Comparison

Ponkan vs Speaking

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

Head to head
About

Ponkan

Features
Read full description

PRACTICE. MAKES. PERFECT. Practice speaking Mandarin Chinese with Ponkan! Ponkan converts your speech to Pinyin in real time so that you and correct your tones and pronunciation with immediate feedback. While this app might not a course on how to learn Mandarin, it is intended to be complement any course that you might be enrolled in.

About

Speaking

Features
Read full description

Learn Spanish, French, German and other languages with "Speaking"! The fastest way to learn a new language is to practice speaking and listening. Speaking uses speech recognition to listen and transcribe your pronunciation. Then, Speaking gives you the opportunity to check your pronunciation for correctness. If you don't know the proper pronunciation, just type it into Speaking and Speaking will tell you the proper pronunciation. There are times when Speaking does not recognize your pronunciation well. But don't worry. This is your chance to improve your speaking skills, learn proper pronunciation from Speaking, and then try speaking again, paying attention to your accent. If the app can recognize your speech, your speech will work for people! Try using the app in conjunction with your regular vocabulary book or language book to practice your speaking. Your learning efficiency will be greatly improved! Speaking supports the learning of many languages. * โ€ข English, Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian, Vietnamese, Italian, Turkish, Polish, Ukrainian, Thai, Romanian, Indonesian, Malay, Dutch, Hungarian, Czech, Greek, Swedish, Croatian, Finnish, Danish, Hebrew, Catalan, Slovak, Norwegian *The above is just an example. Supported languages depend on the voice data installed on your device. You may be able to install more voice data from your device's settings app. Enjoy your speaking practice! The app uses the standard Apple Terms of Use (EULA). https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Ponkan3 screens
Speaking4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Ponkan at none against Speaking's 1. Ponkan also leads on ads (none vs shown). Speaking's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 5 weeks). On price, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Speaking sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $1.99 per month. Ponkan asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Ponkan ships an update every 5 weeks, Speaking weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 2, 2026 and October 4, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences ยท 3 level
Ponkan versus Speaking: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPonkanSpeaking
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksWeekly โ€” better
AdsNo โ€” betterYes
In-app purchasesNo โ€” betterYes
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size0 MB19 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBracket Ltd.Ryo Aoyama

In-app purchases

None

Ponkan

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Speaking

Subscriptions1
  • Remove ads$1.991 Month

Questions

Is Ponkan free?
Ponkan is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Speaking free?
Speaking is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Ponkan or Speaking have ads?
Speaking shows ads; Ponkan does not.
Which is updated more often, Ponkan or Speaking?
Ponkan ships an update every 5 weeks, and Speaking weekly. Most recently, Ponkan was updated on October 2, 2026 and Speaking on October 4, 2026.

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