Comparison

N3 vs Chinese Stories

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

Head to head
About

N3

Master JLPT N3 grammar with over 300 practice questions and detailed explanations. This app covers all required sentence patterns for the N3 reading section, organized for easy understanding. Perfect for on-the-go learning.

Highlights
  • JLPT N3 grammar explanations
  • Over 300 practice questions
  • Detailed explanations for each pattern
  • Covers all N3 reading sentence patterns
  • One-handed operation
  • Vocabulary marking and reinforcement
Features
Read full description

1. Supports iPhone 4 and above, as well as all iPad and iPad Pro models. 2. The grammatical explanations are aligned with the new JLPT N3 proficiency test scope, including various sentence patterns, and fully comply with the new N3 exam guidelines. 3. Contains over 300 grammar practice questions, allowing learners to easily master the material in their spare time. 4. Includes detailed explanations. Through repeated practice with various question types, learners can achieve complete mastery. Whenever they encounter difficulties, they can always review the explanations to fully grasp the meaning and usage of each grammar pattern. 5. Compiles all sentence patterns required for the JLPT N3 reading section, organized in a simple and easy‑to‑understand way, with detailed explanations of each pattern. No professional grammar terminology beyond the learning scope is used. The app can be comfortably operated with one hand, making learning more efficient. 6. When encountering difficult or hard‑to‑memorize vocabulary, users can mark words with three different types of symbols. By tapping on any symbol‑marked word, they can repeatedly reinforce their practice.

About

Chinese Stories

This app offers e-books designed for learning Mandarin Chinese at various proficiency levels. It provides interactive features like definitions, pinyin, and quizzes to enhance the learning experience.

Highlights
  • Interactive e-books for Mandarin learning
  • Definitions, pinyin, and HSK/TOP levels for words
  • Save unfamiliar words for later memorization
  • Hyperlinks for proper nouns to learn culture and history
  • Full English translation and pinyin for each story
  • Comprehension quizzes with progress tracking
  • Audio versions for listening practice
Read full description

If you are learning Mandarin Chinese, our monthly E-books will provide you with the best learning experiences. Now we have two different levels of E-book collection, which are Beginner, Elementary and Intermediate. As for Advanced level, it is coming soon in six months. You can purchase the E-book in accordance with your language proficiency. The language used is carefully selected to correspond to official levels. For texts in Simplified Chinese, the characters are chosen in accordance with New HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi) and YCT (Youth Chinese Test) levels in Mainland China. Our Beginner level corresponds to New YCT level 2&3, Elementary level to New HSK level 3, and Intermediate level to New HSK level 4. As for Traditional Chinese version, the words used are also carefully chosen on the basis of the TOP (the Test of Proficiency-Huayu) standard in Taiwan. Our Elementary level corresponds to TOP elementary level, and Intermediate level to TOP intermediate level. As for Beginner level, each E-book has 5 stories, and each story contains 150~200 Chinese characters. Elementary E-book has 12 stories, and each story contains 250~300 Chinese characters. Intermediate E-book has 12 stories, and each story contains 450~500 Chinese characters. Our Chinese learning E-books have features as followed: 1. Click on a colored words, and we will show you its English definition, pinyin, part of speech, sentences, and its HSK/TOP level. 2. Click on “More,” and you get to know different meanings of the same word. 3. You can save words you don’t know or aren’t familiar with to memorize later. 4. Click on hyperlinks of proper nouns such as place names or celebrity names, and learn more about Chinese geography, culture, and history while reading Chinese stories. 5. Every story comes with full English translation and pinyin. 6. We track your progress. After reading each article, a five-question quiz will test how well your understanding of the story is and will keep a record of your first-time test result. 7. The audio version of each story enables you to listen to standard Chinese and to train your Chinese listening skill.

Screenshots

N34 screens
Chinese Stories4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: N3 at 100% against Chinese Stories's 0%. Chinese Stories's advantage is price (Free vs $9.99) and update cadence (every 3 months vs every 25 months). On ads, in-app purchases 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

Chinese Stories is free to download; N3 costs $9.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

N3 ships an update every 25 months, Chinese Stories every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
N3 versus Chinese Stories: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterN3Chinese Stories
Price$9.99Free — better
Rating—1.8 (12 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—12 — better
Update frequencyEvery 25 monthsEvery 3 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS26.06.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size16 MB35 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperYamase & Touwa Japanese InsitituteChinese Stories Publishing Co., Ltd.

Customer experience

N3

Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Chinese Stories

All ratings12 ratings
Positive16.7%
Neutral8.3%
Negative75.0%
Written reviews15 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral6.7%
Negative93.3%

In-app purchases

None

N3

No in-app purchases

None

Chinese Stories

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is N3 free?
N3 costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Chinese Stories free?
Chinese Stories is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do N3 or Chinese Stories have ads?
Neither N3 nor Chinese Stories shows ads.
Which is updated more often, N3 or Chinese Stories?
N3 ships an update every 25 months, and Chinese Stories every 3 months. Most recently, N3 was updated on November 1, 2026 and Chinese Stories on October 8, 2026.

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