Bopomofo Studio vs ToneBoard Keyboard
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Bopomofo Studio
Master Chinese pronunciation and characters with this interactive learning tool. It uses English sound comparisons for Bopomofo and allows you to track your progress against other learners. Practice typing and listening to improve your fluency.
- BPMF sound learning with English comparisons
- Typing and listening practice
- Score comparison with other users
- Zhuyin learning with Pinyin background
- Chinese character practice
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Learn and practice BPMF (Bopomofo, Zhuyin) and Chinese characters through typing and listening. - Use similar sounds in English to describe BPMF sounds. - Compare your score with other users! - Learn Zhuyin (BPMF) through a Pinyin background.
ToneBoard Keyboard
This app helps Mandarin Chinese learners practice tones by requiring them to input Pinyin with tones before suggesting characters. It functions like a standard QWERTY keyboard but enforces tone input for accurate recall.
- Mandarin tone practice
- Pinyin input with tones
- Character suggestion based on tones
- Standard QWERTY layout
- iOS compatible
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It can be very difficult for language learners to remember Mandarin Chinese tones, especially when using language learning apps and typing with standard Pinyin keyboards. These keyboards don't require you to input tones, making it very easy to type the correct characters without knowing the correct tones. These keyboards also tend to remember your frequently used words or suggest complete phrases, which is not helpful for language learners. By requiring you to enter tones along with Pinyin spellings before displaying characters, ToneBoard lets you practice recalling the correct tone for each syllable whenever you type. ToneBoard works very similarly to the standard simplified Chinese QWERTY keyboard for iOS, except that it requires tones to be input while typing before displaying word and character choices.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: ToneBoard Keyboard at 100% against Bopomofo Studio's 67%. ToneBoard Keyboard also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.6) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). Bopomofo Studio's advantage is ratings volume (29 vs 5). On price, update cadence, 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
ToneBoard Keyboard holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bopomofo Studio has 29 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 67% of Bopomofo Studio's written reviews are positive against 100% of ToneBoard Keyboard's.
Bopomofo Studio ships an update every 3 weeks, ToneBoard Keyboard every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bopomofo Studio | ToneBoard Keyboard |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (29 ratings) | 4.8 (5 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 66.7% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 29 — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 5 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 71 MB | 17 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Nelson Aquino | Kevin Bell |
Customer experience
Bopomofo Studio
ToneBoard Keyboard
In-app purchases
Bopomofo Studio
No in-app purchases
ToneBoard Keyboard
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Bopomofo Studio free?
Is ToneBoard Keyboard free?
Which has better reviews, Bopomofo Studio or ToneBoard Keyboard?
Do Bopomofo Studio or ToneBoard Keyboard have ads?
Which is updated more often, Bopomofo Studio or ToneBoard Keyboard?
Other comparisons
