Comparison

ChineseSkill vs Chinese 101

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

Head to head
About

ChineseSkill

Master Mandarin Chinese with interactive lessons, smart reviews, and AI-powered speaking practice. Learn Pinyin, Hanzi, vocabulary, and grammar for work, travel, or HSK exams. Improve listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills.

Highlights
  • Gamified bite-sized lessons
  • Native-speaker audio & video
  • Handwriting practice
  • Spaced Repetition System (SRS)
  • AI Tutor with speech assessment
  • HSK preparation tools
  • Travel phrasebook
Features
Read full description

ChineseSkill is the best Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese learning app for beginners! Featured by the App Store in "New Apps We Love" and "The Best Language-Learning Apps"! Built by professional Chinese teachers with 20+ years of experience teaching Chinese as a foreign language, ChineseSkill makes learning Chinese fun, effective, and genuinely rewarding. Trusted by millions of learners since 2014, our game-based lessons take you from your very first character to real-life conversations — with structured courses, interactive practice, and real cultural context. With ChineseSkill, you can start from Pinyin, tones, and basic Chinese characters, then build listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills step by step. Whether your goal is to travel, study, pass HSK tests, talk with Chinese-speaking friends, or understand Chinese culture, ChineseSkill helps you make steady progress every day. What makes ChineseSkill different: Unlike other Chinese learning apps, ChineseSkill offers three complete, expertly-designed courses so you can learn exactly the Chinese you need: ■ Simplified Chinese – Mandarin from Mainland China (standard Putonghua) ■ Traditional Chinese – Mandarin from Taiwan ■ Cantonese – as spoken in Hong Kong Features:
 ■ Game-based Chinese learning: lessons so fun you'll never get bored. ■ Bite-sized curriculum to fortify your Chinese listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. ■ Speech recognition corrects your pronunciation and tones, making speaking Chinese a breeze. ■ Handwriting practice specially designed to learn Chinese characters at a faster rate. ■ Immersive lessons help you have real-life, practical conversations quickly. ■ Self-adaptive learning games that personalize your study path. ■ Graded stories and listening practice tailored to your level. ■ The well-designed Pinyin and Tone courses for newbies. ■ Authentic videos featuring native Chinese speakers. ■ Systematic courses based on HSK levels. ■ Study progress tracking across multiple devices. ■ Offline accessibility: once a course is downloaded, no internet connection is required.
 With these tools at your disposal, nothing can stop you from mastering Chinese. Start your path to fluency today! ChineseSkill Premium offers: ■ One-month subscription for $11.99 ■ Three-month subscription for $24.99 ■ Twelve-month subscription for $59.99 The above prices are for U.S. customers. Pricing in other countries may vary, and charges may be converted to your local currency depending on your country of residence. Once purchased, subscriptions automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off in your iTunes Account settings at least 24 hours before the end of the payment period. Terms of Service: https://www.chineseskill.com/terms-conditions-html Privacy Policy: https://www.chineseskill.com/privacypolicy-html Contact Us: nihao@chineseskill.com Supported languages: English, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, French, German, Turkish, Russian, Vietnamese, Portuguese, Italian, Indonesian, Hindi, Arabic, Thai. *Videos, additional vocabulary, and Booster content are currently only available for Mandarin (Mainland).

About

Chinese 101

Master Chinese characters through interactive tracing and pronunciation exercises. Features multiple learning modes, quizzes, and a memory game to reinforce knowledge. Share your progress and learn in an ad-free environment.

Highlights
  • Interactive character tracing
  • Pronunciation guidance
  • Multiple learning modes (Easy, Normal, Freestyle)
  • Character quizzes
  • Memory Flip Game
  • Progress sharing
Features
Read full description

Learn to write and pronounce Chinese characters with our fun and interactive app. • EASY mode provides a guiding hand to help you trace the characters. • NORMAL mode allows you to enhance your writing precision. • FREESTYLE mode encourages you to write in your unique style and check your understanding from the other modes. Reinforce what you've learned with our interactive QUIZ feature, letting you put your knowledge to the test. With illustrations, see the Chinese characters come to life through their meanings. Challenge yourself with the Memory Flip Game, a fun way to learn. As you learn and master new characters, you can share your scores directly from the app with your friends. Celebrate your progress and inspire others! Our app is completely ad-free, ensuring a seamless and uninterrupted learning experience from the start. After trying a selection of characters for free, you can access the full content with a simple in-app purchase. We welcome your feedback! Visit the support link to suggest new features for future updates. If you find our app beneficial, share it with your friends and family. Thank you.

Screenshots

ChineseSkill4 screens
Chinese 1014 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: ChineseSkill at 4.8 against Chinese 101's 4.4. ChineseSkill also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs monthly) and ratings volume (15K vs 8). Chinese 101's advantage is review sentiment (100% vs 90%). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. ChineseSkill sells 17 in-app purchases, starting at $11.99 per month and Chinese 101 sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

ChineseSkill holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ChineseSkill has 15K ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 90% of ChineseSkill's written reviews are positive against 100% of Chinese 101's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ChineseSkill ships an update every 5 days, Chinese 101 monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and July 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
ChineseSkill versus Chinese 101: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChineseSkillChinese 101
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (15K ratings) — better4.4 (8 ratings)
Positive reviews90.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings15K — better8
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.014.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size388 MB21 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperYIYAN TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.Aspul Studios LLC

Customer experience

ChineseSkill

All ratings15,340 ratings
Positive96.9%
Neutral1.3%
Negative1.7%
Written reviews1,434 reviews
Positive90.0%
Neutral4.5%
Negative5.5%

Chinese 101

All ratings8 ratings
Positive87.5%
Neutral0.0%
Negative12.5%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

ChineseSkill

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Issues with syncing progress across devices
  • Screen elements getting cut off on iPhone X
  • Inconsistencies in lesson content and translations

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add more male voice options
  • Improve lesson navigation and progress tracking
  • Introduce gamification elements for motivation
  • Provide more flexibility in disabling English translations

Chinese 101

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

17 purchases

ChineseSkill

Subscriptions14
  • Premium (Monthly)$11.991 Month
  • Monthly subscription$12.991 Month
  • Monthly premium subscription$12.991 Month
Show 11 more
  • Quarterly subscription$13.993 Months
  • Full Access (1 month)$14.991 Month
  • Premium+ (Monthly)$19.991 Month
  • Premium (Quarterly)7 Days trial$25.993 Months
  • Quarterly premium subscription$29.993 Months
  • Premium+ (Quarterly)7 Days trial$39.993 Months
  • Premium (Annual)7 Days trial$59.991 Year
  • Annual Chinese Learning Plan$79.991 Year
  • Full Access (1 Year)$79.991 Year
  • Full Access (1 Year)7 Days trial$79.991 Year
  • Premium+ (Annual)7 Days trial$99.991 Year
One-time3
  • Lifetime membership$159.99
  • Lifetime membership premium$299.99
  • Lifetime membership$399.00
1 purchases

Chinese 101

One-time1
  • Characters Pack$3.99

Questions

Is ChineseSkill free?
ChineseSkill is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Chinese 101 free?
Chinese 101 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, ChineseSkill or Chinese 101?
ChineseSkill is rated higher. ChineseSkill averages 4.8 out of 5 from 15K ratings, while Chinese 101 averages 4.4 from 8 ratings.
Do ChineseSkill or Chinese 101 have ads?
Neither ChineseSkill nor Chinese 101 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ChineseSkill or Chinese 101?
ChineseSkill ships an update every 5 days, and Chinese 101 monthly. Most recently, ChineseSkill was updated on September 23, 2026 and Chinese 101 on July 22, 2026.

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