Dot Languages vs Hanly
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Dot Languages
Master Mandarin Chinese with engaging texts tailored to your skill level, from beginner to advanced. Practice reading, listening, and writing with daily new content covering diverse topics. Share and discover texts with a community of learners.
- Learn Mandarin Chinese texts
- HSK 1-9 level categorization
- Daily new text additions
- Custom text creation and sharing
- Reading, listening, and writing practice
- Progress tracking
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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.
Hanly
Learn thousands of Chinese characters efficiently by understanding their structure and origin. This app uses visual breakdowns, engaging stories, and interactive elements to build an intuitive grasp of characters and aid memorization. It focuses on frequently used vocabulary and offers a structured learning progression.
- Character etymology and mnemonics
- Interactive component exploration
- Structured learning progression
- Spaced repetition system
- Extensive character dictionary
- Stroke order animations
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Chinese characters are not just random shapes - learn 1000 characters in months by understanding their structure and origin! Through visual breakdowns and engaging stories, Hanly helps you develop an intuitive grasp of Chinese characters and to efficiently remember them. Hanly starts with simple components and quickly builds up to complex characters, while focusing on the most frequently used vocabulary. CARDS THAT MAKE CHARACTERS COME ALIVE Etymology, memorable illustrations, mnemonics: we will provide the most helpful information to get a character to come alive in your imagination and stick in your memory for good. INTUITIVE INTERACTIVE UI Play with characters like they’re Lego blocks! Explore radicals, components, compound words, and character relationships - all just one click away! CAREFULLY OPTIMIZED LEARNING PROGRESSION Start with simple building blocks and naturally progress to complex characters. Our carefully designed levels introduce the most frequent characters early while maintaining coherent, meaningful themes. EXTENSIVE CHARACTER DICTIONARY & SEARCH Search by character, pinyin or meaning to find: - Character meanings and pronunciations - Usage in compound words and characters - Frequency and HSK level - Radical forms - Stroke order animations - Character evolution history SPACED REPETITION ENGINE INTEGRATED WITH THE UI Built-in spaced repetition helps you review characters at the perfect time, with review schedule optimized for how well you know a given character. Character progress is deeply integrated with the UI, so that you can spot the characters you are learning on any page. AND MANY MORE FEATURES! - Detailed learning statistics - Character etymology stories & fun facts - Explore characters & radicals sorted by their frequency - Personal note-taking system - Easily mark characters you already know Terms of use: https://www.hanlyapp.com/terms-of-use Privacy policy: https://www.hanlyapp.com/privacy-policy Contact us: We’d love to hear from your feedback about Hanly! Please send us an email with your thoughts and suggestions at tutu@hanlyapp.com
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Hanly at 4.9 against Dot Languages's 4.2. Hanly also leads on review sentiment (99% vs 72%) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). Dot Languages's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs every 2 weeks). 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. Dot Languages sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $9.00 per month and Hanly sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $5.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Hanly holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Hanly has 403 ratings behind it against 55, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 72% of Dot Languages's written reviews are positive against 99% of Hanly's.
Dot Languages ships an update every 5 days, Hanly every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | Dot Languages | Hanly |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (55 ratings) | 4.9 (403 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 72.2% of reviews | 99.1% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 55 | 403 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.5 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 198 MB | 241 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Dot Languages ApS | Artur Gorokh |
Customer experience
Dot Languages
Hanly
User reviews
Dot Languages
From 55 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- ✨ Amazing app for learning Chinese
- 📚 Incredibly useful functions
- 🎨 Beautifully designed
- 💯 Must-have for Chinese learners
- ✍️ Versatile: writing, reading, listening, speaking
Room to improve
- ❌ App not opening/crashing
- 📉 App has gone downhill
- 💸 Overpriced and too many bugs
- 🚫 Useless unless you pay
- 🤔 Too simplified, unhelpful buttons
Hanly
From 403 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Intuitive and efficient way to learn characters
- 🚀 Effective learning method that builds on prior knowledge
- 💡 Helpful mnemonics and stories to aid memorization
- 👍 Customizable learning pace and progress tracking
- 🚀 Comprehensive coverage of characters and components
Room to improve
- 🐛 Some AI-generated illustrations could be improved
- 💡 Addition of writing practice and example sentences would be helpful
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
Hanly
Reported bugs
1 issue- No known major bugs reported
Requested features
3 requests- Addition of writing practice for characters
- Inclusion of example sentences for each character
- Expansion of content to cover more advanced vocabulary
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
Hanly
- Hanly Premium$5.991 Month








