TABEMON vs Radical
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
TABEMON
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Learn Japanese with Tabemon by immersing yourself in Japanese language, culture, and social etiquette for a fun and rewarding learning experience. Become a confident Japanese speaker by learning real-life phrases that you can use from the get-go. Designed by a team of Japanese nationals and foreigners living in Japan, the lessons are based on real-life situations and valuable words and phrases that one would use when travelling Japan. As you improve in your Japanese skill by clearing each course, you’ll collect Tabemon! These are characters based on popular dishes found throughout Japan. By completing each course, you will discover and collect Tabemon. How fast can you complete the set? Whether you’re a beginner, a traveler or simply captivated by Japan’s culture, Tabemon is the perfect companion for your Japanese learning journey! Why Tabemon? •Tabemon lessons include phrases, expressions, grammar points, vocabulary, and conversation. Each lesson has fun practice quizzes with differing levels of difficulty, so you can test what you’ve learned! •All vocabulary and phrases are taken from daily conversations, so you can use what you’ve learned from your first day in Japan! •You can practice listening and pronunciation. Improve your comprehension skills by listening to the phrases and conversations. Practice pronunciation by recording yourself speaking Japanese and compare it with the native speaker’s voice. •Tabemon is a way to learn regional words and phrases so you can speak like a local. In addition, you will learn different levels of politeness and recommendations for which situations they are best suited. •You can become familiar with cultural and social points and other trivia about Japan in tandem with the language lessons. •If you are short on time to go through all the lessons, you can use the travel phrasebook to communicate with locals and express yourself while in Japan. •Discover regional cuisines of Japan through the Tabemon characters that you unlock and collect by completing each chapter. Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Radical
This app teaches the underlying structure of kanji by explaining phonetic radicals, which predict pronunciation when kanji are combined. It offers a comprehensive dictionary, vocabulary lists with mastery tracking, and structured courses to help learners understand, not just memorize, Japanese characters.
- Phonetic and meaning radical explanations
- Full English-Japanese dictionary
- Vocabulary list with mastery tracking
- Kanji lists organized by radicals
- Structured learning courses
- Progress tracking and study stats
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Most Japanese apps just tell you what a kanji means and ask you to memorize it. Radical teaches you why — and that changes everything. The thing nobody explains: phonetic radicals About 80% of kanji are 形声文字 (けいせいもじ、phono-semantic compounds). That means they have two components: one that hints at meaning, and one that predicts the on'yomi reading. Most learners are probably already aware of meaning radicals, which are mostly just called “radicals”. For example, take 語 (the 語 in 日本語「にほんご」, Japanese language), 話 (話す「はなす」, to speak), 読 (読む「よむ」, to read). They all contain 言, which signals "language/speech”, because it’s the image of a mouth (口) out of which words come out). That's the meaning radical doing its job. Think about it. You probably know the kanji 五, read ゴ and meaning “five”. And you know the 語 in 日本語. It makes sense that 語 (the suffix for language) has the meaning radicals 言 (to say) and 口 (mouth). But why 五 (five)? How does 語 have to do anything with “five”? This is because 五 is never a meaning radical, but a phonetic radical. Phonetic radicals will give you the on’yomi reading (the reading you use when two kanji are together). Now look at 五, 語, 悟 and 吾. They all contain 五 as a phonetic radical, and they all share the reading ゴ. Once you learn 五 reads ゴ, you can read a whole cluster of kanji you've never seen before. Radical was created by Carlos Ramos Fuentes, teacher of Japanese, because no existing app was teaching the real structure of kanji. WaniKani invents mnemonics. Duolingo skips kanji depth entirely. Radical gives you the actual system. What Radical includes -A full English-Japanese dictionary with 210,641 words, 6,368 kanji, 246,737 example sentences, and 9,756 JLPT tags, all searchable in English, Japanese, romaji, hiragana, or katakana. -For every kanji, Radical shows you its meaning radical (what it means) and its phonetic radical (how to read it when it appears next to another kanji). It handles reading exceptions too (the cases where the pattern breaks) with a clear explanation of why. -A vocabulary list where you save words from the dictionary, track mastery with a 5-star system, and quiz yourself with typing and recall modes. A kanji list organized by meaning radical and phonetic radicalso you can see the structural patterns that connect them and do quizzes to raise their mastery to 5 stars. -Courses: start with Understanding Radicals, a free mini-course that explains the whole system with a certificate on completion. Then move into the JLPT N5 Kanji course, which covers every kanji you need for N5 with structured lessons, reading exception explanations, and a mastery-to-certificate progression. -A streak, study stats, and JLPT-level progress tracking to keep you moving. Who Radical is for You've been studying Japanese for a while but kanji still feels like memorizing random symbols. You've tried Duolingo or Anki but stalled. You want to understand kanji, not just collect flashcard streaks. You're working toward JLPT N5 or higher and want a method that scales. Data sources: JMDict, KANJIDIC, Tatoeba, Ishizawa-sensei's phonetic radical research, and the author's own academic work on kanji acquisition through phonetic radicals. Made by Carlos Ramos Fuentes, teacher of Japanese at CarlosCoordinator.com. If you're looking for live Japanese classes, from fluency development to JLPT N1, I'm here to help: https://zcal.co/carloscoordinator/japanese. You can also find your dream internship in Japan at JapanIntern.Net. My new JLPT N1/N2 Prep Course is out! Check it out and get the first class for free at https://carloscoordinator.com/course. At my language academy, we also teach Spanish, English & Chinese. If you'd like to book a free trial class, you may set it up here: https://zcal.co/carloscoordinator/discoverycall
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: TABEMON at 11.0 against Radical's 15.0. 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. TABEMON sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Radical sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
TABEMON ships an update fortnightly, Radical every 11 days. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | TABEMON | Radical |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 1 — better |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 11 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | — | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 119 MB | 9 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | VIRTUAL ARTS. Incorporated | Carlos Ramos Fuentes |
In-app purchases
TABEMON
- Tabemon monthly plan$4.991 Month
- Tabemon annual plan$49.991 Year
Radical
- JLPT N5 Kanji Course$4.99
Questions
Is TABEMON free?
Is Radical free?
Do TABEMON or Radical have ads?
Which is updated more often, TABEMON or Radical?
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