Jade vs ScriptPad
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Jade
This app offers a smart Chinese dictionary and learning companion for everyday use. It provides instant lookups by Hanzi, pinyin, or English, with essential information first and deeper context available. Features include flashcards, spaced repetition, and a tool to understand Chinese text from your surroundings.
- Fast Chinese dictionary search
- Search by Hanzi, pinyin, or English
- Simplified and Traditional script display
- Flashcard creation and custom decks
- Spaced repetition review sessions
- Offline dictionary lookup
- Real-world text recognition (Jade Lens)
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Jade is a Chinese dictionary and learning companion built to help you understand, remember, and use real Chinese. Search by Hanzi, pinyin, English, or handwriting. Jade shows what matters first: characters, pronunciation, and practical meaning. Go deeper with examples, related words, audio, writing guidance, and learning context. **UNDERSTAND MORE** Use Jade Explain for sentences, phrases, names, idioms, and unfamiliar expressions. Jade breaks Chinese down clearly so you can understand what it means, how it works, and when to use it. **REMEMBER WHAT YOU LEARN** Save any word to flashcards and organize vocabulary into your own decks. Build lasting knowledge with Daily sessions, spaced-repetition review, Smart Quiz, and Hanzi writing practice. **READ REAL CHINESE** Paste or import your own text, or explore curated stories in Jade Reader. Choose how much pinyin to see, tap unfamiliar words for instant help, reveal translations when needed, and save useful vocabulary as you read. **SCROLL CHINESE** Learn from native speakers through short YouTube clips. Follow synchronized Hanzi, pinyin, and translation; tap any word for instant help, replay a sentence, and save useful vocabulary as you watch. **LOOK UP CHINESE AROUND YOU** Point Jade Lens at Chinese text or import an image to recognize words in the real world. Look up what you find and save useful vocabulary directly to your decks. **LEARN YOUR WAY** Jade supports Simplified and Traditional Chinese, with optional Cantonese support. Core dictionary lookup and saved learning data remain available offline, and no account is required to get started. Whether you're learning your first characters or already reading Chinese, Jade gives you one place to look things up, understand them, and remember what you learn. Look it up. Understand it. Remember it. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
ScriptPad
Master Chinese writing with animated stroke guides, interactive practice, and pronunciation comparison. Learn vocabulary through structured lessons and engaging games, all available offline. Create custom lessons from any text.
- Animated stroke-order guides
- Interactive writing canvas
- Pronunciation practice with recording
- Structured vocabulary lessons
- Gamified learning activities
- Custom lesson creation
- Offline functionality
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ScriptPad: Chinese Writing helps you learn to read, write, type, and speak Chinese from scratch. Start with Chinese Basics, learn essential strokes, radicals, and your first characters with animated stroke-order guides that show you exactly how to write each one. Practice on an interactive drawing canvas and build real muscle memory as you trace each stroke. Move beyond the basics into structured vocabulary lessons across 6 units and 130+ lessons. Every word comes with audio so you can hear and practice correct pronunciation as you learn. Write by Hand: A full drawing canvas for every word, practice writing Chinese characters with your finger or stylus. The character outlines guide your strokes, and stroke-order animations show you exactly how each character is written. Speak & Compare: Record yourself saying each word and compare your pronunciation side by side. Instant playback lets you hear exactly where to improve. Type Mode: Learn how to type Chinese words. Instant feedback shows you what you got right and what to review. Create Your Own Lessons: Paste any Chinese text, vocabulary lists, song lyrics, textbook sentences, and turn it into a writing lesson with audio. Play & Practice: Reinforce every lesson with hands on activities that make vocabulary stick. Match words to pictures, build words by connecting their characters, listen for a word and slice it before it lands, mark your card in a listen and win bingo against the computer, fit word blocks together to clear the board, and blast word aliens out of the sky. Each activity plays the word's audio as you go, so you're always hearing the Chinese as you learn it. Word Meanings in Your Language: See each word's meaning in English, Japanese, or Korean, switch the translation language anytime. Features: 2,000+ vocabulary learn and write words with audio across 6 structured units 10,000+ HSK words and sentences Stroke-order animations for every Chinese character Pinyin shown for every word Interactive drawing canvas with character guides Speak & Compare pronunciation practice with recording Type mode for Chinese keyboard practice Playful practice activities: picture matching, character building, audio slicing, bingo, word blocks, and word invaders Traditional mode, toggle between Simplified and Traditional characters for every word Create custom lessons from any Chinese text Word meanings in multiple languages iPad Writing Mode, multi-card writing grid with stroke animations 14 page themes for a comfortable study environment Works beautifully on iPhone and iPad Fully offline, no internet required Interface available in English, Chinese, Spanish, French, Japanese, Korean, and Russian One-time purchase, no subscription Whether you are a complete beginner or brushing up on your Chinese writing skills, ScriptPad gives you the tools to practice at your own pace. Download ScriptPad and start writing Chinese today.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Jade at 4.4 against ScriptPad's 3.0. Jade also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs monthly) and ratings volume (17 vs 1). ScriptPad's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). On price, in-app purchases, 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. Jade sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and ScriptPad sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Jade holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Jade has 17 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Jade ships an update every 3 days, ScriptPad monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Jade | ScriptPad |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (17 ratings) — better | 3.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 85.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 17 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days — better | Monthly |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.5 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 305 MB | 406 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Carlo Hafeneger | Hugo Alberto Garza Jr |
Customer experience
Jade
ScriptPad
In-app purchases
Jade
- Jade Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
- Jade Pro Yearly$39.991 Year
- Lifetime$99.99
ScriptPad
- Premium Unlock$4.99








