Comparison

Bimoji vs The Letter Trace

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

Head to head
About

Bimoji

Master beautiful Japanese handwriting with this app. Practice hiragana, katakana, and hundreds of kanji characters with guided stroke order and scoring. Improve your writing for any occasion.

Highlights
  • Practice hiragana, katakana, and kanji
  • Guided stroke order display
  • Character scoring and feedback
  • Repetition writing and progress tracking
  • Model and suggestion display
  • 300 new newspaper-common characters
Features
Read full description

300 new characters commonly used in Japanese newspapers and other media have been added! The “Beautiful Japanese Handwriting” has been powered up with more characters to practice, focusing on characters that are often handwritten and commonly used in addresses and people’s names. There are many occasions when handwriting is required. If you can write beautifully, you can write with confidence on those occasions. It’s easy to think that writing beautiful handwriting is a matter of aesthetic sense or innate ability, but it is about getting the hang of how to make it look beautiful. In the “Beautiful Japanese Handwriting,” points for writing beautifully are displayed for each character in the model, and by being aware of these points, the character will change. ◆About the character to practice ・In addition to 46 hiragana and 46 katakana characters and 50 basic kanji characters that are often used in daily life, you can practice 300 kanji characters often used in newspapers and other media. ・The basic Kanji characters are selected from a mixture of basic character building blocks, so they can be applied to writing other Kanji characters. ・Displaying the stroke order helps you remember the correct character ・In the hiragana practice, the original kanji are also displayed for reference, so you can deepen your understanding of hiragana by practicing while visualizing the kanji. ◆Functions ・Equipped with the function of judging the characters by mark. ・Judging standard is graded by full marks. ・Model and suggestion is displayed when finished writing. ・Repetition writing is available! Your writing will be recored. You can see your progress by looking objectively. ・90 or more points is considered as “Beautiful Handwriting”. ・Judgment is expressed by the table. ・The difference of the first score and the top rating which came out after practice is displayed as a growing point. ・Sound ON/OFF ・Reset recording Beautiful characters can be written by writing over and over. Beautiful characters are the property of your life.

About

The Letter Trace

Practice neat handwriting by tracing glowing letters on your phone screen. Choose fonts, adjust spacing, and even customize colors. Ideal for improving penmanship on cards, letters, and gift envelopes.

Highlights
  • Trace glowing letters on paper
  • Adjustable letter and line spacing
  • Wide range of font styles
  • Customizable background and text colors
  • Left-handed mode
  • Vertical and horizontal writing
Features
Read full description

For anyone who struggles to write neatly on gift envelopes, cards and letters. Place a sheet of paper on your phone and trace the glowing letters. That's it. How it works 1. Type the text you want to write. 2. Pick a font and adjust the size. 3. Tap "Start", put the paper on the screen, and trace the light. Features - Vertical and horizontal writing, multiple lines - Adjustable letter spacing and line spacing - A wide range of fonts, from brush calligraphy to pen script - Custom background and text colors - Left-handed mode (Stop button on the top right) - Manner Guide for Japanese gift and condolence envelopes (Japanese only) Tracing mode turns the screen brightness to maximum so the text shows through the paper, and hides ads and buttons so nothing gets in the way. Works on iPad too, for larger lettering. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Bimoji4 screens
The Letter Trace4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Bimoji at none against The Letter Trace's 2. Bimoji also leads on ads (none vs shown). The Letter Trace's advantage is review sentiment (26% vs 9%). On price, update cadence, device support and iOS requirement 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. The Letter Trace sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Bimoji asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bimoji ships an update every 6 weeks, The Letter Trace every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Bimoji versus The Letter Trace: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBimojiThe Letter Trace
PriceFreeFree
Rating—4.0 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews8.7% of reviews26.3% of reviews — better
Number of ratings—4 — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeks — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.0 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size91 MB55 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGloding Inc.Vida Apps Incorporated

Customer experience

Bimoji

Written reviews23 reviews
Positive8.7%
Neutral17.4%
Negative73.9%

The Letter Trace

All ratings4 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative25.0%
Written reviews19 reviews
Positive26.3%
Neutral5.3%
Negative68.4%

In-app purchases

None

Bimoji

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

The Letter Trace

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Plan - 1 Month3 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Premium Plan - 1 Year3 Days trial$24.991 Year

Questions

Is Bimoji free?
Bimoji is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is The Letter Trace free?
The Letter Trace is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Bimoji or The Letter Trace have ads?
The Letter Trace shows ads; Bimoji does not.
Which is updated more often, Bimoji or The Letter Trace?
Bimoji ships an update every 6 weeks, and The Letter Trace every 2 months. Most recently, Bimoji was updated on November 6, 2026 and The Letter Trace on November 8, 2026.

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