Chinesimple review: price, free version and privacy

Our verdict

Pick Chinesimple if the HSK is your goal and you want vocabulary, writing and reading in one app with a clean privacy label. Check the current offer before paying, since the same plan appears at many prices.

What Chinesimple is

Chinesimple, listed as HSK1 Learn Chinese Chinesimple, is a Chinese course organized around the HSK exam. The developer lists over 5,000 HSK words (v2) and 11,000 (v3), more than 300 lessons, over 6,000 illustrated flashcards, over 4,000 example sentences with native audio, and stroke animations drawn by a native speaker. It teaches simplified and traditional characters, works offline, and includes voice recognition and graded stories.

Who it suits

• Learners preparing for the HSK
• Writing practice with stroke order
• Learners who prefer a one-time purchase

Strengths

• A structured path organized by HSK level
• Illustrated flashcards with example sentences and native audio that work offline
• Both simplified and traditional characters
• PRO Lifetime items in the price list
• No tracking declared; only usage data and diagnostics are collected, not linked to you

Limits

• The listing does not say what is free
• Only 373 ratings
• Many discounted price items make the real cost hard to judge
• The full-price Monthly Subscription is $18.99

What the free version does

The listing does not say what the free version includes.

Price

On the US App Store in November 2026, the Monthly Subscription is listed at $18.99, with discounted monthly items from $8.99 to $16.49, an Annual Subscription at $145.99, and PRO Lifetime items at $69.99, $116.99 and $190.00.

Privacy

No tracking is declared, and the only data collected, usage data and diagnostics, is not linked to you.

What the screenshots show

The screenshots show an illustrated flashcard for 吃饭 (chīfàn, to eat) with an example sentence, and graded stories with pinyin above colored characters.