Comparison

Study Chinese vs Inkstone

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

Head to head
About

Study Chinese

Learn Mandarin through an engaging, game-like experience. Progress through levels with interactive drills, boss fights, and weekly challenges. Offers both classic and updated HSK tracks for comprehensive language acquisition.

Highlights
  • Gamified learning with islands and boss fights
  • Two HSK tracks (2.0 Classic and 3.0)
  • Interactive drills: flashcards, matching, writing, speaking
  • Tone Studio for pronunciation practice
  • Weekly leagues and multiplayer challenges
  • Spaced repetition and graded readings
  • Home and Lock Screen widgets
Features
Read full description

Learn Mandarin Chinese step by step with Bao, your panda study buddy. Study Chinese turns HSK vocabulary, pinyin, tones and Chinese characters into short daily lessons on a world of islands. The app is available in English, Bahasa Indonesia and Español. Switch any time in Settings. 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. Follow the classic HSK 1–6 path or HSK 3.0 Levels 1–9. HSK 3.0 Levels 1–4 follow the 新HSK教程 textbooks lesson by lesson. 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. 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/

About

Inkstone

Learn Chinese through classic stories and poems. Offers detailed explanations, translations, and audio pronunciations for every word and sentence. Supports offline reading and vocabulary saving.

Highlights
  • Classic Chinese stories and poems
  • Modern Chinese retellings
  • Audio narration with pinyin
  • Tap-to-translate words
  • Sentence-by-sentence translation
  • Offline reading support
  • Vocabulary saving
Features
Read full description

Inkstone is a Chinese reading app built on the wisdom that China has passed down for generations. Most reading apps write their own material for learners. Inkstone gives you classic Chinese wisdom: from fables & their idioms, philosophy, history, to Tang poems, and strange tales. Every piece comes from a real ancient text, and then retold in clear modern Chinese to match the level you can read. Inkstone is built to guide you through every word, every phrase, and every sentence and its historical and philosophical context. A voice reads every line aloud and pinyin sits above every character. Tap any word to see what it means, hear it on its own, and read how the rest of the library uses it. Every sentence has an English translation a glance away. An "unpack the story" analysis is also paired with every story to provide further context and analysis. You never have to leave the page to look anything up, we take care of it all for you. WHAT YOU ACTUALLY READ 272 texts across twenty-four genres: fables, myths, poems, philosophy, histories, strange tales, and street talk. We ship 50+ handpicked stories on the 1st of every month. Li Bai looking at moonlight and mistaking it for frost. Zhuangzi's frog at the bottom of the well, certain the sky is small. A scholar in a Tang ghost story who should not have opened that door. The poems are the original text, character for character, from 唐诗三百首 and 全唐诗. The prose is retold in clear modern Chinese at a level you can read, and the source is always named. You'll know when you are in 聊斋志异 and when you are in 搜神记. This curated collection consists of stories that lasted two thousand years. They're worth reading and analyzing, over and over again. WHY THEY LASTED Every story comes with an interpretation, what it means, how to use it in everyday life and other contexts, along with commentary on how scholars have argued about it over the centuries. HOW WE GUIDE YOUR READING EXPERIENCE • A female and male voice for every story. Each word and sentence translated and lighting up as you progress through the story. • Slow the reading down, loop a line, or step through a story sentence by sentence • Every word has its own recording in both voices, so you can hear individual words and phrases alone • Beautiful background music to accompany your reading • Four levels of pinyin, including a smart level that marks only the words above your grade • Tap a word for its definitions, its other readings, and how often this book uses it • An English translation for every sentence without having you leave the story • Simplified and traditional characters supported • Save a word and it comes back before you forget it • Works offline. The whole library is stored locally on your phone. Audio is fetched when you open a story. • No ads and no account required. You can optionally backup your progress. LEARNING & PRACTICE Our learning system is based on SRS. Save a word while you read and it'll come back on a schedule optimized for you to master its meaning quickly. A STUDY OF YOUR OWN Inkstone is built as a scholar's studio. You carve your own name seal, and it stamps the spine of every book you finish. Curios collect on the shelf as you read. The window beside your desk follows the hour of your real day. Everything grows as you collect and finish more stories. Download Inkstone and start reading today. The annual plan is $49.99 USD per year and opens with a 7-day free trial you can cancel any time before it ends. Monthly is $9.99 and starts billing straight away. Prices in your own currency are shown in the app before you confirm anything. Terms: https://getinkstone.app/terms Privacy: https://getinkstone.app/privacy

Screenshots

Study Chinese4 screens
Inkstone4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Study Chinese at 5.0 against Inkstone's 4.3. Study Chinese also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 60%) and ads (none vs shown). Inkstone's advantage is monetization model (free vs freemium) and ratings volume (12 vs 1). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases and device support 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 and Inkstone sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Study Chinese holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Inkstone has 12 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Study Chinese's written reviews are positive against 60% of Inkstone's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Study Chinese ships an update every 4 days, Inkstone every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Study Chinese versus Inkstone: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStudy ChineseInkstone
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better4.3 (12 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better60.0% of reviews
Number of ratings112 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 daysEvery 3 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.016.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size296 MB168 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperEdrick HartantoConder Shou

Customer experience

Study Chinese

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Inkstone

All ratings12 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral16.7%
Negative8.3%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive60.0%
Neutral40.0%
Negative0.0%

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
2 purchases

Inkstone

Subscriptions2
  • Inkstone Monthly$9.991 Month
  • Inkstone Annual7 Days trial$49.991 Year

Questions

Is Study Chinese free?
Study Chinese is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Inkstone free?
Inkstone is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Study Chinese or Inkstone?
Study Chinese is rated higher. Study Chinese averages 5.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while Inkstone averages 4.3 from 12 ratings.
Do Study Chinese or Inkstone have ads?
Inkstone shows ads; Study Chinese does not.
Which is updated more often, Study Chinese or Inkstone?
Study Chinese ships an update every 4 days, and Inkstone every 3 days. Most recently, Study Chinese was updated on October 24, 2026 and Inkstone on October 25, 2026.

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