MessagEase Keyboard vs The Banana Split Keyboard
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Non-QWERTY keyboard layout
- Optimized letter assignment
- Tap and drag input
- Learning games included
- Customizable keyboard size, shape, and color
- Supports multiple languages
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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!
The Banana Split Keyboard
This split keyboard app for iPad offers an ergonomic design for faster, more functional touch typing. It includes customizable color schemes and word substitution features to enhance the typing experience.
- Functional ergonomic design
- Switchable word substitution
- 10+ Monochromatic Color Schemes
- Designed for iPad
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Touch-typists rejoice! The Banana Split Keyboard is the split keyboard from Student Driver for iPad. The Banana Split Keyboard was built from the ground up to make ergonomic touch typing on iPad fast, functional, and stylish! Features: - Functional ergonomic design. - Switchable word substitution. - 10+ Monochromatic Color Schemes. Designed by Student Driver in New York City.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: MessagEase Keyboard at 4.0 against The Banana Split Keyboard's 1.0. MessagEase Keyboard also leads on review sentiment (70% vs 29%) and ratings volume (97 vs 1). The Banana Split Keyboard's advantage is monetization model (free vs paid) and update cadence (weekly vs monthly). On price, ads, in-app purchases and iOS requirement 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.
MessagEase Keyboard holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: MessagEase Keyboard has 97 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 70% of MessagEase Keyboard's written reviews are positive against 29% of The Banana Split Keyboard's.
MessagEase Keyboard ships an update monthly, The Banana Split Keyboard weekly. Both last shipped on October 29, 2026.
| Parameter | MessagEase Keyboard | The Banana Split Keyboard |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (97 ratings) — better | 1.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 70.1% of reviews — better | 29.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 97 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 11 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Exideas | Student Driver, LLC |
Customer experience
MessagEase Keyboard
The Banana Split Keyboard
Bugs and requests
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
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- 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
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- 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
The Banana Split Keyboard
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
MessagEase Keyboard
No in-app purchases
The Banana Split Keyboard
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is MessagEase Keyboard free?
Is The Banana Split Keyboard free?
Which has better reviews, MessagEase Keyboard or The Banana Split Keyboard?
Do MessagEase Keyboard or The Banana Split Keyboard have ads?
Which is updated more often, MessagEase Keyboard or The Banana Split Keyboard?
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