Unicode Pad vs Symbol Keyboard
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Copy characters to clipboard
- Customizable keyboards
- Share custom keyboards
- Search characters by name/codepoint/glyph
- View extended character descriptions
- Thousands of symbols available
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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!
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
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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 price: Symbol Keyboard at Free against Unicode Pad's $2.99. Symbol Keyboard also leads on rating (4.7 vs 3.5) and update cadence (every 10 days vs every 3 months). Unicode Pad's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 15.0). On 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
Symbol Keyboard is free to download; Unicode Pad costs $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Symbol Keyboard holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Symbol Keyboard has 3.1K 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 84% of Symbol Keyboard's.
Unicode Pad ships an update every 3 months, Symbol Keyboard every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Unicode Pad | Symbol Keyboard |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 3.5 (8 ratings) | 4.7 (3.1K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 73.7% of reviews | 83.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 8 | 3.1K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Ad-supported — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 140 MB | 7 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ziga Kranjec | ShuMei Liang |
Customer experience
Unicode Pad
Symbol Keyboard
User reviews
Unicode Pad
From 8 App Store ratingsWhat 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
Symbol Keyboard
From 3.1K 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
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
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- 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 moreShow fewer
- 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
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
Unicode Pad
No in-app purchases
Symbol Keyboard
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Unicode Pad free?
Is Symbol Keyboard free?
Which has better reviews, Unicode Pad or Symbol Keyboard?
Do Unicode Pad or Symbol Keyboard have ads?
Which is updated more often, Unicode Pad or Symbol Keyboard?
Other comparisons
