Alternatives
Products that do what Kanji Lens does
Learn Japanese intuitively while reading your favorite manga
- 1

- 2

- 3IM
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…
Sep 2025 · kanadojo.com
- 4LJ
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
- 5

- 6

- 7

- 8

- 9

- 10

- 11

Read manga & webtoons in your language, on the page
Jul 2026 · usemangalens.com
- 12

- 13

- 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
- 15

- 16MR
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
- 17

- 18IT
Since I was young, I've loved anime, and over the years, manga has brought me joy, given me courage, and sparked excitement in my heart. However, as I read more, I realized that many of these manga weren't translated at all. I also came across some AI-based translation tools, but the results often fell short. So, I decided to create a tool that allows manga fans to read and enjoy their favorite manga, no matter the language or whether a translation team is available. This product has just been launched, and there are certainly areas that can be improved. However, with time, I'm confident it…
2025 · translatemanga.net
- 19

- 20

- 21
- 22LJ
2022 · mangaelite.com
- 23CA
May 2026 · ezfurigana.com
- 24

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Refine with a description →