Best HSK platforms 2026: Duolingo vs HelloChinese vs Skritter

Generic roundups mix dictionaries, games, and courses. For HSK you need exam-aligned study, spaced repetition, listening and output, and a clear level.

Register on chinesetest.cn. CLEC runs the framework. Classic six-level bands (150 to 5,000 words) are on Wikipedia HSK. This site is not a test center.

Reddit usually recommends a stack, not a single winner: HelloChinese to start, Pleco to look up, Anki or Skritter for characters. That advice is fair. The cost is running four apps with no daily path.

SRS is spaced repetition: the queue brings a word back just as you were about to forget it. A Duolingo streak is not SRS on an HSK list. Teaching note: if 是 only appears as a chip and never as 我是学生 (wǒ shì xuésheng, I am a student), the stack is hollow.

Confirm the paper at your center. Classic six levels are not the 2021 nine bands. Mixing them is the miss no app will fix.

This is the comparison people type. Duolingo wins habit and a generous free tier. Duolingo Chinese is Mandarin, not Cantonese. It is not designed as an HSK syllabus.

HelloChinese wins real Mandarin: tones, characters, and a path closer to HSK 1–4. On Reddit it is the usual answer to what do I start with.

Neither is a full HSK mock or a tutor that remembers weak points. Neither replaces Pleco. Full write-up: Duolingo vs HelloChinese.

If the only problem is opening the app, Duolingo wins. If the problem is the tone of 买 (mǎi, to buy) versus 卖 (mài, to sell), HelloChinese wins. If the problem is which list you cover today, neither is enough.

Skritter wins handwriting and character memory. You write 语 (yǔ, language) and the system grades the stroke. Recognising 汉语 on a card is not writing 语 from memory.

LingoDeer wins grammar and a structured course built by teachers, per its own product page. It fits if you come from a European language and want to know why the sentence is built that way.

They are not the same job. If hanzi writing is the bottleneck, Skritter. If sentence structure is the bottleneck, LingoDeer. Full write-up: Skritter vs LingoDeer.

Neither registers you on chinesetest.cn. Neither is a dictionary like Pleco. Chinese Trainer does not beat Skritter at strokes or LingoDeer at grammar notes.

There is no universal best app to learn Chinese. The best app to learn Mandarin depends on the job: HelloChinese for a friendly beginner course, Duolingo for a cheap daily habit as a side app not an HSK plan, Skritter for character writing, LingoDeer for grammar notes, Pleco as a dictionary, Anki for custom decks, and Chinese Trainer for an HSK path plus SRS, readings, and an AI tutor on the web.

Six-level papers and the 2021 nine-band outline are different; confirm the paper at your center.

An honest stack Reddit already describes: HelloChinese or LingoDeer at the start, Pleco always, Skritter when hanzi hurts, Anki if you like maintaining decks. Chinese Trainer enters when you want that daily path without assembling the stack by hand.

What nobody should sell you: a guaranteed pass, fluency in a month, or Duolingo covering HSK 4. Classic counts sit on Wikipedia HSK.

Duolingo loses alignment with the paper. You can keep a streak and still not know whether you cover HSK 1 or HSK 3. HelloChinese loses queue control and mocks from HSK 3 onward.

Skritter loses listening and spoken output. LingoDeer loses an explicit HSK inventory. Pleco loses a syllabus: it is lookup. Anki loses the rest of study if you do not build examples, audio, and a plan.

Chinese Trainer loses strokes to Skritter and lemmas to Pleco. It wins knowing which list is due today. HSK 1–2 is free with limits. The AI tutor is Premium, with a daily cap. Answers can be wrong.

Chinese Trainer is a Mandarin web app (and PWA) with this site's HSK lists (12,432 public words), SRS, grammar, readings, and an AI tutor. Account screens are not indexed; the public lists are.

We do not claim to beat Skritter at stroke order or Pleco at lookup. We do claim you should not need five apps to know what to study today. Method by level: HSK guides.

If you already pay for Skritter, do not cancel it because of this page. If Pleco is already on the phone, leave it. Add a path. Signup: chinesetest.cn. Framework: CLEC.

The 2026 ranking is not something you study. You pick one job and you time it. Twenty-five minutes: 15 on the HSK queue, 5 of ear or stroke, 5 in Pleco if a character breaks.

If the pain is habit, those 15 minutes can be HelloChinese or Duolingo. Not both. A streak is not a level. Classic counts (150 to 5,000) sit on Wikipedia HSK.

If the pain is hanzi, Skritter takes the middle 5. Do not clone the HSK list inside Skritter the same day. You pay twice for the same 语 (yǔ, language).

Teaching note: 我是学生 is said out loud in the queue block. You do not «win» by opening LingoDeer to read the gloss. The gloss does not time listening.

Chinese Trainer wins the thread of which list is due. It does not win stroke or lemma. HSK 1–2 can start free, with limits. The AI tutor is Premium, with a cap. We do not promise a pass.

Signup and calendar: chinesetest.cn. This site does not sell seats. The framework sits with CLEC. A 25-minute stack is not a test center.

«Best Chinese app» is not an exam question. It is a job question. Search calligraphy and pick Duolingo, and you lose the month. Search habit and pick Skritter, and you quit the stroke.

Do not mix this site's HSK 7+ inventory with the six-level paper. HSK 7+ here is an advanced list, not an exam guide. The classic center still follows the counts on Wikipedia HSK.

A 2024 review that sells fluency in eight weeks hits the ~2,200 FSI hours for professional working proficiency (Wikipedia FSI). That figure is not hours to HSK 1. Use it to kill the ad.

Teaching note: 买 and 卖 betray the tone. No ranking replaces saying the pair. HelloChinese drills it better than the owl. Chinese Trainer puts it in a queue, not a streak game.

Pleco does not enter a course ranking. It enters the phone. Anki does not enter if you will not maintain the deck. An honest ranking names the job, not a medal.

Chinese Trainer is not Duolingo, not Pleco, not Skritter. It is an HSK path on the web. Free on HSK 1–2, with limits. We do not promise a pass. Pick this week's pain and leave the rest of the podium alone.