Comparison

MessagEase Keyboard vs KeyboardKit

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

Head to head
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!

About

KeyboardKit

Replace your device's default keyboard with a highly customizable alternative. Personalize typing with custom fonts, toolbars, emoji skin tones, and clipboards. Supports a vast array of languages and layout options for a truly unique typing experience.

Highlights
  • Customizable keyboard themes
  • Type with custom fonts
  • Extra toolbar row and buttons
  • Customizable emoji skin tone
  • Clipboard manager for quick pasting
  • Support for 75 languages
  • Multiple keyboard layouts
Features
Read full description

KeyboardKit lets you replace the system keyboard with a custom keyboard that is truly yours. KeyboardKit: - Works with all apps - Supports 75 languages - Has many settings and themes KeyboardKit supports: - 75 languages - QWERTY, QWERTZ, AZERTY - Colemak, Dvorak - Vietnamese TELEX, VIQR, VNI KeyboardKit lets you: - Apply more settings - Type with custom fonts - Add an extra row of buttons - Add buttons to the main toolbar - Add buttons next to the spacebar - Paste into any app from a list of clips - Style your keyboard with beautiful themes - Make your keyboard keys bigger and bolder KeyboardKit settings: - Keyboard:  One-Handed Keyboard, Character Preview, Haptic Feedback, Sound, Auto-Capitalization, Auto-Collapse, Enable Caps Lock,  Predictive Text, "." Shortcut,  Spacebar Long Press, Spacebar Menus,  Toolbar Menu, Input Toolbar, Spacebar Actions, Toolbar Actions - Accessibility: Bold Text, Custom Button Height - Languages: English, Albanian, Arabic, Arabic (PC), Armenian, Azerbaijani, Belarusian, Bengali, Bulgarian, Catalan, Cherokee, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Dutch (Belgium), English (Australia), English (Canada), English (United Kingdom), English (United States), Estonian, Faroese, Filipino, Finnish, French, French (Canada), French (Belgium), French (Switzerland), Georgian, German, German (Austria), German (Switzerland), Greek, Hawaiian, Hebrew (Israel), Hungarian, Icelandic, Inari Sami, Indonesian, Irish (Ireland), Italian, Kazakh, Kurdish, Sorani, Kurdish, Sorani (Iraq), کوردیی ناوەندی (PC), Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Maltese, Mongolian, Northern Sami, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Pamiri Shughni (Shughni Tajik), Persian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal), Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Serbian (Latin), Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Spanish (Latin America), Spanish (Mexico), Swedish, Swahili, Turkish, Ukrainian, Uzbek, Welsh, Vietnamese - Autocomplete: Auto-Complete, Auto-Correction, Auto-Ignore Words, Auto-Learn Words,  Emoji Suggestions, Next Character Prediction, Text Replacements, Ignored Words, Number of Suggestions, Next Word Prediction, Hide toolbar - Clipboard: Add Clipboard Content, Create Custom Clips - Dictation: Silence Limit (before dictation ends) - Emoji:  Default Emoji Skin Tone - Feedback: Audio & Haptic Feedback - Fonts:  Select Custom Font - Theme:  Pick Theme, Create Custom Themes (Premium) We hope that you will love using KeyboardKit! Terms & Conditions: https://apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

MessagEase Keyboard4 screens
KeyboardKit4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: MessagEase Keyboard at none against KeyboardKit's 2. MessagEase Keyboard also leads on review sentiment (70% vs 54%) and iOS requirement (10.3 vs 26.0). KeyboardKit's advantage is rating (4.4 vs 4.0) and update cadence (every 8 days vs every 6 weeks). On price, ratings volume, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. KeyboardKit sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. MessagEase Keyboard asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

KeyboardKit holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 95 and 77 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 70% of MessagEase Keyboard's written reviews are positive against 54% of KeyboardKit's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MessagEase Keyboard ships an update every 6 weeks, KeyboardKit every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 15, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
MessagEase Keyboard versus KeyboardKit: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMessagEase KeyboardKeyboardKit
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (95 ratings)4.4 (77 ratings) — better
Positive reviews70.1% of reviews — better54.2% of reviews
Number of ratings95 — better77
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksEvery 8 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS10.3 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size14 MB78 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperExideasKankoda Sweden AB

Customer experience

MessagEase Keyboard

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

KeyboardKit

All ratings77 ratings
Positive80.5%
Neutral10.4%
Negative9.1%
Written reviews24 reviews
Positive54.2%
Neutral33.3%
Negative12.5%

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
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

KeyboardKit

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

MessagEase Keyboard

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

KeyboardKit

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Subscription7 Days trial$1.991 Month
  • Yearly Subscription7 Days trial$19.991 Year

Questions

Is MessagEase Keyboard free?
MessagEase Keyboard is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is KeyboardKit free?
KeyboardKit is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, MessagEase Keyboard or KeyboardKit?
KeyboardKit is rated higher. MessagEase Keyboard averages 4.0 out of 5 from 95 ratings, while KeyboardKit averages 4.4 from 77 ratings.
Do MessagEase Keyboard or KeyboardKit have ads?
Neither MessagEase Keyboard nor KeyboardKit shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MessagEase Keyboard or KeyboardKit?
MessagEase Keyboard ships an update every 6 weeks, and KeyboardKit every 8 days. Most recently, MessagEase Keyboard was updated on October 13, 2026 and KeyboardKit on October 15, 2026.

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