HelloChinese vs Immersive Chinese
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.
Immersive Chinese
Learn practical spoken Mandarin Chinese with a structured course and high-quality audio. Features include extensive vocabulary, customizable revision tools, and offline access. Progress from beginner to intermediate levels with gradual introduction of new material.
- 12000+ high-quality audio recordings
- Structured serial course for beginners
- Customizable revision and repetition tools
- Slow and normal speed audio options
- Simplified or traditional characters
- Offline use supported
- Detailed notes and definitions
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Immersive Chinese is a simple but effective method for learning practical spoken Mandarin Chinese. No gimmicks or time-wasting games, Immersive Chinese uses meticulous course design and high-quality audio to provide the best way to learn spoken Chinese from scratch. • More than 12000 high-quality audio recordings. • Perfect difficulty curve for beginners. • Carefully designed serial course that introduces new words in a controlled way. • Powerful revision tools that allow you to create highly-customised study sessions. • Includes separate slow and normal speed recordings. Hear every detail in the slow version. Now also includes a separate male voice. • Choice of simplified or traditional characters. • Currently includes 185 lessons and more than 4500 unique sentences • 36 lessons are available for free, and a full subscription is just a few dollars. • Save custom lists of vocabulary and sentences and generate study sessions from them. • Each line of text (translation, pinyin or Chinese characters) can be individually revealed and hidden. • Full offline use supported (all files can be downloaded and stored locally). • Detailed notes and definitions. • Repetition Training allows you to drill your listening and hear a huge volume of comprehensible input covering the exact material you want to practice. • Highly customisable audio playback (set the exact time delay between sentences). • Detailed pronunciation guide. • Mix of individual sentences and short stories. • Audio recorded by a professional broadcaster with perfectly standard Mandarin. • Integrates with the desktop web browser version (found at console.immersivechinese.com). Natural and Intuitive Way to Learn Spoken Chinese The Serial Course contains months worth of content and is designed to take you from absolute beginner all the way to intermediate level. It starts out with extremely simple sentences and gently builds on that, only introducing new material very gradually. The content is carefully designed so that you are never confronted with a word you don't know. The aim of the course is to give you the essential building blocks for forming practical sentences of your own. It naturally integrates spaced repetition so that as you move forward you are continually revising previous content. Powerful Revision Features Research into language acquisition has shown that repetition of comprehensible content is one of the most effective ways of learning a language. Repetition Training is a core feature of Immersive Chinese that allows you to play a specific selection of content on a continuous loop according to a number of different settings. You can set the specific time delay before and after each sentence, use normal speed or slow recordings, repeat each sentence a certain number of times, and use a random or sequential order. You can also add custom filters, so you only study the exact material you want to. Give it a try and start making progress today.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: HelloChinese at weekly against Immersive Chinese's every 5 weeks. HelloChinese also leads on ratings volume (24K vs 57) and chart position (#99 vs unranked). On price, rating, review sentiment and ads 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 10 in-app purchases, starting at $11.99 per month and Immersive Chinese sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for HelloChinese against 4.8 for Immersive Chinese. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: HelloChinese has 24K ratings behind it against 57, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 95% of HelloChinese's written reviews are positive against 90% of Immersive Chinese's.
HelloChinese ships an update weekly, Immersive Chinese every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 4, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | HelloChinese | Immersive Chinese |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (24K ratings) — better | 4.8 (57 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 94.8% of reviews — better | 89.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 24K — better | 57 |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 5 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #99 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 98 MB | 46 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | HelloChinese Technology Co., Ltd. | Iain Chalmers |
Customer experience
HelloChinese
Immersive Chinese
User reviews
HelloChinese
From 24K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Easy to learn
- 👍 Engaging and fun
- 👍 Helpful for beginners
- 👍 Good for pronunciation practice
- 👍 Useful for learning Chinese characters
Room to improve
- 🐛 Inconsistent speech recognition
- 🐛 Audio quality issues in some videos
- 💰 Paywall limits access to full content
- 💰 Premium subscription is expensive
Immersive Chinese
From 57 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to navigate
- 🗣️ Clear pronunciation
- 💡 Teaches grammar well
- 🚀 Fast progress
- 💰 Affordable
Room to improve
- 🐛 Sync issues between devices
- 🐛 Autoplay sync off
- 🐛 Stuttering audio
- 🐛 Delay settings don't work
- 🐛 Lock screen audio controls missing
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
Immersive Chinese
Reported bugs
11 issues- Forward/back arrows not working in autoplay
- Autoplay sync off
- Stuttering audio
- Delay settings not working
- Lock screen audio controls missing
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- Purchase not recognized on other devices
- Slow speed not changing speed
- Pronunciation unclear on Android
- Tones sound off on a couple words
- Sync glitch returns after manual flip
- Support link goes to YouTube
Requested features
10 requests- Randomly alternate male/female voices
- Upload new lessons for advanced learners
- Save and retrieve repetition training criteria
- Bookmarks for easy navigation
- English audio translations
Show 5 moreShow fewer
- Immersive Japanese version
- Immersive Russian version
- Marker for completed lessons
- Review games
- One-time payment option
In-app purchases
HelloChinese
- HelloChinese Premium$11.991 Month
- HelloChinese Premium+$19.991 Month
- HelloChinese Premium$25.993 Months
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- 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
Immersive Chinese
- Immersive Chinese$3.991 Month
- Immersive Chinese$5.993 Months
- Immersive Chinese$8.996 Months
- Lifetime Access$24.99









