Comparison

Learn Cryptic Crosswords vs Immersive Chinese

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

Head to head
About

Learn Cryptic Crosswords

Master the art of cryptic crosswords with this interactive guide. It breaks down clue types, offers step-by-step learning through six chapters, and includes practice exercises and puzzles to build your solving skills.

Highlights
  • Step-by-step clue explanations
  • Interactive exercises
  • Practice puzzles
  • Skill development guidance
  • Reference tools
Features
Read full description

Learn how to solve cryptic crosswords with this interactive app, starting with the basic ideas and easiest types of clue. Learn cryptic crosswords consists of six chapters that take you step by step through every aspect of solving cryptic clues. How each type of clue works is clearly explained and supported by examples, with simple diagrams to illustrate key ideas. Each topic is followed by interactive exercises and practice clues designed to reinforce the learning points, and each chapter ends with a practice puzzle to consolidate your learning. The final chapter explains how to develop your solving skills further. It ends with a selection of newspaper puzzles and is followed by an extensive set of reference tools to use when solving. Cryptic crosswords are fun to do and give the brain a good work out, exercising the memory and thinking skills, making new connections and extending vocabulary and general knowledge. Learn cryptic crosswords will lead you to an enjoyable and stimulating new pastime.

About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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

Learn Cryptic Crosswords4 screens
Immersive Chinese4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Immersive Chinese at every 5 weeks against Learn Cryptic Crosswords's every 9 months. Learn Cryptic Crosswords's advantage is ratings volume (448 vs 57). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Learn Cryptic Crosswords sells 3 one-off in-app purchases 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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Learn Cryptic Crosswords against 4.8 for Immersive Chinese. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Learn Cryptic Crosswords has 448 ratings behind it against 57, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 95% of Learn Cryptic Crosswords's written reviews are positive against 90% of Immersive Chinese's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Learn Cryptic Crosswords ships an update every 9 months, Immersive Chinese every 5 weeks. Both last shipped on September 23, 2026.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Learn Cryptic Crosswords versus Immersive Chinese: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLearn Cryptic CrosswordsImmersive Chinese
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (448 ratings)4.8 (57 ratings)
Positive reviews95.0% of reviews — better89.7% of reviews
Number of ratings448 — better57
Update frequencyEvery 9 monthsEvery 5 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.615.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size9 MB46 MB
Age rating+44+
DeveloperTeazelIain Chalmers

Customer experience

Learn Cryptic Crosswords

All ratings448 ratings
Positive97.1%
Neutral1.1%
Negative1.8%
Written reviews119 reviews
Positive95.0%
Neutral1.7%
Negative3.4%

Immersive Chinese

All ratings57 ratings
Positive93.0%
Neutral5.3%
Negative1.8%
Written reviews39 reviews
Positive89.7%
Neutral7.7%
Negative2.6%

Bugs and requests

Learn Cryptic Crosswords

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Menu button freezing the app
  • Inability to fill in answers directly

Requested features

3 requests
  • Ability to take notes within the app
  • Integrated anagram solver and reference tools
  • Option to skip ahead to practice puzzles

Immersive Chinese

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Learn Cryptic Crosswords

One-time3
  • Discount price$2.99
  • Access to every chapter2 variants$3.99
  • Access to every chapter$4.99
4 purchases

Immersive Chinese

Subscriptions3
  • Immersive Chinese$3.991 Month
  • Immersive Chinese$5.993 Months
  • Immersive Chinese$8.996 Months
One-time1
  • Lifetime Access$17.99

Questions

Is Learn Cryptic Crosswords free?
Learn Cryptic Crosswords is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Immersive Chinese free?
Immersive Chinese is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Learn Cryptic Crosswords or Immersive Chinese?
Learn Cryptic Crosswords and Immersive Chinese are both rated 4.8 out of 5 on the App Store, from 448 and 57 ratings respectively.
Do Learn Cryptic Crosswords or Immersive Chinese have ads?
Neither Learn Cryptic Crosswords nor Immersive Chinese shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Learn Cryptic Crosswords or Immersive Chinese?
Learn Cryptic Crosswords ships an update every 9 months, and Immersive Chinese every 5 weeks. Most recently, Learn Cryptic Crosswords was updated on September 23, 2026 and Immersive Chinese on September 23, 2026.

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