The best apps to learn Chinese

No single app teaches Chinese. Each good one does one job well, and the learners who get furthest are the ones who pick one tool per job and ignore the rest. This list is grouped by job for that reason: dictionary, characters and writing, reading, vocabulary, listening, speaking.

Every app below was checked in November 2026: the official site is live and the app or service is still being updated. Prices are quoted only where the official site shows them, and they change, so treat them as a snapshot.

The short list at a glance

App	Job	Best at	Level	Price seen on the official site
Pleco	Dictionary	Looking up anything, offline	All	Free core, paid add-ons, no subscription
Skritter	Characters and writing	Handwriting with stroke feedback	All	US$14.99 a month, US$99.99 a year
Dong Chinese	Characters	Explaining why a character looks the way it does	Beginner to intermediate	Not listed here
HelloChinese	Beginner course	A structured first six months	Beginner	Free start, paid tier in app
Du Chinese	Reading	Graded stories with audio	Beginner to advanced	Free lessons, US$14.99 a month, US$119.99 a year
The Chairman's Bao	Reading	Graded news, HSK levels	Elementary to advanced	US$11 a month, US$88 a year
LingQ	Reading and listening	Importing your own content	Intermediate up	€14.99 a month, €119.99 a year
Anki	Vocabulary and SRS	Free flashcards for anything	All	Free, iPhone app paid once
Hack Chinese	Vocabulary and SRS	Ready-made word lists, no setup	All	Subscription, free trial
Mandarin Mosaic	Vocabulary in sentences	One new word per sentence	HSK 1 up	Free tier, £11.95 a month, £95 a year
Migaku	Listening and video	Learning from Netflix and YouTube	Intermediate up	Subscription
Pimsleur	Listening and speaking	Audio drills for pronunciation	Beginner	Subscription
italki	Speaking	Paid one-to-one tutors	All	Pay per lesson
HelloTalk	Speaking and writing	Free exchange with native speakers	Elementary up	Free core, paid VIP
Tandem	Speaking and writing	Language exchange with a calmer feel	Elementary up	Free core, paid Pro

Dictionary: Pleco

Pleco is the one app every learner of Chinese ends up with, and Kungfucius has yet to meet an exception. It is best at the basic act of looking things up: by Pinyin, by English, by drawing the character with a finger, and with paid add-ons by pointing the camera at a menu. It works offline, covers Simplified and Traditional, and has been maintained for more than two decades.

The core dictionary is free. Extra dictionaries, the flashcard module, the document reader and optical character recognition are sold as one-off add-ons or bundles. Pleco's own store states that there are no subscriptions and that one licence works on both iPhone and Android.

Weakness: it is a reference, not a teacher. It will tell you what 麻煩 (麻烦) máfan means. It will not tell you what to study on Tuesday.

Characters and writing: Skritter and Dong Chinese

Skritter is best at one narrow thing: writing characters by hand. You draw each stroke on the screen, the app corrects the order and direction, and spaced repetition brings back the characters you get wrong. It ships with vocabulary lists for the common textbooks, so you can practise exactly the words from your class. The site lists US$14.99 a month, US$59.99 for six months and US$99.99 for a year, with a seven-day free trial.

Who it suits: anyone who must write by hand (school and university courses, handwritten exams) and people who find that writing fixes characters in memory. Weakness: it is expensive for a single skill, and if you only ever type, you can live without it.

Dong Chinese is best at explaining characters: components, sound hints, origins. It is the antidote to memorising characters as random drawings. Weakness: the learning path is thinner than the dictionary side.

The background to all this is on the Chinese characters page.

Beginner courses: HelloChinese first, Duolingo if you must

HelloChinese is the course Kungfucius recommends for the first months: Pinyin and tones are taught properly, speech is checked, and characters are introduced with stroke practice. Weakness: it runs out at lower-intermediate level, by design.

Duolingo answers a question many people ask, so here is the honest version. It is fine for building a daily habit and learning a few hundred words. Its Chinese course explains tones and grammar less well than HelloChinese, and learners who use nothing else rarely get beyond basic level.

SuperChinese and ChineseSkill are alternatives in the same style. Try them if HelloChinese does not suit you. Do not run three course apps in parallel: that is collecting, not studying.

Reading: Du Chinese, The Chairman's Bao and LingQ

Du Chinese is best at graded reading: short texts and serial stories sorted by level, each with native-speaker audio, tap-to-define and Pinyin you can switch off. It is the gentlest way into real reading. Some lessons are free. Premium is listed at US$14.99 a month, US$79.99 for six months or US$119.99 a year. Weakness: once you read native material comfortably, you have outgrown it.

The Chairman's Bao does the same job with news. Articles are graded by HSK level and new ones appear daily. It suits learners who prefer current events to stories and anyone preparing for the HSK. The plans page lists US$11 a month, US$88 a year and a lifetime option. Weakness: news vocabulary is formal, so it will not teach you how people talk.

LingQ is best once you want your own material. Import an article, a podcast transcript or a YouTube video, tap unknown words, and the app tracks what you know. Steve Kaufmann built it for his own method, and it shows: it is a tool for people who learn by reading and listening in bulk. The free tier is very limited (20 saved words). Premium is shown at €14.99 a month or €119.99 a year. Weakness: the interface is cluttered, and beginners drown in it.

Vocabulary and SRS: Anki, Hack Chinese and Mandarin Mosaic

Anki is best at remembering anything, for free. It is a blank flashcard system with a scheduling algorithm, and for Chinese there are shared decks for every HSK level. Free on computer, Android and web. The iPhone app is a one-off purchase. Weakness: you have to set it up and maintain it yourself, and a badly made deck wastes months. See spaced repetition for how to use it without suffering.

Hack Chinese is Anki for people who do not want to configure Anki. It is a spaced repetition trainer made only for Mandarin, with ready-made lists for HSK, TOCFL and popular textbooks. It suits learners who want to open the app and review. Weakness: it is a subscription, and it trains recognition of words, not use.

Mandarin Mosaic teaches vocabulary inside sentences. It picks sentences built from words you know plus one new word, which is sentence mining without the manual work. It runs on iPhone, iPad and Android, with no web version. The first month of Premium is free. After that it is £11.95 a month or £95 a year, with a restricted free tier. Weakness: it is young, and it does nothing for speaking.

Listening: Migaku, Pimsleur and podcasts

Migaku is best at turning real video into study material: interactive subtitles on Netflix and YouTube, and flashcards made with one click. It suits intermediate learners who already watch Chinese content. Weakness: below intermediate level it is frustrating, and it is another subscription.

Pimsleur is audio only: you listen, you answer aloud, the course repeats at growing intervals. It is good for pronunciation and for people who commute. Weakness: small vocabulary, almost no reading.

For free listening, podcasts beat most apps. Kungfucius keeps a separate list of the best podcasts to learn Chinese, sorted by level and by mainland or Taiwan accent.

Speaking: italki, HelloTalk and Tandem

italki is best at the thing no app can simulate: a person who listens to your tones and corrects them. You pay per lesson and choose between professional teachers and cheaper community tutors. Weakness: quality varies by tutor, so book trial lessons with three before you settle.

HelloTalk is free language exchange by text, voice message and call. It is best for daily writing practice and small corrections. Weakness: many users are not there for the grammar, and native speakers are not teachers.

Tandem is the closest alternative to HelloTalk: the same partner-matching idea with a calmer, less social-media feel. Try both and stay where more active Chinese speakers answer you. Weakness: as on every exchange app, a good partner takes some searching.

What is the best free app to learn Mandarin?

There is no single one, but a free stack exists: Pleco (free core) for lookups, Anki for vocabulary, the free lessons in HelloChinese and Du Chinese, HelloTalk for practice, and podcasts for listening. That covers every job in the table without a subscription. What it costs you is setup time and discipline.

Kungfucius says: the learner with twelve apps and the learner with none have the same problem. Neither is studying.

What to install this week

1. Install Pleco today, whatever your level.
2. Beginner: add HelloChinese and do one lesson a day. Add Anki or Hack Chinese after the first month.
3. From about HSK 2: add one reader, Du Chinese or The Chairman's Bao, and read one text a day with the audio.
4. As soon as you can introduce yourself: book one italki lesson a week, or post daily on HelloTalk.
5. Add Skritter only if you need handwriting. Add LingQ or Migaku only when graded material bores you.
6. Review the stack after a month and delete whatever you did not open.