Symbol Keyboard vs alt Codes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
alt Codes
Discover Windows keyboard shortcuts for typing special characters and symbols not on your keyboard. Quickly copy symbols to your iOS device's clipboard for easy pasting on your Mac via Universal Clipboard.
- Find Windows keyboard shortcuts
- Type special characters and symbols
- Copy symbols to iOS clipboard
- Paste on Mac with Universal Clipboard
- Quick symbol lookup
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alt Codes enables you to quickly and easily find the keyboard combinations in Windows to type symbols and characters that are not found on traditional keyboards. In addition to discovering the keyboard code for a character or symbol, you can quickly copy the character or symbol to the clipboard of your iOS device. With Universal Clipboard, any character or symbol copied on your iOS device can be instantly pasted on your Mac.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: alt Codes at none against Symbol Keyboard's shown. alt Codes also leads on monetization model (free vs ad-supported). Symbol Keyboard's advantage is ratings volume (3.1K vs 9) and rating (4.7 vs 4.4). On price, review sentiment, update cadence 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.
Symbol Keyboard holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Symbol Keyboard has 3.1K ratings behind it against 9, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 84% of Symbol Keyboard's written reviews are positive against 82% of alt Codes's.
Symbol Keyboard ships an update every 10 days, alt Codes fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 17, 2026 and July 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Symbol Keyboard | alt Codes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (3.1K ratings) — better | 4.4 (9 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 83.7% of reviews — better | 81.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3.1K — better | 9 |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 7 MB | 0 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ShuMei Liang | Jared Lipton |
Customer experience
Symbol Keyboard
alt Codes
Bugs and requests
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
alt Codes
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Symbol Keyboard
No in-app purchases
alt Codes
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Symbol Keyboard free?
Is alt Codes free?
Which has better reviews, Symbol Keyboard or alt Codes?
Do Symbol Keyboard or alt Codes have ads?
Which is updated more often, Symbol Keyboard or alt Codes?
Other comparisons
