Comparison

Cantone vs Lingora

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

Head to head
About

Cantone

Master tonal languages like Cantonese and Mandarin with interactive exercises. Improve your ability to perceive and speak tones, learn vocabulary, and understand tone sandhi rules through engaging activities.

Highlights
  • Perception and production tone activities
  • Vocabulary reinforcement
  • Tone sandhi rule learning
  • Support for traditional/simplified characters
  • Multiple transcription systems
  • Customizable user interface
Features
Read full description

Cantone helps you to put the tones in tonal languages. Cantone helps learners learn to perceive or speak tones in Cantonese or Mandarin - and reinforces this knowledge with vocabulary, tone sandhi, and other activities. We offer support for * traditional and simplified characters. * multiple transcription systems (Jyutping and Yale for Cantonese; Pinyin and bopomofo for Mandarin) * English, German, Mandarin, and Cantonese user interfaces. * light mode and dark mode You can learn tones and words incrementally and move on to more advanced topics when ready - or you can simply practice what you already know with tasks and ther fun activities. Perception activities tone your abilities to distinguish tones: * Hear sounds and guess the tones. * Match sounds to corresponding tone or word labels. Production activities help you to speak: * Personalize the system to you and your voice. * Listen to exemplars adjusted for your vocal range. * Listen to and match points in a tonal contour. * Follow tone contours at a slower speed with pitch feedback. * Plot attempts against canonical tone contours. Vocabulary activities reinforce your knowledge through words. * Learn words that differ in tone only (e.g. 買 vs. 賣). * Match words by tone, definition, character, and pronunciation. Tone Sandhi activities teach you about tone changes. * Learn tone change rules. * Listen to characters and predict the tones when the characters are put together. Other activities help hone your abilities: * Follow along with hilarious single syllable poems. * Listen to and internalize the "tone melody" * Learn common phrases. Enjoy! P.S. If you encounter bugs, please let me know at cantone.app@gmail.com, and I'll try to get back to you (and the bug) as quickly as possible.

About

Lingora

Learn new languages through interactive lessons, vocabulary games, and detailed grammar explanations. Progress from beginner to A1 level with sentence-centric learning and practice tools. Supports a wide range of languages with more being added.

Highlights
  • 500 lessons in 50 units
  • Sentence-centric learning approach
  • Vocabulary games and trainer
  • Grammar quizzes and breakdowns
  • Script and tone trainers
  • Progress tracking
  • Comprehensive dictionary
Features
Read full description

The most thorough language course you'll find in an app. 20+ languages, 500 lessons each, every single word of every sentence explained as thoroughly as you care to follow. One sentence might keep you busy for twenty minutes. WHAT'S IN A COURSE Each sentence gets a full lesson wrapped around it. 500 English sentences in all, hand-picked to cover every grammar structure and the full A1 vocabulary. Each word comes with its own full dictionary entry: definition with examples, any conjugation or declension it takes, the grammar topics behind it, and stroke-by-stroke guidance for new scripts. If you want to know why a word looks the way it does, the app can tell you. HOW A LESSON WORKS Each lesson opens with the intro. You hear the sentence before you see what it means. Slow it down, replay as often as you want. Then the Word Breakdown. Tap any word to see what it means and the grammar behind it. Then the literal, word-for-word translation. Then the grammar topics sitting inside the sentence. After the intros, the main session starts. Words and sentences from the current lesson get mixed with whatever's due for review, chosen by the spaced-repetition algorithm so you're practicing what you're closest to forgetting. Your own chosen exercise mix prioritizing reading, writing, or listening. Premium users can even further fine-tune exactly which exercises appear. 25+ WAYS TO PRACTICE Six word games and six sentence games. Flashcards you design yourself, picking what goes on each side. Quick-review tables. Multiple-Choice. Context-clue fill-ins where the wrong answers are similar on purpose. Character stroke practice with real-time validation. Typing exercises with a virtual keyboard. A speech trainer with per-word, color-coded feedback. An AI chat that stays on the lesson's topic and corrects you as you go. And so much more.. REFERENCE A dictionary that searches in native script, in transliteration, or in English. It finds base forms and inflected forms alike. A grammar guide covering every topic that appears in the course. Each has a thorough write-up and example sentences, plus the words and lesson sentences that show it in use. A pronunciation guide covering every consonant and vowel in the language. Tone guides for tonal languages. Script courses for writing systems you haven't learned yet. Conjugation tables for every verb and noun. Character breakdowns for CJK languages. WAYS TO FINE-TUNE Three sliders to weight reading, writing, and listening in each session. Silent mode for studying in public. Transliteration style where more than one exists (Jyutping or Yale, and so on). Diacritics on or off. Full control over what the app does. PROGRESS You'll see progress word by word and lesson by lesson. There's a streak counter, stars on completed lessons, and a weekly leaderboard if you want one. None of it is forced on you. Lifetime users can also export anything they've learned as an Anki deck. LANGUAGES Arabic · Cantonese · Catalan · Dutch · Filipino · French · German · Hindi · Indonesian · Italian · Japanese · Khmer · Korean · Malay · Mandarin · Polish · Portuguese (Brazilian & European) · Russian · Spanish (European & Mexican) · Thai · Turkish · Ukrainian · Vietnamese (Northern & Southern) No hearts. No energy. No cartoons. Just a proper course.

Screenshots

Cantone4 screens
Lingora4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Cantone at none against Lingora's 40. Cantone also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.6) and review sentiment (100% vs 77%). Lingora's advantage is ratings volume (52 vs 11). On price, update cadence, ads 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. Lingora sells 40 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Cantone asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Cantone holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 11 and 52 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Cantone's written reviews are positive against 77% of Lingora's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Cantone ships an update every 2 weeks, Lingora every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Cantone versus Lingora: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCantoneLingora
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (11 ratings) — better4.6 (52 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better77.3% of reviews
Number of ratings1152 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 8 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS12.4 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size32 MB148 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBrent HoAlexander Stebner

Customer experience

Cantone

All ratings11 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Lingora

All ratings52 ratings
Positive90.4%
Neutral3.8%
Negative5.8%
Written reviews22 reviews
Positive77.3%
Neutral9.1%
Negative13.6%

In-app purchases

None

Cantone

No in-app purchases

40 purchases

Lingora

Subscriptions27
  • Cantonese A1 Premium (Monthly)$3.991 Month
  • Malay A1 Premium (Monthly)$3.991 Month
  • Mandarin A1 Premium (Monthly)7 Days trial$3.991 Month
Show 24 more
  • German A1 Premium (Monthly)7 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Korean A1 Premium (Monthly)$3.991 Month
  • Vietnamese A1 Premium (M)7 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Korean A1 Premium (Monthly)7 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Catalan A1 Premium (Monthly)7 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Indonesian A1 Premium (M)$3.991 Month
  • French A1 Premium (Monthly)$3.991 Month
  • Bra. Portuguese A1 Premium (M)$3.991 Month
  • Turkish A1 Premium (Monthly)$3.991 Month
  • Dutch A1 Premium (Monthly)$3.991 Month
  • Sth.Vietnamese A1 Premium (1m)$3.991 Month
  • Cantonese A1 Premium (Monthly)7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • French A1 Premium (Monthly)7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Polish A1 Premium (Monthly)7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Mex. Spanish A1 Premium (M)7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Sth. Vietnamese A1 Premium (M)7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Malay A1 Premium (Monthly)7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Thai A1 Premium (Monthly)7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • All Courses Pro (Monthly)$6.991 Month
  • Polish A1 Pro (Yearly)$11.991 Year
  • Malay A1 Pro (Yearly)$11.991 Year
  • All Courses Premium (Monthly)$12.991 Month
  • Cantonese A1 Pro (Yearly)$14.991 Year
  • Sth. Vietnamese A1 Pro Yearly$14.991 Year
One-time13
  • French A1 Lifetime Access$3.99
  • Mandarin A1 Lifetime Access$49.99
  • Eur. Spanish A1 Lifetime$49.99
Show 10 more
  • Malay A1 Lifetime Access$49.99
  • Catalan A1 Lifetime Access$49.99
  • Korean A1 Lifetime Access$49.99
  • Mex.Spanish A1 Lifetime Access$49.99
  • Thai A1 Lifetime Access$49.99
  • Vietnamese A1 Lifetime Access$49.99
  • Polish A1 Lifetime Access$49.99
  • Sth. Vietnamese A1 Lifetime$49.99
  • Cantonese A1 Lifetime Access$49.99
  • Lingora Lifetime$99.99

Questions

Is Cantone free?
Cantone is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Lingora free?
Lingora is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Cantone or Lingora?
Cantone is rated higher. Cantone averages 5.0 out of 5 from 11 ratings, while Lingora averages 4.6 from 52 ratings.
Do Cantone or Lingora have ads?
Neither Cantone nor Lingora shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Cantone or Lingora?
Cantone ships an update every 2 weeks, and Lingora every 8 days. Most recently, Cantone was updated on October 6, 2026 and Lingora on October 14, 2026.

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