Special Symbols vs Hacker Note
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Special Symbols
Enhance your messages, emails, and social media posts with a creative touch. This app provides 21 distinct keyboards to easily insert unique characters and styles directly from your system keyboard.
- 21 unique keyboards
- Add special characters
- Creative text styles
- Bold and italic text
- Monospace and gothic fonts
- Full width text
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Special Symbols is a powerful set of keyboards that will help you to add a special touch of creativity to your messages, email and social apps! Just add 1 keyboard to your system going to Settings > General > Keyboards and you'll have 21 keyboards available in your system! • pǝʇɐʇoɹ • ⓒⓘⓡⓒⓛⓔⓓ • squared • ¢σσɭ ɭєʈʈєяȿ • åĉĉéńẗŝ ĂČČĔŃŤŚ • bold • italic • monospace • double text • gothic •ｆｕｌｌ ｗｉｄｔｈ / ＦＵＬＬ ＷＩＤＴＨ Help us to improve and continue the development rating this app 5 stars! Thank you!
Hacker Note
This note-taking app offers a unique "coolness" with a design inspired by hackers and sci-fi movies. Enjoy a futuristic feel with a transparent background option and customizable themes. It includes essential features like categorization, password protection, and cloud backup.
- High-performance and simple functionality
- Transparent app background
- Theme color customization
- Category management
- HTML and Markdown output
- Password protection
- Google Drive backup
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Recommended for those who are tired of general Note Taking apps. Hacker Note is a simple Note Taking App that pursues "coolness". The design is based on the image of "hackers," "sci-fi movies". example "The Matrix". It is also equipped with a function that makes app background look transparent, so you can enjoy a sense of the near future while taking notes, which is different from ordinary memos. [Main functions] ・ High-performance and simple function ・ Background transparency function ・ Theme color change function ・ Category function ・Output function to HTML and markdown ・ Password setting ・ Backup to Google Drive ・Cool Japanese mode - For cool Japanese displays such as kanji. [Features to be expanded in the future] ・ A cooler color theme
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Special Symbols at $0.99 against Hacker Note's $9.99. Hacker Note's advantage is review sentiment (86% vs 52%) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months). On ads, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement 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
Special Symbols costs $0.99 and Hacker Note $9.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Special Symbols ships an update every 2 months, Hacker Note fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Special Symbols | Hacker Note |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 — better | $9.99 |
| Rating | 3.5 (8 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 51.9% of reviews | 85.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 8 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 14.7 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 36 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Marco Petrucci | yuki okada |
Customer experience
Special Symbols
Hacker Note
In-app purchases
Special Symbols
No in-app purchases
Hacker Note
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Special Symbols free?
Is Hacker Note free?
Do Special Symbols or Hacker Note have ads?
Which is updated more often, Special Symbols or Hacker Note?
Other comparisons
