Comparison

Drops vs HelloChinese

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

Head to head
About

Drops

Learn new languages through engaging games and visual aids. Practice vocabulary and common phrases in over 55 languages, from beginner to expert levels. Track progress, unlock achievements, and enjoy professionally curated lessons with native speaker pronunciations.

Highlights
  • Gamified vocabulary learning
  • Visual learning aids
  • 55+ language options
  • Progress tracking and rewards
  • Native speaker pronunciations
  • Customizable learning goals
Read full description

Join over 50 million people who use Drops for free language lessons. It’s fast, fun, and easy! Practice vocabulary in Spanish, Japanese, French, Korean, Chinese, German, English. Discover 55+ different new languages with Drops! Learn new languages while playing games. You can become fluent, learn vocabulary and common phrases in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, and Hindi. Set goals, unlock achievements, and get rewards! • Become fluent in a foreign language with this language learning app • Learn to read characters and scripts from different alphabets like Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, and Hindi • Custom illustrations for each vocabulary word makes it easy to remember • From beginner to expert levels, grow your foreign language vocabulary • A professionally curated vocabulary list with more than 3,000 words and phrases • Game-like language lessons that make language learning fun and effective • Level up! Track your progress and get rewards • Professional voice artists and sound design with correct dialect pronunciations • Learn to speak languages like Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), English (British), English (American), French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (European), Russian, Spanish (Mexican), Spanish (European), Tagalog, Ainu, Arabic (Egyptian), American Sign Language (ASL), Basque, Bosnian, Cantonese, Catalan, Chti, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Estonian, Finnish, Galician, Greek, Greenlandic, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Igbo, Indonesian, Irish, Maori, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Romanian, Samoan, Sanskrit, Serbian, Swahili, Swedish, Swiss German, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Welsh, and even Yoruba! "By focusing on visually appealing games and vocab, Drops aims to lower the barrier preventing users from exploring a new language and, ultimately, accessing the social and economic benefits knowing that language may provide." - TechCrunch We are featured by CNET, Forbes, VentureBeat and many other places too! Try Drops Premium with a 7 day free trial. Download the app to learn about different membership options, and register to learn all about exclusive discounts. Payment will be charged to your iTunes Account at confirmation of Drops premium. Afterwards your account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period. Auto-renewal may be turned off at any time by going to your settings in the iTunes Store after purchase. You can cancel your subscription anytime, and you won't be charged in the next billing cycle. Privacy Policy and Terms of Use: http://languagedrops.com/privacypolicy.html

About

HelloChinese

This app offers a fun and effective way to learn Mandarin Chinese from beginner to conversational levels. It combines game-based lessons, stories, videos, and speech recognition to help you master pronunciation, characters, and practical conversations while exploring Chinese culture.

Highlights
  • Game-based learning
  • Graded stories
  • Immersive lessons
  • Video lessons
  • Speech recognition
  • Character handwriting
  • HSK level courses
Features
Read full description

HelloChinese is the best Mandarin Chinese learning app for beginners! Featured on the App Store in New Apps We Love and Notable Education Apps! Designed in a fun and highly effective manner, HelloChinese helps you rapidly learn Mandarin Chinese from scratch to a conversational level. With HelloChinese, learners can "learn the Chinese language, explore Chinese culture" – you will not only learn Mandarin Chinese but also enjoy the process of delving into the culture intertwined with the language. Features: ◉ Game-based Chinese learning: You will never get bored. ◉ 1000+ graded stories: read engaging stories at your level! ◉ Immersive lessons help you to have real-life, practical conversations quickly. ◉ Over 2,000 videos - all featuring authentic Chinese speakers! ◉ Innovative self-adaptive learning games that incorporate Chinese cultural education. ◉ Speech recognition corrects your pronunciation and makes speaking Chinese a breeze. ◉ Handwriting specially designed to learn Chinese characters at a faster rate. ◉ Systematic courses based on HSK levels. ◉ A well-designed Pinyin (pronunciation) course for newbies. ◉ Bite-sized curriculum to fortify your Chinese listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. ◉ Simplified and traditional Chinese(Mandarin) are both supported. ◉ Offline accessibility: Once a course is downloaded, no internet connection is required. ◉ Study progress tracking across multiple devices. With these tools at your disposal, nothing can stop you from mastering Chinese. Start on your path to fluency today! HelloChinese Premium offers: One-month subscription for $11.99 Three-month subscription for $25.99 Twelve-month subscription for $69.99 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. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HelloChineseApp/ Privacy Policy: https://www.hellochinese.cc/privacy.html Terms of Use: https://www.hellochinese.cc/terms.html Premium users can always reach us at premium@hellochinese.cc if they need any help.

Screenshots

Drops4 screens
HelloChinese4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: HelloChinese at none against Drops's shown. HelloChinese also leads on review sentiment (95% vs 75%) and rating (4.9 vs 4.7). Drops's advantage is ratings volume (72K vs 23K). On price, update cadence, 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. Drops sells 13 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month and HelloChinese sells 13 in-app purchases, starting at $11.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

HelloChinese holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 72K and 23K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 75% of Drops's written reviews are positive against 95% of HelloChinese's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Drops ships an update weekly, HelloChinese every 6 days. Both last shipped on September 24, 2026.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Drops versus HelloChinese: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDropsHelloChinese
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (72K ratings)4.9 (23K ratings) — better
Positive reviews74.6% of reviews94.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings72K — better23K
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 6 days — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
Best chart rank#146#93 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.614.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size191 MB102 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPLANB LABS OUHelloChinese Technology Co., Ltd.

Customer experience

Drops

All ratings71,502 ratings
Positive94.2%
Neutral2.9%
Negative2.9%
Written reviews2,192 reviews
Positive74.6%
Neutral9.6%
Negative15.8%

HelloChinese

All ratings23,059 ratings
Positive97.8%
Neutral0.9%
Negative1.3%
Written reviews3,648 reviews
Positive94.8%
Neutral2.0%
Negative3.2%

User reviews

Drops

From 72K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Vocabulary learning
  • 👍 Unique and engaging learning activities
  • 👍 Wide range of languages
  • 👍 Customizable learning experience
  • 👍 Effective for building vocabulary

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Inaccurate translations or pronunciations
  • 🔒 Subscription model issues
  • 👎 Limited to vocabulary, lacks grammar/sentence structure
  • 👎 Repetitive and not enough variety in exercises

HelloChinese

From 23K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Easy to learn
  • 👍 Engaging and fun
  • 👍 Helpful for beginners
  • 👍 Good for pronunciation practice
  • 👍 Useful for learning Chinese characters

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Inconsistent speech recognition
  • 🐛 Audio quality issues in some videos
  • 💰 Paywall limits access to full content
  • 💰 Premium subscription is expensive

Bugs and requests

Drops

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Login issues and lost progress
  • Crashes and performance problems

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add more grammar and sentence-level learning
  • Improve accuracy of translations and pronunciations
  • Provide more flexibility in time limits and review sessions
  • Integrate more conversational practice
  • Improve user interface and navigation

HelloChinese

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Occasional login issues
  • Inconsistent performance on older devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • More advanced lessons beyond HSK3
  • Option to toggle pinyin on a per-word basis
  • Improved review system with more customization
  • Addition of traditional Chinese characters
  • More real-life conversation practice

In-app purchases

13 purchases

Drops

Subscriptions12
  • Genius for a month$7.991 Month
  • Premium$9.991 Month
  • Premium$11.991 Month
Show 9 more
  • Premium$14.991 Month
  • Curious for a month$22.991 Month
  • Holiday premium!$39.991 Year
  • Premium7 Days trial$62.991 Year
  • Premium7 Days trial$69.991 Year
  • All Language Learning Plans7 Days trial$69.991 Year
  • Premium7 Days trial$79.991 Year
  • Premium7 Days trial$89.991 Year
  • Premium7 Days trial$99.991 Year
One-time1
  • Unlimited time for all Languages!$59.99
13 purchases

HelloChinese

Subscriptions10
  • HelloChinese Premium$11.991 Month
  • HelloChinese Premium+$16.991 Month
  • HelloChinese Premium+$19.991 Month
Show 7 more
  • HelloChinese Premium$25.993 Months
  • HelloChinese Premium$48.991 Year
  • HelloChinese Premium+$62.996 Months
  • HelloChinese Premium$69.991 Year
  • HelloChinese Premium+$89.996 Months
  • HelloChinese Premium+$104.991 Year
  • HelloChinese Premium+$149.991 Year
One-time3
  • 300 coins$4.99
  • 750 coins$9.99
  • 1650 coins$19.99

Questions

Is Drops free?
Drops is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is HelloChinese free?
HelloChinese is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Drops or HelloChinese?
HelloChinese is rated higher. Drops averages 4.7 out of 5 from 72K ratings, while HelloChinese averages 4.9 from 23K ratings.
Do Drops or HelloChinese have ads?
Drops shows ads; HelloChinese does not.
Which is updated more often, Drops or HelloChinese?
Drops ships an update weekly, and HelloChinese every 6 days. Most recently, Drops was updated on September 24, 2026 and HelloChinese on September 24, 2026.
Which is more popular, Drops or HelloChinese?
Drops currently peaks at #146 in the App Store charts, and HelloChinese at #93. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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