Comparison

PinyinRead vs HanExams

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

Head to head
About

PinyinRead

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Unlock Effortless Chinese Reading with PinyinRead! Struggling with Chinese characters? Wish you had an easy way to see the Pinyin? PinyinRead is the simple, intuitive tool you need to read Chinese text with instant Pinyin support. Perfect for Learners and Parents: Instant Pinyin: Just paste or type your Chinese text, and PinyinRead automatically displays clear, accurate Pinyin with tone marks above each character. Toggle Visibility: Need to test your knowledge or prefer a cleaner view? Easily switch the Pinyin display on or off with a single tap. Customizable Comfort: Adjust the font size to find the perfect setting for comfortable reading on your device. Listen and Learn (New!): Added Text-to-Speech (TTS) feature. Hear articles read aloud to practice standard pronunciation and deepen your understanding. Secure Backup & Restore (New!): Easily create backups (Export) and restore (Import) your articles. Never lose your learning progress! Bilingual Interface (New!): The app interface is now available in both English and Simplified Chinese for your convenience. Ideal for Parents Teaching Kids: Make learning Chinese fun and accessible! PinyinReader is a fantastic companion for parents helping their children recognize characters, practice pronunciation, and build reading confidence together. Turn reading time into quality bonding time. Learner's Best Friend: Improve your reading speed, master pronunciation, and tackle challenging texts with greater ease. Simple & Focused: A clean, distraction-free interface keeps the focus on reading and understanding the content. How it Works: 1. Add your article or text (the first line automatically becomes the title). 2. Switch to view mode. 3. Tap the Pinyin toggle to show/hide annotations. 4. Use the font controls to adjust size. 5. Long-press a sentence to start TTS playback (Pinyin display must be enabled). 6. Tap the screen to hide/show the controls for an immersive reading experience. 7. Find the Backup and Restore options in the Settings page. Stop letting unfamiliar characters slow you down. Download PinyinReader today and make reading Chinese simple and enjoyable for learners of all ages!

About

HanExams

Features
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HanExam is an all-in-one Chinese learning app built against the Level 1–9 Chinese proficiency benchmarks. Whether you are a complete beginner or an advanced learner, our original targeted exercises, graded reading library, and immersive scenario lessons help you steadily improve all four language skills. Why Choose HanExam? Original Targeted Exercise Bank All exercise materials are independently created based on publicly available Chinese proficiency benchmarks, covering Listening, Reading, and Writing. It fully matches the difficulty gradient from Level 1 to 9, with custom-designed scenarios and question formats that reflect real-life language contexts. Graded Chinese Reading Library Explore original Chinese mythological stories written at multiple difficulty levels β€” each chapter features pinyin annotation, tap-to-look-up dictionary, text-to-speech narration, and chapter exercises to build reading fluency naturally. "Travel Around China" Scenario Drama Learn Chinese through 40 episodes of an original situational drama following Tom, an exchange student in Beijing. Each episode includes pinyin support, voice playback, cultural notes, grammar breakdowns, vocabulary lists, and interactive exercises with a built-in study guide panel. Instant Character Dictionary Tap any Chinese character anywhere in the app to instantly see its pinyin, meaning, radical, stroke count, word combinations, example sentences, and usage notes β€” powered by an offline CC-CEDICT dictionary with over 110,000 entries, plus 2500 essential characters with detailed analysis. Chinese Culture & Idioms Dive into 200 cultural Q&As, Chinese idioms and their stories, traditional customs, and deep-dive interpretations of classic literature β€” all designed to deepen your cultural understanding alongside language skills. Voice Diary Check-in Build a daily learning habit with voice diary check-ins. Record your practice, track your progress on a monthly calendar, and replay your recordings anytime. High-Fidelity Text-to-Speech Built-in high-quality Chinese TTS engine supports listening drills and pronunciation practice with multiple voice tones. Most audio content works without an internet connection. Visual Progress Tracking Automatically save all exercise history, intelligently calculate accuracy rates and average scores, and visualize your learning growth curve so you can easily identify and focus on weak areas. 25-Language Interface Supports 25 display languages including Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Thai, Vietnamese, and more. Designed for Chinese learners worldwide. Important Notice This independently developed Chinese learning tool contains 100% original self-developed content for language training purposes only. It is not affiliated with any official Chinese examination institution and does not provide official exam questions or official mock papers. Download HanExam now and start your Chinese proficiency journey!

Screenshots

PinyinRead4 screens
HanExams4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: PinyinRead at none against HanExams's 1. PinyinRead also leads on update cadence (every 6 days vs every 2 weeks). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Both are free to download. HanExams sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. PinyinRead asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PinyinRead ships an update every 6 days, HanExams every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences Β· 4 level
PinyinRead versus HanExams: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPinyinReadHanExams
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 6 days β€” betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo β€” betterYes
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac β€” betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.0 β€” better13.0
Further details β€” not scored
Size33 MB169 MB
Age rating4+12+
Developer伟平 李撦霞 吴

In-app purchases

None

PinyinRead

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

HanExams

One-time1
  • Mock Test Prep$9.99

Questions

Is PinyinRead free?
PinyinRead is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is HanExams free?
HanExams is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do PinyinRead or HanExams have ads?
Neither PinyinRead nor HanExams shows ads.
Which is updated more often, PinyinRead or HanExams?
PinyinRead ships an update every 6 days, and HanExams every 2 weeks. Most recently, PinyinRead was updated on October 5, 2026 and HanExams on September 29, 2026.

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