Comparison

Unicode Pad vs IPA Phonetic Keyboard

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

Head to head
About

Unicode Pad

Access and copy thousands of Unicode characters to use in any app. Create custom keyboards for frequently used symbols and share them with friends. Search characters by name, codepoint, or glyph, and view detailed descriptions.

Highlights
  • Copy characters to clipboard
  • Customizable keyboards
  • Share custom keyboards
  • Search characters by name/codepoint/glyph
  • View extended character descriptions
  • Thousands of symbols available
Read full description

Note: This app supports only in-app custom keyboards! For a fancier version which also supports iOS 8 and later custom keyboards, check out the Unicode Pad Pro app! • Tested on latest iOS 11 • Support for Unicode 11 standard • Copy characters to clipboard for use in other apps, like web, mail, chat, notes… practically any iOS app! • Notepad with customizable keyboards, for your often-used characters and for copying several characters at once. Great for casual writing, too! • Share your custom keyboards with your friends! • Send mail and tweets right from within the app! • Huge selection of symbols (thousands), in fact all that are available on your device. Database itself actually contains data for all Unicode characters (over 100,000), but only glyphs available in iOS system font are actually visible. • Quick acces to many groups of commonly used symbols! • Search for characters by name, hexadecimal codepoint or glyph! Find similar and related characters instantly! • Streamlined design, specifically optimized for each device. Support for all device orientations and Retina display. • Support for Backspace, New line, Shift and Alternate special keys on custom keyboards. • Custom keyboard sizes up to 6x16=96 keys. • View extended character descriptions on Wikipedia, right inside the app! This works particularly great for emoticons! • 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! • Developers: see which characters are available on your iOS device! • Great for scientific, mathematical and physics notation, handles many superscripts, subscripts and other symbols! • Excellent for phonetic notation! • Perfect for writing Unicode poetry! • Awesome for making interesting app names! • HTML entity names for relevant characters • UNIHAN english definitions for CJK ideograms for many characters • Flick left and right for next and previous characters in detail view • Affordable price!

About

IPA Phonetic Keyboard

This free keyboard provides easy access to all IPA and extended IPA symbols. Its intuitive layout mirrors the IPA chart, making symbol input fluid and efficient for linguists, language learners, and enthusiasts.

Highlights
  • Full IPA chart (2020) symbols
  • ExtIPA chart (2016) symbols
  • Organized symbol sections
  • Intuitive symbol layout
  • Convenient input for common characters
  • Completely free, no ads
Read full description

Behold the first completely FREE IPA keyboard on the App Store designed for linguists, language learners, and hobbyists. It is designed to be lightweight and fluid, matching up to the user experience of the system emoji keyboard. =FEATURES= - Includes ALL symbols on the newest standard IPA chart (2020 ver.) - Includes most symbols (the ones available in Unicode) on the newest standard extIPA chart (2016 ver.) - Symbols are divided into sections just like the IPA chart(-duh!): consonants, non-pulmonic, other symbols, vowels, suprasegmentals, tones and word accents, and diacritics - Symbols are arranged naturally, with a layout designed for you to find the symbols you want more quickly (especially the vowels, it's cleverly designed to match the layout on the IPA chart) - Convenient input for "[]", "//", "~", "◌", space, and return on the top of the keyboard - Completely free, NO ADS =EXTERNAL LINKS= For more information on IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), refer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet The developer, Vince14Genius's GitHub: https://www.github.com/Vince14Genius/

Screenshots

Unicode Pad4 screens
IPA Phonetic Keyboard4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: IPA Phonetic Keyboard at Free against Unicode Pad's $2.99. IPA Phonetic Keyboard also leads on rating (4.5 vs 3.5) and review sentiment (92% vs 74%). Unicode Pad's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 14.0). On update cadence, ads 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

IPA Phonetic Keyboard is free to download; Unicode Pad costs $2.99 up front. IPA Phonetic Keyboard sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Unicode Pad asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

IPA Phonetic Keyboard holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: IPA Phonetic Keyboard has 172 ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 74% of Unicode Pad's written reviews are positive against 92% of IPA Phonetic Keyboard's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Unicode Pad ships an update every 3 months, IPA Phonetic Keyboard every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and September 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Unicode Pad versus IPA Phonetic Keyboard: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterUnicode PadIPA Phonetic Keyboard
Price$2.99Free — better
Rating3.5 (8 ratings)4.5 (172 ratings) — better
Positive reviews73.7% of reviews92.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings8172 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 months — betterEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS11.0 — better14.0
Further details — not scored
Size140 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperZiga KranjecVincent Cai

Customer experience

Unicode Pad

All ratings8 ratings
Positive62.5%
Neutral12.5%
Negative25.0%
Written reviews171 reviews
Positive73.7%
Neutral7.6%
Negative18.7%

IPA Phonetic Keyboard

All ratings172 ratings
Positive89.5%
Neutral2.3%
Negative8.1%
Written reviews125 reviews
Positive92.0%
Neutral3.2%
Negative4.8%

User reviews

Unicode Pad

From 8 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Comprehensive symbol catalog
  • 💡 Customizable keyboards
  • 🚀 Easy to use interface
  • 🔍 Powerful search functionality
  • 🌟 Useful for nicknames and special characters

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes
  • 📦 Some characters display as boxes
  • 🐌 Laggy scrolling and slow loading
  • 🖱️ Manual copy-pasting required
  • ⌨️ Limited keyboard space for custom keyboards

IPA Phonetic Keyboard

From 172 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Convenient IPA keyboard
  • 💡 Extensive IPA symbol coverage
  • 🚀 Smooth and responsive
  • 🤩 Great for linguistics and conlanging
  • 🎨 Visually appealing design

Room to improve

  • 🔒 Paid access for some symbols
  • 🔍 Keyboard layout could be more customizable
  • 🐛 Occasional keyboard switching issues
  • 🔇 Keyboard clicking sounds can't be disabled

Bugs and requests

Unicode Pad

Reported bugs

17 issues
  • App crashes when selecting notepad
  • App crashes on startup
  • Scrolling is laggy
  • Custom keyboards take time to load
  • Characters not appearing on keyboard after adding
Show 12 more
  • Some symbols don't copy properly (show as boxes)
  • App won't update
  • App becomes very slow after updates
  • Custom keyboards are hard to see after update
  • Buttons disappear
  • Detail window cannot be closed
  • Glyph description length exceeds screen
  • App freezes and requires device reset
  • Favorites/copy buttons sometimes go invisible
  • Cannot get to clipboard to post to other apps
  • App doesn't work with Facebook
  • Characters not displayed (show as squares)

Requested features

15 requests
  • Ability to add keyboards to other apps
  • More space for custom keyboards
  • Integration with iOS keyboard
  • Add backspace/delete/return keys to custom keyboards
  • Ability to rearrange keys on custom keyboards
Show 10 more
  • Ability to remove custom keys while on the keyboard
  • Sort Unicode blocks numerically
  • Save/swap out keyboards from within the app
  • Option to hide iOS incompatible characters
  • Add space bar to custom keyboard layouts
  • Copy as HTML option
  • Precise selection and editing features
  • Macros for multiple keystrokes
  • Dark mode option
  • Advanced analytics dashboard

IPA Phonetic Keyboard

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Vowel [ʁ] displays incorrectly
  • Keyboard disappears after switching, requiring settings access to re-enable

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add angle brackets and parentheses for orthographic notation
  • Implement a 'frequently used' section for common symbols
  • Allow users to rearrange the keyboard layout
  • Add support for laryngeal notation in Proto-Indo-European

In-app purchases

None

Unicode Pad

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

IPA Phonetic Keyboard

One-time3
  • Donation: Buy me a drink$2.99
  • Obsolete/Non-Standard Symbols$5.99
  • Donation: Buy me a meal$9.99

Questions

Is Unicode Pad free?
Unicode Pad costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is IPA Phonetic Keyboard free?
IPA Phonetic Keyboard is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Unicode Pad or IPA Phonetic Keyboard?
IPA Phonetic Keyboard is rated higher. Unicode Pad averages 3.5 out of 5 from 8 ratings, while IPA Phonetic Keyboard averages 4.5 from 172 ratings.
Do Unicode Pad or IPA Phonetic Keyboard have ads?
Neither Unicode Pad nor IPA Phonetic Keyboard shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Unicode Pad or IPA Phonetic Keyboard?
Unicode Pad ships an update every 3 months, and IPA Phonetic Keyboard every 4 months. Most recently, Unicode Pad was updated on September 29, 2026 and IPA Phonetic Keyboard on September 17, 2026.

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