Comparison

帛书道德经 vs iDao

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

Head to head
About

帛书道德经

Features
Read full description

帛书道德经,是一个安静、专注的《道德经》精读 App。 《道德经》全文不过五千言,却字字深邃。这个 App 以 1973 年长沙马王堆出土的帛书版为底本,逐章还原被后世改动过的文字,配上白话直译与逐句注解,帮你把每一句真正读懂。 一章一个阅读单元,分层展开:先看原文,再看一句话主旨;想深入,就展开白话直译、逐句注解与深度解读。小白够用,深读者也能一路挖到底。 主要功能: - 帛书版原文 + 传世版对照,逐字高亮两版差异,看清哪个字被改过 - 白话直译与逐句注解,晦涩处不再卡壳 - 帛书序(德经在前)与传世序(道经在前)自由切换 - 主题串读:把散落各章的同主题内容重新串起来(无为、治国、修身、认知、处世等) - 概念索引:点一个词,看它出现在哪些章节 - 全文检索:搜原文、标题与译文 - 每日一章、收藏、批注、阅读进度 所有内容均在本地呈现。无需账号,无需订阅,无广告,无追踪。 愿你在五千言里,读见自己的那一份清明。

About

iDao

This offline companion facilitates a deep study of the Tao Te Ching with bilingual text, dual commentaries, and interactive practice tools. Engage in recitation, review games, and daily readings with customizable features and system integrations. Study data is kept private on your device by default.

Highlights
  • Bilingual reading and dual commentaries
  • Recitation workbench with highlighting
  • Study Hall and Seek the Tao practice games
  • Daily Chapter with widgets and notifications
  • Offline functionality
  • Customizable backgrounds and font sizes
Features
Read full description

iDao (Love the Tao Te Ching) is an offline study companion for the Tao Te Ching - not a plain text reader. Close reading, dual commentaries, bilingual compare, recitation, practice, and daily habits live in one place. No network and no account are required to start. WHY DOWNLOAD Many Tao Te Ching apps stop at original text plus translation. iDao is built on four pillars: 1) Bilingual reading and dual classical commentaries, with vernacular Chinese and per-character pinyin (horizontal and vertical) 2) A recitation workbench with line highlighting, continuous play, and background speech 3) Study Hall and Seek the Tao for practice and light review games 4) Daily Chapter with widgets, notifications, Siri, Control Center, and deep links Fully offline. No ads. No third-party analytics. Study data stays on device by default. Optional iCloud merge runs only after you enable it. LIBRARY 81 Tao Te Ching chapters (Wang Bi text; Book of the Way and Book of Virtue), plus Qingjing Jing and Yinfu Jing - 85 chapters total - and 74 bilingual famous lines. Pinyin prefers corpus alignment, with whole-line fallback. Interfaces: Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English. BILINGUAL READING AND COMMENTARIES Public-domain translations by James Legge and Paul Carus can be read alone or compared. Classical notes switch between Wang Bi and Heshang Gong. Reading language: bilingual, Chinese only, or English only. Long chapters support segmentation and page hints. Backgrounds: system, paper, sepia, night. CHAPTER DETAIL Toolbar: Favorite, Speak, More. More covers Study Hall, recitation, notes, mastery, immersion, font size, display toggles, Dao Lists, adjacent chapters, copy, share, link, and Dao cards. Notes open from three places. Build custom Dao Lists and move chapter to chapter in one flow. VERTICAL AND SHARE CARDS Vertical text and immersive follow-along highlight lines during speech. Multi-style Dao cards support square, portrait, and story ratios, with fullscreen preview, save to Photos, or share. RECITATION Line highlighting, voice and rate, continuous playback with gaps, background audio, and Lock Screen Now Playing. Speak original, vernacular, or English independently of on-screen layout. STUDY HALL AND SEEK THE TAO Modes: fade memorization, fill-in, self-check, and quiz. Seek the Tao reviews lines by keyword hunting and stores best score. Multi-select Favorites or Dao Lists for batch recitation or batch Study Hall. Streaks, mastered list, history, and notes keep your trail visible. BROWSE, LISTS, AND SEARCH Browse by book, Way/Virtue sections, theme, famous lines, all chapters, and author (including Laozi). DAILY CHAPTER AND SYSTEM FEATURES Daily Chapter rotates by solar terms, festivals, and seasons. Optional local notifications need no network. Home and Lock Screen widgets cover Daily Chapter, famous lines, mastery, and favorites. On iOS 18+, Control Center includes today, random, search, Study Hall, favorites, recite, famous lines, browse, and Seek the Tao. Siri and App Intents, up to four Home Screen quick actions, alternate icons, and deep links open chapters, daily, study, hunt, famous lines, favorites, mastered, history, settings, and guides. Optional iCloud merges favorites, lists, notes, history, mastery, and streaks bidirectionally. SETTINGS AND AUDIENCE Onboarding plus usage, widget, and Shortcuts guides. Settings cover appearance, accents, three languages, reading and speech details, tab visibility, notifications, data, help, and About. For systematic readers; bilingual and commentary learners; people who memorize through recitation and practice; anyone who wants Daily Chapter and widgets in daily life; and privacy-minded users who want full offline use without an account. Open iDao today: read one chapter, recite one line, note one insight, practice once. Through compare, commentary, and practice, walk toward the Way.

Screenshots

帛书道德经4 screens
iDao4 screens

Verdict

The call

帛书道德经 and iDao are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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

帛书道德经 costs $0.99 and iDao $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
帛书道德经 versus iDao: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
Parameter帛书道德经iDao
Price$0.99$0.99
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Update frequencyEvery 2 months—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Paid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size3 MB18 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer山杰 韩天从 何

In-app purchases

None

帛书道德经

No in-app purchases

None

iDao

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is 帛书道德经 free?
帛书道德经 costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is iDao free?
iDao costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do 帛书道德经 or iDao have ads?
Neither 帛书道德经 nor iDao shows ads.

Other comparisons