Comparison

TOCFL Flashcards vs BopoTaco

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

Head to head
About

TOCFL Flashcards

Features
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Learn Traditional Chinese for the TOCFL exam with a focused, distraction-free flash card app built for daily practice. Tap to flip. Mark what you knew. Watch your familiarity grow from New to Mastered as you go. WHO IT'S FOR TOCFL learners at any band โ€” from Novice 1 through Level 5. Whether you're starting your first 300 characters or sharpening the upper levels, every session draws from the bands you choose. FEATURES โ€ข 7 TOCFL bands โ€” Novice 1, Novice 2, Level 1 through Level 5 โ€ข Traditional characters with pinyin, part of speech, and English โ€ข Smart card mixing โ€” sees new words more often, mastered ones less often โ€ข Familiarity buckets โ€” New, Learning, Familiar, Mastered โ€ข Progress page with charts โ€” see your familiarity, mastery by level, and which words need review โ€ข Dictionary mode โ€” browse and search the full word list โ€ข Customizable session length, from 5 to 50 cards โ€ข 100% offline โ€” no account, no tracking, no ads PRIVACY Your study data never leaves your device. No analytics, no trackers, no sign-up. Made for learners who want to study, not configure.

About

BopoTaco

Features
Read full description

Learn Mandarin the way Taiwan actually types it โ€” with bopomofo (zhuyin), the phonetic system on every keyboard there. No ads. No data collection. No account. โ–  Learn bopomofo typing, free A few spare minutes is enough for a round. All 37 bopomofo symbols, the tones and the sounds, one lesson at a time. Once you have finished them, the All Symbols drill keeps them sharp, and any lesson can be replayed whenever you want. โ–  1,517 lessons of characters and words, most common first Characters and words come from Taiwan's Ministry of Education dictionary, graded 1โ€“7 against the Taiwan Benchmarks for the Chinese Language (TBCL), then cut into lessons of ten in the order they are actually used. You always know which lesson you are on and how many are left โ€” no guessing what to practise. โ–  Watch your speed Keys per minute (KPM) and accuracy, on screen as you type. The timed test tells you exactly how fast you are right now. โ–  Dictation mode Audio only โ€” the prompt stays hidden. Listen, then type. When Regular mode stops being a challenge, this is the stage above it. Every bopomofo, character and word lesson, and the timed test. โ–  Statistics that show you the weak spots A per-symbol accuracy heatmap: the sounds you are shaky on, at a glance. The pairs you most often confuse, the syllables you keep missing, how much you have practised and where it is heading โ€” enough to find a weakness and clear it. โ–  Dark mode Follows your system setting โ€” easy on the eyes at night. โ–  Privacy Fully offline. No network, no account. Nothing is collected, uploaded or tracked โ€” the privacy policy is there to check. โ–  What's free โ€ข Every lesson for all 37 bopomofo symbols โ€ข The All Symbols drill โ€ข The one-minute timed test โ€ข TBCL levels 1โ€“2 of the character and word courses, 101 lessons โ€ข Part of the statistics โ–  BopoTaco Pro (a one-time purchase, not a subscription) unlocks โ€ข TBCL levels 3โ€“7: 1,416 more character and word lessons โ€ข Dictation mode โ€ข Three- and five-minute timed tests โ€ข The full statistics โ–  Sources and licences Character and word data is reproduced verbatim from the Taiwan Ministry of Education dictionary (2014) under CC BY-ND 3.0 TW. Level grading is from the Taiwan Benchmarks for the Chinese Language (TBCL) by the National Academy for Educational Research.

Screenshots

TOCFL Flashcards4 screens
BopoTaco4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: TOCFL Flashcards at none against BopoTaco's 1. TOCFL Flashcards also leads on update cadence (daily vs monthly). BopoTaco's advantage is iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.5). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. BopoTaco sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. TOCFL Flashcards asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

TOCFL Flashcards ships an update daily, BopoTaco monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences ยท 3 level
TOCFL Flashcards versus BopoTaco: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTOCFL FlashcardsBopoTaco
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyDaily โ€” betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo โ€” betterYes
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch โ€” betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.517.0 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size18 MB17 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMarcus JohanssonMIZUKI NAGASAWA

In-app purchases

None

TOCFL Flashcards

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

BopoTaco

One-time1
  • BopoTaco Pro$4.99

Questions

Is TOCFL Flashcards free?
TOCFL Flashcards is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is BopoTaco free?
BopoTaco is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do TOCFL Flashcards or BopoTaco have ads?
Neither TOCFL Flashcards nor BopoTaco shows ads.
Which is updated more often, TOCFL Flashcards or BopoTaco?
TOCFL Flashcards ships an update daily, and BopoTaco monthly. Most recently, TOCFL Flashcards was updated on October 25, 2026 and BopoTaco on October 20, 2026.

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