Nihongo vs Max Moves
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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!
Max Moves
Instantly discover effective and ineffective move types against specific monster types. Simply select the opponent's types at the bottom to get immediate insights.
- Type effectiveness lookup
- Instant combat insights
- Intuitive type selection
- Monster battle strategy tool
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Don't dig for another chart on the weaknesses of a specific type of mon again! Select the types of the mon you're facing at the bottom and get instant information on which move types will be effective or not!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Max Moves at none against Nihongo's 6. Max Moves also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.8) and iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.6). Nihongo's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 50 months) and ratings volume (1.9K vs 14). 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
Both are free to download. Nihongo sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Max Moves asks for nothing beyond the download.
Max Moves holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Nihongo has 1.9K ratings behind it against 14, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 91% of Nihongo's written reviews are positive against 80% of Max Moves's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Nihongo ships an update weekly, Max Moves every 50 months. The most recent releases landed on September 26, 2026 and June 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Nihongo | Max Moves |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (1.9K ratings) | 5.0 (14 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 91.2% of reviews — better | 80.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1.9K — better | 14 |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 50 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 492 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Serpenti Sei Japan | Forrest McDaniel |
Customer experience
Nihongo
Max Moves
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
Max Moves
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Nihongo
- 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
- Pitch Accents$9.99
- Nihongo Pro (Lifetime)2 variants$179.99
Max Moves
No in-app purchases









