Learn Mandarin vs Pleco
Checked September 17, 2026
Pleco is a Chinese dictionary app, with paid add-ons for flashcards, audio, stroke order, reading and character recognition. Learn Mandarin is a study deck: the 3,000 words of HSK 3.0 bands 1 to 4, scheduled for you. They do different jobs, and plenty of learners would use both.
Side by side
| Learn Mandarin | Pleco | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A study deck of the 3,000 words of HSK 3.0 bands 1 to 4 | A Chinese–English dictionary, with learning tools as add-ons |
| Looking words up | The deck's 3,000 words, searchable in the app and on a page each on this site | A full dictionary, which is what it is best at |
| Flashcards | Built in: a ready-made deck, scheduled by FSRS | The Flashcard System add-on ($9.99), to which you add cards from dictionary entries |
| Audio | Every word and example sentence, generated with Google Cloud Text-to-Speech | The Mandarin Audio add-on ($4.99). Pleco describes recordings from native speakers for 34,000 words |
| Stroke order | Animated for every character in the deck, and traceable, with your strokes graded | The Stroke Order Diagrams add-on ($4.99), for about 27,000 characters |
| Platforms | Any modern browser, and installs to a phone or computer | iPhone, iPad and Android |
| Price | HSK 1 and 2 free with every feature. HSK 3 and 4 will be a single one-time purchase, not a subscription; it is not on sale yet. | Free to download. Add-ons from $4.99, a Basic Bundle at $29.99 and a Professional Bundle at $59.99 on the US App Store |
Which to use
Choose Pleco if you are reading real Chinese and need to look up anything you meet, with handwriting and camera input. No 3,000-word deck replaces a dictionary.
Choose Learn Mandarin if you want a path through the core words rather than a tool to build one, with every card already made and the reviews scheduled for you.
Where these facts come from
The Pleco column is taken from Pleco's own site and its App Store listing below. Prices and features change, so everything about Pleco on this page is dated to the day it was checked, above. If something here is out of date, write to [email protected] and we will correct it. Learn Mandarin is not affiliated with Pleco.