Honest comparison · 2026
Du Chinese vs HelloChinese
These two are not really competitors so much as two different stages. HelloChinese is a structured course — it teaches you Mandarin from zero with lessons, grammar notes, pronunciation drills, and a syllabus. Du Chinese is a graded reader: HSK-levelled stories with native audio, pinyin toggles, and tap-to-define, for people who already have a foundation and need mileage.
Bottom line
HelloChinese to start, Du Chinese to keep going
If you are a beginner with no Mandarin at all, HelloChinese gives you the structure you need. If you have finished a beginner course and your problem is that everything real is still too hard, Du Chinese is the bridge.
Feature-by-feature comparison
| Feature | Du Chinese | HelloChinese |
|---|---|---|
| Type of product | Graded reader with audio | Structured course |
| Good from zero | No — assumes basics | Yes — designed for it |
| Explicit grammar teaching | Light notes | Yes, lesson by lesson |
| Native audio | Every lesson, professionally read | Yes, sentence level |
| HSK levelling | Yes — content graded by HSK | Broadly aligned |
| Speech recognition | No | Yes |
| Pricing | Free samples + subscription | $11.99/mo · $69.99/yr |
| Free tier | Rotating free lessons | Yes — substantial free course |
Based on publicly available feature documentation as of 2026. Confirm pricing on each tool's site before purchasing.
Best for: Du Chinese
Post-beginner learners around HSK 2–4 who understand grammar but freeze when faced with unsimplified text.
Best for: HelloChinese
Absolute beginners who want a clear path, pronunciation feedback, and someone else deciding the order of things.
Worth knowing
Where InputDojo fits
Du Chinese eventually runs out — its library is finite and levelled, and at some point you need to read the things you actually care about. That transition is where most learners stall, because real content has no difficulty label. InputDojo imports any article, video, or file and tells you its unknown-word density against your own known-words list, so you can judge whether something is readable before you start. HSK tracks are free, and the reader handles Japanese and 12 other languages if you add another one later.
FAQ
Should I use both?+
Sequentially, yes, and there is a period where overlapping them works well — course lessons for new grammar, graded stories to see it used.
Is Du Chinese enough on its own?+
Not from zero. It assumes you can already parse basic sentence structure, and it explains very little.
What comes after Du Chinese?+
Native content — news, novels, podcasts, video. The gap is real, which is why a reader that measures difficulty against your own vocabulary is useful at that point.