Comparison

KanjiLesson vs NihonGO Dominos

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

Head to head
About

KanjiLesson

Features
Read full description

The ultimate Kanji drill app based on Japan's official Kanji Kentei (Kanken) exam — Grade 10 to Grade 2. Study with the character "Kanjiro" guiding you through fun and effective learning. [4 Study Modes] - Reading Quiz: Choose the correct reading from 4 options - Writing Practice: Handwrite kanji with AI-powered recognition - Radical Quiz: Identify the radical from 4 choices - Idiom Quiz: Fill in the blank in four-character idioms [Level-based Learning] - Lev1 Basic: High-frequency kanji - Lev2 Advanced: Intermediate difficulty - Lev3 Expert: Rare readings and special characters [Test Mode] - Exam Mode: 20 questions in 15 minutes - Random Mode: Quick 10-question practice - Review missed questions only [Statistics & Progress] - Accuracy charts by grade and type - Daily streak counter - Progress bars for each grade

About

NihonGO Dominos

This app aids intermediate Japanese learners by providing rapid, repeated exposure to vocabulary, grammar, and kanji through a unique tile-flipping mechanic. It focuses on recognition and spaced repetition for challenging items, offering an integrated learning environment without accounts or ads.

Highlights
  • Vocabulary tiles with example sentences
  • Grammar patterns with JLPT levels
  • Kanji with stroke order animations
  • Integrated reading environment
  • Spaced repetition for challenging items
  • Offline functionality
Read full description

NihonGO Dominos is built for the intermediate phase of Japanese — the long climb from finishing a beginner course to reading everyday text on your own. A stretch where progress feels slow, and what helps most is rapid, repeated exposure to the building blocks of the language. —— ONE MECHANIC —— The whole loop is a domino tile. Tap to peek the back. Hold or double-tap to retire it. One thumb, on the train, every day. Tiles glow bone → amber → orange → vermilion as you cycle through them, and items you actually struggle with land in a Challenge Box for spaced repetition — only where it pays off. —— THREE PILLARS —— 語彙 Goi (Vocabulary) — 6,363 tiles across eight frequency tiers. Verbs, adjectives, adverbs, nouns, conjunctions, number paradigms. Every entry validated against JMdict. ~98% coverage of everyday text at the top of the pool. 6,926 example sentences, individually composed — every sentence built from words already in the corpus, and every one of them read aloud in a natural Japanese voice. A further 1,373 vocabulary entries ship as lookup cards, each with its own spoken example, so a tapped word in any sentence lands on a real card instead of nothing. 文法 Bunpou (Grammar) — 611 grammar patterns spanning JLPT N5 through N1, hand-curated under sensei supervision. One specific surface form per tile. Cross-checked against established grammar references. ~94–96% coverage in general texts. 漢字 Kanji (Characters) — 2,228 kanji from the JLPT pool unioned with the Kyōiku elementary set, ranked by a blended newspaper-and-encyclopedia frequency score. Each card has the glyph with colored radicals, kun and on readings, English gloss, a hand-written mnemonic, KanjiVG stroke-order animation, and compound examples that link back into Goi. ~95% coverage of everyday reading. —— TWO REFERENCE SETS —— 部首 Bushu (Radicals) — All 214 Kangxi radicals. Tap any radical to see the kanji that contain it. 仮名 Kana — 232 hiragana, katakana, and extended foreign-sound katakana, organized by row, vowel, and modifier. —— TILES THAT LINK —— Over 46,000 tap-to-jump links run through the corpus. In example sentences, follow any tappable word straight to its own card. In Kanji cards, the compound examples link back into Goi. The app is an integrated reading environment, not a stack of separate flashcards. —— WHAT WE DON'T DO —— No invented "Lesson 1, Lesson 2" curriculum — order is frequency. Tier 1 is what you'll meet first in real Japanese; Tier 8 is what you'll meet last. (If you'd rather browse by JLPT level, there's a toggle in Settings — same pool, re-bucketed: kanji from N5 all the way to N1 plus a beyond-JLPT set, grammar N5 to N2 with the N1 patterns in the frequency tiers.) No drowning in SRS queues. The main loop is rapid, repeated exposure by flipping tiles. The Challenge Box is a Leitner-style safety net for items you've genuinely struggled with — not the front door. No production drills. Recognition is the skill; production follows from input. No accounts. No tracking. No analytics. No ads. No data collected. No internet required after install. —— iCLOUD SYNC —— Your Challenge Box and study progress sync between your iPhone and iPad through your own iCloud account, so you can switch devices and pick up where you left off. The sync runs through Apple. We never see your data. —— FOR WHOM —— Built for serious intermediate learners. You can read hiragana and katakana, you've worked through a beginner course, and you want to push from "I can read simple sentences" to "I can read newspapers, novels, blogs, manga." If you're a true beginner, finish a beginner course first and come back. If you're already comfortable with monolingual Japanese dictionaries, you're past us. Everyone else — this is the tool we built because we couldn't find it.

Screenshots

KanjiLesson4 screens
NihonGO Dominos4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: NihonGO Dominos at none against KanjiLesson's shown. NihonGO Dominos also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 months). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

KanjiLesson ships an update every 2 months, NihonGO Dominos every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
KanjiLesson versus NihonGO Dominos: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterKanjiLessonNihonGO Dominos
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—2 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS17.0 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size41 MB751 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBYNETJUERGEN WOLFGANG HAMMER

In-app purchases

None

KanjiLesson

No in-app purchases

None

NihonGO Dominos

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is KanjiLesson free?
KanjiLesson is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is NihonGO Dominos free?
NihonGO Dominos is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do KanjiLesson or NihonGO Dominos have ads?
KanjiLesson shows ads; NihonGO Dominos does not.
Which is updated more often, KanjiLesson or NihonGO Dominos?
KanjiLesson ships an update every 2 months, and NihonGO Dominos every 3 weeks. Most recently, KanjiLesson was updated on October 18, 2026 and NihonGO Dominos on October 10, 2026.

Other comparisons