Shakelance vs Sumigo
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Shakelance
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Unlock the secrets of the Japanese language with our innovative learning app designed for aspiring N4 and N5 proficiency learners. Tailored for your proficiency levels. Enhance your language skills and track your progress. Start today, whether you're a beginner or looking to refine your skills, our app offers an easy way to practice your writing. - Adaptive Learning: Receive texts adjusted to your skill level, ensuring a challenging yet achievable learning path. - Translation Practice: Submit your translations and receive instant corrections with detailed explanations to accelerate your learning. Embark on a journey to fluency with our app – where learning Japanese is not just a task, but a delightful adventure. Download now and let the language mastery begin! - Progress Tracking: Stay motivated by monitoring your daily practice stats and track your improvement over time. - Cultural Insights: Immerse yourself in Japanese culture through context-rich texts, enhancing both language and cultural understanding.
Sumigo
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Study Japanese your way with an offline dictionary, adaptive flashcards, focused learning paths, quick games, and classic stories—no account or ads required. Japanese dictionaries are good at telling you what a word means. They are not always as good at explaining when to use it. Sumigo helps with both. Alongside definitions, many entries include practical usage notes covering nuance, formality, similar words, and common mistakes. When you find a word you want to remember, save it and study it with the built-in spaced-repetition system. DICTIONARY • More than 200,000 Japanese–English dictionary entries • Search using kanji, kana, romaji, or English • Draw unfamiliar kanji directly in the search field • View furigana and complete conjugation tables for verbs and adjectives • Learn how words are actually used through detailed usage notes and examples FLASHCARDS AND LEARNING PATHS Review saved vocabulary with adaptive flashcards, or start with First 100 words in five small groups. Study kanji, grammar, and kana in separate paths. Choose what to practice, track progress, and set the length of each session. GAMES Practice your selected words, kanji, and kana in quick games. Catch the matching word, find the kanji missing from a Japanese word, or test your kana recognition. Build combos and see your score at the end of each session. KANJI • Explore more than 13,000 kanji with readings, meanings, and JLPT levels • Follow animated stroke-order diagrams • Practice writing kanji with a guide and optional writing grid • Study complete groups by school grade or JLPT level GRAMMAR Browse more than 800 grammar points from N5 to N1. Each entry includes its meaning, formation rules, explanations, and example sentences. EXAMPLE SENTENCES Read tens of thousands of Japanese sentences with furigana and English translations. Tap any word in a sentence to open its dictionary entry. JAPANESE STORIES Read classic folk tales such as Momotaro and Urashima Taro. Follow the Japanese text with line-by-line audio, word lookup, and English translations. MADE FOR FOCUSED STUDY Choose focused reviews when you want a quiet study session or optional games when you want a change of pace. Core study content works offline, and handwriting recognition works offline after a one-time model download. No account or ads are required.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is device support: Shakelance at 3 against Sumigo's 1. Shakelance also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.0). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Shakelance | Sumigo |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | — | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 25 MB | 757 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Julio Imazio | Lion Knoche |
In-app purchases
Shakelance
No in-app purchases
Sumigo
No in-app purchases









