Comparison

Uni Keyboard vs MessagEase Keyboard

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Uni Keyboard

This custom keyboard for iPhone and iPad provides access to over 2950 characters, organized into 24 distinct groups. Easily navigate through all characters or select a specific group for quick access.

Highlights
  • Access over 2950 characters
  • Organized into 24 groups
  • Scrollable character list
  • Group picker for specific characters
  • Custom keyboard for iOS
Features
Read full description

Say Hello to Uni - a custom keyboard for iPhone and iPad that makes it easy to use over 2950 characters organized into 24 Groups. Scroll through all available characters or use the group picker to display characters within a specific group. Visit our website for more information.

About

MessagEase Keyboard

An innovative, non-QWERTY keyboard designed for touchscreens based on scientific research. It features large keys with optimized letter placement for faster, more accurate typing. Learning games and customization options are included.

Highlights
  • Non-QWERTY keyboard layout
  • Optimized letter assignment
  • Tap and drag input
  • Learning games included
  • Customizable keyboard size, shape, and color
  • Supports multiple languages
Read full description

MessagEase is an alternative, non-QWERTY keyboard for your iPhone and iPad. Created based on years of scientific research in user interface, MessagEase is designed and optimized for use on a touchscreen device. MessagEase is a patented, innovative design different from the antiquated QWERTY keyboard. If you believe that every keyboard must be QWERTY-like, then MessagEase is not what you are looking for. But if you are open to new ideas and up for experiencing a completely new way of writing you will be pleasantly surprised at how well, how precisely, and how fast you can enter text with MessagEase. Our current champion’s speed is 87 WPM— that's 87 Words Per Minute! Most people don't type nearly that fast with ten fingers! MessagEase essentially has 9 large keys with an optimized letter assignment to maximize your speed, increase your accuracy, and ease your writing. Since MessagEase is very different, you must spend a few minutes to get used to it. We have included several learning games to help you learn the new, innovative pattern of MessagEase—and you’ll save hours by texting and writing faster. With MessagEase you enter letters and characters with either a tap, or a drag (slide): taps for the most common characters and directional drag for the rest. Please watch the video, or see the section Essential MessagEase, to learn more. MessagEase's design is based on sound user-interface principles such as the Fitts' Law; it uses letter frequency and di-gram data to optimally place the characters on a keyboard with fewer, larger keys. That’s why the letter positions are non-QWERTY! If you are interested to learn more about the scientific details behind the design of MessagEase, please see this paper: http://www.exideas.com/ME/ICMI2003Paper.pdf We have lots of videos to help you become familiar with MessagEase quickly. Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3D3f3GWTSg There are many more on our YouTube channel. http://www.youtube.com/user/messagease Please also note that you can change the keyboard size by dragging up or down on the Globe Button. You can also reshape and recolor the keyboard in various ways. See Settings for details. MessagEase for iPhone & iPad has specific keyboards designed for the following languages: (These keyboards can also be used to enter text for many other languages) - English - Arabic - Azerbaiani - Danish - Dutch - Esperanto - Finnish - French - German - Greek - Hebrew - Hungarian - Japanese Hiragana - Japanese Katakana - Italian - Norwegian - Polish - Portuguese - Russian - Spanish - Swedish - Turkish - Urdu If you like MessagEase, please tell others about it, and please make sure to rate and comment about it on App Store. Please email us if you encounter any issue. Thank you!

Screenshots

Uni Keyboard4 screens
MessagEase Keyboard4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: Uni Keyboard at free against MessagEase Keyboard's paid. MessagEase Keyboard's advantage is update cadence (every 6 weeks vs every 15 months). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 3.9 for Uni Keyboard against 4.0 for MessagEase Keyboard. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 59 and 95 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 77% of Uni Keyboard's written reviews are positive against 70% of MessagEase Keyboard's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Uni Keyboard ships an update every 15 months, MessagEase Keyboard every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Uni Keyboard versus MessagEase Keyboard: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterUni KeyboardMessagEase Keyboard
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.9 (59 ratings)4.0 (95 ratings) — better
Positive reviews76.7% of reviews — better70.1% of reviews
Number of ratings5995 — better
Update frequencyEvery 15 monthsEvery 6 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS9.0 — better10.3
Further details — not scored
Size18 MB14 MB
Age rating4+9+
DeveloperThomas BlackburnExideas

Customer experience

Uni Keyboard

All ratings59 ratings
Positive72.9%
Neutral10.2%
Negative16.9%
Written reviews60 reviews
Positive76.7%
Neutral6.7%
Negative16.7%

MessagEase Keyboard

All ratings83 ratings
Positive69.9%
Neutral13.3%
Negative16.9%
Written reviews127 reviews
Positive70.1%
Neutral11.0%
Negative18.9%

User reviews

Uni Keyboard

From 59 App Store ratings

What we love

  • ✨ Wide variety of characters
  • 🆓 Free and feature-rich
  • 👍 Intuitive and easy to use
  • 💯 Comprehensive Unicode keyboard
  • 💡 Access to many symbols

Room to improve

  • 👎 Key layout defies UI/UX
  • 🤔 Missing many Unicode characters
  • 😩 Scrolling is tedious
  • 🎛️ Not user-friendly for symbol selection
  • 📱 Doesn't display properly on iPhone X

MessagEase Keyboard

From 95 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Significantly faster typing speed than QWERTY keyboards
  • 💡 Innovative one-handed keyboard design optimized for touchscreens
  • 👍 Large buttons reduce typing errors and improve accuracy
  • 🎮 All characters (letters, numbers, symbols) accessible on single screen
  • ⚙️ Highly customizable layout, colors, and keyboard size

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Keyboard randomly resizes to full screen without user control
  • 🐛 Inconsistent swipe gesture recognition
  • ⚠️ Steep learning curve requires significant practice
  • ❌ Missing features compared to Android version
  • 🔧 Lacks word prediction and autocorrect functionality

Bugs and requests

Uni Keyboard

Reported bugs

7 issues
  • Key to switch keyboards in abnormal position
  • Cannot find power symbol
  • App not updated anymore
  • Cannot find Wingdings
  • Doesn't display properly on iPhone X
Show 2 more
  • Basic latin text too big
  • No keyboard down button

Requested features

16 requests
  • Add rest of Unicode characters
  • Search for symbols by name/code
  • More sorting options for fonts
  • Support dark mode
  • Add mathematical double-struck Capital X
Show 11 more
  • Add runes and hieroglyphics
  • Add nikudim for Hebrew
  • Add Arabic section with all letters
  • Add Sanskrit, Devanagari, Tibetan
  • Add an Asian section
  • Add Wingdings font/category
  • Add lowercase and uppercase Wingdings
  • Rearrange categories
  • Add recently used menu item
  • Add subscript and superscript letters
  • Add customizable fractions

MessagEase Keyboard

Reported bugs

12 issues
  • Keyboard expands to full screen and cannot be resized
  • Keyboard fails to appear in Apple apps (Notes, Safari, Skype)
  • Swipe gestures registered as clicks
  • Keyboard crashes on iOS 26.x and iOS 16.x versions
  • Settings reset or don't persist between sessions
Show 7 more
  • Double keyboard instances displaying simultaneously
  • Letters not visible after iOS updates
  • Keyboard stuck in maximized state after reinstall
  • Capitalization mode gets stuck (all caps)
  • Keyboard display corrupted or garbled on iPad
  • Unresponsive input after certain iOS updates
  • Keyboard overlays text field, obstructing view

Requested features

11 requests
  • Word prediction and autocorrect
  • Resizable keyboard with size locking option
  • Copy/paste/select-all gesture shortcuts (like Android version)
  • Voice dictation support
  • Better cursor navigation controls
Show 6 more
  • Customizable keyboard layout (JSON-based)
  • Emoji integration into keyboard
  • Text replacement library support
  • Macro functionality
  • Trackpad mode for cursor control
  • Open-source the application for community maintenance

In-app purchases

None

Uni Keyboard

No in-app purchases

None

MessagEase Keyboard

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Uni Keyboard free?
Uni Keyboard is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is MessagEase Keyboard free?
MessagEase Keyboard is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Uni Keyboard or MessagEase Keyboard?
MessagEase Keyboard is rated higher. Uni Keyboard averages 3.9 out of 5 from 59 ratings, while MessagEase Keyboard averages 4.0 from 95 ratings.
Do Uni Keyboard or MessagEase Keyboard have ads?
Neither Uni Keyboard nor MessagEase Keyboard shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Uni Keyboard or MessagEase Keyboard?
Uni Keyboard ships an update every 15 months, and MessagEase Keyboard every 6 weeks. Most recently, Uni Keyboard was updated on October 14, 2026 and MessagEase Keyboard on October 13, 2026.

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