Modern Chinese vs Standard Dictionary
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Modern Chinese
Learn beginner Chinese through a story-based approach featuring six college students. This app offers interactive activities for listening, reading, and speaking practice, focusing on practical communication skills for adult learners.
- Story-based learning approach
- Interactive Text Video
- Reading Practice exercises
- Role Play scenarios
- Proficiency Demonstration
- Progress tracking based on ability
Read full descriptionHide full description
Modern Chinese is a beginner Chinese language textbook designed for college students and adult learners with no previous exposure to Chinese. This unique program adopts a story-based approach that follows the lives of six college students whose multi-cultural backgrounds reflect today's globalized world. The themes are designed to provide students with the vocabulary and context to engage and communicate in real-life conversations quickly. This is the iPhone version of Modern Chinese, which leads the way to create the most innovative and holistic Chinese learning experience. It has 4 activities - Text Video, Reading Practice, Role Play, and Proficiency Demonstration, creating the best language learning experience by offering ample opportunities to practice listening, reading, and speaking. The iPhone application measures students' progress by what they can do in the Chinese language rather than how many vocabulary words they know. Subscriptions purchased from the app will be charged to your iTunes account and will automatically renew within 24 hours prior to the end of the current subscription period unless auto-renewal is disabled beforehand. To manage your subscriptions or to disable auto-renewal, go to your iTunes account settings. Privacy Policy: https://www.betterchinese.com/Privacy-Policy.html Terms of Uses: https://www.betterchinese.com/pages/terms-of-use
Standard Dictionary
Read full descriptionHide full description
Standard Dictionary Standard Dictionary offers worldwide Chinese learners a tool to learn Chinese characters, including pronunciation, structure, component and so on. Standard Dictionary is designed for all levels of learner. The Standard Dictionary offers you: • Discover original meta components and find out all regular structures for each Chinese character; • Cover more than 8,000 Chinese characters even people just need 3500 to read 99.9% Chinese articles; • Pinyin included throughout; • Simplified and traditional forms of each Chinese character; • Over ten thousand of useful words, phrases, idioms and example sentences; • Related audio and videos; • Images for thousands of entries; Standard Dictionary is highly recommended by educators, parents, and media. Standard Dictionary is named by the surname of Dr. John Chu, which is the writer of this dictionary.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Modern Chinese at monthly against Standard Dictionary's every 2 months. Standard Dictionary's advantage is iOS requirement (11.0 vs 13.0). 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. Modern Chinese sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Standard Dictionary sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Modern Chinese ships an update monthly, Standard Dictionary every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Modern Chinese | Standard Dictionary |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Monthly — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 11.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 10 MB | 87 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Better Chinese, Inc. | Clavis Sinica Limited |
In-app purchases
Modern Chinese
- TextBook 1A1 Month trial$2.991 Month
- TextBook 1B1 Month trial$2.991 Month
- TextBook 2A1 Month trial$2.991 Month
Show 5 moreShow fewer
- TextBook 2B1 Month trial$2.991 Month
- TextBook 1A1 Month trial$19.991 Year
- TextBook 1B1 Month trial$19.991 Year
- TextBook 2A1 Month trial$19.991 Year
- TextBook 2B1 Month trial$19.991 Year
Standard Dictionary
- 1.99点券$1.99
- Secondary directory(Proxy)$7.99
- 9.99点券$9.99
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- 14.99点券$14.99
- First level directory(Proxy)$17.99
- Monthly membership(Proxy)$17.99
- Monthly membership$19.99
- 29.99点券$29.99
- Annual membership(Proxy)$189.99
- Annual membership$199.99
Questions
Is Modern Chinese free?
Is Standard Dictionary free?
Do Modern Chinese or Standard Dictionary have ads?
Which is updated more often, Modern Chinese or Standard Dictionary?
Other comparisons















