The 7 Best Apps & Websites to Learn Chinese – An Honest Comparison

1. Lang Dojo — a real course, built for understanding

Lang Dojo is a structured online Chinese course. Its 60-plus lessons each follow the same arc: pronunciation and tones, vocabulary with clear Mandarin audio on every word, a concise grammar explanation, example sentences, a realistic dialogue, notes on the characters, and two quizzes. Video lessons, a vocabulary trainer and interactive reading games round out the package. It is also the broadest course in this comparison by vocabulary — 3,500 words taught so far, with HSK 5–9 vocabulary, grammar and expressions introduced wherever they fit naturally. That breadth matters, because as the reviews below make clear, nearly every popular tool stops somewhere between 1,200 and 1,500 words.

Four things distinguish it in practice, and each corresponds to a complaint learners level at the apps above.

• Tones explained, not merely demonstrated. Tones are the obstacle most learners name first, and the one most apps hurry past on the way to the streak counter. Our pronunciation lessons are the feature reviewers on YouTube single out most often, and the first lesson is devoted to them before a single vocabulary item appears.
• More than 3,500 spoken Mandarin sentences. The most familiar lament in Chinese learning — "I can read at my level, but I still cannot follow what anyone says" — is a symptom of learning words in isolation. Every example sentence and every line of every dialogue on Lang Dojo is voiced in clear Mandarin, giving thousands of complete utterances at ordinary speed rather than a few hundred disconnected words.
• 1,500 characters, taken apart. Each character is broken into its radicals and components, with the image or idea behind it and, where it is illuminating, its history. Every sentence on the site is displayed in characters with pinyin above them, and the pinyin can be switched off with a single button — so the same 3,500 sentences double as graded reading practice the moment you are ready for it.
• Games, not streaks. Character-reading and vocabulary games make the review that Chinese unavoidably requires something other than a chore, without the hearts, advertisements and guilt-driven notifications that wear learners down elsewhere.

• Strengths: a coherent path from beginner to conversation rather than a scatter of exercises; grammar that is genuinely explained; roughly double the vocabulary of the typical app ceiling, reaching into advanced territory; and no advertising or streak pressure.
• Weaknesses: it is web-based rather than a native app, though it can be added to a phone's home screen; dedicated advanced modules are still in development, so for now the higher-level material is woven through the lessons rather than offered as standalone courses; and there is no speech-recognition feedback — for tone correction, a tutor still outperforms any software.
• Price: the first lesson and the first video are free without an account; creating a free account unlocks the second lesson and a handful of intermediate and advanced lessons as well. The full course costs $12.99 a month or $79 a year (a 50% saving), and can be cancelled at any time.

Verdict: the right choice for anyone who wants to understand how Mandarin works rather than merely swipe through drills — and, of the courses here, the one you will outgrow last. Start with the free lessons and judge for yourself.

2. HelloChinese — the best gamified app for Chinese

HelloChinese is, in effect, what Duolingo might look like had it been built solely for Mandarin: a gamified course app with speech recognition, tone feedback, handwriting practice, graded stories and native-speaker videos, with HSK-aligned courses that now include exam preparation and mock tests.

• Strengths: best-in-class speech recognition and tone checking; strong HSK alignment; and a large library of graded stories and videos.
• Weaknesses: the content tapers off around lower-intermediate; grammar explanations are thin; and the mid-tier subscription offers poor value next to Premium+. Its most-discussed shortcoming is one its own graduates raise: after months of study many report they can read at their level yet still cannot follow spoken Chinese.
• Price: the core course is free; Premium runs about $11.99 a month or $69.99 a year, and Premium+ around $120 a year.

Verdict: the strongest app-first option for beginners — best paired with something that explains grammar in more depth and supplies far more connected listening.

3. Yoyo Chinese — the clearest tone explanations on video

Yoyo Chinese is a web-based video course of roughly 1,000 short lessons taught in English by Yangyang Cheng, supported by quizzes, flashcards and street interviews with native speakers. It runs from beginner to upper-intermediate.

• Strengths: widely regarded as the best pronunciation and tone instruction available to English speakers; a genuine curriculum with clear progression; and street-interview videos that train the ear on natural speech.
• Weaknesses: grammar sits on separate pages rather than within the lessons; the content stops at upper-intermediate; and the lifetime price is steep next to an app subscription.
• Price: a free account opens roughly the first 30 lessons; full access is about $19.99 a month, or roughly $12 a month billed annually, with a one-time lifetime plan recently listed at $399.

Verdict: outstanding teacher-led video, particularly for mastering tones early on — and the tool we most often recommend alongside our own to learners who prefer to watch rather than read.

4. Duolingo — great habit, weak Chinese

Duolingo needs little introduction: the streak-driven app on which Chinese is one of more than 40 courses. Therein lies its weakness — the format was never designed for a tonal, character-based language.

• Strengths: unmatched at building a daily habit; a gentle entry point for complete beginners; and free in full, with advertising.
• Weaknesses: minimal tone training, no real handwriting practice and little grammar instruction; the course tops out at roughly 1,000 to 1,500 words; and the hearts (now an energy meter on mobile), the advertisements and the streak pressure wear on many learners.
• Price: free; Super Duolingo runs about $84 to $96 a year. Its AI-powered Max tier is not offered for Chinese at all.

Verdict: serviceable as a five-minutes-a-day habit former, but for Chinese specifically, almost everything else here teaches more per minute.

5. ChineseClass101 — a giant listening library

ChineseClass101 is less a course than a vast archive of podcast-style audio and video lessons with notes and flashcards, spanning absolute beginner to (nominally) advanced.

• Strengths: a wealth of native-speaker dialogue with cultural context, ideal for listening on a commute; detailed lesson notes; and a genuinely good-value Basic tier.
• Weaknesses: lessons lean heavily on English even at higher levels; the archive is loosely organised, so there is no clear path through it; and the email marketing is notoriously aggressive.
• Price: Basic is $8 a month, Premium $25, and Premium+ (which includes a teacher) $47 — though near-constant discounts mean few pay list price.

Verdict: a strong supplement for listening practice rather than a main course.

6. Pleco — the dictionary every learner needs

Pleco is the standard Chinese dictionary app, and the one tool here that belongs on every learner's phone regardless of what else they use: lookup, handwriting recognition, OCR for text in the wild, and optional flashcards.

• Strengths: professionally licensed dictionaries with example sentences and stroke order; the ability to point a camera at a menu and tap for a definition; and one-time purchases rather than a subscription, atop a genuinely usable free tier.
• Weaknesses: on its own it teaches nothing — there is no curriculum and no progression; the add-on pricing is confusing; and the interface is showing its age, though a 4.0 redesign is under way.
• Price: the core app is free; the basic bundle is about $30 and the professional bundle about $60, both one-time.

Verdict: not a course, but an indispensable companion to whichever course you choose.

7. italki — real humans for real speaking

italki is a marketplace for one-to-one video lessons with Mandarin tutors, and it offers something no app or website can: a person who hears your tones and corrects them on the spot.

• Strengths: a large pool of tutors with reviews and introductory videos; community tutors who make conversation practice affordable, from roughly $5 an hour; and no required subscription — you pay per lesson, with an optional italki Plus plan at $5.99 a month.
• Weaknesses: tutor quality varies, and finding the right fit takes a few attempts; there is no curriculum unless the teacher supplies one; and frequent lessons add up quickly.
• Price: community tutors typically charge about $5 to $15 an hour and professional teachers roughly $15 to $50, with trial lessons discounted.

Verdict: the best money a learner can spend once speaking becomes the bottleneck — typically after a couple of months of structured study.