# iKanji - Learn Japanese Kanji — user reviews

> 150 indexed App Store user reviews of iKanji by ThinkMac Software, rated 4.80/5 from 142 ratings.

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ikanji-learn-japanese-kanji/id311920885/reviews
- App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ikanji-learn-japanese-kanji/id311920885.md
- Rating breakdown: 5★ 121 · 4★ 15 · 3★ 1 · 2★ 2 · 1★ 3

## What do users think of iKanji?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- 👍 Well-organized interface with clear navigation
- 📚 Comprehensive kanji database (2400+ characters)
- 🎯 Effective spaced repetition learning system
- 📊 Multiple testing modes (meaning, readings, stroke order, compounds)
- 🎨 Beautiful, polished design and aesthetics
- 🏆 Flexible study organization by JLPT/grade levels
- ✍️ Stroke order animation and visualization
- 🔍 Powerful search functionality
- ⚙️ Highly customizable practice sets
- 🎓 Excellent for JLPT exam preparation
- 🦊 Engaging mascot and reward system
- 💪 Proven long-term learning effectiveness

**Cons**

- 🐛 Stroke order animation accelerates (becomes too fast)
- 🐛 Stroke recognition overly sensitive/finicky
- 🔊 Pronunciation/voice feature broken or missing
- 📝 Tracing mode too easy (doesn't test true memorization)
- ❌ Multiple choice testing lacks difficulty
- ⚠️ Inconsistent kanji data (missing readings)
- 🚫 No vocabulary quiz/test feature
- 🔄 Spaced repetition system has bugs
- ⏱️ App crashes frequently (especially older versions)
- 🔗 No grammar or listening features
- 💰 Expensive for kanji-only app
- 📱 Outdated and no longer actively supported

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Stroke order animation speeds up progressively
- Stroke recognition too strict (rejects correct strokes)
- Voice/pronunciation feature no longer works
- Kanji to study section doesn't show all kanji until later in day
- App crashes during practice mode
- Memory leaks causing instability
- Inconsistent kanji test results (passes then fails same kanji)
- Some kanji missing stroke order diagrams
- Incorrect stroke order in higher levels (N1)
- Voice mispronounces readings with periods
- Writing test too sensitive to pixel-perfect accuracy
- Search results include partial word matches incorrectly

**Most requested features**

- Free-form kanji drawing from memory (not just tracing)
- Vocabulary quiz/test mode
- Mixed test combining all kanji aspects
- Progress bar/counter for study sets
- Multiple custom practice lists
- Kanji grouping by radical
- Text entry option for readings (not just multiple choice)
- Show correct stroke order after mistakes
- Better example sentences and word compounds
- Example sentences accessible during teach mode
- Grammar app companion
- Native speaker audio pronunciation
- Export data to standard iOS share sheet
- Ability to mark kanji as passed/needs review manually
- Faster stroke order animations with speed control
- Japanese keyboard search support
- Darker background for better contrast
- Tap-through navigation in example compounds

## Newest reviews (18 of 150)

### 3/5 — Needs update

*2023-05-08*

App needs to be updated. The speak feature to hear the pronunciation of kanji no longer works.

### 4/5 — Great tool

*2022-09-24*

It helps me with my JLPT prep very well, but it feels strange that there is no vocabulary test/quiz like there is for the kanjis.

### 3/5 — Please add German to iKanji

*2019-04-09*

I love this app. I really do. I bought it for my Mac and I bought the wohle bundle for my iPad. But: I really wish iKanji would finally add the German language. I do not want to learn Japanese vocabulary by translating everything from English into my Mothertongue German. That never works well, because so many words have different meanings in different contexts. That is not an effective way to learn a language. Please add German. You already have English, French and Spanish.

### 4/5 — A convenient app but a couple of issues

*2019-02-22*

My experience with this app is, at the time of writing, brief and my initial thoughts and impressions are very positive: the app teaches the kanji quite thoroughly, and has tests for each aspect of the kanji (meaning, on'yomi/kun'yomi, stroke order, etc), and it's separated into the different levels (JLPT/jōyō grades) so progression is consistent. You can save tricky kanji into separate practice or review lists so you don't have to keep testing on kanji you've already assimilated. However, I will say that, for me at least, the kanji stroke order animations became very quick, almost impossible to follow, so the stroke order tests were mostly guesswork (or ones I remembered from university). Also, as great as having tests on the separate parts of the kanji as individual tests, it would be great to have a mixed test too, for example, questions about meanings, readings, and stroke order all jumbled into a single practice space. But perhaps that's just me... 

Overall, I like it. Good job.

### 4/5 — On the way to excellence

*2018-11-11*

This is a wonderful way to learn and practice the kanji. Here, though, are a few suggestions to make the app not only excellent but beautiful: 

1) Fix the volume so that the Japanese female voice for the readings is at least as loud, if not louder, than the American mechanical voice reciting the meanings. It is disturbing to have to turn up the volume high to hear the Japanese voice distinctly, while being bombarded by the American robotic voice in between. 

2) The sequence of Japanese and English voices is inconsistent. First come the English meanings of a kanji, followed by its Japanese on and kun readings. Then, however, come the compounds, read in reverse order: first the Japanese reading, then the English meaning. 

3) Looking up a kanji should be easy and accurate. When I typed in “sei” for the kanji meaning life, it wasn’t found. I had to type “life” to find it. 

4) The font is unattractive, especially when the stroke animation is given. Here the app developers could follow the makers of Chinese apps in using a brush (Chinese Kai) font for elegance and a better model for students. Or at least give users the choice of selecting such a font. 

5) It would be great if the user could choose to learn 10 (rather than 20) kanji at a time. Small groups are more effective and can be accomplished in brief sessions. Because of the many readings and compounds for most kanji, it would make the learning experience more pleasant and less exhausting to be able to learn sets of 10 kanji. 

Keep up the great work!

### 4/5 — Great but it has some bugs

*2018-06-25, version 2.2.1*

I lo e this app. It has helped me a lot but recently it’s having too many bugs. When I search for a new kanji and select it (to see its card), it keeps showing the previous kanji I searched before. So I have to close the app and restart every time I was to check a new kanji.

### 4/5 — Good enough.

*2018-05-09*

Good app, but not as good as Kanji Study by Chase Coulburn on Google Play.

### 3/5 — Something wrong

*2018-04-10*

The app is really good. I bought it several years ago and works perfectly on my iphone 5.
However, with my iphone 8 plus, the app is buggy. It won’t let me view other kanji, just the first one that i chose.  Once i view a kanji, the app will keep showing it to me regardless of the kanji that I want to view. I can swipe to the left and right to view other kanji, but  I have to close the app just to view the kanji’s on the other sets.

### 4/5 — Nice application for learning

*2018-03-25*

I only wish there was a way to turn off the cute backgrounds.

### 4/5 — Really good

*2017-09-21*

This app is good for practicing kanji, but learning the readings alone is pointless, they should give you compounds containing the words to learn the readings.

### 3/5 — Beautiful

*2017-04-12*

I really like the interface. But I'd really like the option to study "all" the JLPT Kanji for a level, not just a few ...

### 4/5 — Worth the money

*2017-02-20*

I enjoy using this app. I think it's good for kanji recognition, not so much for being able to reproduce kanji on paper, but it definitely has improved my reading ability. One issue: some of the characters seem to be missing important readings, and I don't know why that is. The character 為 for instance does not include the reading 「ため」, which I would think is one of the most common readings? This app is otherwise so useful, it would be great if they could improve this issue.

### 5/5 — Fantastic app

*2017-01-01*

This is my favorite kanji study app. Clean, easy to use and highly customizable, this has everything I need for study. The custom study lists also let me target study for specific textbooks which has saved me mountains of time.

### 5/5 — Great app to learn Kanji

*2016-08-19, version 2.1.1*

Great app! Has all aspects of learning - different readings, writing and stroke order, compounds, meaning, etc. Nice training mode using spaced repetition technique. Has useful separation for N5-N1 levels and school grades. Recommend!

### 3/5 — Good intentions

*2016-02-29*

A very well designed app for learning kanji. 
The downside is it doesn't stress kanji compounds and their usage in words enough. Spends too much time teaching and making you memorize the phonetic sounds and not which pronunciations are used in what words. Feels like it doesn't have practical applications. 

Also could use an option to turn off the guidelines for tracing kanji. I find I can trace easily but if I recall it from memory, I can miss strokes, so doesn't really help memorize, just recognize.

### 5/5 — Por fin en español

*2016-01-06, version 2.0.3*

La app era muy buena para repasar los kanji y ahora por fin en español!

### 5/5 — Awesome!

*2015-09-11, version 2.0.3*

This app is great for learning kanji! A problem I have personally is that I often mix up the kanjis with the same radical, so a possible improvement could be being able to access kanjis who are group together based on its radical.

### 5/5 — Wow

*2015-08-02, version 2.0.2*

If you're looking for an app which can teach you and test you kanjis, iKanji is the answer to your dilemma. Well done and full of great features.

## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated)

### 1/5 — Does not teach proper strokes

*2019-09-20*

Do not use this app for learning to write kanji.  It uses a computer typeface even when teaching strokes, which leads to learning the wrong strokes because handwriting and typed fonts are different.  One star, do not use, waste of money, bad app.

### 1/5 — cannot study words!

*2015-06-28, version 2.0.1*

big mistake buying this. the screenshots seemed to imply that i can study full words by JLPT level kanji - you cannot do that! no clue why they even have that feature. i can look at them, but that’s it. seriously, what is the point? i will never ever buy an app that doesn’t have a free demo again. totally ludicrous that i loose $8 for using this app for 20 seconds to find out it doesn’t do what i need.

### 1/5 — Typical Greedy Developer

*2014-05-22*

I paid for this app in good faith long ago, but since then the developer’s primary concern has been about pushing “updates” that do nothing more than expand IAP, even as long-standing, irritating bugs go unfixed. You have kanji revision cards missing readings that are then tested for, sets of “fully learned” characters which reset for no reason, etc., but fixing these take a back seat to getting you to pay for “Kanji Drawing Practice” and “Kana Chart”.

**Developer response:** Hi, the app only has a couple of IAPs for non-key features which make a small contribution towards paying for the app's continued development. I make my living selling these apps and I'm only doing what is necessary in order to make up for gradually declining revenue from sales as people shy away from paying for apps and look for free or ad supported alternatives, I don't feel like that is me being greedy. If you find any bugs please report them to support@thinkmac.co.uk and I'll do my best to get them fixed in a timely manner.

### 1/5 — Scam

*2014-01-28, version 1.8*

Most readings are wrong. For the price the developer could at least proof tested by a native speaker.

### 1/5 — just kanji, ripoff

*2013-07-01*

£3 is a ripoff for a kanji only app. No vocab, grammar or listening.

**Developer response:** Hi, the app is primarily for kanji study as the name indicates, but it does feature thousands of example words to help you study including vocabulary flash cards split up by JLPT level.

### 1/5 — Good but

*2012-06-17, version 1.5.1*

when will you make an iPad version??? When will you put quizzes where we can draw the kanji?? When will you let us modify the meaning of the kanji so we can put our own language??? When this app will update???

### 1/5 — Bon

*2011-11-09*

L'application ne reflète plus le JLPT depuis que la nouvelle réforme est passé. En effet, l'auteur de cette application c'est contenté de dire que le niveau N5 était l'équivalent de l'ancien niveau 4 alors qu'il y a maintenant plus de kanji à apprendre. Je suppose que les autres niveaux ont le même problème du coup.

En passant, l'application liste 80 kanjis pour l'ancien niveau 4, alors qu'il y en avait 100.

The application is not up-to-date anymore. 

For example, the new JLPT N5 level is NOT the same as the old JLPT4. There is more kanjis to learn and your application is NOT matching them. You just told people that it's the same as before but it's NOT.

### 1/5 — Haven't been able to practice in over a week

*2010-09-28, version 0*

iKanji crashes whenever I try to open the Practice mode, which is the best way to practice. Where's the update to fix this?

### 2/5 — Does not have pronounciation

*2022-05-16*

I love this app. But I wish it had the option of listening to how to pronounce the Kanji as well as the words / sentences that Kanji is used for. Because it does not have this VERY important feature I find it lacking.

### 2/5 — Glad I have it but...

*2011-03-12*

The app is based on Jim Breen's JDict files and as with all applications using it there are problems.

I have only just acquainted myself with this app but in the first 20 characters (JLPT4) I have already found many mistakes.

In the compound test, for example, I found about 5 mistakes in the readings. That is just in 20 of the most basic characters!!

I like the interface on the whole but it's an app to help you learn an aspect of the Japanese language, if the CONTENT is DUBIOUS then it is a problem...

Please take the time to verify that the content you use is accurate by referring to a dictionary that is not related to Jim Breen's.

## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated)

### 5/5 — Please update it👌🏼

*2025-10-13, version 2.2.3*

The app is great.Please add more characters

### 5/5 — Works as advertised

*2022-03-26, version 2.2.3*

I finished going through literally every kanji the app has to offer (about 2400 of the most common ones) about 3 days ago. Took about 1 year and 3 months of constantly, every day learning 5-12 kanji a day (as I kept getting further ahead I kept increasing daily new kanji) and reviewing already seen kanji using the app’s spaced repetition system. I may have my issues with the app that are more on the technical side, but I have to say this app definitely accomplishes what it advertises. Now I definitely feel a lot more confident when reading. Here are some of the things I did which helped me get learn using this app….While this app worked, I did not leave the teaching alone to it…. 1. Disable writing in the settings of the app. The stroke order may be correct in earlier levels (N5-N2)….when you get to N1 and highschool and 2010 Jouyou most of the kanji have the wrong stroke order. 2. The app’s spaced repetition is not enough. Every time before you go through using the app’s spaced rep system review the first 2 groups in the Kanji To Study / All trained kanji section. I suggest that while reviewing you write the kanji either in the air or on a surface with your finger…You might seem crazy to other people but it does help a lot 3. Buy a Japanese Character Writing Practice Book (you can type it in just like that on Amazon) and get the Anki app (flash cards app). Every time you go through new kanji, write it in anki (they have a windows and mac app as well (front of the card is the meaning and all pronunciations, back is the picture of the kanji…which you can get from jisho.org)…..in groups of 100 kanji, put in tags/folders based off of the level of the iKanji app as well as a group that encompasses all kanji you have added so far (a global group). Every time you go through a brand new kanji for that day, write it through a vertical line of the practice book (basically writing the kanji 20 times) to hopefully get it in your short term memory. Then once you go through all new kanji in the ikanji app, practice 20-50 kanji (I recommend 50) in Anki writing in the practice book. (Using the global group for review) 4. Space yourself out appropriately. Don’t assume you have to review all the kanji the app is telling you to review for that day…I made that mistake and basically by the time I got to the last groups I would be reviewing kanji for basically 6-8 hours every day…..and thats not counting my reading light novels time or watching raw japanese content for listening practice. Space yourself out, with something you’re comfortable with 5. When reviewing using the app’s spaced rep system, be sure to go through each one of the groups and not through the kanji to study section as there is a bug with the kanji to study section where it does not show you all kanji you have yet to review for that day until later in the day…. Also…there is a nice easter egg if you continuously tap on the fox on the top right of the app, it can get mad at you lol Anyways, these steps I mentioned are what worked for me….not going to necesarilly work for everyone else….The app is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but if you can get around the technical issues (specially because this app is no longer supported by the dev), this is an awesome app.

### 5/5 — Keeping my motivation to learn

*2021-05-03*

I'm really enjoying learning kanji with this app. It's my everyday habit and I can feel my progress when I can read more and more complicated kanji.

### 5/5 — Great design / Bad animation

*2020-10-20, version 2.2.3*

Probably the best kanji app to keep from getting bored that I’ve ever seen.  However, the stroke order animation speeds up every time you move to the next kanji.  5 or 6 kanji in the animated stroke order is flashing so quickly that nothing can be learned from it.  The old way of simply putting a picture with numbers beside each stroke would have been better.  IOS 14.

### 5/5 — Small issues but one of my favorite apps (I’ve bought a lot)

*2020-09-07*

I found this app incredibly useful. My preferred method is to go through the pre-made sets of 20 each week, writing them out while I have the voice speak (at first I found it annoying that it also reads the vocal examples, but this is now my favorite part as I learn new words). I write the kanji in the app, then use a whiteboard, then make a flash card. I go back later add three kanji a day to the tested kanji. The kanji testing system is brilliant.

The only issues I’ve found so far is that the voice trips up any time there is a . in a kunyomi reading. It repeatedly pronounces the next syllable incorrectly. The other is that, despite testing the kanji for ‘one’, the app says I haven’t, but then will go back later and say that I have. Small thing that may just be a glitch on my end.

I bought this in a bundle pack with iKana and iKana Nōto. I love all three apps (I used iKana to tutor). I used iKana Nōto a lot more before I made the in-app writing purchase in this one, which may have been a waste of money but I don’t regret it. Turning your device on its side will give you more writing room which took me longer to figure out then it should have. 

Overall, highly recommend and I wish they had a grammar app too. Don’t buy iKana Nōto if you plan on making the in-app writing purchase.

### 5/5 — Quite possibly the best, but still room for improvement

*2020-06-14*

This app is so clear, clean, and stable, and the ability to tackle kanji by school grade level or JLPT level is wonderful. I’ve been using this app for months, and it’s proven to be a fun way to make progress in the never-ending study of kanji. That said, I see three areas for improvement, which I wouldn’t mind paying a decent amount of money for as add-ons to this app: 

1) There is a bug where, as you progress through a set of kanji, the animation that demonstrates the stroke order and direction accelerates with each subsequent kanji character. This means that as you get toward the end of a set, a 15-stroke kanji’s animation is completed, start to finish, in less than one second. A blink of an eye, really. This is frustrating because the human eye simply can’t catch the order of so many strokes in a fraction of a second, and it should be a simple fix. (Note: This is not an added feature that I would pay for: The developer should fix this already, as it’s been this way for months.)  

2) All of the on- and kun-yomi quizzes are multiple choice, which is kind of easy. It would be nice to see a text entry option to further challenge learners. 

3) The final improvement, and the one I’d pay the most money for, is a free-form kanji drawing/writing option embedded in the “teach me these kanji” sets. Currently, the learner is given a “traceable,” gray-silhouette of the kanji to demonstrate stroke order and direction. This means that even though the learner is tasked with writing the kanji, they can already see the kanji and merely need to trace it, which is pretty weak and no demonstration of deeper learning or mastery in writing. I’d *love* a paid option to swap that out for just a big, blank box where I must draw the kanji from memory with no tracing or silhouette, as if I had to write the kanji on a blank piece of paper. Grading a handwritten kanji character for stroke order, stroke direction, accuracy, and legibility would be a challenge, but many apps already offer such an essential feature for learning hiragana and katakana. Moreover, years ago I had an app that did this for kanji character writing exceptionally well, but developer support for that app waned, and the app was eventually pulled. 

All in all, I love this app and have been using it daily for about four months now, and my kanji proficiency is almost back to where it was when I had lived in Japan many years ago, but I hope the developer reads this to continue improving this app.

### 5/5 — Finding this is good

*2020-03-04*

This is a good app for learning Kanji - I speak as someone who is perhaps a high beginner for Japanese language and writing. Kanji is intimidating, especially at first. This app is very well organized. The test based learning is very helpful and gets easier as you gradually go. Don’t expect to do this overnight...

### 5/5 — Best Kanji app

*2019-07-21*

I've come to depend on this app for a long while now. I love the structure of being able to review kanji at regular intervals.

I only wish it had a couple features
1 - During some sets of kanji I wish I could see my progress I've made in the group of kanji I'm studying through like a progress bar, a label that says 12 of 25 etc

2 - Use the standard iOS share sheet to export my training data to places other than Dropbox.

### 5/5 — Used for Over 10 Years

*2019-01-23*

I love this App. I have had it for over ten years and it is the best time killer. I use it to most to learn kanji characters and the stroke orders, as well as vocabulary. Great supplement to anyone looking to study Japanese.

### 5/5 — Très bien depuis la refonte de l’appli :)

*2018-06-15*

J’ai pris cette appli pour apprendre petit à petit les Kanji.

Gros problème : le fait de d’aller aux « Practice Sets » (après être allé ailleurs dans l’application) ça la fait planter (et un fichier plantage est créé)
En attente d’une version recompilée pour iOS 11 ?

En attendant, je note 3 étoiles...

——— ÉDIT ————
Problèmes corrigés avec la nouvelle version => 5* :)

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-13.*