Dot Languages vs Langtern Chinese
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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 import your own content.
- HSK 3.0 & TOCFL 2.0 aligned curriculum
- AI-powered exercises and personalized practice
- 11,000+ lessons covering vocabulary, grammar, reading
- Daily refreshed articles and 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
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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.
Langtern Chinese
This app aids in learning Chinese by providing real-time assistance while browsing the web, watching videos, or reading documents. It offers a convenient way to look up unfamiliar characters and words in context, enhancing comprehension and vocabulary acquisition.
- Web page translation
- Video subtitle assistance
- Ebook and PDF reader support
- In-context word lookup
- Vocabulary enhancement
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Langtern helps you learn Chinese by assisting you when navigating Chinese web pages, watching videos in Chinese, or reading ebooks/PDFs in Chinese. The terms of service can be found at: https://langtern.com/public/doc/en/tos.html
Screenshots
Verdict
Dot Languages and Langtern Chinese both sit at 4.2 stars, but that hides the real split: 100% of Langtern Chinese's written reviews are positive against 72% of Dot Languages's. Dot Languages's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs monthly) and ratings volume (55 vs 6). On price, rating, 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
Both are free to download. Dot Languages sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $9.00 per month and Langtern Chinese sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.2 for Dot Languages against 4.2 for Langtern Chinese. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Dot Languages has 55 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 72% of Dot Languages's written reviews are positive against 100% of Langtern Chinese's.
Dot Languages ships an update every 5 days, Langtern Chinese monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 11, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Dot Languages | Langtern Chinese |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (55 ratings) — better | 4.2 (6 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 72.2% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 55 — better | 6 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days — better | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.5 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 186 MB | 71 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Dot Languages ApS | Noe Casas |
Customer experience
Dot Languages
Langtern Chinese
Bugs and 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
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- 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
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- Pictures to help remember words
- Way to practice tones for each character
- Option to switch to traditional characters
- App for Cantonese
Langtern Chinese
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Dot Languages
- Standard Monthly7 Days trial$9.001 Month
- Dot Premium - Monthly7 Days trial$18.491 Month
- Standard Yearly7 Days trial$72.001 Year
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- Dot Premium - Yearly7 Days trial$135.991 Year
- Dot Premium - Family Plan7 Days trial$339.001 Year
Langtern Chinese
- Student Plus$2.991 Month
- Teacher Mini$4.991 Month
- Teacher Premium$7.991 Month
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- Teacher Max$12.991 Month
- Student Plus (yearly)$23.491 Year
- Teacher Mini$49.991 Year
- Teacher Premium$79.991 Year
- Teacher Max$129.991 Year
Questions
Is Dot Languages free?
Is Langtern Chinese free?
Which has better reviews, Dot Languages or Langtern Chinese?
Do Dot Languages or Langtern Chinese have ads?
Which is updated more often, Dot Languages or Langtern Chinese?
Other comparisons
