Karacter vs Hanzijo
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Karacter
Learn Mandarin Chinese with an offline dictionary, handwriting recognition, and AI-powered explanations. Track your progress with HSK 3.0 integration and visualize stroke order animations.
- 100% offline dictionary
- Handwriting and character search
- AI-powered word explanations
- Animated stroke order guides
- HSK 3.0 proficiency tags
- Daily revision widgets
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Practice Chinese without opening the app! (for free) With lock-screen widgets, read a new Chinese word every time you open your phone. HSK 1 to 9, 190,000+ words, strokes drawing, pronunciations, and Pleco definitions. The app also has home-screen widgets and daily notifications to review even more words. No accounts, no signups, no adds, no tracking. Primary features: 1. An offline official dictionary: no internet nor VPN, study without distractions. 2. Homescreen and lockscren daily widgets to learn words when unlocking your phone. 2. Characters handwriting and search: find words by drawing them, or searching via Pinyin, English, or Chinese. 3. AI-powered explanations that deconstructs complex phrases and explains usage, history and meanings of words. Key Highlights: Animated Stroke Order: Visualize exactly how to write every character with step-by-step animations. HSK 3.0 Integration: Clear proficiency tags to help you track your progress for the latest HSK standards. Minimalist Design: A clean, modern interface focused on clarity and ease of use.
Hanzijo
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Learn Chinese step by step, from pinyin and tones to HSK 9 (HSK 3.0): characters, words and grammar points arranged along the nine HSK levels. Every character comes with pinyin, radicals, stroke order and a memory story, and spaced-repetition review brings each word back when it is due. Practice with dictation lessons from real videos and with conversations, scan Chinese text with your camera, and review from Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets. Hanzijo is free to start: you can begin one new lesson every day. A CLEAR HSK PATH • Nine levels that follow the HSK 3.0 framework, from your first characters to HSK 9. • A Foundation course before HSK 1 teaches pinyin, the four tones, tone changes and the basic strokes. • Each lesson teaches its new characters and words, adds grammar points in most lessons, and ends with a short quiz. CHARACTERS THAT STICK • Every character comes with pinyin, tone, stroke count, radicals, meaning and a memory story. • Watch the stroke order, trace it, or write the character from memory and let the app check it. • Switch between Simplified and Traditional characters in Settings at any time. GRAMMAR AND WORDS IN CONTEXT • Grammar points at every level, each with a clear pattern, example sentences with pinyin and translation, and common mistakes to avoid. • Tap a word in a grammar example to see its meaning. • Every word comes with example sentences and audio. LISTEN AND SPEAK • Dictation lessons built from real Chinese videos: listen to a line, then put its phrases back in order. • Conversations at every level: follow each line as it is read aloud, then say it yourself to practice your pronunciation. • Paste the link of a YouTube video with Chinese subtitles and study the words and grammar of each line. REVIEW EVERY DAY • Spaced-repetition review schedules every character, word and grammar point you learn. • Once it has enough of your review history, the app's AI model lists the items you are most likely to forget, so you can review them in time. • Home Screen, Lock Screen and quiz widgets keep a word in front of you all day. • In Search, write a character, a word or a whole sentence by hand, or scan a sign, a menu or a page to see the words, characters and grammar points it contains. • Stats show your streak, an activity calendar and your progress along the HSK path. FREE AND PREMIUM • Free: one new lesson a day. From the second lesson of each level, a short ad opens each next part of the lesson. • Premium removes all ads and unlocks every Premium feature. • One Premium plan works in all three of our apps: Hanzijo (Chinese), Kanjijo (Japanese) and Hanguljo (Korean). SUBSCRIPTION AND PURCHASE INFORMATION • Premium Monthly and Premium Yearly are auto-renewable subscriptions. Premium Lifetime is a one-time purchase and does not renew. • Payment is charged to your Apple Account when you confirm the purchase. • A subscription renews automatically unless you turn off auto-renew at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account is charged for the renewal within the 24 hours before the current period ends. • You can manage your subscription and turn off auto-renew in your Apple Account settings after purchase. Terms of Use (EULA): https://hanzijo.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://hanzijo.com/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
Karacter and Hanzijo are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
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. Karacter sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Hanzijo sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Karacter ships an update weekly, Hanzijo every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Karacter | Hanzijo |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (33 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 33 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 128 MB | 156 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Eloan Tourtelier | Vy Vo |
In-app purchases
Karacter
- Monthly Karacter$3.991 Month
- Yearly Karacter$24.991 Year
- AI features refill$0.99
- Karacter lifetime$130.99
Hanzijo
- Monthly Premium$5.991 Month
- Yearly Premium$39.991 Year
- Lifetime Premium$149.99







