Comparison

Immersive Chinese vs Dot Languages

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

Head to head
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.

About

Dot Languages

Master Mandarin Chinese with a structured curriculum aligned to HSK 3.0 and TOCFL 2.0. Engage with AI-powered exercises, personalized practice, and a vast library of lessons and articles. Track progress, stay motivated with gamified elements, and even bring your own content for study.

Highlights
  • HSK 3.0 & TOCFL 2.0 aligned curriculum
  • AI-powered exercises and personalized practice
  • 11,000+ lessons covering vocabulary, grammar, reading
  • Daily refreshed articles with in-app dictionary
  • Spaced repetition for vocabulary retention
  • Animated stroke-order character writing
  • Speech recognition for pronunciation practice
  • User-added content and study material generation
Features
Read full description

Dot Languages is a complete Chinese learning app: lessons carefully written and crafted by humans, advanced exercises powered by AI — all built around a structured curriculum aligned to HSK 3.0 (2021 and 2025) and TOCFL 2.0 (2023), with personalised practice. Learn at your own pace through a dynamic HSK-aligned learning path with 11,000+ lessons covering vocabulary, grammar, and reading. Read new articles daily, refreshed for every HSK level, and look up any word in a comprehensive Chinese-English dictionary with character components. Practice that adapts to you: spaced repetition for vocabulary retention, animated stroke-order character writing, speech recognition for pronunciation, multiple choice, matching, sentence arrangement, flash cards, and AI-evaluated open-ended questions. Stay motivated with awards, streaks, learning milestones, leaderboards, and social profiles. Track your performance with weekly progress charts. Bring your own content — add private articles from any source and generate study material from text you paste in. More features: family plans, teacher classroom tools, grammar with sentence-structure analysis, and variable-speed audio narration of articles.

Screenshots

Immersive Chinese4 screens
Dot Languages4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Immersive Chinese at 4.8 against Dot Languages's 4.2. Immersive Chinese also leads on review sentiment (90% vs 72%). Dot Languages's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs every 5 weeks). On price, ratings volume, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Immersive Chinese sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Dot Languages sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $9.00 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Immersive Chinese holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 57 and 55 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 90% of Immersive Chinese's written reviews are positive against 72% of Dot Languages's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Immersive Chinese ships an update every 5 weeks, Dot Languages every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Immersive Chinese versus Dot Languages: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterImmersive ChineseDot Languages
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (57 ratings) — better4.2 (55 ratings)
Positive reviews89.7% of reviews — better72.2% of reviews
Number of ratings57 — better55
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.0 — better15.5
Further details — not scored
Size46 MB200 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperIain ChalmersDot Languages ApS

Customer experience

Immersive Chinese

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

Dot Languages

All ratings55 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral5.5%
Negative14.5%
Written reviews54 reviews
Positive72.2%
Neutral5.6%
Negative22.2%

Bugs and requests

Immersive Chinese

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Dot Languages

Reported bugs

12 issues
  • App closes every time after signing up
  • App not opening
  • App crashes on startup
  • Articles disappear when hitting back icon
  • Return button partially visible after lesson
Show 7 more
  • Bug where leaving and re-entering a story counts as two reads
  • App freezes and never works again
  • Login screen freezes
  • App doesn't load at all
  • Kicks out of login every time app is opened
  • Streak and articles read does not carry across devices
  • Button of 'open more stories' doesn't work

Requested features

9 requests
  • Add Korean and Japanese language options
  • Add stories in addition to articles
  • Option for lifetime subscription
  • Speaking exercises
  • More vibrant colors and backgrounds
Show 4 more
  • Pictures to help remember words
  • Way to practice tones for each character
  • Option to switch to traditional characters
  • App for Cantonese

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Immersive Chinese

Subscriptions3
  • Immersive Chinese$3.991 Month
  • Immersive Chinese$5.993 Months
  • Immersive Chinese$8.996 Months
One-time1
  • Lifetime Access$24.99
5 purchases

Dot Languages

Subscriptions5
  • Standard Monthly7 Days trial$9.001 Month
  • Dot Premium - Monthly7 Days trial$18.491 Month
  • Standard Yearly7 Days trial$72.001 Year
Show 2 more
  • Dot Premium - Yearly7 Days trial$135.991 Year
  • Dot Premium - Family Plan7 Days trial$339.001 Year

Questions

Is Immersive Chinese free?
Immersive Chinese is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Dot Languages free?
Dot Languages is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Immersive Chinese or Dot Languages?
Immersive Chinese is rated higher. Immersive Chinese averages 4.8 out of 5 from 57 ratings, while Dot Languages averages 4.2 from 55 ratings.
Do Immersive Chinese or Dot Languages have ads?
Neither Immersive Chinese nor Dot Languages shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Immersive Chinese or Dot Languages?
Immersive Chinese ships an update every 5 weeks, and Dot Languages every 5 days. Most recently, Immersive Chinese was updated on October 24, 2026 and Dot Languages on October 30, 2026.

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