Comparison

trainchinese vs HelloChinese

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

Head to head
About

trainchinese

Learn Chinese with a comprehensive dictionary, flashcards, and OCR. Access example sentences, audio, and character animations. Supports both Simplified and Traditional Chinese, with customizable phonetic input.

Highlights
  • Comprehensive Chinese dictionary
  • Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
  • Spaced Repetition flashcard system
  • Character animations and handwriting training
  • Support for Simplified and Traditional Chinese
  • Multiple phonetic input options (Pinyin, Zhuyin)
Features
Read full description

Learn Chinese with an amazing dictionary (plus OCR) and flash card system. trainchinese will teach you Chinese, with a free and complete dictionary, thousands of vocab lists, example sentences, audio recordings, measure words, character animations and Optical Character Recognition — not to mention a powerful flash card training system that even includes handwriting training! • Our dictionary prioritises commonly-used words and phrases above the obscure and obsolete, while example sentences and measure words (classifiers) provide crucial context to help you decide which Chinese word is the most appropriate translation. Other dictionaries just leave you guessing! • We've got Optical Character Recognition (OCR) too. Spotted some Chinese you can't read? Capture a photo of some Chinese text from a menu, book or sign, and the app identifies and translates the characters for you. • Search for words by part of speech • Mistyped a word? Helpful spelling suggestions get you to the right results fast. • Words feature both example sentences and measure words for nouns. It's time to move beyond "个"! And best of all it's all connected: tap examples and measure words to open them as full dictionary entries. • trainchinese is great for students: it includes more than a thousand vocabulary lists covering topics from International Relations to American Football Teams and more. Feel like something's missing? Users often get in touch to ask for lists on the topics they're studying, and we're happy to oblige! You'll also find lists containing HSK-level words (both old and new standards), plus TOCFL lists for students in Taiwan! • Highlight words with your finger for super-fast access to character animations, related searches and more! • Whether you're studying the Simplified (mainland China and Singapore) or Traditional (Hong Kong and Taiwan) variants, we've got you covered! Easily switch between them or choose to display both in dictionary results and on flash cards. Even better, you can use the phonetics you're comfortable with - choose from Pinyin with tone marks, Pinyin with tone numbers or even Zhuyin characters (from the BoPoMoFo system used in Taiwan). • Create flash cards with audio and animation from dictionary entries. Organise them into lists, and share them with friends (or students). • Our Spaced Repetition system ensures you'll memorize words for good. • Train your way: each card is available in four different modes to test different aspects of Chinese study. See Chinese, Pinyin or English and get tested on translation, and even compare your handwriting to a stroke-order animation side-by-side, synchronized! Or if you prefer, there's multiple choice training too (for a real challenge, try it in "Dictation" mode!). • Flash cards are saved on your device and synchronized with trainchinese.com, where you can also train with them and find more great content. • Add study notes to your flash cards - they're saved and backed up at trainchinese.com. Don't forget to check out our other apps (tap our company name in the App Store for more info): - Chinese Writer - Chinese Audio Trainer - Pinyin Trainer - Number Trainer - Chinese Challenges

About

HelloChinese

This app offers a fun and effective way to learn Mandarin Chinese from beginner to conversational levels. It combines game-based lessons, stories, videos, and speech recognition to help you master pronunciation, characters, and practical conversations while exploring Chinese culture.

Highlights
  • Game-based learning
  • Graded stories
  • Immersive lessons
  • Video lessons
  • Speech recognition
  • Character handwriting
  • HSK level courses
Features
Read full description

HelloChinese is the best Mandarin Chinese learning app for beginners! Featured on the App Store in New Apps We Love and Notable Education Apps! Designed in a fun and highly effective manner, HelloChinese helps you rapidly learn Mandarin Chinese from scratch to a conversational level. With HelloChinese, learners can "learn the Chinese language, explore Chinese culture" – you will not only learn Mandarin Chinese but also enjoy the process of delving into the culture intertwined with the language. Features: ◉ Game-based Chinese learning: You will never get bored. ◉ 1000+ graded stories: read engaging stories at your level! ◉ Immersive lessons help you to have real-life, practical conversations quickly. ◉ Over 2,000 videos - all featuring authentic Chinese speakers! ◉ Innovative self-adaptive learning games that incorporate Chinese cultural education. ◉ Speech recognition corrects your pronunciation and makes speaking Chinese a breeze. ◉ Handwriting specially designed to learn Chinese characters at a faster rate. ◉ Systematic courses based on HSK levels. ◉ A well-designed Pinyin (pronunciation) course for newbies. ◉ Bite-sized curriculum to fortify your Chinese listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. ◉ Simplified and traditional Chinese(Mandarin) are both supported. ◉ Offline accessibility: Once a course is downloaded, no internet connection is required. ◉ Study progress tracking across multiple devices. With these tools at your disposal, nothing can stop you from mastering Chinese. Start on your path to fluency today! HelloChinese Premium offers: One-month subscription for $11.99 Three-month subscription for $25.99 Twelve-month subscription for $69.99 The above prices are for U.S. customers. Pricing in other countries may vary, and charges may be converted to your local currency depending on your country of residence. Once purchased, subscriptions automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off in your iTunes Account settings at least 24 hours before the end of the payment period. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HelloChineseApp/ Privacy Policy: https://www.hellochinese.cc/privacy.html Terms of Use: https://www.hellochinese.cc/terms.html Premium users can always reach us at premium@hellochinese.cc if they need any help.

Screenshots

trainchinese4 screens
HelloChinese4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: HelloChinese at none against trainchinese's shown. HelloChinese also leads on review sentiment (95% vs 76%) and rating (4.9 vs 4.7). On price, in-app purchases, monetization model 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. trainchinese sells 13 one-off in-app purchases and HelloChinese sells 13 in-app purchases, starting at $11.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

HelloChinese holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: HelloChinese has 23K ratings behind it against 2.3K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 76% of trainchinese's written reviews are positive against 95% of HelloChinese's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

trainchinese ships an update fortnightly, HelloChinese weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 26, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
trainchinese versus HelloChinese: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParametertrainchineseHelloChinese
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (2.3K ratings)4.9 (23K ratings) — better
Positive reviews75.8% of reviews94.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings2.3K23K — better
Update frequencyFortnightlyWeekly — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
Best chart rank—#93 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.614.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size328 MB102 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developertrainchinese B.V.HelloChinese Technology Co., Ltd.

Customer experience

trainchinese

All ratings2,269 ratings
Positive92.6%
Neutral3.7%
Negative3.7%
Written reviews219 reviews
Positive75.8%
Neutral7.8%
Negative16.4%

HelloChinese

All ratings23,267 ratings
Positive97.8%
Neutral0.9%
Negative1.3%
Written reviews3,670 reviews
Positive94.8%
Neutral2.0%
Negative3.2%

User reviews

trainchinese

From 2.3K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great app for learning Chinese
  • 👍 Helpful for improving vocabulary, pronunciation, and writing
  • 🚀 Comprehensive dictionary and flashcard features
  • 👍 Customizable word lists and training modes
  • 🚀 Detailed stroke order animations for characters

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs after updates
  • 💰 Subscription model is expensive for long-term use
  • 🔍 Confusing and unintuitive user interface
  • 🔍 Limited functionality in free version
  • 🐛 Syncing and login issues

HelloChinese

From 23K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Easy to learn
  • 👍 Engaging and fun
  • 👍 Helpful for beginners
  • 👍 Good for pronunciation practice
  • 👍 Useful for learning Chinese characters

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Inconsistent speech recognition
  • 🐛 Audio quality issues in some videos
  • 💰 Paywall limits access to full content
  • 💰 Premium subscription is expensive

Bugs and requests

trainchinese

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App crashes when trying to move or add words to lists
  • Audio playback not working for some words
  • Writing recognition feature is unreliable
  • Inconsistent behavior when switching between app and website

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add option to learn on multiple languages (e.g. English and Russian)
  • Improve organization and navigation of word lists
  • Implement more engaging learning games and activities
  • Allow users to easily add their own custom words and phrases

HelloChinese

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Occasional login issues
  • Inconsistent performance on older devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • More advanced lessons beyond HSK3
  • Option to toggle pinyin on a per-word basis
  • Improved review system with more customization
  • Addition of traditional Chinese characters
  • More real-life conversation practice

In-app purchases

13 purchases

trainchinese

One-time13
  • OCR Feature$4.99
  • 10 lists$8.99
  • 3 months$11.99
Show 10 more
  • 3 months + 10 lists$15.99
  • 6 months$19.99
  • 30 lists$19.99
  • 6 months + 10 lists$23.99
  • 3 months + 30 lists$25.99
  • 12 months$34.99
  • 6 months + 30 lists$34.99
  • 12 months + 10 lists$37.99
  • 12 months + 30 lists$45.99
  • 12 months + 60 lists$54.99
13 purchases

HelloChinese

Subscriptions10
  • HelloChinese Premium$11.991 Month
  • HelloChinese Premium+$16.991 Month
  • HelloChinese Premium+$19.991 Month
Show 7 more
  • HelloChinese Premium$25.993 Months
  • HelloChinese Premium$48.991 Year
  • HelloChinese Premium+$62.996 Months
  • HelloChinese Premium$69.991 Year
  • HelloChinese Premium+$89.996 Months
  • HelloChinese Premium+$104.991 Year
  • HelloChinese Premium+$149.991 Year
One-time3
  • 300 coins$4.99
  • 750 coins$9.99
  • 1650 coins$19.99

Questions

Is trainchinese free?
trainchinese is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is HelloChinese free?
HelloChinese is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, trainchinese or HelloChinese?
HelloChinese is rated higher. trainchinese averages 4.7 out of 5 from 2.3K ratings, while HelloChinese averages 4.9 from 23K ratings.
Do trainchinese or HelloChinese have ads?
trainchinese shows ads; HelloChinese does not.
Which is updated more often, trainchinese or HelloChinese?
trainchinese ships an update fortnightly, and HelloChinese weekly. Most recently, trainchinese was updated on September 23, 2026 and HelloChinese on September 26, 2026.

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