Comparison

Nihongo vs Shirabe Jisho

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

Head to head
About

Nihongo

This app is an offline Japanese study tool that functions as a dictionary, translator, and flashcard creator. It helps users learn Japanese by analyzing text from their surroundings, such as signs and menus, and creating personalized study materials.

Highlights
  • Offline Japanese dictionary
  • Picture-to-text translation (OCR)
  • Automatic flashcard creation
  • Reading assistant with furigana/romaji
  • Spaced repetition flashcards
  • Search in English, Japanese, or romaji
Features
Read full description

Nihongo is an offline Japanese dictionary, picture-to-text translator, flashcard app, and reading assistant. Our app helps you learn Japanese naturally, using the words you encounter in daily life—on menus, signs, manga, emails, books, and more. In addition to the dictionary, you can take a picture of Japanese text or paste it from any source. Nihongo will then translate the text, add furigana or romaji, and create flashcards so you can study and steadily build your vocabulary. Here are the complete features of the app: DICTIONARY * Over 200,000 words, 205,000 example sentences, and 6000 kanji entries. * Every word clearly marked as common, uncommon, or rare. * Add your own notes to any dictionary entry. * Quickly identify transitive/intransitive word pairs. * Audio pronunciations of words and example sentences (Requires Nihongo Pro) PHOTO LOOKUP (OCR) [Pro] * Look up words just by taking a picture. * Uses Google Cloud Vision to provide high-quality text recognition. * Just tap on a word to look it up. CLIPPINGS (READING ASSISTANT) [Pro] * Adds furigana or romaji to text pasted into the app. * Tap on any word to see its definition without leaving the clipping. * Flashcard deck automatically created so you can study the new words in a clipping. * Display text horizontally or vertically. * Have Nihongo read any clipping out loud. FLASHCARDS [Pro] * Flashcards automatically generated from words you lookup in the dictionary or paste into the app. * Nihongo learns what words you know, and won't bother you again with words you've mastered. * Built-in kanji flashcard decks up through Middle School. * Intuitive spaced repetition flashcard system for vocabulary and kanji drawing. * Level up flashcards by studying every day. * No penalty for missing a day of study, come back anytime. SEARCH * Search using English, Japanese, or romaji. * Supports searching for conjugated words in both English and Japanese. * Search for kanji using radicals and stroke counts. SAFARI EXTENSION [Pro] * Add furigana or romaji to webpages. * Tap on words to see definition within Safari. Nihongo Pro Terms of Use Read our full Terms of Service at https://nihongo-app.com/terms_of_use.html. This app is only possible because of the JMDict (edrdg.org) and Tatoeba (tatoeba.org) projects. I highly encourage you to support these incredible projects that make apps like Nihongo possible!

About

Shirabe Jisho

This app provides a comprehensive offline Japanese-English and English-Japanese dictionary. It includes extensive entries, kanji details with stroke order, name databases, and example sentences. Features handwriting recognition and advanced search options for efficient language learning.

Highlights
  • Offline Japanese-English dictionary
  • Kanji with stroke order
  • Japanese names database
  • Example sentences with translation
  • Handwriting recognition
  • Advanced search (wildcard, radicals)
  • Kanji lists by JLPT level
Features
Read full description

Simple but powerful Japanese-English, English-Japanese dictionary app. The app's features include: ● Over 170.000 dictionary entries with readings and english meaning ● Over 6.500 kanji characters with stroke order ● Over 730.000 Japanese names, place names and institution names ● Over 147.000 example sentences with translation ● Instantaneous search results ● Character input by kanji and kana handwriting recognition. Recognition algorithm can handle wrong stroke order and small mistakes. ● When multiple similar characters are found, you don't need to redo drawing after each character - just long press to see a preview ● Search by kanji radicals (for example 日 and 月 will find 明) ● Wildcard search - "*" can replace any number of characters and "?" can replace any single character. Works both with English and Japanese words. ● Search by kanji, kana and romaji - "じしょ", "じsho" and "jisho" will give the same search results ● Kanji lists by JLPT level and school grade (1 - 6) ● Multiple word lists divided by subject, grammatical function, JLPT level and more App contains an in-app purchase that allows you to: ● Screen customization – reorder word and kanji sections to keep the information you care about immediately visible ● Extended flashcard content – choose what appears on flashcards, including conjugations, examples, related kanji, and readings after the flip ● Custom theming – personalize the app’s color theme more freely

Screenshots

Nihongo4 screens
Shirabe Jisho4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: Shirabe Jisho at free against Nihongo's freemium. Shirabe Jisho also leads on ratings volume (8.9K vs 1.9K) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 18.6). Nihongo's advantage is update cadence (every 8 days vs monthly). On price, rating, review sentiment and ads 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 sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Shirabe Jisho 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

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Nihongo against 4.9 for Shirabe Jisho. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1.9K and 8.9K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 91% of Nihongo's written reviews are positive against 99% of Shirabe Jisho's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Nihongo ships an update every 8 days, Shirabe Jisho monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Nihongo versus Shirabe Jisho: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNihongoShirabe Jisho
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (1.9K ratings)4.9 (8.9K ratings) — better
Positive reviews91.3% of reviews98.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1.9K8.9K — better
Update frequencyEvery 8 days — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.615.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size493 MB185 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSerpenti Sei JapanBlazej Stanek

Customer experience

Nihongo

All ratings1,879 ratings
Positive95.5%
Neutral2.4%
Negative2.1%
Written reviews265 reviews
Positive91.3%
Neutral4.5%
Negative4.2%

Shirabe Jisho

All ratings8,830 ratings
Positive97.9%
Neutral1.1%
Negative0.9%
Written reviews1,559 reviews
Positive98.6%
Neutral0.8%
Negative0.6%

User reviews

Nihongo

From 1.9K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Excellent dictionary
  • 👍 Comprehensive features
  • 🔒 Offline compatibility
  • 👍 Helpful example sentences
  • 👍 Intuitive interface

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional bugs and glitches
  • 💰 Subscription model could be expensive
  • 🔍 Difficult to manage flashcards

Shirabe Jisho

From 8.9K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Comprehensive dictionary with many features
  • 👍 Easy to use and intuitive interface
  • 💡 Ability to draw kanji for lookup
  • 🚀 Offline functionality
  • 👍 Detailed word information including conjugations, example sentences, and JLPT levels

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Search history can get cluttered
  • 👎 Lack of pitch accent information
  • 👎 Some example sentences are of poor quality
  • 👎 Font size can be difficult to read on smaller screens

Bugs and requests

Nihongo

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Freezing issues when tapping on kanji
  • Font size problems
  • Inconsistent OCR and translation accuracy

Requested features

5 requests
  • Handwriting input support
  • Customizable flashcard settings
  • Monolingual dictionary feature
  • Improved backup and sync functionality
  • Statistics and progress tracking

Shirabe Jisho

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Occasional crashes or freezes
  • Inconsistent font sizing in search results

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to sync bookmarks/lists across devices
  • More customization options for flashcards
  • Integration with spaced repetition apps like Anki
  • Addition of pitch accent information
  • Improved search history management

In-app purchases

5 purchases

Nihongo

Subscriptions3
  • Nihongo Pro (Monthly)7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Nihongo Pro (3 Months)7 Days trial$11.993 Months
  • Nihongo Pro (Annual)7 Days trial$49.991 Year
One-time2
  • Pitch Accents$9.99
  • Nihongo Pro (Lifetime)2 variants$179.99
1 purchases

Shirabe Jisho

One-time1
  • Shirabe Extras$9.99

Questions

Is Nihongo free?
Nihongo is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Shirabe Jisho free?
Shirabe Jisho is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Nihongo or Shirabe Jisho?
Shirabe Jisho is rated higher. Nihongo averages 4.8 out of 5 from 1.9K ratings, while Shirabe Jisho averages 4.9 from 8.9K ratings.
Do Nihongo or Shirabe Jisho have ads?
Neither Nihongo nor Shirabe Jisho shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Nihongo or Shirabe Jisho?
Nihongo ships an update every 8 days, and Shirabe Jisho monthly. Most recently, Nihongo was updated on November 6, 2026 and Shirabe Jisho on November 8, 2026.

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