---
title: "Is HelloChinese worth it in 2026? Honest review, prices, vs Duolingo"
description: "HelloChinese is a well-made beginner course on your phone, with Premium at $11.99 a month, $25.99 for three months or $69.99 a year. What it does well, the two gaps learners hit (the price, and no help outside the app), how it compares with Duolingo, and how to close both gaps for free."
canonical: "https://mandarinthewild.com/compare/hellochinese"
published: "2026-10-24"
updated: "2026-10-24"
author: "Mandarin The Wild"
---

# Is HelloChinese worth it? An honest review

HelloChinese is one of the best ways to start Chinese on a phone. Its help ends where the app does.

By Mandarin The WildUpdated 24 October 20265 min read

We make Mandarin The Wild. Everything we say about HelloChinese comes from its own pages, checked on 24 October 2026.

The short answer

HelloChinese is worth it if you are starting from zero and want a guided course on your phone: its lessons, speech checks and handwriting practice are well made. Premium costs $11.99 a month, $25.99 for three months or $69.99 a year in the App Store.3 Once you can read a little, Mandarin The Wild gives you graded stories and a word card on any web page and YouTube, for free.

## What HelloChinese does well

HelloChinese is a phone app that teaches Chinese from scratch in short, game-like lessons, with reading, writing, speaking, words and grammar in one place. It checks your pronunciation with speech recognition, lets you practise writing characters, has more than 2,000 videos of native speakers and brings words back with spaced repetition.2 Its courses follow the HSK levels, and it is rated 4.9 out of 5 on the App Store.3 For a true beginner, that is a lot done right.

![HelloChinese’s App Store listing with screenshots of its lessons](https://mandarinthewild.com/shots/hellochinese-app-store.webp)

HelloChinese on the App Store. Screenshot, 24 October 2026.

**Good**

- A full beginner course built only for Chinese.
- Speech checks and handwriting practice.
- More than 2,000 native-speaker videos.

**Not so good**

- The full course is a subscription.
- Its help ends at the edge of the app.

## The two gaps

### 1. The full course is a subscription

The app is free to download, with in-app purchases: the App Store lists Premium at $11.99 a month, $25.99 for three months or $69.99 a year, and Premium+ from $19.99 a month to $149.99 a year.3

**How Mandarin The Wild closes it:** looking words up, [the Library](https://mandarinthewild.com/library) with its recordings and Review are free, with no trial and no card. A free account keeps your words.

### 2. The help ends at the edge of the app

HelloChinese is for its own lessons, on Android and iPhone.2 The Chinese you actually want to understand, a YouTube video, a show on Netflix, a news site, a friend’s post, is somewhere else, with no card to tap.

**How Mandarin The Wild closes it:** the same card everywhere you read and watch. Point at any word on a web page, in YouTube captions or on Netflix, Disney+ and Viki, in Chrome or Edge, for the meaning it has in that sentence and its pinyin as it is said there. Keep it, and Review brings it back in that sentence.

这个中文课程我每天学十分钟。

“I study this Chinese course for ten minutes a day.”

课kè程chéng

Noun

course; curriculum

Also written 課程

## HelloChinese or Duolingo?

Both teach Chinese from zero in short phone lessons. Duolingo is free, with ads and a limit on energy unless you pay for Super.4 By Duolingo’s own count, its course covers HSK 1 to 3 and about half of level 4.5 HelloChinese is built only for Chinese, with speech checks, handwriting practice and native-speaker videos, and most of the course needs Premium.2 Pick Duolingo for a free daily habit, HelloChinese for a deeper paid course. [Our Duolingo review](https://mandarinthewild.com/compare/duolingo) has where its course stops.

| Compared | HelloChinese | Duolingo |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Built for | Chinese only.2 | Many languages; every course free.4 |
| How far | HSK-based courses for beginners.3 | About HSK 1 to 3.5 |
| Price | Premium $11.99 a month, $25.99 for three months or $69.99 a year.3 | Free with ads and energy; Super removes both.4 |

## Side by side

| What you want to do | Mandarin The Wild | HelloChinese |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Start Chinese from zero | A [pinyin chart](https://mandarinthewild.com/pinyin-chart), [tone practice](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice) and HSK 1 stories, but no step-by-step course. | A full beginner course, by HSK level.3 |
| Practise speaking and writing | [Tone practice](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice) for your tones. | Speech recognition and handwriting.2 |
| Read graded stories at your level | More than 250, HSK 1 to 6, with recordings in two voices, free. | Graded stories in the app.3 |
| Understand Chinese on any web page or YouTube | Point at any word, in Chrome or Edge. | Inside the app. |
| Netflix, Disney+ and Viki | The Chinese subtitle line, every word ready to point at. | no |
| Keep and review words | Backpack and Review, in the sentence you found them in. | Spaced repetition of the course’s words.2 |
| Price | Free to look up, read the Library and review. | Free to download; Premium $11.99 a month, $25.99 for three months or $69.99 a year.3 |

## Everything Mandarin The Wild does

- **Every page and every video.** The same card on any web page and in YouTube captions, in Chrome or Edge. The video keeps playing, and Previous, Replay and Next sit in the player. On Netflix, Disney+ and Viki, the Chinese subtitle line is ours too: point at a word and the video waits while you read its card.
- **Captions when a video has none.** On a Chinese YouTube video with no captions, sign in and press Make captions: we make them from its sound.
- **Backpack and Review.** Press M and the word is kept with its sentence and the page or video moment it came from. Review brings it back by sight and by sound, on every device you sign in on.
- **[The Library](https://mandarinthewild.com/library).** More than 250 graded stories and articles from HSK 1 to 6, each with a recording in two voices, free.
- **Look a word up here.** [How to say it in Chinese](https://mandarinthewild.com/in-chinese) for an English word and [What does it mean in Chinese?](https://mandarinthewild.com/meaning) for a Chinese word or its pinyin, each with toned pinyin, its characters and a real sentence, free with no sign-up.
- **Immersion for your own Chinese.** Links, Google Docs, EPUB, PDF and Word files, and recordings with their subtitles or a transcript made from their sound, every word ready to explain.
- **Your phone, offline.** Add the site to your home screen: Review, [the reader](https://mandarinthewild.com/read), and the chapters and sources you keep work with no signal.
- **Your words, in and out.** Bring in a Pleco or Anki list, and download your words for Anki whenever you like.

## Which to pick

Starting from zero and happy to pay for a guided course: HelloChinese. Past the first lessons, or want to understand the Chinese you already watch and read: Mandarin The Wild, free. Many learners use both: HelloChinese for its course, Mandarin The Wild for everything outside it.

## Questions

### Is HelloChinese worth it?

For a beginner who wants a guided phone course with speech and handwriting practice, yes. Premium costs $11.99 a month, $25.99 for three months or $69.99 a year. For reading and watching real Chinese, Mandarin The Wild is free.

### How much is HelloChinese Premium?

The App Store (United States) lists Premium at $11.99 a month, $25.99 for three months or $69.99 a year, and Premium+ from $19.99 a month to $149.99 a year.

### Is there a free alternative to HelloChinese?

For reading, Mandarin The Wild has more than 250 free graded stories and articles with recordings, and a word card for any web page and YouTube. For a course from zero, Duolingo’s Chinese course is free.

### HelloChinese or Duolingo for Chinese?

Both are beginner courses. HelloChinese is built only for Chinese, with speech and handwriting practice; Duolingo is free. Either way, add graded reading once you know a few hundred words.

### Is Mandarin The Wild free?

Looking words up, the Library with its recordings, and Review are free. Looking up needs no account; a free account keeps your words.

## Sources

Checked on 24 October 2026. Prices and features change; tell us if one has.

1. [Mandarin The Wild: Chrome Web Store listing](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/mandarin-the-wild-underst/gkfkjbdhlbedlgnicdefdpmppabplhii)
2. [HelloChinese](https://www.hellochinese.cc/)
3. [HelloChinese: App Store listing (United States), its in-app purchases and description](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hellochinese-learn-chinese/id1001507516)
4. [Duolingo: App Store listing (United States), its in-app purchases and description](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/duolingo-language-lessons/id570060128)
5. [VentureBeat (15 November 2017), Duolingo now helps you learn Chinese: the course’s HSK coverage, as Duolingo described it at launch](https://venturebeat.com/business/duolingo-now-helps-you-learn-chinese)

## Keep exploring

- [Compare练习Is SuperChinese worth it?](https://mandarinthewild.com/compare/superchinese)
- [Compare下一步Is Duolingo worth it for Chinese?](https://mandarinthewild.com/compare/duolingo)
- [Compare生词Is Migaku worth it for Chinese?](https://mandarinthewild.com/compare/migaku)

Less going through the motions. More getting the meaning.

## The world is talking.
Go get the meaning.

[Add to Chrome](https://mandarinthewild.com/go/chrome) [Try the reader](https://mandarinthewild.com/read)

Chrome and Edge on a computer. The reader works on any device.

Bring your curiosity.We’ll meet you in the wild.