HelloChinese vs SuperChinese (and where Duolingo fits)

Which app fits you?

Pick the goals that matter to you. The picker names a winner for each one, then lines the three apps up side by side:

If your goals split between the two, our advice is to start with the app that wins the one you care about most. Several learners in the threads we read moved from one to the other later.

They cost the same, until you pay yearly

We compared every plan on both App Store listings. Both apps charge $11.99 a month, and the gap only opens on yearly plans.

SuperChinese PLUS is cheaper over a year, and it's the only one you can buy once for life. Each app also sells a pricier tier. HelloChinese Premium+ unlocks its full story library, and SuperChinese CHAO adds the AI tutor.

Here's what each plan costs a month, from the yearly price to paying month by month:

Source: each app's US App Store listing, checked 7 October 2026. SuperChinese's own website showed higher yearly prices: $69.99 for PLUS and $129.99 for CHAO. The App Store doesn't name Premium+ plan lengths; they come from FluentU's review.

If you're sure you'll stay, the lifetime plan pays for itself in a little over two years of PLUS. If you're not sure, pay monthly first.

Neither free version takes you far. SuperChinese keeps a sample of lessons free, which it says is "not the whole course". HelloChinese learners report that its paywall now arrives early in HSK 1.

Both courses now reach about the old HSK 5

The biggest change this year is HelloChinese's. In August, its main course grew to 2,500+ words and 430+ grammar points.

That matches the old HSK 5 word list. SuperChinese says its eight-level course covers HSK 1 to 5, without saying which version of the exam it means. A learner who uses it describes the older HSK 2.0 syllabus.

We put HelloChinese's new course next to the HSK word lists:

Source: HelloChinese's August 2026 App Store release notes; Chinese Testing International's 2009 level table for the old lists; the 2025 HSK 3.0 syllabus for the new ones. SuperChinese doesn't publish a word count.

So "HelloChinese is only for beginners" is out of date. It matters because chatbots haven't caught up: in 17 answers we sampled from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, 14 still treated HelloChinese as the shorter course.

If you're aiming at the exam itself, SuperChinese keeps the edge. Its Discover tab lists HSK words up to levels 7–9, and a separate app, SuperTest, is built for exam practice. HelloChinese's team says its new course follows HSK 3.0, the version that starts in December. Our guide to HSK 3.0 explains what changes.

SuperChinese gives you more speaking practice

In every SuperChinese lesson, you say the lines out loud and get a score. The score is colour-coded down to the characters you got wrong, so you know which sound to fix.

HelloChinese uses speech recognition too. A learner who finished its whole course described the speaking drills as repeating set sentences. Its App Store images now promise AI speaking practice, without saying what that covers:

One Premium user reported AI conversation lessons in the first unit, which you can skip. HelloChinese's team said in 2025 that it was building voice-to-voice conversation practice.

SuperChinese goes further with CHAO, its AI tutor. CHAO runs role-plays and gives you feedback on your wording and grammar while you talk.

If you want to talk, not just repeat, SuperChinese is the better fit.

No app has proven its tone scores

Both apps say they check your pronunciation. Neither publishes how accurate those checks are, and we found no public test of either.

Here's the problem. Speech recognition writes down the most likely words. Say "buy", 买(mǎi), with a falling tone and you've said "sell", 卖(mài). A recognizer that leans on context may accept it anyway.

Even CHAO's own page sends you back to SuperChinese's pronunciation drills for focused work. And a review of 15 studies found that speech-recognition practice helps learners' individual sounds a lot, but their stress and pitch only a little. Tones are pitch.

Use the scores to keep you practising, and check your tones another way. Our guide to learning tones and free Tone Checker show you what your pitch is doing.

Buy PLUS for the course, CHAO to talk

We read both plans on SuperChinese's own pages. The split is simple:

• PLUS unlocks the whole eight-level course, the Discover lessons and the pronunciation scores.
• CHAO includes all of that and adds the AI tutor: role-plays, feedback while you speak, and help inside lessons.

Here's SuperChinese's own plan table:

CHAO costs about twice as much as PLUS, and reviews are mixed. One user who'd had CHAO for a year switched back to PLUS in April, saying the AI hadn't kept up with ChatGPT or Gemini.

Start with PLUS. Add CHAO for a month if you find you want open conversation, and compare it with the speaking apps in our guide to AI apps for learning Chinese.

If speaking is your goal, try SayMei

SayMei is built around spoken lessons with Mei Lin, your AI teacher. She talks with you in real time and corrects your tones and grammar as you go, with a transcript in pinyin, characters or both.

The first lesson is free for up to 10 minutes, with no account or card. After a trial week, which needs a card, Premium is $5.99 a month for 200 minutes, in your browser.

Here's where you can talk freely, and what each plan costs a month:

Source: each app's pages and US App Store listing, checked 7 October 2026. Duolingo's App Store lines don't name plan lengths. HelloChinese's placement rests on its App Store images and one user's report.

We want to be plain about the limits: SayMei won't replace a course app. It has no app or offline mode, no writing course and no pronunciation score. Pair it with HelloChinese or SuperChinese if you want both.

HelloChinese is the better reader

Of everything we compared, HelloChinese's graded stories are its biggest advantage. They're short stories written at your level, with audio.

One learner who read nearly all of them counted about 900 stories in 70 series, from HSK 1 to HSK 5. The catch is price: the full library comes with Premium+, though some stories are free.

SuperChinese's reading mostly comes inside its lessons, as dialogues and short stories. Both apps teach you to write characters by hand.

HelloChinese also teaches Traditional characters, the script of Taiwan and Hong Kong. SuperChinese's April update added them to its AI lessons, but its pages don't say the main course comes in Traditional.

If reading is your goal, HelloChinese Premium+ is the plan to pay for. For dedicated reading apps, see our comparison of graded readers.

One feels like a game, one a textbook

In the learner threads we read, people who've used both describe two different moods. HelloChinese is gentle and playful. SuperChinese is denser and moves faster.

SuperChinese builds each unit around one situation, like a trip to the supermarket. Its first lesson is "introducing yourself", 介绍自己(jièshào zìjǐ). Here's how its App Store listing sells the course:

The reviewer who finished HelloChinese tried SuperChinese next and found it too much like an HSK textbook. Another learner who tried both called SuperChinese the longest, most detailed course, with the most speaking.

Both teams say teachers write their lessons, not AI. HelloChinese's team says it never uses AI to write sentences or questions, and SuperChinese says its course isn't generated by AI.

If you've quit apps before because they felt like homework, start with HelloChinese. If you like a clear syllabus, SuperChinese will suit you.

Use Duolingo as a free extra

Duolingo's Chinese course is free and bigger than its reputation. Its word list covers about four in five HSK 4 words.

When we checked it screen by screen, three gaps stood out:

• Most answers are picked, not recalled. You choose from options more often than you produce Chinese.
• No screen we found trains tones. Its speaking practice is reading aloud, and you can switch it off.
• It's Simplified only, with no HSK levels. Video Call, its AI chat, needs a paid plan and is listed for iPhone.

Keep it for a few minutes a day alongside either app. Our Duolingo guide checks its Chinese course screen by screen.

Reviews from before August are out of date

Both apps changed a lot this year. Here's what changed, so you can spot an old review:

Source: each app's App Store release notes; Duolingo's blog and its August 2026 earnings call.

Anything older probably undersells HelloChinese and misses SuperChinese's offline lessons.

What we couldn't check

• We didn't subscribe or test the apps. Features are what each company says, plus what learners report.
• HelloChinese doesn't describe its AI speaking practice, so we can't say how much of it there is.
• SuperChinese doesn't say which HSK version its course follows, or how many words it teaches.
• Prices are US App Store prices. In other countries, or on the companies' own websites, you may see different ones.

What to do next

• Try both free versions for a week. A few lessons will tell you which mood suits you.
• Pick by your main goal. Reading points to HelloChinese; speaking and the HSK point to SuperChinese.
• Pay yearly once you're sure. Monthly plans let you switch if an app doesn't stick.
• Train your ear separately. No app has proven its tone scores, so add listening practice.
• Add real conversation. Repeating lines isn't talking, and a tutor or an AI teacher fills that gap.

When you're ready to talk, try a free lesson with Mei Lin.