Comparison

WriteChinese vs Sentopoly

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

Head to head
About

WriteChinese

Learn the correct stroke order for Chinese characters with animated guides and pronunciation. Supports text recognition, offline lookup, and practice writing with error correction. Ideal for students and learners of Chinese.

Highlights
  • Stroke order lookup and animation
  • Pinyin annotation and voice pronunciation
  • Text recognition for input
  • Offline dictionary
  • Writing practice with error alerts
  • Simplified and traditional Chinese support
Features
Read full description

"WriteChinese" is an app for learning the stroke order of Chinese characters, with stroke order lookup, pinyin annotation, voice playback, flashcards and vocabulary review. It works on iPhone, iPad and Apple Pencil. The app strictly follows the latest standards for Chinese character stroke order and includes tens of thousands of common characters, meeting the lookup needs of teachers, parents and children. Stroke order and radicals are based on the "Elementary School Students' Stroke-Radical-Structure Character-level Stroke Order Dictionary" and the "Modern Chinese Stroke-Radical-Structure Character-level Stroke Order Standard Dictionary." All of the more than 20,000 Chinese characters supported by "WriteChinese" are annotated with pinyin, and users can tap the play button to hear the pronunciation. Features: * Take a photo or choose an image for text recognition to help you input the characters you want to practice. * Handwriting lookup: find the character you want by writing it by hand, even if you can't type Chinese. * New flashcards: turn characters into cards for reviewing and memorizing anytime, anywhere. * New vocabulary book: automatically collect new characters for repeated review. * New word list quiz: test how well you've mastered a list, with your progress at a glance. * After text recognition, automatically translate English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Russian, Portuguese, German, Italian, Dutch, Finnish, Danish, Thai, Korean, Vietnamese and Japanese into Chinese for easy comparison while learning Chinese. * Offline dictionary: look up characters you don't know. * Automatically save your input or text-recognition history for easy practice later. * Supports stroke order practice for almost all Chinese characters. * Play the standard stroke order of characters as an animation. * Practice writing Chinese characters; if there is a mistake, the app alerts you to the incorrect stroke. * Show or hide the stroke order to help with dictation and to strengthen memory. * Automatically annotate pinyin when you input any Chinese characters. * Voice playback of Chinese characters: if you don't know how to read a character, just tap the voice button to hear it. * Share your handwritten characters with friends. * Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and English explanations. Discover more features... Chinese characters have a history of more than six thousand years; they are the world's longest continuously used writing system, with no break in transmission. They are the only surviving ideographic script created by ancient people and an important part of Chinese culture. We sincerely hope "WriteChinese" can help Chinese learners around the world and help billions of Chinese users learn how to write Chinese characters. Unlimited Access Membership Subscription - Use all in-app features without restrictions through this subscription. - Subscriptions are charged weekly, monthly or yearly, depending on the selected plan. - Payment is charged to your iTunes account upon confirmation of purchase. - You can turn off auto-renewal 24 hours before the current period ends, or it will renew automatically. - Renewal is charged to your account within 24 hours before the current period ends, depending on your plan. - Users can manage subscriptions and turn off auto-renewal in account settings after purchase. - Any unused free subscription time is forfeited after purchasing a subscription. Privacy Policy: https://www.dazhuogroup.com/writechinese/privacy_statement_en.php Terms of Use: https://www.dazhuogroup.com/writechinese/terms_of_use_en.php

About

Sentopoly

Features
Read full description

Sentopoly: learn a language from the sentences you actually need. SEVENTEEN LANGUAGES Learn Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan), Dutch, English, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish or Vietnamese, starting from any of the others. Choose the language you speak and the one you want, and change pairs whenever you like. TYPE OR SAY A SENTENCE In your language or the one you are learning. Sentopoly translates it the way a native speaker would say it and breaks it into words: meaning, part of speech, pronunciation and a note on usage. Chinese comes with Zhuyin or pinyin, Japanese with furigana and romaji, Korean, Russian, Arabic and Hindi with romanisation, and the European languages with IPA. HEAR IT PROPERLY Every sentence and every word is read in a natural native voice, in all 17 languages. Listen mode plays your sentences one after another, with the screen off if you like, with shuffle and a pause after each one so you can repeat it. SAY IT, GET SCORED Shadow mode plays the sentence, records you repeating it, and scores your pronunciation word by word. Words you got wrong turn red; tap one to hear it again. Scoring covers 15 of the 17 languages; for Indonesian and Turkish you can still record yourself and compare. REMEMBER IT Sentences and words go into a five-stage spaced-repetition schedule. A few minutes a day keeps everything you have learned alive. A daily goal and a streak keep you honest, a day with nothing due never breaks your streak, and Hard ones drills the cards you keep missing. START WITH A TOOLKIT Learning Taiwan Mandarin? A built-in starter pack gives you 250 everyday sentences in ten units: asking questions, people and things, numbers and money, time, dates, measurements, directions, past and future, can / want / need, feelings. Starter packs for the other languages, each adapted to the country where the language is spoken, arrive in the next update. YOUR LIBRARY Tag sentences, search them, filter yours from the course. The app's own interface is in English or Traditional Chinese. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account. Your sentences live on your phone and in your own iCloud backup. No ads, no tracking. SENTOPOLY PRO Try everything free for 7 days. Pro unlocks unlimited new sentences, voices and pronunciation scoring: US$4.99 a month or US$29.99 a year. Cancel any time; everything you saved stays yours. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://sentopoly-proxy.khazaril-1df.workers.dev/privacy

Screenshots

WriteChinese4 screens
Sentopoly4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Sentopoly at every 3 days against WriteChinese's every 7 months. 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. WriteChinese sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days and Sentopoly sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

WriteChinese ships an update every 7 months, Sentopoly every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
WriteChinese versus Sentopoly: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWriteChineseSentopoly
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (21 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews25.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings21 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size356 MB104 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperShanghai Dazhuo Information Technology Co., Ltd.Ian Jukes

In-app purchases

3 purchases

WriteChinese

Subscriptions3
  • Weekly Subscription3 Days trial$1.997 Days
  • Monthly Subscription3 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Annual Subscription3 Days trial$19.991 Year
2 purchases

Sentopoly

Subscriptions2
  • Sentopoly Pro, monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Sentopoly Pro, yearly7 Days trial$29.991 Year

Questions

Is WriteChinese free?
WriteChinese is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Sentopoly free?
Sentopoly is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do WriteChinese or Sentopoly have ads?
Neither WriteChinese nor Sentopoly shows ads.
Which is updated more often, WriteChinese or Sentopoly?
WriteChinese ships an update every 7 months, and Sentopoly every 3 days. Most recently, WriteChinese was updated on November 3, 2026 and Sentopoly on November 6, 2026.

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