Glyphs vs Grapheme
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Glyphs
Enhance your text with unique fonts, symbols, and text art. Easily find and copy characters to stylize messages, profiles, and posts. Explore typefaces and create custom text designs.
- Style words with unique fonts
- Browse and search for symbols
- Explore and import typefaces
- Create text art from phrases
- Save favorite and recent characters
- Use custom keyboard for quick access
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A creative toolkit for your words. Give a caption some character. Find the symbol that finishes a thought. Explore the details of a typeface. Glyphs brings expressive text and thoughtful typography together in one carefully crafted app for iPhone and iPad. STYLE YOUR WORDS Type a name, message, or caption in Compose and see it take shape. Explore bold letters, script, monospace, and more. Choose clean accents, flowers, stars, or playful decorations. Tap a result to copy, then paste it into your profile, post, or conversation. FIND THE PERFECT DETAIL Browse symbols or search by name, keyword, character, or Unicode code point. Discover arrows, hearts, punctuation, mathematical signs, and much more. Inspect a character, save a favorite, and copy it when you need it. EXPLORE A TYPEFACE Browse Google Fonts or import your own TTF and OTF files. Try a custom phrase and explore the selected font's supported characters. Your chosen font changes how symbols and Compose text look inside Glyphs. DRAW TO DISCOVER Remember a shape but not its name? Sketch it and explore matching symbols. MAKE TEXT ART Turn a short phrase into expressive text art. Explore a collection of offline styles and copy your creation in a tap. KEEP YOUR FAVORITES CLOSE Return to favorite and frequently used symbols. Add a Home Screen widget or use the Glyphs keyboard to keep characters nearby while you type. MADE WITH CARE Choose Light, Dark, or System appearance. Enjoy a native interface that gives your words room to breathe. No ads, no third-party tracking, and no account to create. START FREE. EXPLORE MORE. Start with everyday symbol categories, search, favorites, recents, and a selection of Compose styles. Glyphs Pro is a one-time purchase, with no subscription. It unlocks all character categories, advanced Compose styles, Draw matching, expanded keyboard access, and optional iCloud Sync. Styled text copies as Unicode characters; its appearance and support depend on the receiving app. Copying text does not transfer a selected or imported typeface. Imported fonts are available within Glyphs.
Grapheme
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Grapheme is a pocket museum of the characters the world writes with, as Unicode records them. The entire code space is laid out in one grid, grouped by block and ready to wander. A COLLECTION FULL OF SURPRISES • The complete Unicode 16 code space, organized by block • Wander from Egyptian hieroglyphs to alchemical symbols, Byzantine musical notation, mahjong tiles, and emoji • Jump to any block instantly with the block picker, and pin the ones you visit most • Even characters your device has no font for get a meaningful placeholder glyph, so nothing shows up as an empty box CHARACTER DETAILS AT A TAP Tap any cell to see everything about that character: • Official Unicode name and block • Code point in U+ notation • Byte encodings: UTF-8, UTF-16 (BE and LE), UTF-32 (BE and LE) • HTML entity FAST SEARCH • Find characters by name: try “snowman”, “dragon”, or “pile of poo” • Look up a code point directly by its hex value • Paste in any text to see the code points it breaks down into, including the ZWJ sequences inside an emoji FAVORITES • Mark characters you use often and come back to them in one tap WORKS COMPLETELY OFFLINE The full Unicode 16 character database ships inside the app. Browse, search, and inspect encodings anywhere, with no network connection required. MADE FOR DEVELOPERS, DESIGNERS, AND THE CURIOUS Debugging a text-encoding issue? Hunting for the perfect arrow, box-drawing character, or mathematical symbol? Exploring ancient scripts and the far reaches of the astral planes? Grapheme puts the entire Unicode standard at your fingertips.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Grapheme at none against Glyphs's 1. Grapheme also leads on iOS requirement (18.2 vs 26.0). Glyphs's advantage is ads (none vs shown). On price, update cadence 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. Glyphs sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Grapheme asks for nothing beyond the download.
Glyphs ships an update every 4 days, Grapheme every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Glyphs | Grapheme |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 4 days | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 18.2 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 117 MB | 51 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Sergio Fernandez Duran | Hsingchien Cheng |
In-app purchases
Glyphs
- Glyphs Pro$4.99
Grapheme
No in-app purchases







