Life & fun · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to Kana Words
Study Japanese hiragana and katakana with this simply game
Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Kana Words launched in 2023; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
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Learn Japanese hiragana and vocabulary with cute characters
2023 · its alternatives →
- 5IM
The idea is actually quite simple. As a Japanese learner and a coder, I've always wanted there to be an open-source, 100% free for learning Japanese, similar to Monkeytype in the typing community. Unfortunately, pretty much all language learning apps are closed-sourced and paid these days, and the ones that are free have unfortunately been abandoned. But of course, just creating yet another language learning app was not enough - there has to be a unique selling point. And then I thought to myself: why not make it crazy and do what no other language learning app ever did by adding a gazillion…
2025 · kanadojo.com · its alternatives →
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Douzo▲127Free Japanese typing practice organized by JLPT level
Mar 2026 · typingdouzo.com · its alternatives →
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- 9NS
2015 · nihongo-app.com · its alternatives →
- 10AJ
Hey HN, it’s been 8 years since I posted on here about the launch of my Japanese dictionary app Nihongo [0] and I’m finally back with a new app: Nihongo Lessons! Think of Nihongo Lessons as the textbook to Nihongo’s dictionary. It’s an app for learning Japanese, specifically made for learners who are serious about becoming fluent, and want a guided set of content that will help them efficiently acquire vocabulary and grammar. The project came about when Adam Shapiro of Japanese Level Up (Jalup) [1] announced last April that he was shutting Jalup down. As a fan of Adam’s work I was bummed to…
2022 · lessons.nihongo-app.com · its alternatives →
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Learn to read Kana in a Manga style
Jul 2026 · kanapow.com · its alternatives →
- 14AF
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 · its alternatives →
- 15MR
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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Toku Reader▲111Read & listen to native Japanese and Chinese, tap any word
Jul 2026 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
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Learn japanese hiragana & katakana
Oct 2025 · japanese50sounds.com · its alternatives →
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Japanese Writing & Speaking App
Nov 2025 · play.google.com · its alternatives →
- 22LJ
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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KanaBlob▲1Learn and review Japanese Hiragana & Katakana
Jul 2026 · play.google.com · 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 →