trainchinese vs Hanzijo
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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)
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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
Hanzijo
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Learn Chinese step by step, from pinyin and tones to HSK 9 (HSK 3.0): characters, words and grammar points arranged along the nine HSK levels. Every character comes with pinyin, radicals, stroke order and a memory story, and spaced-repetition review brings each word back when it is due. Practice with dictation lessons from real videos and with conversations, scan Chinese text with your camera, and review from Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets. Hanzijo is free to start: you can begin one new lesson every day. A CLEAR HSK PATH • Nine levels that follow the HSK 3.0 framework, from your first characters to HSK 9. • A Foundation course before HSK 1 teaches pinyin, the four tones, tone changes and the basic strokes. • Each lesson teaches its new characters and words, adds grammar points in most lessons, and ends with a short quiz. CHARACTERS THAT STICK • Every character comes with pinyin, tone, stroke count, radicals, meaning and a memory story. • Watch the stroke order, trace it, or write the character from memory and let the app check it. • Switch between Simplified and Traditional characters in Settings at any time. GRAMMAR AND WORDS IN CONTEXT • Grammar points at every level, each with a clear pattern, example sentences with pinyin and translation, and common mistakes to avoid. • Tap a word in a grammar example to see its meaning. • Every word comes with example sentences and audio. LISTEN AND SPEAK • Dictation lessons built from real Chinese videos: listen to a line, then put its phrases back in order. • Conversations at every level: follow each line as it is read aloud, then say it yourself to practice your pronunciation. • Paste the link of a YouTube video with Chinese subtitles and study the words and grammar of each line. REVIEW EVERY DAY • Spaced-repetition review schedules every character, word and grammar point you learn. • Once it has enough of your review history, the app's AI model lists the items you are most likely to forget, so you can review them in time. • Home Screen, Lock Screen and quiz widgets keep a word in front of you all day. • In Search, write a character, a word or a whole sentence by hand, or scan a sign, a menu or a page to see the words, characters and grammar points it contains. • Stats show your streak, an activity calendar and your progress along the HSK path. FREE AND PREMIUM • Free: one new lesson a day. From the second lesson of each level, a short ad opens each next part of the lesson. • Premium removes all ads and unlocks every Premium feature. • One Premium plan works in all three of our apps: Hanzijo (Chinese), Kanjijo (Japanese) and Hanguljo (Korean). SUBSCRIPTION AND PURCHASE INFORMATION • Premium Monthly and Premium Yearly are auto-renewable subscriptions. Premium Lifetime is a one-time purchase and does not renew. • Payment is charged to your Apple Account when you confirm the purchase. • A subscription renews automatically unless you turn off auto-renew at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account is charged for the renewal within the 24 hours before the current period ends. • You can manage your subscription and turn off auto-renew in your Apple Account settings after purchase. Terms of Use (EULA): https://hanzijo.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://hanzijo.com/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Hanzijo at none against trainchinese's shown. Hanzijo also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs fortnightly). On price, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement 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. trainchinese sells 10 one-off in-app purchases and Hanzijo sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
trainchinese ships an update fortnightly, Hanzijo every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | trainchinese | Hanzijo |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (2.4K ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 76.2% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2.4K — better | — |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.6 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 328 MB | 156 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | trainchinese B.V. | Vy Vo |
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
Hanzijo
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
trainchinese
- OCR Feature$4.99
- 3 months$11.99
- 3 months + 10 lists$15.99
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- 6 months$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 + 60 lists$54.99
Hanzijo
- Monthly Premium$5.991 Month
- Yearly Premium$39.991 Year
- Lifetime Premium$149.99









