Comparison

Kanji Widget vs Nihongo Flow

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

Head to head
About

Kanji Widget

Features
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Learn Japanese without opening an app — one character at a time, right on your home screen. Kanji Widget puts hiragana, katakana, or a JLPT kanji character directly on your iOS home screen. Every time you unlock your phone, you see one character with its reading and meaning — a free repetition, dozens of times a day, with zero extra effort. FEATURES • 1,600+ characters: hiragana, katakana, and JLPT kanji N5 through N1 • 7 study sets, downloaded independently — start with kana or jump to the level you're studying • Onyomi, kunyomi, and English meanings for every kanji • Common example words with readings for context • Tap the widget to move to the next or previous character • Small and medium widget sizes • Customize the widget's theme (system, light, or dark), background opacity, and text size, with a live preview as you adjust WHY A WIDGET Apps you have to open compete with everything else on your phone. A widget doesn't — it's already there. Kanji Widget turns the moments you check your phone into study moments, without a streak to keep or a lesson to finish. PRIVACY No account required. No tracking. Your progress stays on your device. Once a study set is downloaded, the widget works completely offline.

About

Nihongo Flow

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Nihongo Flow teaches you hiragana, katakana and kanji, builds a vocabulary that sticks, and shows you how Japanese sentences work. A few minutes a day is enough. Explanations are in English or German. VOCABULARY THAT STICKS • Your learning path takes you through the most common words: 2,000, 4,000 or more than 5,800, you choose. • Every word comes back just before you would forget it (spaced repetition). • Practice with flashcards, multiple choice or romaji typing, or say the word out loud and Apple speech recognition checks your pronunciation. • The memory heatmap shows which words are solid and which are fading. HIRAGANA, KATAKANA, KANJI • Hiragana and katakana with all basic and voiced characters, plus 40 N5 kanji with on and kun readings. Quizzes and typing drills in rounds of 10. • Handwriting (Premium): write kana and kanji with your finger and get an instant check of stroke count and size. SENTENCES AND GRAMMAR • Beginner grammar: は vs が, particles, ます forms, the て-form, adjectives, question words. • Sentence Blocks: see how a sentence snaps together from colored blocks, build your own from words you've learned, and stack verb endings from polite to passive. MORE PATHS • Baby Path: picture first, then the word, the way toddlers learn. • Topic Path: nature, seasons, home and more. • Slang & Colloquial: how people in Japan really talk, with the textbook version for comparison. Includes crude expressions, clearly marked. • Business Japanese & Keigo: 463 forms and terms in 29 chapters. • Immersion: short texts on anime, travel, daily life, news and business. Tap a word to add it to your vocabulary. • Hokkaidō Densetsu (Premium): travel across Hokkaidō in 18 stations, with culture cards, Ainu culture, a collector's album and a dice race against rivals. SENSEI: AI FEATURES FOR AGES 16+ • Chat with Sensei in Japanese or English, as a friendly teacher, an anime character or a business mentor. • Voice call with Sensei (Premium): you speak, Sensei listens and answers out loud. • Plus "Teacher explains", example sentences, the Sentence Puzzle, an AI check for your sentences, text correction and "Your level today". • AI features use Claude by Anthropic. They are available from age 16, and only after you agree once. You can withdraw consent anytime in Settings, and you can report any AI answer. Everything else works without AI. KEEP GOING Streaks, levels and XP, "What to learn today?", a Japanese proverb every day and your own avatar. No ads. Speak Japanese? Settings > Course also offers a German course with a Japanese interface. WITHOUT A SUBSCRIPTION OR WITH PREMIUM You need an account with email and password. Without a subscription you learn with energy: each answer uses one point, and energy refills over time. AI features have a daily limit. "Nihongo Flow Premium" gives you unlimited energy, all AI features with no daily limit, handwriting practice, the voice call with Sensei and Hokkaidō Densetsu. SUBSCRIPTION TERMS • "Nihongo Flow Premium" is an auto-renewable subscription, billed monthly (1 month) or yearly (1 year). Prices vary by country and are shown in the app before you buy. • You can try Premium free for 3 days, once per Apple Account. Unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends, it converts to the plan you chose. • Payment is charged to your Apple Account when you confirm the purchase or, with a trial, when the trial ends. • The subscription renews automatically for another month or year unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Renewal is charged within the 24 hours before the period ends. • You can manage and cancel it anytime in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://nihongo-flow.app/privacy.html

Screenshots

Kanji Widget4 screens
Nihongo Flow4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Kanji Widget at none against Nihongo Flow's 2. Nihongo Flow's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs every 5 days) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, 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. Nihongo Flow sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. Kanji Widget asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Kanji Widget ships an update every 5 days, Nihongo Flow every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 4, 2026 and October 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 3 level
Kanji Widget versus Nihongo Flow: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterKanji WidgetNihongo Flow
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 5 daysEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS17.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size56 MB64 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperOtniel Victory Febe AnwarLEONARD SCHAPER

In-app purchases

None

Kanji Widget

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Nihongo Flow

Subscriptions2
  • Nihongo Flow Premium (Monthly)3 Days trial$6.991 Month
  • Nihongo Flow Premium (Yearly)3 Days trial$79.991 Year

Questions

Is Kanji Widget free?
Kanji Widget is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Nihongo Flow free?
Nihongo Flow is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Kanji Widget or Nihongo Flow have ads?
Neither Kanji Widget nor Nihongo Flow shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Kanji Widget or Nihongo Flow?
Kanji Widget ships an update every 5 days, and Nihongo Flow every 2 days. Most recently, Kanji Widget was updated on October 4, 2026 and Nihongo Flow on October 6, 2026.

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