SpeakEasy Japanese Phrasebook vs EarPal Translator
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SpeakEasy Japanese Phrasebook
This phrasebook helps English speakers learn essential Japanese for travel. It offers over 1,000 phrases with phonetic translations and native speaker audio. Practice with flashcards and use the built-in translator for quick communication.
- 1,000+ essential travel phrases
- Phonetic translations and native audio
- Flashcards for practice
- Built-in translator
- Offline functionality
- Search and favorites
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SpeakEasy Japanese is an offline Japanese phrasebook for travel, pronunciation, and quick everyday reference. It combines native-speaker audio, phonetic spellings, favorites, flashcards, and a built-in translator for one-off phrases. Designed for English-speakers traveling in Japan, it helps you ask essentials, understand replies, and get around with more confidence without relying on a data connection. Browse by category or search in seconds for restaurants, transportation, shopping, hotels, sightseeing, emergencies, and more. Practice before you go with flashcards, save your most-used phrases as favorites, and keep practical travel Japanese close at hand. FEATURES • Over 1,000 essential travel phrases with both Japanese and phonetic translations plus audio. Some content requires in-app purchase. • Audio clips recorded by a native speaker to help you perfect your pronunciation. • Flashcards with English on one side and Japanese on the other side, that you can use to study and test yourself. • Built-in translator to translate those one-off phrases you need. Unlimited use requires in-app purchase. • Slow-play feature that plays audio at a slow speed to assist learning. • Search facility to instantly find the phrase you’re looking for. • Favorites feature to provide fast access to your favorite phrases. • Supports dark mode and light mode. • Dynamic type (large font) support. • Support for US English, UK English and Canadian English spelling. • No internet connection required. The app will work no matter where you are. INCLUDES PHRASES SUCH AS: • Where is the restroom? • Are you married? • Let’s go to a restaurant • Do you speak Japanese? • I don’t speak Japanese • Do you understand me? • Call a doctor! • I’ve run out of medication • I need the consulate • How do I get to the … ? • How much does a ticket cost? • When is the next museum tour? • Please call a taxi • How much does it cost? • Where is luggage check-in? • Where can I rent a car? • My car has broken down • Can I see the menu? • Do you have a menu in English? • What do you recommend? • For dessert, I’ll have … • That was delicious! • Do you accept credit cards? • A glass of red wine • Where can I buy … ? • How much does this cost? • Can I try this on? • I need a hotel … • I have a reservation • I have lost the room key • What time is check-out? • Where is the nearest bank? • What is the exchange rate? • What time is it? • Can I get a cash advance? • You are very pretty • You are very handsome • What is your telephone number? • I will miss you • Thanks for the evening ---------------- Terms of Service: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
EarPal Translator
This app offers private, on-device translation for spoken conversations and text. It identifies speakers, provides live or polished translations, and translates signs and menus via camera. All processing happens locally on your device for enhanced privacy.
- On-device speech and text translation
- Live and accurate translation modes
- Multi-speaker identification with color-coding
- Camera translation for signs and menus
- Privacy-focused, no cloud processing
- Supports over 30 languages
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EarPal is the private interpreter for the world around you. Just tap Listen and EarPal hears the conversation, identifies each voice, and shows you a live translation in your language. Open the camera and EarPal reads any text it sees and translates it in place — menus, signs, packaging, screenshots from your library. No buttons to push, no turn-taking, no recording — just understanding. EVERYTHING ON-DEVICE Audio, photos, and recognised text never leave your iPhone. EarPal uses Apple's on-device speech, vision, and translation models, plus a state-of-the-art on-device speaker recognition engine. No cloud. No ads. No tracking. MULTI-SPEAKER, COLOR-CODED EarPal can follow several people at once. Each voice gets its own color in text mode — or its own distinct synthetic voice when you're listening through AirPods. Finally, you can sit at a dinner table with locals and follow the actual conversation. CAMERA TRANSLATION Point your camera at any text and watch translations land over each block in real time. Snap a still photo or pick from your library to translate menus, signs, screenshots, forwarded messages — all on-device. TWO LISTENING MODES - ACCURATE: waits for the speaker to finish their sentence, then shows a polished translation - LIVE: streams a rolling translation as words arrive, like live subtitles 30+ LANGUAGES Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish, Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Hungarian, Romanian, Catalan, Greek, Hebrew, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Malay, Filipino, Arabic, Hindi, Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and English (multiple variants). ACCESSIBILITY Live captions of conversations, color-coded by speaker, in your own language. Built for travelers, language learners, mixed-language families, and deaf or hard-of-hearing users. PRICING THAT MAKES SENSE - Free: 60 minutes of listening per month, all features, 2 voices, photo + gallery translation included - Pro Monthly: €1.99 - Pro Yearly: €14.99 (best value, 7-day free trial) - Pro Lifetime: €39.99 — pay once, never again Subscriptions auto-renew at the end of each period (monthly or yearly) at the price shown above unless cancelled at least 24 hours before. Manage anytime in Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions. PRIVACY PROMISE EarPal does not collect or upload your audio, photos, or transcripts. Speech recognition, speaker identification, OCR, and translation all happen on your iPhone. Built by a solo iOS developer who got tired of translation apps that either spy on you, lock everything behind a $9.99/week subscription, or both. Privacy Policy: https://frostdev.eu/privacy Terms of Service: https://frostdev.eu/terms Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: EarPal Translator at weekly against SpeakEasy Japanese Phrasebook's every 3 months. SpeakEasy Japanese Phrasebook's advantage is review sentiment (69% vs 43%) and ratings volume (60 vs 12). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. SpeakEasy Japanese Phrasebook sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and EarPal Translator sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for SpeakEasy Japanese Phrasebook against 4.9 for EarPal Translator. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: SpeakEasy Japanese Phrasebook has 60 ratings behind it against 12, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 69% of SpeakEasy Japanese Phrasebook's written reviews are positive against 43% of EarPal Translator's.
SpeakEasy Japanese Phrasebook ships an update every 3 months, EarPal Translator weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SpeakEasy Japanese Phrasebook | EarPal Translator |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (60 ratings) | 4.9 (12 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 69.2% of reviews — better | 42.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 60 — better | 12 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 52 MB | 16 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Pocketglow LLC | Alvaro Escarcha Esteban |
Customer experience
SpeakEasy Japanese Phrasebook
EarPal Translator
In-app purchases
SpeakEasy Japanese Phrasebook
- Monthly$2.991 Month
- Annual$8.991 Year
- Lifetime Access$19.99
EarPal Translator
- EarPal Pro Monthly$1.991 Month
- EarPal Pro Yearly7 Days trial$14.991 Year
- EarPal Pro Lifetime$39.99
Questions
Is SpeakEasy Japanese Phrasebook free?
Is EarPal Translator free?
Which has better reviews, SpeakEasy Japanese Phrasebook or EarPal Translator?
Do SpeakEasy Japanese Phrasebook or EarPal Translator have ads?
Which is updated more often, SpeakEasy Japanese Phrasebook or EarPal Translator?
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