HelloChinese vs ChinesePod
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
HelloChinese
This app offers a fun and effective way to learn Mandarin Chinese from beginner to conversational levels. It combines game-based lessons, stories, videos, and speech recognition to help you master pronunciation, characters, and practical conversations while exploring Chinese culture.
- Game-based learning
- Graded stories
- Immersive lessons
- Video lessons
- Speech recognition
- Character handwriting
- HSK level courses
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HelloChinese is the best Mandarin Chinese learning app for beginners! Featured on the App Store in New Apps We Love and Notable Education Apps! Designed in a fun and highly effective manner, HelloChinese helps you rapidly learn Mandarin Chinese from scratch to a conversational level. With HelloChinese, learners can "learn the Chinese language, explore Chinese culture" – you will not only learn Mandarin Chinese but also enjoy the process of delving into the culture intertwined with the language. Features: ◉ Game-based Chinese learning: You will never get bored. ◉ 1000+ graded stories: read engaging stories at your level! ◉ Immersive lessons help you to have real-life, practical conversations quickly. ◉ Over 2,000 videos - all featuring authentic Chinese speakers! ◉ Innovative self-adaptive learning games that incorporate Chinese cultural education. ◉ Speech recognition corrects your pronunciation and makes speaking Chinese a breeze. ◉ Handwriting specially designed to learn Chinese characters at a faster rate. ◉ Systematic courses based on HSK levels. ◉ A well-designed Pinyin (pronunciation) course for newbies. ◉ Bite-sized curriculum to fortify your Chinese listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. ◉ Simplified and traditional Chinese(Mandarin) are both supported. ◉ Offline accessibility: Once a course is downloaded, no internet connection is required. ◉ Study progress tracking across multiple devices. With these tools at your disposal, nothing can stop you from mastering Chinese. Start on your path to fluency today! HelloChinese Premium offers: One-month subscription for $11.99 Three-month subscription for $25.99 Twelve-month subscription for $69.99 The above prices are for U.S. customers. Pricing in other countries may vary, and charges may be converted to your local currency depending on your country of residence. Once purchased, subscriptions automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off in your iTunes Account settings at least 24 hours before the end of the payment period. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HelloChineseApp/ Privacy Policy: https://www.hellochinese.cc/privacy.html Terms of Use: https://www.hellochinese.cc/terms.html Premium users can always reach us at premium@hellochinese.cc if they need any help.
ChinesePod
Access over 4,000 Mandarin Chinese lessons on your mobile device. Study offline, filter by skill level, and utilize multiple audio tracks for comprehensive learning. Features native speaker audio, word-by-word translations, and integrated dictionary lookup.
- Over 4,000 Mandarin lessons
- 200+ video lessons
- Five skill levels
- Offline lesson downloads
- Filter by bookmark, level, or download
- Three audio tracks per lesson
- Grammar notes and vocabulary review
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ChinesePod’s Official App gives you the freedom to study more than 4,000 Mandarin lessons in the palm of your hand. Select a lesson, plug in your headphones, and start studying -- on the train, while doing the laundry, when at the gym, wherever! The world is now your classroom. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- We have a lesson for that. -- Over 4000+ lessons available (the largest lesson library of any Mandarin E-Learning Platform!) -- 200+ video lessons to watch -- Five levels of Mandarin lessons, with over 300 lessons per level: Newbie, Elementary, Intermediate, Upper Intermediate and Advanced Study Mandarin in the sky… on a boat… or on the road.... -- Download lessons onto your device so you can listen offline No more searching through a textbook to find what you need. -- Easy-filter feature allows you to find the lessons you need -- Filter by Bookmarked Lessons, Skill Level, or Downloaded Lessons Everything you need, all in one place. -- Three audio tracks for every lesson: listen to the full show, isolate the dialogue, or listen to the audio vocabulary review -- Complete lesson review activities including grammar notes, expansion sentences, vocabulary lists and dialogue breakdowns -- Audio from native speakers are provided for every sentence, as well as each vocabulary word -- word-by-word translations in Traditional & Simplified Chinese, Pinyin and English -- Look up words and sentences in Pleco Dictionary ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Read our reviews and see why people love learning Mandarin with ChinesePod: "When I was learning Mandarin, ChinesePod was my favourite resource by far. It was essential in getting me up to basic conversational level in just a few months. I recommend it to everyone learning Chinese!" Benny Lewis "The Irish Polyglot", Language expert, bestselling author and blogger; Fluentin3months.com "ChinesePod has a vast scope of topics and diversity in levels, which makes it extremely convenient to progress, never-mind the entertaining hosts, great top-down approach and super useful additional content!" Niel de la Rouviere, Language Blogger and Developer at Buffer ConfusedLaowai.com "ChinesePod is an incredible resource for mastering spoken Chinese - a vast library of entertaining lessons from a great collection of teachers, all short and friendly enough to squeeze into a busy schedule." Mike Love, Creator of Pleco Chinese Dictionary Pleco.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To access all features of the app, you need to purchase an in-app premium subscription (monthly/recurring). In-app purchase info: – Title: Premium Membership – Length: 1 month (monthly auto-renew) – Price: $29.99 (price many vary depending on territory) Purchasing Notes: - Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase – Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period – Account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period, and identify the cost of the renewal – Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Account Settings after purchase – Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that publication, where applicable For further info, please refer privacy policy and terms & conditions. Privacy policy https://chinesepod.com/privacy/ Terms & conditions https://chinesepod.com/terms/ For any questions please contact http://support.chinesepod.com/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: HelloChinese at 95% against ChinesePod's 16%. HelloChinese also leads on rating (4.9 vs 2.3) and monetization model (freemium vs subscription). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. HelloChinese sells 13 in-app purchases, starting at $11.99 per month and ChinesePod sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $29.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
HelloChinese holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 2.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: HelloChinese has 24K ratings behind it against 27, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 95% of HelloChinese's written reviews are positive against 16% of ChinesePod's.
HelloChinese ships an update weekly, ChinesePod every 2 months. Both last shipped on October 29, 2026.
| Parameter | HelloChinese | ChinesePod |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (24K ratings) — better | 2.3 (27 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 94.8% of reviews — better | 15.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 24K — better | 27 |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium — better | Subscription |
| Best chart rank | #108 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.2 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 98 MB | 51 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | +4 |
| Developer | HelloChinese Technology Co., Ltd. | Chinesepod Limited |
Customer experience
HelloChinese
ChinesePod
Bugs and requests
HelloChinese
Reported bugs
2 issues- Occasional login issues
- Inconsistent performance on older devices
Requested features
5 requests- More advanced lessons beyond HSK3
- Option to toggle pinyin on a per-word basis
- Improved review system with more customization
- Addition of traditional Chinese characters
- More real-life conversation practice
ChinesePod
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
HelloChinese
- HelloChinese Premium$11.991 Month
- HelloChinese Premium+$16.991 Month
- HelloChinese Premium+$19.991 Month
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- HelloChinese Premium$25.993 Months
- HelloChinese Premium$48.991 Year
- HelloChinese Premium+$62.996 Months
- HelloChinese Premium$69.991 Year
- HelloChinese Premium+$89.996 Months
- HelloChinese Premium+$104.991 Year
- HelloChinese Premium+$149.991 Year
- 300 coins$4.99
- 750 coins$9.99
- 1650 coins$19.99
ChinesePod
- Monthly plan$29.991 Month
- Quarterly plan$78.993 Months
- Annual plan$249.991 Year








