Comparison

Karacter vs 单词镜

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 100% offline dictionary
  • Handwriting and character search
  • AI-powered word explanations
  • Animated stroke order guides
  • HSK 3.0 proficiency tags
  • Daily revision widgets
Features
Read full description

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.

About

单词镜

Features
Read full description

Build your English vocabulary as you read. Point your camera at a textbook or import an image, then tap an English word to see its phonetic transcription, part of speech and Chinese definition, and hear it pronounced. POINT, TAP, LEARN With Live Lookup, recognized words on the page are tappable right in the camera view, no photo needed. You can also capture a full page or import one from your photo library and look up words as often as you like. Show definitions beside the word or in a bottom card, or type a word to look it up manually. HEAR AND TRANSLATE SENTENCES Switch to Sentences mode and tap a whole sentence to hear it read aloud and see a Chinese translation from Apple Translate. READ AND LEARN OFFLINE Text recognition and dictionary lookup run on your device. Core lookup works without an internet connection. Choose British or American pronunciation and speech rate using system voices. KEEP THE WORDS YOU DISCOVER Save words, add your own definitions, and revisit recent scans to continue learning where you left off. On iPad, a split-view layout keeps your words and their meanings side by side. GO FURTHER WITH PRO An optional one-time Pro purchase unlocks batch word extraction, custom vocabulary books, spaced review, dictation (with voice answers), spelling practice, learning statistics, a daily review reminder, and data export and backup. Pro is not an auto-renewing subscription. Purchasing and restoring purchases require an App Store connection. YOUR LEARNING MATERIALS STAY WITH YOU No account required. No ads. WordLens does not upload your scan images, vocabulary books or learning records to a developer-hosted service. You can delete scans, clean up images or erase all user data. If system backup is enabled, your operating system may include app data in its backups. The interface supports English, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. Dictionary definitions are in Chinese.

Screenshots

Karacter4 screens
单词镜4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Karacter at weekly against 单词镜's every 3 weeks. Karacter also leads on iOS requirement (16.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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

Both are free to download. Karacter sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and 单词镜 sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Karacter ships an update weekly, 单词镜 every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Karacter versus 单词镜: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterKaracter单词镜
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (33 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings33 — better—
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size128 MB115 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperEloan Tourtelier传明 储

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Karacter

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Karacter$3.991 Month
  • Yearly Karacter$24.991 Year
One-time2
  • AI features refill$0.99
  • Karacter lifetime$130.99
1 purchases

单词镜

One-time1
  • WordLens Pro$9.99

Questions

Is Karacter free?
Karacter is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is 单词镜 free?
单词镜 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Karacter or 单词镜 have ads?
Neither Karacter nor 单词镜 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Karacter or 单词镜?
Karacter ships an update weekly, and 单词镜 every 3 weeks. Most recently, Karacter was updated on October 25, 2026 and 单词镜 on October 31, 2026.

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