Keyz Keyboard vs Grim Reader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Keyz Keyboard
This advanced custom keyboard offers a modern typing experience inspired by the MessageEase layout. It features extensive customization options for visuals, colors, and backgrounds, along with smart gesture controls and a unique numeric-only mode for efficient data entry.
- Liquid Glass Effects
- Deep Color Customization
- Custom Background Images
- Hide Alphabets Mode
- Smart Gesture Controls
- Full MessageEase Layout Support
Read full descriptionHide full description
Keyz – Advanced Custom Keyboard A New Experience for Lovers of MessageEase Keyz brings a fresh and modern typing experience to all who appreciate the speed and intelligence of the MessageEase layout. Built with inspiration from the original work of Dr. Saied, creator of MessageEase, this version reimagines his innovative design for today’s iOS devices. Keyz enhances the classic layout with new visuals, smoother performance, and rich customization. This update fixes several issues found in earlier builds and delivers a more stable, polished, and enjoyable keyboard. With improved gesture handling and optimized responsiveness, Keyz is now faster, clearer, and more reliable for everyday communication. - Liquid Glass Effects Enjoy a clean, translucent glass appearance with adjustable opacity for a premium and modern feel. - Deep Color Customization Choose custom colors for every type of key. Match your mood, your wallpaper, or your personal brand with ease. - Custom Background Images Set your favourite photos—landscapes, art, or personal moments—as your keyboard background with precise opacity control. - Hide Alphabets Mode Switch to a numeric-only setup whenever you need a focused and minimal layout for fast number entry. - Smart Gesture Controls Swipe and long-press to access symbols, punctuation, and alternative characters without slowing down your flow. - Seamless Mode Switching Effortlessly move between letters and numbers with smooth transitions designed for everyday typing. -Full MessageEase Layout Support Type faster and more accurately using the iconic MessageEase grid. This layout minimizes finger movement, reduces errors, and improves typing speed, ideal for users who want a smarter, more efficient system. - Built with iOS 26 APIs Keyz is crafted using native tools to ensure top-tier performance, security, and full compatibility with the latest iOS features.
Grim Reader
Organize and enrich your personal library of e-books, comics, and audiobooks. This app allows you to manage your collection locally or via your own servers, adding details like covers and author information. Enjoy a seamless reading and listening experience across all your content.
- Library management for e-books, comics, and audiobooks
- Enrich library with online book and author data
- Supports local files and personal servers (WebDAV, OPDS)
- Cross-device reading and listening progress tracking
- Organize by author, series, and genre
- Mark favorites
Read full descriptionHide full description
Your books. Your library. Your way. Privacy By Design. Made in the EU. Grim Reader is a modern reader and library manager for e-books, comics and audiobooks. Keep your collection on your device, connect to your own servers, and turn even a simple collection of files into a rich, beautifully organised library. A library that feels alive Browse your collection by books, authors, series and more. See covers, reading progress and detailed information at a glance, continue where you left off, mark favourites and quickly find what you want to read next. Grim Reader is designed for both iPhone and iPad, with an interface that adapts to the device you are using. Enrich your books Missing a cover, description or other information? Grim Reader can help enrich your library using online book and author sources. Depending on the available information, Grim Reader can help you find and add details such as: • Covers and book descriptions • Authors and author information • Series information • Publisher and publication details • ISBN and other identifiers • Genres, categories and tags • Additional book metadata You remain in control and can review and edit your library information. More than e-books Grim Reader brings different types of reading together in one library: • Read e-books • Browse and read comics • Listen to audiobooks • Keep track of reading progress • Continue reading or listening across your library • Organise books by author and series • Mark books and authors as favourites Your files, your servers You don’t need to hand your library over to a commercial book platform. Grim Reader can work with books stored locally and supports personal libraries through WebDAV and OPDS, as well as the optional Grimmory server. This makes Grim Reader equally useful for a small collection on your iPhone or iPad and for a large self-hosted library. Made for readers Grim Reader focuses on your books rather than a store. There are no books to sell you and no ecosystem you need to buy into. Build the library you want, enrich it, organise it and enjoy reading it. Grim Reader — your library belongs to you.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Grim Reader at 5.0 against Keyz Keyboard's 4.7. Keyz Keyboard's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs every 2 weeks). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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.
Grim Reader holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 10 and 4 respectively.
Keyz Keyboard ships an update every 5 days, Grim Reader every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Keyz Keyboard | Grim Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (10 ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 10 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.5 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 16 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Duncan Adjei | Maarten de Kreij |
Customer experience
Keyz Keyboard
Grim Reader
In-app purchases
Keyz Keyboard
No in-app purchases
Grim Reader
No in-app purchases









