Work · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to kaku.so
Japanese kanji dictionary + handwriting spaced repetition
Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.
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I'm a long time lurker that recently quit my job to work on my own projects, a lot due to the inspiration from Hacker News. Now I have published my first serious project, an app for learning how to write Japanese characters. It's the app I always wanted but couldn't find when I was studying. It tries to be simple to use, you just start the quiz and go with the flow. There's no need to plan and manage your studies, and it uses spaced repetition for better retention. There's a promo page with more details up at http://www.kanjibyhand.com. It's only for Android so far. The free version includes…
2012 · kanjibyhand.com. · its alternatives →
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Mainichi▲133Learn Japanese, one prefecture at a time.
Jul 2026 · mainichiapp.com · its alternatives →
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Memorai 🧠▲90AI memory assistant for Anki – remember everything you read
2020 · chromewebstore.google.com · its alternatives →
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Toku Reader▲111Read & listen to native Japanese and Chinese, tap any word
Jul 2026 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
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Laoshi▲239Learn new words with flashcards to master Chinese faster
2021 · laoshi.io · its alternatives →
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Hi HN, Just wanted to share a tool i've been working on to help with my own study routine. It’s a browser extension called Lingoku. The idea is simple: we spend hours browsing the web in English every day. This tool replaces some of the english words with Japanese vocabulary based on your japanese level (Similar to Toucan, but with a better user experience). It’s basically an attempt to make the "i+1" method actually passive, you understand the sentence because it's mostly english, but you pick up Japanese words naturally from the context. It uses an LLM in the backend to make sure the…
Dec 2025 · lingoku.ai · its alternatives →
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Kana Words▲76Study Japanese hiragana and katakana with this simply game
2023 · play.google.com · its alternatives →
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Japanese dictionary app for iPhone and iPad with kanji lookup, example sentences, flashcards, OCR photo lookup, and a Safari extension for reading Japanese.
2015 · nihongo-app.com · its alternatives →
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Ziyo▲112A powerful Japanese Kanji dictionary & search engine
2025 · ziyo.nourman.com · its alternatives →
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- 13WA
2014 · writerkata.com · its alternatives →
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I quit my job last year and worked mostly on this full SwiftUI rewrite of my Japanese reading app, Manabi Reader. The rewrite gave me the opportunity to expand to macOS (and without Catalyst so it feels extra native) and redo the data layer to be offline-first via Realm with iCloud sync. The biggest differentiators compared with other language study apps are that it tracks every word/kanji you read so that you can see how much of a given webpage/article you're already familiar with and other features/analytics built on that foundation; it automatically builds a personal corpus…
2023 · reader.manabi.io · its alternatives →
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MojiMori ▲13Learn Kanji by breaking them down to first principles
May 2026 · mojimori.app · its alternatives →
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Create flashcards for spaced repetitions in Notion
2023 · philippstelzel.gumroad.com · its alternatives →
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Hey HN! I’m Alex, and one of my favorite ways to learn languages is by reading novels. Currently I’m reading 三体 (3 body problem), but one problem I've always had is it takes ages to look up words, and add them to Anki flashcards so I can remember them. 三体 is especially brutal with so much sci-fi vocab. That’s why I built Readly. I snap a pic of the page I’m reading, it loads the text in-app and lets me lookup words, add to Anki-style flashcards, or ask AI questions about the text, all in a single tap. It's a huge time saver. My specific learning strategy, if anyone wants to replicate it: 1.…
2025 · readly.ink · its alternatives →
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Kanji Words▲62Study Japanese Kanji words with this simply game
2023 · play.google.com · its alternatives →
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I spent ten years trying to write a novel. Every time I sat down, I'd write a sentence, decide it wasn't good enough, and rewrite it. The problem wasn't discipline — it was that I could always see what I'd written and go back to change it. I tried other approaches. Apps that delete your words when you stop typing — they fight fear with fear. That just made me panic. I wanted the opposite: not punishment, but permission. "Tomoshibi" is Japanese for a small light in the dark — just enough to see what's in front of you. You write on a dark screen. Older lines fade, but not when you hit return.…
Feb 2026 · tomoshibi.in-hakumei.com · its alternatives →
- 24NN
2016 · otoro.net · its alternatives →
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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →