CharMap vs Symbol Keyboard
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
Read full descriptionHide 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.
Symbol Keyboard
Access hundreds of special characters and symbols for use in any application. Simply tap a character to copy it to your clipboard, then paste it into your desired app.
- Hundreds of special characters
- Unicode symbols
- One-tap copy to clipboard
- Paste into any app
- Quick access
Read full descriptionHide full description
Character Pad gives you quick access to hundreds of beautiful and useful special characters. Simply tap on a character to copy it to clipboard, open any other app, and paste it.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Symbol Keyboard at 4.7 against CharMap's 4.0. Symbol Keyboard also leads on update cadence (every 10 days vs every 4 months) and review sentiment (84% vs 54%). CharMap's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and monetization model (free vs ad-supported). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Symbol Keyboard holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Symbol Keyboard has 3.2K ratings behind it against 57, 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 84% of Symbol Keyboard's.
CharMap ships an update every 4 months, Symbol Keyboard every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | CharMap | Symbol Keyboard |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (57 ratings) | 4.7 (3.2K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 53.7% of reviews | 83.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 57 | 3.2K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Ad-supported |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 28 MB | 7 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Conor Mulligan | ShuMei Liang |
Customer experience
CharMap
Symbol Keyboard
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
Symbol Keyboard
From 3.2K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 💎 Wide range of symbols
- 👍 Easy to use
- 🆓 Free app with no subscription
- 📚 Comprehensive symbol library
- 🗂️ Ability to organize symbols
Room to improve
- 🔍 Difficult to find specific symbols
- 🧭 Unintuitive category organization
- 🚫 Ads interrupt usage
- 🔀 Keyboard integration issues
- 🔍 Lacking search functionality
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
Symbol Keyboard
Reported bugs
2 issues- Crashes when opening the app
- Keyboard fails to switch back to default
Requested features
4 requests- Add preset symbol organization (e.g. A-Z)
- Implement settings menu (dark mode, custom folders)
- Integrate keyboard with system for easier access
- Improve search to find symbols quickly
In-app purchases
CharMap
No in-app purchases
Symbol Keyboard
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is CharMap free?
Is Symbol Keyboard free?
Which has better reviews, CharMap or Symbol Keyboard?
Do CharMap or Symbol Keyboard have ads?
Which is updated more often, CharMap or Symbol Keyboard?
Other comparisons
