Nihongo Catch! vs NihonGO Manabi
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Nihongo Catch!
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Why not make mastering Japanese more fun? Just reading a textbook is often not enough to truly learn how to use Japanese. If that sounds familiar, this app is here to help. Nihongo Catch is a completely new kind of Japanese learning app, packed with all the fun and convenience that only a smartphone can offer. Whether you are just starting to learn Japanese or aiming to pass an exam, this app helps you catch Japanese you can actually use in real life. 【Watch: Understand intuitively through animation】 Even difficult grammar points are explained through charming animated characters. You can instantly see and understand how things work, so learning feels smooth and enjoyable. 【Touch: Game-like quizzes】 The app is filled with quizzes where you move blocks with your finger to build sentences. As you play as if solving puzzles, correct Japanese starts to come naturally. 【Speak: Your voice becomes your strength】 With speech recognition, you can check your pronunciation. By practicing speaking to the app again and again, you will gain the confidence to communicate in Japanese. 【Feel at ease: Support in 5 languages】 The app supports English, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Nepali, and Chinese. Whenever something is unclear, you can check it in your own language, so you can keep learning without giving up halfway. 【Convenient: Anytime, anywhere】 Once lessons are downloaded, you can keep studying even without an internet connection. That means you can make the most of spare moments and study whenever and wherever it suits you. From pronunciation and writing systems to the proper use of polite expressions, the app offers a full set of 84 lessons. It covers everything from the basics to more advanced content, making it a great choice for learners aiming to pass the JLPT N3. Download it now and step into a whole new world of Japanese.
NihonGO Manabi
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NihonGO Manabi is the intermediate Japanese textbook: the book that gets you over the hardest wall in the language, from a finished beginner course to reading real Japanese. Beginner textbooks are everywhere; intermediate ones are rare, and a complete free one did not exist. This is it. Two full books are in the app today, 学び I and 学び II, and the third is on its way as a free update. ONE CONTINUING STORY Follow a young reporter through her first two years on the job: twenty-four chapters of authentic native Japanese. Year one at a small newspaper in Kamakura, year two at a national daily in Tokyo. In every chapter, the first text is her reporting, the second the article she files. Furigana is one tap away, and an English line sits under every sentence on a switch you control. EVERY WORD IS A LIVE CARD Tap any underlined word and its card opens: meaning, reading, the kanji it is built from, an example sentence you can hear. Conjugated forms find their own dictionary form, so 歩いていた and 遅れたら open too. THE GRAMMAR OF A SENTENCE, ONE TAP AWAY Stuck on a sentence? Tap the 文 beside it: a table lists each pattern it uses, the words that carry it and what it does there; every row opens its card. WHAT THE TWO BOOKS TEACH · Grammar: 194 N3 patterns in Book I and 174 more in Book II, most of them N2: 368 in all, taught as families rather than scattered points, so you learn which one to reach for. · Kanji: 254 N3 kanji in Book I, 247 in Book II, which completes the N3 set and opens N2. Each is introduced by the chapter that needs it and can be written by hand. · Words: about 2,270 new words across the two books, most useful first, each one a card. Each book opens with a plain statement of what you will have learned and where that leaves you for the JLPT. SIX ROOMS IN EVERY CHAPTER ① an overview · ② the words you are about to meet, as tappable tiles · ③ the text, with audio · ④ the grammar behind it, in contrast tables · ⑤ a workbook where you write the Japanese yourself · ⑥ the chapter's kanji, written by hand. A WORKBOOK THAT ASKS YOU TO WRITE 4,299 exercises across the twenty-four chapters. You write the sentence, then see how it should have been written. Free, as often as you like. HANDWRITING, CORRECTED STROKE BY STROKE Write a kanji with your finger or an Apple Pencil and it is checked for shape, stroke order, direction and missing strokes, and you are told which part went wrong. Entirely on your device. IT COMES BACK A word or kanji you keep peeking at, a grammar pattern you keep getting wrong: all of it returns in a spaced review queue that schedules itself, and the writing pad keeps its own list of the kanji you miss. AN APPENDIX THAT IS ACTUALLY USEFUL Reference tables for conjugation, a grammar index from N5 to N1, counters, keigo, transitive pairs, kana and radicals; printable word and kanji indexes for each book; and a dictionary with three scopes, from this book to a full Japanese–English dictionary of 218,000 entries. ONE CARD REPOSITORY, THREE APPS The same cards power NihonGO Dominos (the drill) and NihonGO Dokusho (the reader): a card is the same card wherever it appears. BUILT FOR iPHONE AND iPAD On an iPhone it goes everywhere and the writing pad works with a finger; on an iPad, text, cards and contents sit side by side and a Pencil turns the pad into a desk. Also on Apple silicon Macs, better for reading than writing. WORKS COMPLETELY OFFLINE Every chapter, card and audio clip is on your device the moment you install it. COMPLETELY FREE No price, no in-app purchases, no ads, no account, no tracking. Your progress stays on your device and follows you to your other devices through your own private iCloud. OPTIONAL: YOUR OWN AI TUTOR Connect your own Claude API account from Anthropic (a guide in the app walks you through it) and the workbook will mark what you wrote, explain why, and repair it into natural Japanese. Optional, needs an internet connection, and clearly marked wherever it costs anything.
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Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: NihonGO Manabi at none against Nihongo Catch!'s 1. Nihongo Catch!'s advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs every 2 weeks). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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
Both are free to download. Nihongo Catch! sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. NihonGO Manabi asks for nothing beyond the download.
Nihongo Catch! ships an update every 5 days, NihonGO Manabi every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Nihongo Catch! | NihonGO Manabi |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 82 MB | 1.4 GB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | TEPPEI TSUZUKI | JUERGEN WOLFGANG HAMMER |
In-app purchases
Nihongo Catch!
- Nihongo Catch! Full Version$24.99
NihonGO Manabi
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Nihongo Catch! free?
Is NihonGO Manabi free?
Do Nihongo Catch! or NihonGO Manabi have ads?
Which is updated more often, Nihongo Catch! or NihonGO Manabi?
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