Comparison

Intercontinental Schools vs Study Chinese

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

Head to head
About

Intercontinental Schools

Features
Read full description

Intercontinental Schools app is a complete school management system form teachers, students and parents

About

Study Chinese

Learn Mandarin Chinese with interactive lessons, character writing, and tone practice. Progress through HSK levels with a virtual panda guide, and read real Chinese texts. Offers gamified learning and mock tests for exams.

Highlights
  • HSK 3.0 and classic HSK exam preparation
  • Interactive daily lessons with a panda study buddy
  • Tone Studio for pitch practice
  • Spaced repetition flashcards
  • Handwriting practice with Apple Pencil support
  • Graded reading stories with audio
  • Gamified learning with leagues and duels
Features
Read full description

Study Chinese is a Mandarin Chinese learning app for complete beginners up to the new HSK 3.0 exam. Learn step by step with Bao, your panda study buddy: HSK vocabulary, pinyin, tones and Chinese characters in short daily lessons on a world of islands. The app is available in English, Bahasa Indonesia, Español, Français, Deutsch, Русский and العربية. Switch any time in Settings. READY FOR HSK 3.0 HSK 3.0 has nine levels and new word lists. Study Chinese has courses for all nine levels, built on the 2025 exam syllabus, and HSK 3.0 Levels 1–4 follow the 新HSK教程 textbooks lesson by lesson. Taking the classic exam? The HSK 1–6 path is here too. Plus adds full mock tests in the real exam format for HSK 3–6 and HSK 3.0 Levels 3–9. A CLEAR PATH, CHAPTER BY CHAPTER Every course is a coast of islands and every chapter is an island. Learn new words, practice them in games, then beat the chapter boss. A short placement test finds your starting level. HEAR, SEE AND SAY THE TONES Tone Studio draws the shape of each Mandarin tone. Listen, speak and compare your pitch with the target. Tone analysis runs on your device. REMEMBER WORDS FOR LONGER Flashcards with spaced repetition bring hard words back sooner. Add dictation, stroke-order writing, sentence building, listening drills, a grammar guide and Hanzi Meteor, where you say the answer out loud before the word lands. Write characters by hand in a scratch pad next to word cards and flashcards, with Apple Pencil support on iPad. READ REAL CHINESE Graded stories with audio and pinyin. Tap a word for its meaning, or ask Bao to break a sentence down. With Plus, photograph pages from your own Chinese books or open a PDF and read them with help. ASK BAO (BETA) Stuck on a sentence or a grammar point? Ask Bao about the Chinese you are reading and get an explanation in your language. LEARN WITH FRIENDS Earn XP, climb the weekly league and challenge a friend to a 1v1 duel. Friends can also join rooms in a browser at studychinese.id/play. START FREE Your starting level in the classic HSK path and every level below it are free, with daily review, readings and the dictionary. Hearts and some exercises are limited on the free plan. STUDY CHINESE PLUS Plus opens every level, the full HSK 3.0 path, full HSK mock tests in the real exam format, unlimited hearts, your own books and more help from Bao. Choose monthly or yearly. Eligible new subscribers can try the yearly plan free for 7 days. Prices are shown in the app before you buy. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel in your App Store account settings. Questions: hello.studychinese@gmail.com Privacy: https://www.studychinese.id/privacy Terms: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Intercontinental Schools3 screens
Study Chinese4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Intercontinental Schools at none against Study Chinese's 5. Intercontinental Schools also leads on device support (4 vs 2) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). On price, update cadence and ads 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. Study Chinese sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Intercontinental Schools asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Intercontinental Schools ships an update every 6 days, Study Chinese every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 12, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Intercontinental Schools versus Study Chinese: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterIntercontinental SchoolsStudy Chinese
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 daysEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
Monetization—Free with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size44 MB334 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperSalihu AbdulazeezEdrick Hartanto

In-app purchases

None

Intercontinental Schools

No in-app purchases

5 purchases

Study Chinese

Subscriptions4
  • Premium Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Study Chinese Pro Monthly$9.991 Month
  • Premium Yearly7 Days trial$49.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Study Chinese Pro Yearly7 Days trial$99.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime Plus$99.99

Questions

Is Intercontinental Schools free?
Intercontinental Schools is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Study Chinese free?
Study Chinese is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Intercontinental Schools or Study Chinese have ads?
Neither Intercontinental Schools nor Study Chinese shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Intercontinental Schools or Study Chinese?
Intercontinental Schools ships an update every 6 days, and Study Chinese every 5 days. Most recently, Intercontinental Schools was updated on November 12, 2026 and Study Chinese on November 10, 2026.

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