Comparison

Chinese Stories vs A+ Paper Guide

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

Head to head
About

Chinese Stories

This app offers e-books designed for learning Mandarin Chinese at various proficiency levels. It provides interactive features like definitions, pinyin, and quizzes to enhance the learning experience.

Highlights
  • Interactive e-books for Mandarin learning
  • Definitions, pinyin, and HSK/TOP levels for words
  • Save unfamiliar words for later memorization
  • Hyperlinks for proper nouns to learn culture and history
  • Full English translation and pinyin for each story
  • Comprehension quizzes with progress tracking
  • Audio versions for listening practice
Read full description

If you are learning Mandarin Chinese, our monthly E-books will provide you with the best learning experiences. Now we have two different levels of E-book collection, which are Beginner, Elementary and Intermediate. As for Advanced level, it is coming soon in six months. You can purchase the E-book in accordance with your language proficiency. The language used is carefully selected to correspond to official levels. For texts in Simplified Chinese, the characters are chosen in accordance with New HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi) and YCT (Youth Chinese Test) levels in Mainland China. Our Beginner level corresponds to New YCT level 2&3, Elementary level to New HSK level 3, and Intermediate level to New HSK level 4. As for Traditional Chinese version, the words used are also carefully chosen on the basis of the TOP (the Test of Proficiency-Huayu) standard in Taiwan. Our Elementary level corresponds to TOP elementary level, and Intermediate level to TOP intermediate level. As for Beginner level, each E-book has 5 stories, and each story contains 150~200 Chinese characters. Elementary E-book has 12 stories, and each story contains 250~300 Chinese characters. Intermediate E-book has 12 stories, and each story contains 450~500 Chinese characters. Our Chinese learning E-books have features as followed: 1. Click on a colored words, and we will show you its English definition, pinyin, part of speech, sentences, and its HSK/TOP level. 2. Click on “More,” and you get to know different meanings of the same word. 3. You can save words you don’t know or aren’t familiar with to memorize later. 4. Click on hyperlinks of proper nouns such as place names or celebrity names, and learn more about Chinese geography, culture, and history while reading Chinese stories. 5. Every story comes with full English translation and pinyin. 6. We track your progress. After reading each article, a five-question quiz will test how well your understanding of the story is and will keep a record of your first-time test result. 7. The audio version of each story enables you to listen to standard Chinese and to train your Chinese listening skill.

About

A+ Paper Guide

Features
Read full description

- A guide to help university students in writing a good research paper under tight time constraint - Subject-specific information and examples provide students with highly relevant material to quickly apply in their research paper writing process - Organizing your thoughts, expressing them clearly, and making compelling arguments is a valuable skill that will serve you well for the rest of your life. This is what writing a good paper is all about and why we created this app for you.

Screenshots

Chinese Stories4 screens
A+ Paper Guide4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Chinese Stories at every 3 months against A+ Paper Guide's every 16 months. Chinese Stories also leads on iOS requirement (6.0 vs 12.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chinese Stories ships an update every 3 months, A+ Paper Guide every 16 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 4, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Chinese Stories versus A+ Paper Guide: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChinese StoriesA+ Paper Guide
PriceFreeFree
Rating1.8 (12 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings12 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 months — betterEvery 16 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS6.0 — better12.0
Further details — not scored
Size35 MB19 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperChinese Stories Publishing Co., Ltd.Apps Resource Centre, Hong Kong Baptist University

In-app purchases

None

Chinese Stories

No in-app purchases

None

A+ Paper Guide

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Chinese Stories free?
Chinese Stories is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is A+ Paper Guide free?
A+ Paper Guide is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Chinese Stories or A+ Paper Guide have ads?
Neither Chinese Stories nor A+ Paper Guide shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Chinese Stories or A+ Paper Guide?
Chinese Stories ships an update every 3 months, and A+ Paper Guide every 16 months. Most recently, Chinese Stories was updated on November 1, 2026 and A+ Paper Guide on November 4, 2026.

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