Mandaboo vs MidMando
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Mandaboo
A fun, improv-style game designed to improve Mandarin speaking and listening skills. Players guess Mandarin words by following clues, avoiding specific taboo words to enhance comprehension and vocabulary. Play solo or with friends for an engaging learning experience.
- Guess Mandarin words with clues
- Avoid taboo words
- Improve listening comprehension
- Enhance speaking skills
- Play solo or with friends
- Create custom word lists
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Start playing Mandaboo today—a game of unspeakable Mandarin fun. Follow clues to guess the Mandarin word in this Mandarin game of improv, learning and laughs. Some clues are taboo to challenge your Mandarin listening comprehension and get your mind’s gears turning in Mandarin to guess the word in question. WHAT’S A MANDABOO? It’s a guessing challenge where the speaker gives you clues but they are not allowed to say certain taboo words to keep you guessing longer. You’ll hang on every clue until you make a Mandarin breakthrough…or bust! Will you be stumped? Only one way to know! ARE YOU UP FOR THE GUESSING CHALLENGE? Play on your own with the built-in Mandaboos or play with friends by creating your own Mandaboos for friends to guess, or try your guessing prowess with your friends’ Mandaboos and keep the learning going. Terms Of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
MidMando
Master Chinese characters with this app, connecting Hanzi to Pinyin and English translations. It offers comprehensive learning for HSK levels 1-9, interactive hints, custom input, and effective review modes for long-term retention.
- Master 9,466 HSK 1-9 words
- Interactive hint mode for instant translation
- Custom Pinyin or handwriting input
- Effective review mode for retention
- Dark mode support
- Connect Hanzi with Pinyin and English
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MidMando is a free Mandarin course for iPhone and iPad. It takes you from your first character to HSK 9, following the new HSK 3.0 exam, with a daily plan that fits your day and a memory that never lets a word slip away. There are no ads, no subscription, no account and nothing to unlock. It is free because the best Mandarin app should not cost anything. What we ask instead is that you tell us how to make it better. YOUR DAILY PLAN Open the app and today is ready: the word of the day, the next class in your course, the words you bookmarked, the words you met outside the course, a review of what is slipping, and the pairs you keep mixing up. Choose a plan of five words or fifty. Miss a day and it is still there tomorrow. THE WHOLE COURSE, FOLLOWING HSK 3.0 11,000 words across HSK 1 to 9, the vocabulary of the HSK 3.0 exam syllabus, in short classes of about fifteen. Each class has nine parts: learn, quiz, type, sentences, listening, tones, translation, write, and a test that unlocks the next class. PRACTICE PAPERS Full practice papers for every level, HSK 1 to 7–9, with their listening recordings, and a speaking test for HSK 3 to 6. Sit one as an exam or practise with each answer checked as you go, read the explanations in English, switch pinyin on or off, and ask for feedback on your written and spoken answers. FOUR SKILLS FOR EVERY WORD Every word records how well you read it, hear it, write it by hand and type it, on one ladder: not met, started, warming, solid, mastered. The HSK page shows your whole course by any one skill, so you can see what you can read and what you can write. Spaced repetition schedules every word from your answers: words you get right drift out to months, words you miss come straight back. FLASHCARDS A swipe deck of the words you can read. Right if you know it, left to open its page. EVERY WORD HAS A PAGE Tap any word anywhere: the character in large serif, the reading with audio, every meaning, example sentences, other ways to say it, words it is not the same as, tone traps, the pieces it is built from and your own history with it. TRANSLATE ANYTHING Paste a message, or point the camera at a menu, a sign or a page. You get the Chinese, the pinyin, the English, and every word listed, with the ones you have not met ready to add to your plan. Everything you translate is kept so you can read it again. THE LIBRARY Radicals and components: 514 pieces and 201 radicals from the national standards. Every character in the app can be taken apart. Idioms and sayings: 5,242 of them, with the literal reading, the meaning, the story and an example. Poems: 127 classical poems with pinyin and a plain English line beside every Chinese line. Provinces & Cities: all 34 provinces and 961 districts, with bookmarks and notes for places. Slang and texting: the words people actually type, with the register explained. Songs: 69 Chinese songs ordered by how many of the words you already know. Pairs: match hanzi to their readings, using only words you have met. 布布: a chat partner who speaks only the words you can read, in guided chats or everyday small talk. WRITE IT BY HAND Write any chengyu or phrase with a brush and keep it as your wallpaper. On iPad, the Writing tab takes whole sentences with Apple Pencil, marks every character, and has a writing course. WIDGETS The word of the day, and Quick fire, a new word on a timer. Tap either to open the word. SEARCH EVERYTHING One search box for words, idioms, poems, songs, places and your own history, in English, pinyin or Chinese. YOURS, EVERYWHERE Everything except translating, marking and chat works offline. Your progress syncs through your own iCloud to your iPhone, iPad and Mac; we never see it. Works in mainland China without a VPN. I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU There is a report-a-bug button on almost every screen and a feedback page on our site. I read and respond to every email.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Mandaboo at 5.0 against MidMando's 4.0. Mandaboo also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 67%) and ratings volume (6 vs 1). MidMando's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and ads (none vs shown). On price, update cadence 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. Mandaboo sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. MidMando asks for nothing beyond the download.
Mandaboo holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Mandaboo has 6 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Mandaboo's written reviews are positive against 67% of MidMando's.
Mandaboo ships an update weekly, MidMando every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Mandaboo | MidMando |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (6 ratings) — better | 4.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 66.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 6 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 91 MB | 442 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Mandarin Monkey Ltd | Alistair Kenyon Brodie |
Customer experience
Mandaboo
MidMando
In-app purchases
Mandaboo
- Monthly Subscription3 Days trial$9.991 Month
- Six Month Subscription3 Days trial$54.996 Months
- Annual Subscription$99.991 Year
MidMando
No in-app purchases









