Comparison

StudyChat Chinese vs Laowai Chinese Dictionary

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

Head to head
About

StudyChat Chinese

Practice Chinese conversation skills with anime-style dialogues. Focus on listening and translation recall for everyday situations and HSK 1-2 vocabulary. Track progress and enjoy randomized conversations to keep learning engaging.

Highlights
  • Learn socializing phrases
  • Practice listening skills
  • Familiarize with everyday situations
  • HSK 1-2 vocabulary practice
  • Progress tracking
  • Randomized conversations
  • Anime conversation practice
Features
Read full description

=[ FEATURES ]= - Learn socialising phrases, to help you meet others. - Practice listening skills for the Asia traveller. - Familiarise yourself with common everyday situations, so you're aware of useful phrases - HSK 1 + HSK 2intermediate word level, for those who want more practice tools - Your progress for each phrase is tracked in the background, so you don't repeat phrases too frequently. - Phrases are randomised in semi-artificial conversations, so there is some "variety" to keep your mind awake. - Focus on listening, and translation recall. The two most important skills for everyday socialising. - Practice Chinese with anime conversations. =[ HOW IT WORKS ]= - Listen to a conversation: a list of phrases. - After each repeat, any phrase has been seen enough will be replaced by a new phrase to learn. - Best used as an intermediate practice tool. - Combine with SCRIBE ORIGINS series to learn basic vocab and hanzi. StudyChat Chinese is designed for you as the intermediate-level traveller who wants to become familiar with phrases from different situations. If you already know the basics of the language and you want another tool to practice with, then this is for you. StudyChat Chinese has been intentionally designed as a fun supplementation to existing study methods. There are many excellent resources for learning grammar and vocabulary. But there are few tools, aside from watching TV with subtitles, that simulate conversations for practicing what you have already learnt. StudyChat Chinese also includes a bucketload of background and character styles, to keep your mind as interested as "study" possibly can be. StudyChat feedback: "I gotta say I love your app" "So far I think it's fantastic. The most creative language app I've ever seen. No other has managed to combine an interesting light novel manga style with learning a language." "This is a great learning tool" "Hello! Your app is simply amazing!" "Best learning language app ever! Was worth everytime cent!" "I want to say I absolutely love this app. Ever since I've downloaded it, I have been using it at least half an hour everyday. I have recommended it to my friends in class! Your app is so awesome that I decided to use the in app function to purchase the upgrade to unlock over 1000 new sentences." "I love this it's awsome" "I love this app!!! I always wanted to learn how to speak!!!" "I love this app! I love learning new languages and love to widen my knowledge on other countries. This app is very handy and the graphics are good, the phrases are easy to understand too." "Your app is a really fun learning tool." "Thank you for creating the app...." "I love this app so much" "I love these apps. They awesome and I use the constantly. The artwork is great to and I love that I can slow down the speech and learn the words properly. This is a HUGE help as this is the ONLY app I have found that offers this feature." "This is amazing, please continue to do what you do, much love and support :-)" "The app is awesome thx for putting it out there" "I love this it's so cool" "This app is fabulous." "Thank you for this wonderful app!" "I love this app it's awesome :)" "Great app, I like it. Thank you!" "This is the best studying app 0.0" "I think that this is a great app idea!! Thank you very much" "I really love this app..... It's cool :)"

About

Laowai Chinese Dictionary

This app offers an offline Chinese-English dictionary with over 124,000 entries and example sentences. It includes tools for practicing vocabulary, reading Chinese with pinyin, and following HSK 3.0 courses. Sync your progress across devices and learn on the go with widgets and Apple Watch integration.

Highlights
  • Offline Chinese-English dictionary
  • Vocabulary practice modes
  • Pinyin reader for texts
  • HSK 3.0 courses (Levels 1-4)
  • Cross-device sync
  • Widgets and Apple Watch support
Features
Read full description

Look up Chinese offline. Save useful words, practice them, and understand what you read. Laowai connects a free Chinese-English dictionary with personal word practice, HSK 3.0 courses, and reading with pinyin. Move from finding a word to using it. FREE OFFLINE CHINESE DICTIONARY • Search 124,000+ Chinese-English entries by characters, pinyin, or English. • Understand words in context with 106,000+ example sentences. • Hear pronunciation, explore related words, and check stroke order. • Save useful words and examples for later. TURN YOUR WORDS INTO PRACTICE • Study your own lists, HSK vocabulary, favorites, or themed collections. • Start with short guided rounds, then review words as they become due. • Practice meaning, listening, speaking, tones, sentences, and character writing. • Focus on handwriting when you want a writing-only round. READ CHINESE WITH PINYIN • Import EPUB, TXT, and FB2 books and texts. • See pinyin above words and look up a word or phrase while you read. • Explore dialogues, guided readers, stories, and Chinese classics. • Listen with speech highlighting and adjustable playback speed. FOLLOW HSK 3.0 COURSES • Work through levels 1–4 with vocabulary, grammar, listening, and speaking. • Revisit difficult activities in a shared review round. • Carry word progress between your course and personal practice. KEEP LEARNING THROUGH THE DAY • Review with widgets, Live Activities, and Apple Watch. • Bring forgotten words back sooner and return to lists from study reminders. • Sign in with Apple, Google, or email to sync words, lists, and study progress with laowaiapp.com. • Use optional iCloud sync for lists, texts, reading position, and learning progress. FREE DICTIONARY. OPTIONAL LAOWAI PRO. Dictionary search stays free. Laowai Pro adds unlimited practice, unlimited widgets and Live Activities, and iCloud sync. Prices and purchase terms are shown before you buy. Look up your next word, save it, and start practicing with Laowai. DATA SOURCES Dictionary data is derived from CC-CEDICT under CC BY-SA 4.0. Examples and recorded material include attributed licensed and first-party sources. See Profile > Data Sources for source and license details. Software: Arseniy Dorogin and Dmitry Polyansky Design: Dmitry Polyansky

Screenshots

StudyChat Chinese3 screens
Laowai Chinese Dictionary4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Laowai Chinese Dictionary at every 2 days against StudyChat Chinese's every 3 months. Laowai Chinese Dictionary also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 77%) and ratings volume (11 vs 1). StudyChat Chinese's advantage is iOS requirement (11.0 vs 26.0). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases 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. StudyChat Chinese sells 6 one-off in-app purchases and Laowai Chinese Dictionary sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $1.49 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

StudyChat Chinese holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Laowai Chinese Dictionary has 11 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 77% of StudyChat Chinese's written reviews are positive against 100% of Laowai Chinese Dictionary's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

StudyChat Chinese ships an update every 3 months, Laowai Chinese Dictionary every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
StudyChat Chinese versus Laowai Chinese Dictionary: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStudyChat ChineseLaowai Chinese Dictionary
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better4.8 (11 ratings)
Positive reviews77.4% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings111 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
Requires iOS11.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size147 MB152 MB
Age rating9+12+
DeveloperGuiix Pty LtdDmytro Polianskyi

Customer experience

StudyChat Chinese

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews31 reviews
Positive77.4%
Neutral9.7%
Negative12.9%

Laowai Chinese Dictionary

All ratings11 ratings
Positive90.9%
Neutral9.1%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

6 purchases

StudyChat Chinese

One-time6
  • Unlock: Boy Meets Girls, Boy Meets Girl Long, Difficult Pickup.$0.99
  • Unlock: Supportive, Phone Conversation, Dinner Date$0.99
  • Unlock: Guy's Conversation +$0.99
Show 3 more
  • Unlock Conversation: At home$0.99
  • Unlock Tense and People Description conversations$0.99
  • Unlock all conversations$5.99
6 purchases

Laowai Chinese Dictionary

Subscriptions5
  • Laowai Pro Weekly$1.497 Days
  • Laowai Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Laowai Pro 3 Months$5.993 Months
Show 2 more
  • Laowai Pro Annual$19.991 Year
  • Laowai Pro Annual$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Laowai Pro Lifetime$49.99

Questions

Is StudyChat Chinese free?
StudyChat Chinese is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Laowai Chinese Dictionary free?
Laowai Chinese Dictionary is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, StudyChat Chinese or Laowai Chinese Dictionary?
StudyChat Chinese is rated higher. StudyChat Chinese averages 5.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while Laowai Chinese Dictionary averages 4.8 from 11 ratings.
Do StudyChat Chinese or Laowai Chinese Dictionary have ads?
Neither StudyChat Chinese nor Laowai Chinese Dictionary shows ads.
Which is updated more often, StudyChat Chinese or Laowai Chinese Dictionary?
StudyChat Chinese ships an update every 3 months, and Laowai Chinese Dictionary every 2 days. Most recently, StudyChat Chinese was updated on November 1, 2026 and Laowai Chinese Dictionary on November 7, 2026.

Other comparisons