Comparison

Nihongo Diary vs Lucrux

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

Head to head
About

Nihongo Diary

Features
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Nihongo Diary โ€” Write Japanese every day. Get it corrected. Keep going. Writing is the fastest way to make Japanese stick โ€” but only if someone corrects you, and only if you keep showing up. Nihongo Diary gives you both. WRITE & GET CORRECTED - Write a short diary entry in Japanese โ€” any level, any length - AI correction shows your corrected text in seconds, with furigana on every kanji - See a natural, native-like version of what you wrote - Understand every fix with clear explanations, key mistakes, and vocabulary - Ask the community: real learners (and their corrections) alongside AI YOU'RE NOT DOING IT ALONE - Share entries to the community feed and cheer each other on - Get corrections and comments from fellow learners around the world - Follow friends, react to entries, and reply to comments - Push notifications remind you to write and tell you when someone responds KEEP YOUR STREAK ALIVE - Daily streaks and milestones keep you motivated - Calendar view of everything you've written - Word-tap translation while reading other learners' entries - Obie, your study buddy, celebrates your progress Made by Tetsu, a native Japanese teacher in Sapporo, for learners who want to actually use their Japanese โ€” not just study it. Free to start. Write your first entry today. Terms of Use: https://nihongodiary.app/terms

About

Lucrux

Features
Read full description

Lucrux is one AI tutor for the whole household. It studies WITH your kid โ€” not instead of them. It asks questions, checks the answers, notices what didn't land, and comes back to it. And it tells you, the parent, how it's actually going, so you stop having to ask "did you study?" and start knowing. HOW IT WORKS Add a course โ€” a class from school, an instrument, a language, anything worth getting better at. Lucrux breaks it into topics, then works through them with your student: short question sets, real explanations when an answer is wrong, and a running picture of what's mastered and what still needs another pass. Nobody has to build a study plan. The tutor keeps the thread. FOR PARENTS You see progress, not transcripts. Which topics are moving, which are stuck, what got studied this week. Your household's calendar, tasks and deadlines live here too, so the things that usually get lost โ€” the test on Thursday, the form due Friday โ€” stop getting lost. FOR STUDENTS Ask it anything, any hour. It explains it a second way when the first way didn't work, quizzes you when you want to be quizzed, and doesn't lecture you. YOUR CHATS STAY YOURS Everything your family makes is visible inside your family โ€” the progress, the calendar, the tasks. Your conversations with the tutor are not. Parents see how it's going; they don't see what you talked about. That wall is built into the product, not a setting you have to find. WORKS WITH APPLE HEALTH With your permission, Lucrux reads your workouts, steps and heart rate from Apple Health, so the day view and your family's updates can say "ran 5k this morning". You choose how much the app keeps โ€” workout summaries, or the detailed heart series for you alone โ€” and you can turn it off anytime in Settings. Your family only ever sees workout summaries, never a heart number. WHAT IT COSTS Free for 14 days. Then Base at US$14.99/month or Plus at US$29.99/month for a household โ€” one subscription, everyone in the family, not per person. If a subscription lapses, nothing is deleted and nothing is locked. Everything your family has made stays here and stays readable. What pauses is the tutor creating new work. Questions: support@ablesoftware.io

Screenshots

Nihongo Diary4 screens
Lucrux4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Lucrux at every 2 days against Nihongo Diary's every 10 days. Nihongo Diary's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. Nihongo Diary sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and Lucrux sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $14.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Nihongo Diary ships an update every 10 days, Lucrux every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 11, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
Nihongo Diary versus Lucrux: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNihongo DiaryLucrux
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 10 daysEvery 2 days โ€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 โ€” better17.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size17 MB47 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperTetta TaguchiSearch Rebel

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Nihongo Diary

Subscriptions2
  • Plus$9.991 Month
  • Pro$19.991 Month
2 purchases

Lucrux

Subscriptions2
  • Study Partner14 Days trial$14.991 Month
  • Study Partner Plus14 Days trial$29.991 Month

Questions

Is Nihongo Diary free?
Nihongo Diary is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Lucrux free?
Lucrux is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Nihongo Diary or Lucrux have ads?
Neither Nihongo Diary nor Lucrux shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Nihongo Diary or Lucrux?
Nihongo Diary ships an update every 10 days, and Lucrux every 2 days. Most recently, Nihongo Diary was updated on October 11, 2026 and Lucrux on October 7, 2026.

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