Comparison

Study Chinese vs Bookverse

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

Head to head
About

Study Chinese

Master Mandarin Chinese with interactive lessons, HSK exam preparation, and AI-powered feedback. Learn vocabulary, tones, and characters through engaging games and real-world reading practice. Track your progress and compete with friends.

Highlights
  • HSK 3.0 and classic HSK exam preparation
  • Interactive daily lessons with a panda study buddy
  • Tone Studio for pronunciation practice
  • Spaced repetition flashcards and writing practice
  • Graded reading stories with sentence breakdown
  • AI-powered grammar and sentence explanations (Beta)
  • Gamified learning with leagues and duels
Features
Read full description

Study Chinese is a Mandarin Chinese learning app for complete beginners up to the new HSK 3.0 exam. Learn step by step with Bao, your panda study buddy: HSK vocabulary, pinyin, tones and Chinese characters in short daily lessons on a world of islands. The app is available in English, Bahasa Indonesia, Español, Français, Deutsch, Русский and العربية. Switch any time in Settings. READY FOR HSK 3.0 HSK 3.0 has nine levels and new word lists. Study Chinese has courses for all nine levels, built on the 2025 exam syllabus, and HSK 3.0 Levels 1–4 follow the 新HSK教程 textbooks lesson by lesson. Taking the classic exam? The HSK 1–6 path is here too. Plus adds full mock tests in the real exam format for HSK 3–6 and HSK 3.0 Levels 3–9. 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. 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. Write characters by hand in a scratch pad next to word cards and flashcards, with Apple Pencil support on iPad. 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

Bookverse

Features
Read full description

A language learning app, built for the real language learners. You will learn, memorize and progress. Helping you successfully improve your language capabilities. 13 languages to learn: English, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Italian. THE LEARNING SYSTEM Band by band Each course is split into graded bands. Chapter by chapter Within each band, chapters progress in order. Each one builds on what you learned in the chapters before. Virtual teacher lead Your virtual teacher is on every screen, helping you all the way through — guiding, explaining and encouraging. Spaced repetition Build memorization with spaced repetition, built into every study session. The progressive chapters reinforce it too, bringing earlier words back over time. Spaced repetition helps maximize what you remember. Daily goals In language learning, consistency is key. Each chapter's study is split into small, daily-sized chunks for you to complete daily to keep you consistent. It will remind you daily to study at a time you can select. STUDY A CHAPTER Read · Listen · Speak · Write Our principle is to help you learn the language in all four aspects, so that you also retain the information better. By doing all four, you learn the language in depth and avoid hitting barriers as you progress. You have content to read, audio to listen to, and recording so you can speak it yourself — and in some courses, we check your writing too. Dialogues Each chapter has dialogues to study, which include the new grammar and the new vocabularies. Vocabulary There are new vocabularies introduced every chapter. Grammar lessons There are new grammar lessons in each chapter with examples. ASSISTANT TOOLS AI chat You can talk with an AI for language learning purposes. The AI knows about your current progress and the course. Web and Dictionary references Look up words in dictionaries, on the web, and within the course material — all inside the app. STUDY YOUR WAY Your language The app runs in 13 languages, so you learn in your own — and polyglots can set the app's language to another they're studying. Any device It works on your phone and the web, so you can study at your desk and on the go. It's always available — very convenient to study whenever you have time.

Screenshots

Study Chinese4 screens
Bookverse4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Bookverse at none against Study Chinese's 5. Bookverse also leads on iOS requirement (16.4 vs 18.0). On price, update cadence, ads 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. Bookverse asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Study Chinese ships an update every 5 days, Bookverse weekly. Both last shipped on November 13, 2026.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Study Chinese versus Bookverse: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStudy ChineseBookverse
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.016.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size334 MB76 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperEdrick HartantoHeyedd

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
None

Bookverse

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Study Chinese free?
Study Chinese is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Bookverse free?
Bookverse is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Study Chinese or Bookverse have ads?
Neither Study Chinese nor Bookverse shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Study Chinese or Bookverse?
Study Chinese ships an update every 5 days, and Bookverse weekly. Most recently, Study Chinese was updated on November 13, 2026 and Bookverse on November 13, 2026.

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