Comparison

道德经 vs iDao

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

Head to head
About

道德经

Explore the profound philosophical work of Lao Tzu, a foundational text of Taoism. This comprehensive edition delves into ancient wisdom on self-cultivation, governance, and well-being. Discover its extensive influence on Chinese culture and global thought.

Highlights
  • Complete 81-chapter text
  • Explores Taoist philosophy
  • Covers self-cultivation and governance
  • Influential Chinese classic
  • Translated globally
Features
Read full description

道德经 春秋时期老子所著的哲学作品,又称《德道经》 《道德真经》《老子》《五千言》《老子五千文》,是中国古代先秦诸子分家前的一部著作,是道家哲学思想的重要来源。 道德经分上下两篇,原文上篇《德经》、下篇《道经》,不分章,后改为《道经》37章在前,第38章之后为《德经》,并分为81章。 《道德经》文本以哲学意义之“道德”为纲宗,论述修身、治国、用兵、养生之道,而多以政治为旨归,乃所谓“内圣外王”之学,文意深奥,包涵广博,被誉为万经之王。 《道德经》是中国历史上最伟大的名著之一,对传统哲学、科学、政治、宗教等产生了深刻影响。据联合国教科文组织统计,《道德经》是除了《圣经》以外被译成外国文字发布量最多的文化名著。被誉为“中华文化之源”“万经之王”。

About

iDao

This offline companion facilitates a deep study of the Tao Te Ching with bilingual text, dual commentaries, and interactive practice tools. Engage in recitation, review games, and daily readings with customizable features and system integrations. Study data is kept private on your device by default.

Highlights
  • Bilingual reading and dual commentaries
  • Recitation workbench with highlighting
  • Study Hall and Seek the Tao practice games
  • Daily Chapter with widgets and notifications
  • Offline functionality
  • Customizable backgrounds and font sizes
Features
Read full description

iDao (Love the Tao Te Ching) is an offline study companion for the Tao Te Ching - not a plain text reader. Close reading, dual commentaries, bilingual compare, recitation, practice, and daily habits live in one place. No network and no account are required to start. WHY DOWNLOAD Many Tao Te Ching apps stop at original text plus translation. iDao is built on four pillars: 1) Bilingual reading and dual classical commentaries, with vernacular Chinese and per-character pinyin (horizontal and vertical) 2) A recitation workbench with line highlighting, continuous play, and background speech 3) Study Hall and Seek the Tao for practice and light review games 4) Daily Chapter with widgets, notifications, Siri, Control Center, and deep links Fully offline. No ads. No third-party analytics. Study data stays on device by default. Optional iCloud merge runs only after you enable it. LIBRARY 81 Tao Te Ching chapters (Wang Bi text; Book of the Way and Book of Virtue), plus Qingjing Jing and Yinfu Jing - 85 chapters total - and 74 bilingual famous lines. Pinyin prefers corpus alignment, with whole-line fallback. Interfaces: Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English. BILINGUAL READING AND COMMENTARIES Public-domain translations by James Legge and Paul Carus can be read alone or compared. Classical notes switch between Wang Bi and Heshang Gong. Reading language: bilingual, Chinese only, or English only. Long chapters support segmentation and page hints. Backgrounds: system, paper, sepia, night. CHAPTER DETAIL Toolbar: Favorite, Speak, More. More covers Study Hall, recitation, notes, mastery, immersion, font size, display toggles, Dao Lists, adjacent chapters, copy, share, link, and Dao cards. Notes open from three places. Build custom Dao Lists and move chapter to chapter in one flow. VERTICAL AND SHARE CARDS Vertical text and immersive follow-along highlight lines during speech. Multi-style Dao cards support square, portrait, and story ratios, with fullscreen preview, save to Photos, or share. RECITATION Line highlighting, voice and rate, continuous playback with gaps, background audio, and Lock Screen Now Playing. Speak original, vernacular, or English independently of on-screen layout. STUDY HALL AND SEEK THE TAO Modes: fade memorization, fill-in, self-check, and quiz. Seek the Tao reviews lines by keyword hunting and stores best score. Multi-select Favorites or Dao Lists for batch recitation or batch Study Hall. Streaks, mastered list, history, and notes keep your trail visible. BROWSE, LISTS, AND SEARCH Browse by book, Way/Virtue sections, theme, famous lines, all chapters, and author (including Laozi). DAILY CHAPTER AND SYSTEM FEATURES Daily Chapter rotates by solar terms, festivals, and seasons. Optional local notifications need no network. Home and Lock Screen widgets cover Daily Chapter, famous lines, mastery, and favorites. On iOS 18+, Control Center includes today, random, search, Study Hall, favorites, recite, famous lines, browse, and Seek the Tao. Siri and App Intents, up to four Home Screen quick actions, alternate icons, and deep links open chapters, daily, study, hunt, famous lines, favorites, mastered, history, settings, and guides. Optional iCloud merges favorites, lists, notes, history, mastery, and streaks bidirectionally. SETTINGS AND AUDIENCE Onboarding plus usage, widget, and Shortcuts guides. Settings cover appearance, accents, three languages, reading and speech details, tab visibility, notifications, data, help, and About. For systematic readers; bilingual and commentary learners; people who memorize through recitation and practice; anyone who wants Daily Chapter and widgets in daily life; and privacy-minded users who want full offline use without an account. Open iDao today: read one chapter, recite one line, note one insight, practice once. Through compare, commentary, and practice, walk toward the Way.

Screenshots

道德经2 screens
iDao4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: iDao at 100% against 道德经's 0%. iDao also leads on ads (none vs shown) and price ($0.99 vs $3.99). 道德经's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On in-app purchases, monetization model 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

道德经 costs $3.99 and iDao $0.99 up front. 道德经 sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and iDao sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

Scorecard4 real differences · 4 level
道德经 versus iDao: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
Parameter道德经iDao
Price$3.99$0.99 — better
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Update frequencyDaily—
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size27 MB18 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperChengdu Mahamati Technology Co.,Ltd.天从 何

Customer experience

道德经

Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

iDao

Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

道德经

One-time1
  • 永久去广告$4.99
1 purchases

iDao

One-time1
  • Reward developers$0.99

Questions

Is 道德经 free?
道德经 costs $3.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is iDao free?
iDao costs $0.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Do 道德经 or iDao have ads?
道德经 shows ads; iDao does not.

Other comparisons