HelloChinese vs Duolingo: Which Is Better for Chinese?

For learning Chinese, HelloChinese is the better app: it's built only for Chinese, and it teaches handwriting, explains grammar, checks your pronunciation and supports Traditional characters, none of which Duolingo does well. Duolingo's advantage is price. Its whole Chinese course is free, while HelloChinese's free lessons only go so far before you need Premium. If you're unsure whether you'll stick with Chinese, start on Duolingo; if you're serious about Chinese and happy to pay, HelloChinese teaches more of it.

A word on bias: we make Mandarin Mosaic, and Chunking Chinese is our sister app. Neither HelloChinese nor Duolingo is ours, and we mention our own apps only at the end, for the things neither of them covers. Prices are from the UK App Store, and features from the apps' own listings and announcements, checked on 23 October 2026.

HelloChinese vs Duolingo at a Glance

Cost: Free vs Freemium

Duolingo is free all the way to the end of its course. The catch is Energy: since mid-2025, every exercise uses some up, right or wrong, and when it runs out you wait for it to recharge, watch an ad or spend gems. Super removes the limit and the ads. On the UK App Store, Super is about £12.49 a month, or about £60 a year on the annual plan, with a 14-day free trial. Max, which adds AI features, costs more.

HelloChinese is freemium. You can start lessons for free, with ads, but the full main course needs Premium. It has two paid tiers on the UK App Store:

• Premium, from £9.99, unlocks the whole main course.
• Premium+, from £15.99, adds the graded stories and a separate characters course.

Both have longer plans that work out cheaper per month, up to £119.99 for the dearest Premium+ plan. We found no lifetime option.

So for a learner on a budget, Duolingo wins easily. For anyone willing to pay, the two cost about the same, and HelloChinese gives more Chinese for the money.

The Course: How Far Each One Goes

Duolingo expanded its Chinese course in spring 2026. Its April 2026 announcement says learners of Chinese can now go up to CEFR level B2, from A2 before, with advanced Stories and DuoRadio episodes. It hasn't said what HSK level that equals. Our post on what HSK level Duolingo gets you to looks at the evidence.

HelloChinese rebuilt its main course on the new nine-level HSK standard (HSK 3.0) in 2025, and in August 2026 added upper-intermediate sections, bringing it to over 2,500 words and 430 grammar points. It also has a separate pinyin course to start with.

The bigger difference is how each course is designed. Duolingo's Chinese course uses the same lesson types as its Spanish or French course, with Chinese fitted in. HelloChinese was designed for Chinese from the start, so it has lessons on tones, pinyin, characters and measure words that a general app doesn't.

Characters and Handwriting

This is HelloChinese's clearest win. It has stroke-order handwriting practice, where you trace and then write each character on screen, and Premium+ adds a dedicated characters course. You can also switch the whole app to Traditional characters, for Taiwan or Hong Kong.

Duolingo teaches you to recognise characters: you match them, pick them and read them in sentences, and there's a Characters section for review. We couldn't find any handwriting practice in the Chinese course. It's also Simplified only; Duolingo says it plans to add Traditional one day, but hasn't yet (see what Duolingo Chinese teaches).

If you don't plan to write by hand, Duolingo's recognition-only approach is less of a loss than it sounds; most learners read on screens and type in pinyin. Our guide to how to learn Chinese characters covers when writing is worth it.

Grammar: Explained or Picked Up?

HelloChinese explains grammar inside its lessons: short notes on a pattern, then exercises that use it. Duolingo mostly lets you work patterns out from repeated example sentences, with little explanation up front.

Some learners like Duolingo's approach, and picking up patterns from examples does work. But Chinese grammar has things English speakers rarely guess, like where time and place go in a sentence, or what 了 (le) does, and a one-line explanation saves a lot of confusion. If you like to know why, HelloChinese is better here. Our guide to Chinese sentence structure covers the basics either way.

Speaking and Tones

Both apps have speaking exercises, and both are gentle with them.

Duolingo says it marks Chinese speech by sound: "any character whose pronunciation is close enough" counts as a match. That's kind to beginners but won't tell you which tone you got wrong. Max subscribers on iPhone can also make AI video calls in Chinese.

HelloChinese uses speech recognition to check your pronunciation as you speak, and it has speaking lessons built into the course. It's more useful feedback than Duolingo's, though it's still checking short phrases you've just heard, not sentences you build yourself. Neither app gives you real conversation practice. Our guide to Mandarin tones explains what to listen for.

Reading and Listening

Duolingo's Chinese course has Stories, short illustrated dialogues where you answer questions as you go, and DuoRadio, short audio episodes for listening. Both now run up to the new advanced sections, and both are free.

HelloChinese has more: over 1,000 graded stories (with Premium+) and over 2,000 short videos of native speakers. If you want to read and listen beyond the lessons without leaving the app, HelloChinese has much more material, though you'll pay the higher tier for the stories.

Neither app is a real reader, though. For longer texts at your level, see our guide to comprehensible input.

Habit and Motivation

Duolingo is the best app in the world at getting people to open it every day. Streaks, leagues, friend quests and reminders keep you coming back, and for a language that takes years, that matters. Plenty of learners would say the best app is the one you actually use.

HelloChinese has streaks and game-like exercises too, but less of the pull. On the other hand, its lessons spend more of your time on Chinese and less on the game. If you've built a Duolingo habit and it's working, that's worth keeping, even if you add something else.

Which Should You Choose?

• Choose Duolingo if you want to try Chinese for free, you're learning casually or alongside other languages, or the daily habit is what keeps you going.
• Choose HelloChinese if you're serious about Chinese and willing to pay, you want grammar explained, you want to write characters, or you need Traditional characters.
• Use both if you like: Duolingo for a free five minutes a day, HelloChinese for the main study. They cover the same beginner material, so you'll go faster through whichever comes second.

Our verdict: for most learners who want to learn Chinese properly, HelloChinese is the better course. Duolingo is the better free app.

What Both Apps Miss

Both apps are courses: they teach you the beginner and intermediate basics, one lesson at a time. When you finish (or stall), two gaps remain that neither fills well.

• Lots of vocabulary in real sentences, and longer reading. A few thousand words is only the start, and courses add words slowly. Mandarin Mosaic, our app, teaches through whole sentences that each have one new word, with spaced repetition and HSK-levelled lessons, and its Chinese Articles reader gives you graded stories and news at your level. It supports Simplified and Traditional. It doesn't teach speaking, handwriting or grammar, so it's a next step after a course, not a replacement for one. Our Mandarin Mosaic vs Duolingo comparison goes into more detail.
• Saying your own sentences out loud, with feedback. Both apps mostly have you repeat what you've just heard. Chunking Chinese, our sister app, gives you an English prompt, has you build the Chinese sentence from chunks and say it, then scores the sound and tone of every character. It's for learners who understand more than they can say; read our Chunking Chinese review or try the fluency trainer. A tutor on italki or Preply does the same job with a person.

For more options, see our list of Duolingo alternatives for Chinese and our comparison of the best Mandarin learning apps.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is HelloChinese Better Than Duolingo?

For Chinese, yes, if you're willing to pay. It's built only for Chinese and teaches handwriting, grammar, pronunciation and Traditional characters, which Duolingo doesn't do well. Duolingo is better as a free app and for keeping a daily habit.

Is HelloChinese Free?

Partly. You can start lessons for free, with ads, but the full course needs Premium (from £9.99 on the UK App Store at the time of writing), and the graded stories and characters course need Premium+.

Can HelloChinese or Duolingo Teach You Traditional Chinese?

HelloChinese can: you can switch the app to Traditional characters. Duolingo's Mandarin course is Simplified only. Our guide to learning Traditional Chinese explains the differences.

Can You Become Fluent With HelloChinese or Duolingo?

Not on their own. Both now reach intermediate levels, but fluency takes far more vocabulary, reading and conversation than any course gives. Treat either one as your foundation, then add reading and speaking practice. Our post on how many words you need to become fluent puts the numbers in context.

Should I Switch From Duolingo to HelloChinese?

If Duolingo feels too easy, you keep forgetting characters, or you want grammar explained, it's worth trying HelloChinese's free lessons. You'll fly through the early material you already know. If you're happy on Duolingo and still learning, there's no need to switch; add a reading or speaking tool instead.

Finished a beginner course and want to keep going? Mandarin Mosaic teaches Chinese through real sentences with one new word at a time, with audio, graded articles and spaced repetition, in Simplified or Traditional characters. It's on iPhone and Android, and at the time of writing Premium's first month is free, with a limited free plan. Get it on iOS or Android.

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