Comparison

Dot Languages vs Hanly

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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.

About

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.

Highlights
  • Character etymology and mnemonics
  • Interactive component exploration
  • Structured learning progression
  • Spaced repetition system
  • Extensive character dictionary
  • Stroke order animations
Features
Read full description

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

Dot Languages4 screens
Hanly4 screens

Verdict

The call

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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

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.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Dot Languages ships an update every 5 days, Hanly every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Dot Languages versus Hanly: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDot LanguagesHanly
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (55 ratings)4.9 (403 ratings) — better
Positive reviews72.2% of reviews99.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings55403 — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.515.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size198 MB241 MB
Age rating4+9+
DeveloperDot Languages ApSArtur Gorokh

Customer experience

Dot Languages

All ratings55 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral5.5%
Negative14.5%
Written reviews54 reviews
Positive72.2%
Neutral5.6%
Negative22.2%

Hanly

All ratings357 ratings
Positive99.2%
Neutral0.3%
Negative0.6%
Written reviews229 reviews
Positive99.1%
Neutral0.4%
Negative0.4%

User reviews

Dot Languages

From 55 App Store ratings

What 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 ratings

What 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
Show 7 more
  • 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
Show 4 more
  • 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

5 purchases

Dot Languages

Subscriptions5
  • Standard Monthly7 Days trial$9.001 Month
  • Dot Premium - Monthly7 Days trial$18.491 Month
  • Standard Yearly7 Days trial$72.001 Year
Show 2 more
  • Dot Premium - Yearly7 Days trial$135.991 Year
  • Dot Premium - Family Plan7 Days trial$339.001 Year
1 purchases

Hanly

Subscriptions1
  • Hanly Premium$5.991 Month

Questions

Is Dot Languages free?
Dot Languages is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Hanly free?
Hanly is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Dot Languages or Hanly?
Hanly is rated higher. Dot Languages averages 4.2 out of 5 from 55 ratings, while Hanly averages 4.9 from 403 ratings.
Do Dot Languages or Hanly have ads?
Neither Dot Languages nor Hanly shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Dot Languages or Hanly?
Dot Languages ships an update every 5 days, and Hanly every 2 weeks. Most recently, Dot Languages was updated on October 24, 2026 and Hanly on October 24, 2026.

Other comparisons