CANTONESE HEAD TO HEAD
Choose between Anki / AnkiWeb / AnkiDroid / AnkiMobile and Canto School by the practice you want, the price you actually pay, and what you need alongside it.
Published by Canto School, the maker of one of the apps compared here. Our picks are editorial recommendations. See sources and method.
For an English-speaking beginner who wants a practical daily phone course, our pick is Canto School. Choose Anki / AnkiWeb / AnkiDroid / AnkiMobile when its specific strengths below matter more to you.
Documented features are separated from what we could not verify. A lower price is not evidence that an app supplies the same service as a tutor, a dictionary or a larger content library.
| What matters | Canto School | Anki / AnkiWeb / AnkiDroid / AnkiMobile |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free browser course; optional US$7.99 / month native Full Course | Free desktop/AnkiWeb/AnkiDroid; US$24.99 iOS once |
| Billing | No subscription for the browser course or public audio library. The optional native Full Course is a monthly subscription: three monthly payments total US$23.97; twelve total US$95.88. Those are sums of monthly payments, not annual-plan offers. Stores show local prices and renewal terms. | Official AnkiMobile is US$24.99 in the US or HK$188 in Hong Kong. Not a subscription; shared decks or third-party extras may have separate terms. |
| Try before paying | The full browser course and published Cantonese audio library are free. The native app is a separate offer: free download and starting lesson, plus free Build with available exact recordings. Native Full Course adds all course stages, full Vocabulary, flashcards, Review and Theory. | Desktop software, AnkiWeb sync and AnkiDroid are free. |
| Main practice | A free browser Cantonese course with recorded listening, meaning checks, replies and sentence-building practice. The native app adds its phone lesson path, Build, vocabulary, flashcards and review. | A configurable flashcard and spaced-review system for content you create or choose. |
| Pronunciation notation | Traditional Chinese, Jyutping with tone numbers and English support. | Whatever your deck contains. You must supply or vet Cantonese, Jyutping and audio. |
| Offline study | The browser course and web audio need an internet connection. Native app lessons and available recordings are included for offline study. Purchases, restores and subscription checks can need internet; this is not a promise of indefinite offline subscription access. | Desktop/mobile cards can be studied locally; synchronization needs a connection. |
| Speaking and feedback | Exercise answer feedback and record-and-compare speaking practice. Supported iPhones can check recognized words; Android does not. Neither is a pronunciation or tone grade. | Recall ratings schedule the next review; they do not grade pronunciation. |
Anki is a capable review tool. You can add Cantonese, English, Jyutping and recordings to cards and use the review schedule to revisit material. It is especially useful for a learner who has a reliable course or teacher and wants complete control over card design.
Its flexibility also means content is your responsibility. A shared deck’s translation, spoken form and recording need checking; a deck name is not a quality guarantee. Canto School is our pick for a beginner who wants supplied lessons, vocabulary and personal decks in one app, with less setup before the first session.
Official desktop Anki, AnkiWeb sync and AnkiDroid are free. Official AnkiMobile is a one-time purchase: US$24.99 in the US App Store and HK$188 in Hong Kong in this check. Other similarly named apps are not the same product. Calling Anki a monthly paid competitor would be wrong.
Canto School Full Course is US$7.99 per month and includes more than the flashcard tool: its learning path, full Vocabulary, Review and Theory. Anki is better value if you only need a configurable scheduler and already have the content. Canto School is the choice we favour when you need both the material and the practice routine.
Try a free Canto School browser lesson and an appropriate sample or lesson from Anki / AnkiWeb / AnkiDroid / AnkiMobile. Compare whether you understand the instructions, can follow the sound support and know what to do next. Choose the routine you can repeat. For personal pronunciation correction, seek a suitable Cantonese teacher rather than treating an exercise score as a tone assessment.
Check the full cost guide and study-budget planner, or read our suggested learning approach.
Our competitor price research uses official product pages, pricing pages, help centres and app-store listings checked on 22 October 2026. Canto School’s free browser-course access was updated on 2 November 2026; the Duolingo course-audience answer carries its own check date. The comparison considers Cantonese availability, fit for English-speaking learners, practice format, pronunciation notation, offline access, feedback and the actual billing commitment. We have not independently tested every resource or measured learning outcomes. External links are source links, not affiliate links.
Prices are snapshots, not checkout quotes. Currency, tax, storefront, promotions and platform can change the amount. A prepaid yearly or two-year plan is labelled as such. We do not treat a monthly equivalent as a cancel-any-month price. A missing verified price is marked rather than guessed.
This page compares advertised access and study formats; we have not bought every plan or independently evaluated every recording. Current price and availability are controlled by the relevant provider.
Our overall recommendation favours a practical daily Cantonese course that combines guided practice and review. Different goals lead to different choices. We publish Canto School, so this is a disclosed product comparison, not an independent award or a scored laboratory review. Report a correction through Support.
