Comparison

Chinese Stories vs Cengage Read

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

Cengage Read

Access and study your digital textbooks from anywhere. This app allows students to read, take notes, highlight, bookmark, and use text-to-speech for a flexible learning experience on the go.

Highlights
  • Read eTextbooks on the go
  • Take notes and highlight
  • Bookmark important sections
  • Text-to-speech functionality
  • Search keywords
  • Navigate via table of contents
Features
Read full description

Read your eTextbook and study on the go with the Cengage Read app. Cengage Read lets students study whenever – and wherever – they want. Take notes, highlight and bookmark info, have the text read out loud with text-to-speech and easily search keywords and jump to pages with the table of contents. Just log in with your Cengage username and password to get started.

Screenshots

Chinese Stories4 screens
Cengage Read4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Cengage Read at 4.2 against Chinese Stories's 1.8. Cengage Read also leads on ratings volume (4.2K vs 12) and review sentiment (20% vs 0%). Chinese Stories's advantage is iOS requirement (6.0 vs 18). On price, update cadence, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

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

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Cengage Read holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 1.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Cengage Read has 4.2K ratings behind it against 12, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of Chinese Stories's written reviews are positive against 20% of Cengage Read's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chinese Stories ships an update every 3 months, Cengage Read every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Chinese Stories versus Cengage Read: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChinese StoriesCengage Read
PriceFreeFree
Rating1.8 (12 ratings)4.2 (4.2K ratings) — better
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews19.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings124.2K — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS6.0 — better18
Further details — not scored
Size35 MB37 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperChinese Stories Publishing Co., Ltd.Cengage Learning

Customer experience

Chinese Stories

All ratings12 ratings
Positive16.7%
Neutral8.3%
Negative75.0%
Written reviews15 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral6.7%
Negative93.3%

Cengage Read

All ratings4,122 ratings
Positive80.4%
Neutral4.5%
Negative15.0%
Written reviews260 reviews
Positive19.6%
Neutral8.8%
Negative71.5%

Bugs and requests

Chinese Stories

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Cengage Read

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Frequent crashes and sign-outs
  • Inconsistent highlighting and note-taking functionality
  • Inability to view full pages and content
  • Text-to-speech feature not working properly

Requested features

4 requests
  • Improve text formatting and layout
  • Add split-screen support for note-taking
  • Enhance accessibility features like text-to-speech
  • Integrate assignment and due date tracking

In-app purchases

None

Chinese Stories

No in-app purchases

None

Cengage Read

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Chinese Stories free?
Chinese Stories is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Cengage Read free?
Cengage Read is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Chinese Stories or Cengage Read?
Cengage Read is rated higher. Chinese Stories averages 1.8 out of 5 from 12 ratings, while Cengage Read averages 4.2 from 4.2K ratings.
Do Chinese Stories or Cengage Read have ads?
Neither Chinese Stories nor Cengage Read shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Chinese Stories or Cengage Read?
Chinese Stories ships an update every 3 months, and Cengage Read every 2 months. Most recently, Chinese Stories was updated on November 1, 2026 and Cengage Read on November 3, 2026.

Other comparisons