Comparison

iLearn Chinese Characters Lite vs Learn Chinese

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

Head to head
About

iLearn Chinese Characters Lite

Learn Chinese characters through their pictographic origins. This app teaches the meaning behind characters and demonstrates correct writing strokes, allowing you to practice on your device. It's a fun and intuitive way for beginners to start reading and writing Chinese.

Highlights
  • Pictographic origin explanations
  • Writing stroke demonstrations
  • On-screen writing practice
  • Intuitive learning method
  • Character history
Features
Read full description

This app introduces Chinese characters to non-native speakers or young kids in a fun and intuitive way: to understand their origins as pictures of the objects they represent. For example, the Chinese character for sun was originally a circle with a dot in its center. It has evolved over the history, but you can still find traces of its original shape. Besides explaining the picture meanings, this application also demonstrates the correct way of writing the characters and even let you practice on your iPhone side by side with the demonstration. You'll find that you will be able to read and write dozens of Chinese characters in no time! Please rate or write a comment of this free application. Your feedback is greatly appreciated! About the Full Version The full version covers hundreds more featured characters with history, pronunciation, stroke order demonstration and writing practices. It also includes a Progressive Study section that let users learn and test their understanding of characters with the most common ones first. In addition it has an index/search utility for quick lookup of characters.

About

Learn Chinese

This app offers interactive games and activities designed to help children learn Mandarin Chinese. It focuses on virtual language immersion and everyday vocabulary, encouraging early speaking skills through engaging challenges. The content is safe, ad-free, and suitable for offline use.

Highlights
  • Interactive learning games
  • Virtual language immersion
  • Everyday vocabulary
  • Speaking challenges
  • Ad-free and safe for kids
  • Offline learning
Features
Read full description

From the award-winning creators of Studycat for Schools, comes Learn Chinese! The #1 way for kids to learn 中文 (mandarin)! From preschool and beyond, Learn Chinese by Studycat inspires children's innate love of learning with interactive games and activities. Our bite-sized lessons will keep your child motivated while they discover a new language and build bilingual skills for a lifetime! WHY STUDYCAT? • Learn Chinese, in Chinese. All our activities focus on virtual language immersion, which means your child won't be hearing any English, only Chinese! This might be confusing at first, but trust us, it's the best way to learn. • Everyday Language. Our lessons teach words and expressions that kids can apply in their everyday lives, so they can get a head start developing their bilingual abilities. • Get Talking Fast. With our interactive speaking challenges, kids will be encouraged to speak entire words and phrases on their own! The earlier kids start their language-learning journey, the more likely they are to reach proficiency quickly. • Vocal Variety. Our characters' voices use different tones, expressions, and accents so that kids can pick up on the subtleties of pronunciation from different speakers. • Designed by Experts. All our activities are designed by language and early-education experts. Thoughtfully developed lessons will build your child's confidence with every step. • Learner Profiles (coming soon). Create up to four personalized profiles for different family members, allowing tailored learning paths and individual progress tracking. • Safe for Kids & Ad-Free. Parents can rest easy knowing that there are no pesky ads to distract children from their learning. All content is appropriate for ages 3 and up. • Offline Learning. On a plane, at a restaurant, or in a park? No problem! Learn Chinese by Studycat is available for both online and offline use. WHAT ARE PARENTS SAYING? “As a parent trying to raise bilingual children at home, Studycat is a helpful app to start them off and create excitement about the language.” — Fluent in 3 Months “Everything has been thought out carefully and the games and activities are really engaging.” — Bilingual Kidspot “The concept is so simple but extremely effective. I even found myself learning at the same time.” — Bump, Baby & You -- If you like Learn Chinese by Studycat, try it out for 7 days free! Empower your child to learn like never before, and get extras like printable worksheets. If you choose to subscribe, payment will be charged to your Apple account, and your account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period. Auto-renewal may be turned off at any time by going to your settings in the App Store after purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that publication, where applicable. Privacy Policy: https://studycat.com/about/privacy-policy/ Terms of Use: https://studycat.com/about/terms-of-use/

Screenshots

iLearn Chinese Characters Lite4 screens
Learn Chinese4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: iLearn Chinese Characters Lite at none against Learn Chinese's 10. Learn Chinese's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (1.2K vs 43). On price, rating, review sentiment and ads 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. Learn Chinese sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $14.99 per month. iLearn Chinese Characters Lite asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.4 for iLearn Chinese Characters Lite against 4.5 for Learn Chinese. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Learn Chinese has 1.2K ratings behind it against 43, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 81% of iLearn Chinese Characters Lite's written reviews are positive against 82% of Learn Chinese's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

iLearn Chinese Characters Lite ships an update every 2 months, Learn Chinese every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on November 1, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
iLearn Chinese Characters Lite versus Learn Chinese: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriLearn Chinese Characters LiteLearn Chinese
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (43 ratings)4.5 (1.2K ratings) — better
Positive reviews80.9% of reviews82.3% of reviews — better
Number of ratings431.2K — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.013.0
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB226 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperYOYASOFT LLCStudycat Limited

Customer experience

iLearn Chinese Characters Lite

All ratings42 ratings
Positive85.7%
Neutral4.8%
Negative9.5%
Written reviews68 reviews
Positive80.9%
Neutral7.4%
Negative11.8%

Learn Chinese

All ratings1,154 ratings
Positive86.5%
Neutral6.2%
Negative7.3%
Written reviews356 reviews
Positive82.3%
Neutral7.0%
Negative10.7%

User reviews

iLearn Chinese Characters Lite

From 43 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great for beginners
  • 💡 Explains characters well
  • 💡 Visual breakdowns helpful
  • 💡 Stroke demo useful
  • 💡 History and etymology engaging

Room to improve

  • 🎨 App is a little ugly
  • 🎨 Needs a facelift
  • 🐛 Some freezes
  • 🐛 Stroke recognition issues
  • 🐛 Writing practice bugs

Learn Chinese

From 1.2K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Fun and engaging learning games
  • 🚀 Effective for learning vocabulary
  • 💡 Interactive and gamified approach
  • 👍 Great for kids and beginners

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Pronunciation issues with Taiwanese accent
  • 💰 Expensive subscription model
  • 🔒 Difficulty accessing content across devices
  • 🔍 Lack of content variety and new updates

Bugs and requests

iLearn Chinese Characters Lite

Reported bugs

10 issues
  • New updates make it unusable in some modes
  • Animated writing is too slow
  • Sound does not work on iPad
  • Stroke recognition issues
  • Writing practice bugs
Show 5 more
  • Touch strokes sensitivity can be improved
  • App freezes
  • Missed characters
  • Some characters lack explanation/writing demo
  • Organization in index mode painful

Requested features

29 requests
  • More advanced lessons and tests
  • Tests for writing characters
  • Include traditional characters
  • Include ancient pictograms
  • Quizzes with drawing characters
Show 24 more
  • Audio for example sentences
  • Search function
  • Section on measure words
  • More categories
  • Add more characters
  • Add Chinese grammar characters
  • Better looking pictures
  • Option for writing speed
  • Discussion of grammar considerations
  • Add compounds, idioms, and sentences
  • Expand meanings of characters
  • Make full version free
  • Add traditional characters
  • Add search function
  • Add measure words section
  • More categories
  • More characters
  • More grammar characters
  • Better pictures
  • Option for writing speed
  • Grammar considerations
  • Compounds, idioms, sentences
  • Expand meanings
  • Make full version free

Learn Chinese

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Subscription issues and double charges
  • Compatibility problems with older devices
  • Crashes and freezes during gameplay

Requested features

4 requests
  • More language options and accents
  • Expanded vocabulary and content
  • Ability to access content across devices
  • Improved pronunciation and audio quality

In-app purchases

None

iLearn Chinese Characters Lite

No in-app purchases

8 purchases

Learn Chinese

Subscriptions6
  • Monthly Subscription1 Month trial$14.991 Month
  • Unlimited Access7 Days trial$14.991 Month
  • Learn Chinese7 Days trial2 variants$14.991 Month
Show 3 more
  • Annual Subscription1 Month trial$59.991 Year
  • Unlimited Access7 Days trial$59.991 Year
  • Learn Chinese7 Days trial2 variants$59.991 Year
One-time2
  • Animals Lesson$2.99
  • Four Lesson Pack$6.99

Questions

Is iLearn Chinese Characters Lite free?
iLearn Chinese Characters Lite is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Learn Chinese free?
Learn Chinese is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, iLearn Chinese Characters Lite or Learn Chinese?
Learn Chinese is rated higher. iLearn Chinese Characters Lite averages 4.4 out of 5 from 43 ratings, while Learn Chinese averages 4.5 from 1.2K ratings.
Do iLearn Chinese Characters Lite or Learn Chinese have ads?
Neither iLearn Chinese Characters Lite nor Learn Chinese shows ads.
Which is updated more often, iLearn Chinese Characters Lite or Learn Chinese?
iLearn Chinese Characters Lite ships an update every 2 months, and Learn Chinese every 2 weeks. Most recently, iLearn Chinese Characters Lite was updated on November 1, 2026 and Learn Chinese on November 1, 2026.

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