Life & fun · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to Nihongo – Study Japanese using authentic text from games, songs, etc.
Japanese dictionary app for iPhone and iPad with kanji lookup, example sentences, flashcards, OCR photo lookup, and a Safari extension for reading Japanese.
Nihongo is a Japanese dictionary app for iPhone and iPad that helps users learn through authentic materials like games and songs. It includes kanji lookup, example sentences, flashcards, and OCR photo lookup to… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Nihongo – Study Japanese using authentic text from games, songs, etc. launched in 2015; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
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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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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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The future of learning with flashcards, by Duolingo
2016 · duolingo.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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Kana Words▲76Study Japanese hiragana and katakana with this simply game
2023 · play.google.com · its alternatives →
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- 8GA
I've been fascinated by the Japanese language and culture for a while now, and I wanted to create a simple, no-fuss way for beginners to get started. So, I built *[Nihongo](https://nihongo.site/)*, a free and open-source web app designed to help you learn the fundamentals of Japanese in about a month. The name of the app, Nihongo (日本語), is the Japanese word for the "Japanese language." You can check it out here: *[https://nihongo.site/](https://nihongo.site/)* And for those who like to tinker, the code is available on GitHub:…
2025 · nihongo.site · its alternatives →
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LingoTime▲76Language learning anywhere: from Apple Watch to the Mac
2020 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
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Kann for Android▲171Learn Japanese vocabulary you care about!
2025 · play.google.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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- 14IM
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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- 16AF
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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Kanji Words▲62Study Japanese Kanji words with this simply game
2023 · play.google.com · its alternatives →
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Dictionariez▲58Facilitate your language learning with tons of dictionaries
2020 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Wokabulary▲83Flash card language learning app for Mac, iPhone and iPad
2021 · wokabulary.com · 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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The in-line vocabulary translator for iOS
2018 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
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LanGo▲140Learn Japanese with 1000 phrases and smart flashcards
2016 · apps.apple.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 →