Fastdic vs DDSA Steingass Dictionary
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Fastdic
This app offers comprehensive English/Persian translation and dictionary services, supporting over 250,000 words with online and offline access. It also includes AI-powered writing assistance, voice and image translation, and pronunciation guides.
- English/Persian Dictionary & Translator (Online & Offline)
- AI Grammar Improvement & Paraphrasing
- Voice and Image Translation
- Audio Pronunciations (American & British)
- Synonyms, Antonyms, and Word Families
- Number to Word Conversion
- Word of the Day
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We proudly provide service to more than 7 million active users each month. Features: - AI - Improve grammar, paraphrase, expand or summarize text and change tone/style of writing. - AI Translator - Persian, English, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Arabic, Turkish and Russian - Tools tab - All AI tools in one place, plus a CEFR test to find your English vocabulary level - Flashcards - Learn and remember words with smart review; make decks from your folders, history, categories or the word of the day - Camera translator - Point your camera at any text and see the Persian translation live on screen, translate a photo with the translation shown right on it, or use object mode to learn the names of things around you - English to Persian/Farsi and vice-versa Dictionary & Translator (Online & offline) - More than 250,000 words - More than 100,000 example sentences - Sync your favorite and history words - The ability to convert numbers to words. (Enter any number or decimal number to see both English and Persian numbers in letters) - Synonyms and antonyms - English to English Dictionary - Online and offline English audio pronunciations with both American & British accents (For words and sentences) - Part of speech (POS) - British & American English phonetics - Search different forms of nouns and verbs (Simple past tense, Past participles, Irregular verbs, Third person singular, Present participle, Plural) - History of searched words - Word Family - Formal/informal labels - Categorized words - List of categorized words for easy access - Favorites list - Create custom folders with your favorite words - Word sharing - Easily share a new word or definition you have just learned with your friends - Word of the day - Learn a new word, every day. Add the widget to your Home Screen and Lock Screen, with quick actions to search, open the camera translator, the AI translator or your flashcards in one tap - Voice translator - Find an entry when you do not know how a word is spelt - Share Extension - The users with a subscription can translate any words or sentences in any application such as Safari and Chrome by using Share button and selecting Fastdic - Light and Dark mode - No internet connection is required to use the dictionary (The translator requires internet) - Fast and simple And more incredible features To remove ads or gain access to additional features, visit the app's settings section. **The subscriptions do not auto-renew; they work as a one-time purchase.**
DDSA Steingass Dictionary
This app provides a searchable digital version of a comprehensive Persian-English dictionary. It allows for both online and offline use, with flexible search options including headword, fulltext, and substring matching. Users can enter search terms in Perso-Arabic, accented, or unaccented Latin characters.
- Searchable Persian-English dictionary
- Online and offline functionality
- Headword and fulltext search
- Wildcard search support
- Multiword and boolean operators
- Substring matching options
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The Steingass Persian-English dictionary app is a product of the Digital South Asia Library program (https://dsal.uchicago.edu) at the University of Chicago. The app offers a searchable version of Francis J. Steingass's "A Comprehensive Persian-English dictionary, including the Arabic words and phrases to be met with in Persian literature," London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1892. The Steingass dictionary app can be used both online and offline. The online version interacts with a database that runs remotely on a server at the University of Chicago. The offline version uses a database that is created on the device upon first download. By default, the app operates in the online mode. The app allows users to conduct both headword and fulltext queries. The default mode for this app is to search headwords. To search for a headword, touch the search box at the top (magnifying glass icon) to expose the on-screen keyboard and begin searching. Headwords can be entered in Perso-Arabic, accented latin characters, and unaccented latin characters. For example, headword searches for کلا, kalām, and kalam all yield a definition for "A word, speech, oration, harangue." After entering three characters in the search box, a scrollable list of search suggestions will pop up. Touch the word to search for and it will automatically fill in the search field. Or ignore suggestions and enter the search term completely. To execute the search, touch the return button on the keyboard. By default, headword searches expand off the end of the search term. In other words, searching for "ram" will generate results for headwords that begin with "kal" and have any number of trailing characters, like "kala" (کالا, kālā), "kalar" (کالار, kālār) etc. To expand the front of a query, users can enter the "%" character at the beginning of search term. For example, "%kal" will find "ittikal" (اتكال ittikāl), "ashkal" (اشكال ashkāl), etc. The wildcard character at the front of a word also expands search suggestions. For fulltext searching, select the "Fulltext" search scope button and then enter the search term in the search box at the top. Fulltext searching supports multiword searching. For example, the search "horse colt" returns 14 results where "horse" and "colt" can be found in the same definition. Multiword searches can be executed with the boolean operators "NOT" and "OR" as well. The search "horse OR colt" returns 1253 fulltext results; "horse NOT colt" returns 1156 fulltext results. To conduct substring matching, select an option from the "Search Options" sub-menu at the bottom right of the screen enter a string in the search field, and touch return. The default for all searching is "Words beginning with." But for example, selecting "Words ending with," "Search all text," and then entering "ham" as the search string will find 434 examples of words that end in "ham." Search results come first in a numbered list that displays the Persian headword, the accented latin transliteration of the headword, and a chunk of the definition. To see a full definition, touch the headword. In online mode, the full result page also has a page number link that the user can click to get the full page context of the definition. Link arrows at the top of the full page allow the user to click to previous and next pages in the dictionary. To select either online or offline mode, simply toggle the selector at the top of the screen. Note that on start up, the app will test to see whether the device has an internet connection and the remote server is available. Again, the app operates in online mode by default. The user should select the appropriate mode before conducting a search.
Screenshots
Verdict
Fastdic and DDSA Steingass Dictionary both sit at 4.5 stars, but that hides the real split: 70% of Fastdic's written reviews are positive against 0% of DDSA Steingass Dictionary's. Fastdic also leads on update cadence (every 5 weeks vs every 8 months) and ratings volume (11K vs 3). DDSA Steingass Dictionary's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 7) and ads (none vs shown). On price, rating, 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. Fastdic sells 7 one-off in-app purchases. DDSA Steingass Dictionary asks for nothing beyond the download.
Fastdic holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Fastdic has 11K ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 70% of Fastdic's written reviews are positive against 0% of DDSA Steingass Dictionary's.
Fastdic ships an update every 5 weeks, DDSA Steingass Dictionary every 8 months. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Fastdic | DDSA Steingass Dictionary |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (11K ratings) — better | 4.3 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 70.1% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 11K — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks — better | Every 8 months |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 448 MB | 39 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Fast Dictionary Limited | Charles Cooney |
Customer experience
Fastdic
DDSA Steingass Dictionary
Bugs and requests
Fastdic
Reported bugs
4 issues- App crashes or freezes frequently
- Ads continue playing in the background even after being closed
- Saved words and search history not syncing across devices
- Pronunciation feature not working correctly for some words
Requested features
5 requests- Add more words and phrases, especially idioms and slang
- Improve translation accuracy
- Provide an English interface option
- Reduce ads or offer a paid ad-free version
- Fix bugs and improve stability
DDSA Steingass Dictionary
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Fastdic
- Fastdic Remove Ads$2.99
- Professional sub - 1 month use$2.99
- AI subscription - 1 month use$9.99
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- Professional sub - 6 months$14.99
- 1 year subscription$24.99
- AI subscription - 6 months use$49.99
- AI subscription - 1 year use$89.99
DDSA Steingass Dictionary
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Fastdic free?
Is DDSA Steingass Dictionary free?
Which has better reviews, Fastdic or DDSA Steingass Dictionary?
Do Fastdic or DDSA Steingass Dictionary have ads?
Which is updated more often, Fastdic or DDSA Steingass Dictionary?
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