Comparison

Chinese Begin vs Pinyin Learner

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

Head to head
About

Chinese Begin

Master Chinese with interactive lessons covering listening, writing, and speaking. Practice grammar with quizzes and access live and micro-courses. Start with free video lessons and upgrade for full access to practice, quizzes, and live classes.

Highlights
  • Interactive listening exercises
  • Character stroke guidance for writing
  • Speech recording and scoring
  • Grammar quizzes
  • Live and micro-courses
  • Free video lessons
Features
Read full description

Learning Center You can learn by clicking on the corresponding course. All Course videos are free of charge. Listening: You can choose the correct answer by listening to a word or a sentence. Writing:You can follow the strokes demonstrated to write the Chinese character . Speaking: First listen and then click the record button to retell what you have heard. We will score you according to the fluency and accuracy of your input. Quiz: You can take a Quiz to see if you have mastered the grammar points of the corresponding video lesson. >Live Course We can push live courses for face-to-face teaching. >Micro Course We can push micro-courses related to Chinese learning. The privilege of our VIP You can start for FREE with the free video lessons. If you want to take it a step further and enjoy practice and quiz parts, we recommend Premium. As well as being able to enjoy the course and all the activities, you’ll have unlimited access to live classes and microlessons. For more information, please read our Privacy Policy and our General Terms and Conditions: https://chinese.uhang.com.cn/privacyPolicy/

About

Pinyin Learner

Features
Read full description

Pinyin Memory is a quiet place to keep the Chinese you meet --- words, lines, phrases --- and re-meet them later. Not a course. Not a translator. A personal memory center for one learner at a time. The pitch is simple: capture in 5 seconds, re-meet through play. No streaks shoving you back into the app. No grades. No leaderboards. Just your corpus, your pace, your mood. --- What you get --- CAPTURE • One-screen entry: type a hanzi, get auto-pinyin and per-character tone colors. • Tag it. Add a meaning in your language. Save. Done. • Decomposer: paste any Chinese text, tap segments to save. DICTIONARY • Your corpus, searchable across hanzi, pinyin, and meaning. • Filter by tag, kind, or how shaky you are on it. • Every entry has its own postcard with notes and TTS. RE-MEETING (the heart of it) • Recall - infinite 4-direction swipe self-test. Forget, not sure, almost, know. Cards keep coming. • Match - memory pair game from 4×4 to 10×10. • Cloze - fill in the missing character from four options. • Flashback - Tinder-style quick recognition for honest self-rating. PRACTICE • Tone Tap - hear a syllable, tap the tone. • Tone Twin - find the same-tone-pattern pair in a grid. • Daily Drop - one fresh word per day. Keep or skip. • Mosaic - drag hanzi cards to build a sentence from a translation. INSIGHTS • Streak, memory size, last-7-days bars, 5-week heatmap, by-tag breakdown. • All offline, all from your own review events. --- Local-only by design --- No account. No cloud. No analytics. No tracking pixel. No third-party SDKs hidden in the corners. Your dictionary lives in a SQLite file on your phone. Export it anytime as JSON. Delete the app, the data goes too. --- Paper & Ink design --- Warm paper, cast ink, hand-stamped serial. Italic Fraunces headings, Geist body, Caveat handwriting for your own meanings, Noto Serif SC for the hanzi. Tone colors that work with the palette --- not traffic-light red/yellow/green. Choose from 10 themes: Paper & Ink, Midnight Glow, Garden, Ember, Love Letter, Aqua Glow, Gold Century, Crimson Court, Linen, and Mocha. --- Pinyin Pro (optional) --- Free forever: Dictionary, Recall, Match, Cloze, Flashback, Decomposer, and the first two themes. Pinyin Pro unlocks: Tone Tap, Daily Drop, Tone Twin, Mosaic, and all 10 themes. Subscribe monthly, yearly or lifetime based on your needs

Screenshots

Chinese Begin4 screens
Pinyin Learner4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Chinese Begin at 9.0 against Pinyin Learner's 15.1. 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. Chinese Begin sells 3 one-off in-app purchases and Pinyin Learner sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

Scorecard1 real difference · 7 level
Chinese Begin versus Pinyin Learner: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChinese BeginPinyin Learner
PriceFreeFree
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS9.0 — better15.1
Further details — not scored
Size108 MB54 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperWuhan Youhang Network Technology Co.,Ltd.RIOU Kevin

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Chinese Begin

One-time3
  • membership for one month$9.99
  • membership for six months$49.99
  • membership for one year$79.99
3 purchases

Pinyin Learner

Subscriptions2
  • Pinyin Pro Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Pinyin Pro Yearly$22.991 Year
One-time1
  • Pinyin Pro Lifetime$24.99

Questions

Is Chinese Begin free?
Chinese Begin is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Pinyin Learner free?
Pinyin Learner is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Chinese Begin or Pinyin Learner have ads?
Neither Chinese Begin nor Pinyin Learner shows ads.

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