Copy characters to clipboard
  • Notepad for frequently used characters
  • Drag and drop support
Features
Read full description

Unicode Pad Pro is the ultimate Unicode character map app for the iPad. Offering an extensive database of over 155,000 characters, it supports the latest Unicode 16 standard. This powerful tool features customizable keyboards, which can be used across any iOS app, bundled fonts, and the ability to import custom fonts. Users can easily browse, search, and copy characters, access detailed character information, and enjoy seamless multitasking with other apps. Perfect for everything from scientific notation to creative writing, Features: • Custom keyboards can be used in any other iOS app • Install bundled fonts for use in other apps • Import and use any custom font into the app • Support for Unicode 15.1 standard, which has many new symbols. • Huge selection of symbols (thousands), in fact all that are available on your device. Database itself actually contains data for all characters (over 140000!). • Copy characters to clipboard for use in other apps, like web, mail, chat, notes... any iOS app! • Detailed information on each Unicode character, including encodings, extra info, similar characters and availability in fonts • Extensive gesture support for smooth workflow! • Drag and drop support for text, PNG and PDF graphics! • Notepad with customizable keyboards, for your often-used characters and for copying several characters at once. Great for casual writing, too! • HTML entity names for relevant characters • UNIHAN english definitions for CJK ideograms for many characters • Egyptian hieroglyph definitions • Ideographic Description Sequences (IDS) for CJK ideograms • Share your custom keyboards with your friends! • Search for characters by name, hexadecimal codepoint or glyph! Find similar and related characters instantly! • Great support for iPad multitasking - works great together with other apps • Streamlined design, specifically optimized for each device. Support for all device orientations and Retina display.  • Support for dark mode. • Fully tested on latest iOS • Support for Backspace, New line, Shift and Alternate special keys on custom keyboards. • Custom keyboard sizes up to 6x16=96 keys. • Flick left and right for next and previous characters in detail view • View extended character descriptions on Wikipedia, unicode.org charts or Emojipedia right from inside the app! • Copy glyphs as PDF graphics or PNG images • Sections of favourite and recently copied characters • One universal application works on iPhone, iPod and iPad! • Reference booklet of characters available on modern computers! Paper Unicode maps are over 1000 pages long! • Quick access to many groups of commonly used symbols! • Great for scientific, mathematical and physics notation, handles many superscripts, subscripts and other symbols! • Excellent for phonetic notation! • Developers: see which characters are available on your iOS device and in which fonts. • Perfect for writing Unicode poetry! • Awesome for making interesting app names!

Screenshots

CharMap4 screens
Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: CharMap at Free against Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards's $6.99. Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards's advantage is rating (4.5 vs 4.0) and review sentiment (81% vs 54%). On update cadence, 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

CharMap is free to download; Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards costs $6.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 57 and 200 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 54% of CharMap's written reviews are positive against 81% of Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
CharMap versus Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCharMapUnicode Pad Pro with keyboards
PriceFree — better$6.99
Rating4.0 (57 ratings)4.5 (200 ratings) — better
Positive reviews53.7% of reviews81.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings57200 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS26.013 — better
Further details — not scored
Size28 MB259 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperConor MulliganZiga Kranjec

Customer experience

CharMap

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

Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards

All ratings198 ratings
Positive88.4%
Neutral3.0%
Negative8.6%
Written reviews84 reviews
Positive81.0%
Neutral8.3%
Negative10.7%

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

Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

CharMap

No in-app purchases

None

Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is CharMap free?
CharMap is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards free?
Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards costs $6.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, CharMap or Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards?
Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards is rated higher. CharMap averages 4.0 out of 5 from 57 ratings, while Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards averages 4.5 from 200 ratings.
Do CharMap or Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards have ads?
Neither CharMap nor Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards shows ads.
Which is updated more often, CharMap or Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards?
CharMap ships an update every 4 months, and Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards every 4 months. Most recently, CharMap was updated on October 23, 2026 and Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards on October 24, 2026.

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