Comparison

MessagEase Keyboard vs Colemak

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

Colemak

This keyboard application provides an alternative typing experience with the Colemak layout, designed for increased speed and comfort on mobile devices. It offers multiple layout variations and an intuitive interface for efficient typing on the go.

Highlights
  • Alternative Colemak keyboard layout
  • Faster and more comfortable typing
  • Sleek design and user-friendly interface
  • Multiple layout variations (Default, OG, Colemak-DH, Tabbed, Tarmak)
  • Open Source Software
Read full description

Colemak Keyboard is an efficient and intuitive keyboard application designed specifically for mobile devices. It offers you an alternative typing experience with the Colemak keyboard layout, which has been created to be faster and more comfortable than traditional QWERTY keyboards. With its sleek design and user-friendly interface, Colemak makes it easy to type quickly and accurately on the go. Whether you're a student, professional or casual typist, Colemak is the perfect keyboard app for anyone looking to improve their typing speed and comfort. After installation, you’ll be able to select any of the 5 different Colemak layouts (Default, OG, Colemak-DH, Tabbed, and Tarmak) right from Settings! Colemak is Open Source Software, if you want to make it better feel free to submit an Issue or PR at github.com/colemak-ios/colemak.

Screenshots

MessagEase Keyboard4 screens
Colemak4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: MessagEase Keyboard at 4.0 against Colemak's 3.1. MessagEase Keyboard also leads on review sentiment (70% vs 60%) and ratings volume (95 vs 18). Colemak's advantage is monetization model (free vs paid). On price, update cadence, ads 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

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

MessagEase Keyboard holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 3.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: MessagEase Keyboard has 95 ratings behind it against 18, 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 60% of Colemak's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
MessagEase Keyboard versus Colemak: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMessagEase KeyboardColemak
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (95 ratings) — better3.1 (18 ratings)
Positive reviews70.1% of reviews — better60.0% of reviews
Number of ratings95 — better18
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksEvery 6 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS10.3 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size14 MB23 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperExideasFarFetched

Customer experience

MessagEase Keyboard

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

Colemak

All ratings18 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral5.6%
Negative44.4%
Written reviews30 reviews
Positive60.0%
Neutral13.3%
Negative26.7%

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

Colemak

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

MessagEase Keyboard

No in-app purchases

None

Colemak

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is MessagEase Keyboard free?
MessagEase Keyboard is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Colemak free?
Colemak is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, MessagEase Keyboard or Colemak?
MessagEase Keyboard is rated higher. MessagEase Keyboard averages 4.0 out of 5 from 95 ratings, while Colemak averages 3.1 from 18 ratings.
Do MessagEase Keyboard or Colemak have ads?
Neither MessagEase Keyboard nor Colemak shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MessagEase Keyboard or Colemak?
MessagEase Keyboard ships an update every 6 weeks, and Colemak every 6 weeks. Most recently, MessagEase Keyboard was updated on September 21, 2026 and Colemak on September 23, 2026.

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