alt Codes vs Private Kit
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
Private Kit
This app allows you to log your GPS trails directly on your phone. All data is stored locally and remains private until you choose to export it. It efficiently stores location history with minimal space usage.
- Privacy-first location logging
- Local data storage
- Manual data export
- Efficient data storage
- Location import/export
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PrivateKit MIT is a ‘privacy-first’ app that allows you to log your GPS trails on your own phone. The information is stored locally and never shared with anyone (not even with us or MIT) until you explicitly decide to manually export the data. The location log generated by Private Kit cannot be accessed from outside the user’s device. Location information can be imported and exported by the user and used in other projects and applications. Private Kit’s trail generator logs your device’s location once every five minutes and stores 28 days of data in under 100KB of space – less space than a single picture. But what is truly exciting about Private Kit is its privacy protection. The app needs access to your location and motion tracking sensors to work.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: alt Codes at 82% against Private Kit's 32%. alt Codes also leads on rating (4.4 vs 3.7). Private Kit's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs fortnightly) and ratings volume (121 vs 9). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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.
alt Codes holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Private Kit has 121 ratings behind it against 9, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 82% of alt Codes's written reviews are positive against 32% of Private Kit's.
alt Codes ships an update fortnightly, Private Kit every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on July 17, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | alt Codes | Private Kit |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (9 ratings) — better | 3.7 (121 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 81.8% of reviews — better | 32.2% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 9 | 121 — better |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 9.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 0 MB | 32 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Jared Lipton | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Customer experience
alt Codes
Private Kit
Bugs and requests
alt Codes
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Private Kit
Reported bugs
29 issues- App crashes when trying to view movements on map
- Map crashes/closes app before loading
- App crashes when trying to open map
- App crashes when trying to view overlaps
- Map shows zoomed out view and crashes
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- App crashes when visualizing data streams
- App doesn't show location
- App doesn't log trips consistently
- Map doesn't update routes
- Import/Export/News icons are hidden or inaccessible
- Three vertical dots (menu) are off-screen
- GUI displays incorrectly on smaller screens
- News button does not work
- Import button shows 'Rolling out soon'
- Export button text is cut off
- Description box covers half the screen
- Latest update broken for some users
- Latest update forgot previous weeks log
- Update from two days ago prevents tapping start logging button
- GPS data not accurate, shows incorrect locations
- Map overlay shows incorrect wandering
- Cannot access three buttons (import, export, news) due to screen size
- The 'for more information' box hides import/export/news buttons
- Location logging clusters locations in one spot
- Location data placed at locations never visited
- Map is zoomed out by default
- Cannot get import/export/news icons
- Cannot access three vertical dots upper right hand corner
- App not optimized for iPhone SE screen size
Requested features
16 requests- Better howto and help information
- More rigorous and robust app development
- Simple notebook feature for user contacts
- Clearer explanation of map features (green targets, red pins)
- Option to add locations when without phone
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- Explanation of what a 'Hit' looks like
- Make data-sharing opt-out instead of opt-in
- Consider implementation on existing platforms like Facebook
- Explanation for the number in the circle on the map
- How to input a positive test result
- Default map view should be zoomed to data limits
- Make GUI elements fully accessible on smaller screens
- Explanation of import/export/news buttons
- More detailed documentation for data import/export
- Option to add manual entries for contacts
- Clearer explanation of data sources and trusted authorities
In-app purchases
alt Codes
No in-app purchases
Private Kit
No in-app purchases
