Hanzi vs Han4ABC
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Hanzi
Learn to write and type Chinese characters with animated stroke order guides. This free version offers 80 basic characters and phrases, with a full version planned for HSK levels 1-6.
- Animated stroke order guides
- Learn to write basic characters
- Practice typing Chinese text
- Includes common phrases
- Free version with 80 characters
Read full descriptionHide full description
Learn Chinese writing from the very beginning, starting with simple but useful characters that later combine to make more complex characters. Just follow the animated stroke order! I wrote this app for my kids to learn how to read, write and type text messages to their grandparents in China. This free version includes 80 characters. After mastering these, you will be able to write phrases like: • "Hello" - 你好 • "I don't understand" - 我不懂 • "I have to go to class!" - 我要去上课了 • "Please give me a cup of water" - 请给我一杯水 • "This is my daughter" - 这是我的女儿 You will need to enable the iPhone Chinese keyboard in the Settings app: General -> Keyboard -> Add New Keyboard ... -> Chinese (Simplified) -> Handwriting While not a pre-requisite for this app, if you are taking a listening and speaking course in Mandarin Chinese, you can also follow the pinyin (pronounciation) shown alongside each character. Stay tuned for the full version with all HSK Levels 1 to 6 characters as well as many more phrases and features.
Han4ABC
This app acts as a personal tutor to help you learn Chinese characters, pronunciation, and vocabulary. It offers interactive exercises for stroke order, speaking practice, idiom composition, and reading classic poems.
- Practice stroke order
- Listen to Mandarin and Cantonese pronunciations
- Pronunciation quiz with speech recognition
- Guess English words from Chinese phrases
- Compose idioms
- Read Tang poems with pinyin
Read full descriptionHide full description
Han4ABC helps Chinese children growing up outside China learn Chinese like having a personal tutor. - Practice stroke order, Mandarin & Cantonese pronunciation, meanings, and example sentences - Improve speaking with Apple speech-recognition pronunciation quizzes - Learn common Chinese characters by grade level - Build English vocabulary through Chinese phrase games - Compose and read Chinese idioms aloud - Enjoy Three Hundred Tang Poems with pinyin and audio playback Interactive lessons, speaking practice, and classic Chinese culture — all in one app.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Han4ABC at 4.4 against Hanzi's 2.5. Han4ABC also leads on review sentiment (83% vs 67%) and ratings volume (27 vs 2). Hanzi's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 2 days vs every 3 months). On price 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Han4ABC holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 2.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Han4ABC has 27 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 67% of Hanzi's written reviews are positive against 83% of Han4ABC's.
Hanzi ships an update every 2 days, Han4ABC every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Hanzi | Han4ABC |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.5 (2 ratings) | 4.4 (27 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 66.7% of reviews | 83.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 27 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Ad-supported |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 9.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 35 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Richard Gomes | Jianfeng Wu |
Customer experience
Hanzi
Han4ABC
In-app purchases
Hanzi
No in-app purchases
Han4ABC
No in-app purchases









