HelloChinese

The best gamified beginner app for Chinese specifically — tones and characters built in.

AppsCoursesFreemiumBeginnerIntermediateA1–B1

Open hellochinese.cc ↗

What it actually is

Designed for Mandarin rather than retrofitted from a European-language template, so it drills tones with speech recognition, teaches stroke order for handwriting, and lets you toggle pinyin off as you improve. The free tier covers a real beginner course; premium unlocks later units, immersion videos and extra review. It plateaus around HSK 3–4 — treat it as your first six months, not your whole plan.

Who it suits

Complete beginners in Mandarin who want a guided, phone-sized daily routine that includes speaking and character writing from the first week. It works well for the first stretch of study before you are ready for graded readers and real listening.

Who should skip it

Learners past the intermediate stage, who will outgrow the course, and Traditional-character or Taiwan-focused learners, as the app centres on Simplified Mandarin. An app's automatic speech scoring is no substitute for a tutor or native speaker checking your tones.

What it costs

Free to download with a usable free course. Paid plans are shown in the app and vary by region; the US App Store lists HelloChinese Premium purchases from $11.99 to $69.99 and Premium+ from $19.99 to $149.99 (USD), without saying which duration each covers.

Checked 29 Sept 2026 on the official pricing page. Prices change and can differ by country.

How it compares

  • Du Chinese

    Pick Du Chinese instead once you can handle simple sentences and want graded stories to read and listen to.

  • Yoyo Chinese

    Pick Yoyo Chinese instead if you learn better from a teacher explaining things on video than from tap-through exercises.

  • ChinesePod

    Pick ChinesePod instead if you want dialogue-based listening lessons with a much larger back catalogue.

  • Duolingo

    Pick Duolingo instead if you are learning more than one language and want a single app for all of them.

What it covers

  • Vocabulary
  • Grammar
  • Listening
  • Speaking

Listed for

Official links

Similar tools

  • Pleco

    The Chinese dictionary every serious learner installs first, and never uninstalls.

  • Du Chinese

    Graded Chinese stories with native audio, tap-for-pinyin and a built-in dictionary.

  • Skritter

    Handwriting SRS that grades every stroke as you write characters from memory.

  • The Chairman's Bao

    Real news rewritten at six HSK-aligned levels, with audio and word lists.

  • Daily Chinese

    Ready-made Chinese vocabulary SRS: HSK 3.0 lists, idioms and 65+ themed word packs.

  • Dong Chinese

    Learn characters through real etymology plus frequency-ordered reading practice.

Sources

Prices and features above come from these pages, read on 29 Sept 2026. The judgements are ours.