Recommended app · Reviewed 2026-08-15

The best spaced-repetition app for Chinese vocabulary

Disclosure: I made an app specifically for spaced-repetition learning of Chinese. It's called Wordbrush, and I've built it carefully over a series of months to specifically solve for my desire to learn as quickly and efficiently as possible. So I'm a little biased, but I think it's pretty awesome (and so do the other people who have used it). The analyzer, the coverage tools, and the word lists here are free and always will be.

Once the analyzer shows you which words you are missing, the entire remaining job is repetition: seeing each word enough times, spaced correctly, that it moves from "looks familiar" to "know it cold." That is a scheduling problem, and it is exactly what spaced-repetition software exists to solve. I got tired of losing words I had already looked up three times, so I built something to stop it happening. Here is what I think matters in a vocabulary app, and where mine fits.

What actually matters in a vocabulary app

• A real spaced-repetition algorithm that schedules each word from how well you knew it, not a fixed daily list. Modern systems use FSRS.
• Words shown in context, an example sentence rather than a bare gloss, so you learn usage and not only recognition.
• A review queue that protects itself: clear your due reviews first, because chasing new words while skipping reviews is how self-studiers stall.
• Frequency-ordered content, because the most common words give the most coverage per word, which is the whole point of this site.

Why I built Wordbrush the way I did

Wordbrush is an iOS spaced-repetition vocabulary app built around exactly that short list, because that short list is what I wanted for myself. It schedules every word with FSRS, shows words in context, and structures the daily session so reviews come first and new words are added only when you have room. It is deliberately narrow: it does the vocabulary-retention job and does not try to be your dictionary or your grammar course. I kept cutting features until the only thing left was the part I actually opened every morning.