The best apps to learn Chinese in 2026

HelloChinese is the best app to learn Mandarin Chinese in 2026 for most beginners: it starts with a dedicated pinyin course, corrects your pronunciation with speech recognition, teaches handwriting, and follows HSK levels, with Premium listed at $11.99 a month or $69.99 a year. Duolingo is the best free option for a daily habit. Whatever course you choose, install Pleco next to it: its core dictionary is free, and nearly every serious Chinese learner ends up using it.

Quick answer

• Best overall: HelloChinese. A complete beginner course with pinyin, tones, speaking feedback, handwriting and graded stories.
• Best free option: Duolingo. A free, game-like Chinese course that keeps you practicing every day.
• Best dictionary: Pleco. Two free dictionaries with merged search by characters, pinyin or English, plus paid add-ons such as camera lookup.
• Best for writing characters: Skritter. Write each character from memory and let spaced repetition decide when you see it again.
• Best for reading: Du Chinese. Graded stories and articles where you tap any word for pinyin, a definition and audio.
• Best for remembering characters: Hanly. Breaks characters into components and explains their origins, with built-in spaced repetition.
• Best for Cantonese and Taiwan: ChineseSkill. Separate courses for Mainland Mandarin, Taiwan Mandarin with traditional characters, and Cantonese.
• Best for HSK prep: Chinesimple. Over 300 lessons and thousands of HSK flashcards, organized around the exam.

Comparison table

How to choose: course, dictionary, characters, reading

Chinese asks you to learn two things that do not share an alphabet: the sound system, written in pinyin with four tones, and the characters themselves. Apps tend to specialize in one side. The most common setup is a course for sounds, grammar and first characters, Pleco for lookups, and later one tool for either writing or reading. For general advice on choosing a language app, see our guide to language learning apps.

• In your first weeks: take a course that starts with pinyin and tones. HelloChinese and ChineseSkill both list dedicated pinyin courses for beginners, and both use speech recognition on your pronunciation.
• From the first day you read anything: install Pleco. You can search by pinyin with or without tones, by English, or by drawing a character.
• If you want to write by hand: Skritter is built for it. If you only want to recognize characters on a screen, Hanly's component breakdowns may be enough.
• Once you know a few hundred words: add Du Chinese for graded reading with audio. Reading is where your character knowledge starts to stick.
• If you are learning Taiwanese Mandarin or Cantonese: choose ChineseSkill, which has separate courses for both. Pleco also supports traditional characters, Zhuyin and some Cantonese dictionaries.
• If you have an HSK date: Chinesimple and Skritter both organize material by HSK level; trainchinese and Skritter mention the newer HSK 3.0 standard.

A free setup is Duolingo plus the free Pleco dictionary. A paid setup that covers every job is HelloChinese, Skritter and Du Chinese, with Pleco for lookups. For general flashcard tools, see our flashcard app comparison.

HelloChinese: Best overall

HelloChinese is a Mandarin-only course for beginners that aims to take you to a conversational level, according to the developer. Lessons are game-based and follow HSK levels, with a pinyin course at the start, speech recognition that corrects your pronunciation, and handwriting exercises for characters. The listing also mentions over 1,000 graded stories, over 2,000 videos featuring native speakers, support for both simplified and traditional characters, and offline study once a course is downloaded. The screenshots show a course map with units such as Say hello, Food and Money, and a video exercise where you build the sentence 我中午吃了汉堡 from tiles that each show pinyin above the character.

The description lists HelloChinese Premium at $11.99 for one month, $25.99 for three months and $69.99 for twelve months for US customers. The price list on the US App Store in November 2026 also includes Premium+ items from $19.99 to $149.99, which the description does not explain.

Strengths: covers listening, speaking, reading and writing in one course, and declares no tracking on its privacy label. Limits: the listing does not say how much is free; five data types are linked to your account; the listing mentions only Mandarin, so Cantonese learners should look at ChineseSkill.

Duolingo: Best free option

Duolingo offers Chinese among its 40+ courses, and the course list in its screenshots shows it next to Japanese and Korean. Lessons are short and game-like, with streaks and leaderboards designed to bring you back daily. For Chinese, that habit is worth a lot, because character recognition depends on frequent review.

Free learners see ads and work with an energy limit, which the screenshots show as a counter at the top of each lesson. Super Duolingo removes ads and adds unlimited energy, according to the description, and comes with a 14-day free trial; it is listed at prices from $9.99 to $119.99 on the US App Store in November 2026.

Strengths: free, low-effort to start, and a good complement to Pleco and a reading app. Limits: the description does not mention pinyin drills, tone training, HSK levels or character writing; the privacy label lists tracking across eight data types. Compare other course apps on our Duolingo alternatives page.

Pleco: Best dictionary

Pleco is a Chinese dictionary first and a study system second. It includes two free built-in dictionaries, CC-CEDICT with over 110,000 entries and Pleco's own PLC dictionary with 125,000 entries and over 25,000 example sentences with pinyin. One search box looks up characters, pinyin (tones optional) or English across all installed dictionaries. Every part of the app supports simplified and traditional characters, readings can show in pinyin or Zhuyin, and free audio uses the iPhone's built-in text-to-speech. The screenshots show results for "shouji" with characters colored by tone, and an entry for 几乎 tagged HSK 3 with pinyin, Cantonese jyutping and example sentences.

The free app covers lookups. Paid add-ons on the US App Store in November 2026 include the Flashcard System, Optical Character Recognizer, Enhanced Handwriting and Document Reader at $9.99 each, Stroke Order Diagrams at $4.99, the Basic Bundle at $29.99 and the Professional Bundle at $59.99. The listing says the app has no ads, and the privacy label declares no tracking.

Strengths: two large free dictionaries behind one search box, with careful support for traditional characters. Limits: it is not a course; flashcards, camera lookup and full stroke order (500 characters free, 28,000 paid) cost extra; the interface is English only.

Skritter: Best for writing characters

Skritter is a writing app: you learn a character's meaning, reading and tone, then write it on screen from memory, stroke by stroke. Practice is organized in decks, including HSK 1 to 6, the new HSK 3.0 levels 1 to 9, a stroke order deck and topic decks such as ordering coffee, and a personalized spaced repetition schedule decides when each character comes back. The screenshots show a writing grid for 玩 (wán, to play) and a review card for 忘 (wàng, to forget) with "forgot" and "got it" buttons.

Guest accounts get free access to select decks, according to the listing. A premium subscription unlocks Review mode and any deck, and is listed at $9.99 or $14.99 for one month, $59.99 or $69.99 for six months, and $99.99 or $119.99 for one year on the US App Store in November 2026.

Strengths: the most focused handwriting practice here, and Du Chinese can link to it for words you meet while reading. Limits: review needs a subscription; the privacy label declares tracking across six data types; it does not teach speaking or grammar.

Du Chinese: Best for reading

Du Chinese teaches through graded reading and listening. Its library includes stories, courses and articles for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners, including HSK-aligned content, and every reading has native speaker audio. Tap a word for its pinyin and definition, or a sentence for its translation, without leaving the text. The app adds grammar tips, a built-in dictionary and flashcards, lets you choose simplified or traditional characters, and links to Pleco, Skritter and Hack Chinese. The screenshots show a dialogue with pinyin above each character and a pop-up offering Grammar, Dictionary and Save, plus an audio player for an upper-intermediate story with speed control. The September 2026 update added stroke order animations.

The listing says you can learn for free, and that upgrading unlocks 3,000+ articles, stories and courses, offline study and an audiobook mode. Du Chinese Premium is listed at $14.99, $79.99 and $119.99 on the US App Store in November 2026.

Strengths: the best way here to practice reading real sentences at your level, with no tracking declared. Limits: most of the library needs Premium; it is not a complete course and has no speaking practice in the listing.

Hanly: Best for remembering characters

Hanly helps you remember characters by understanding how they are built. It starts with simple components and builds up to complex characters, introducing the most frequent ones early, and gives each character an etymology, illustrations and a mnemonic. A searchable character dictionary shows meanings, pronunciations, HSK level, frequency, radicals and stroke order animations, and spaced repetition is built into the interface. The screenshots show a card for 火 (huǒ, fire) explaining that it evolved from a drawing of fire, with tabs for oracle, bronze and seal script forms, and a composition tree for 照 broken into 日, 召, 刀 and 口.

The only in-app purchase is Hanly Premium at $5.99 on the US App Store in November 2026; the listing does not say the billing period or what is free. The privacy label declares no tracking.

Strengths: turns characters from shapes into stories, which helps recognition, at a low price. Limits: characters only, with no speaking, listening or grammar; it was released in February 2025 and has about 400 ratings; English is the only interface language.

ChineseSkill: Best for Cantonese and Taiwan

ChineseSkill is a game-based course built by Chinese teachers, according to the developer, and its main difference is choice: separate courses for Mainland Mandarin in simplified characters, Taiwan Mandarin in traditional characters, and Hong Kong Cantonese. An October 2026 update added Hokkien. The listing describes pinyin and tone courses, speech recognition that corrects pronunciation and tones, handwriting practice, graded stories and HSK-based courses, with offline study after download. The screenshots show the course picker with all four varieties and a video question with answers in characters and pinyin.

The description lists ChineseSkill Premium at $11.99 for one month, $24.99 for three months and $59.99 for twelve months. The price list on the US App Store in November 2026 runs from $11.99 to a $399 lifetime item.

Strengths: the only course here with Taiwan Mandarin and Cantonese tracks, and no tracking on the privacy label. Limits: the listing says videos, extra vocabulary and Booster content exist only for Mainland Mandarin; it does not say what is free; four data types are linked to your account.

Chinesimple: Best for HSK prep

Chinesimple, listed as HSK1 Learn Chinese Chinesimple, is organized around the HSK exam. The developer lists over 5,000 HSK words under the older standard and 11,000 under HSK 3.0, 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 supports simplified and traditional characters, works offline and has voice recognition. The screenshots show a flashcard for 吃饭 (chīfàn, to eat) with an example sentence, and graded stories with characters colored by tone. A November 2026 update redesigned the app.

Prices on the US App Store in November 2026 include a Monthly Subscription at $18.99, discounted monthly items from $8.99, an Annual Subscription at $145.99, and PRO Lifetime from $69.99 to $190. The listing does not say what is free.

Strengths: a clear HSK path with a large flashcard set and no tracking declared. Limits: the full-price Monthly Subscription, $18.99, is one of the highest single prices for a month here; it has only 373 ratings; the many discounted price items make the real cost hard to judge from the listing.

What we left out

• SuperChinese. An AI-focused course, left out because its privacy label links financial info and location to you and its description quotes prices in RMB, which makes US pricing unclear.
• trainchinese. A solid dictionary and flashcard app with HSK 3.0 lists, but it shows ads and overlaps with Pleco for lookups.
• Chineasy. A picture-based way to meet your first characters; its privacy label declares tracking of location, and Hanly covers the character job in more depth.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free app to learn Chinese?

Duolingo is the best free course, and Pleco's core dictionary is free with no ads. Du Chinese and Skritter both have free tiers, a free reading library and free decks respectively, but most of their content needs a subscription. Together, Duolingo and Pleco cover a solid free start.

Do you need to learn to write Chinese characters by hand?

Not necessarily. Many learners only type, using pinyin input, and focus on recognizing characters. Writing by hand helps some people remember characters, and Skritter is built for that; if you only want recognition, Hanly or a reading app like Du Chinese may be enough.

Is Pleco worth paying for?

The free version covers lookups with two dictionaries, example sentences and handwriting input. The paid add-ons are worth it if you want camera lookup, a flashcard system or full stroke order diagrams. Start free and buy only the add-on for the job you need.

Is HelloChinese better than Duolingo for Mandarin?

HelloChinese lists features made specifically for Chinese: a pinyin course, speech recognition on pronunciation, handwriting practice and HSK-based courses. Duolingo is free and better for a daily routine, but its description does not mention those Chinese-specific tools. If you will pay for one course, HelloChinese is the stronger choice.

Which app is best for HSK preparation?

Chinesimple is organized entirely around the HSK and covers both the older standard and HSK 3.0. Skritter has HSK decks for writing, and Du Chinese has HSK-aligned reading. None of these listings claim to be official HSK materials.