Hack Chinese Alternative

Vocabulary is the foundation. It is not the whole building.

Hack Chinese is a clean, focused vocabulary tool. Aelu starts with the same SRS foundation and adds reading, listening, speaking, tone grading, and 44 drill types. Same price. Broader scope.

Free for HSK 1-2. No credit card required.

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Hack Chinese vs. Aelu

Feature	Hack Chinese	Aelu
Spaced repetition	Proprietary SRS	Adaptive spaced repetition
Drill types	1 (flashcard + oral)	27 types
Graded reading	No	By HSK level
Read → drill pipeline	No	Automatic
Listening practice	Word-level audio only	Passages, speed control
Speaking / tone grading	Self-graded oral mode	System-graded
Multi-skill diagnostics	Study consistency only	Per-skill tracking
Grammar practice	No	310 grammar points
Sentence-level drills	No	Cloze, construction
HSK alignment	HSK 1-6	HSK 1-9
Vocabulary coverage	100,000+ words	10,000+ (HSK 1-9)
Price	$12/mo ($8/mo annual)	Free / $14.99/mo

What Hack Chinese does well

Hack Chinese is a well-built tool. It earns its reputation among vocabulary-focused learners for good reasons.

Clean, focused UI No distractions, no gamification bloat. You open it, you study. The interface respects your time.

Pre-built word lists HSK and textbook-aligned vocabulary ready to go. No setup required, no deck hunting like Anki.

Massive vocabulary database Audio pronunciation for 100,000+ words. Comprehensive coverage across HSK levels and common textbooks.

Study analytics Honest visibility into study consistency and progress. The analytics dashboard keeps you accountable.

Where Hack Chinese stops short

Fundamentally a flashcard app One drill type: recognition/recall, plus a self-graded oral mode. No cloze, no sentence construction, no listening comprehension exercises.

No reading component Words are learned in isolation. There are no passages, no connected text, no context for how words function in real Chinese.

No listening practice Individual word audio exists, but there are no listening comprehension exercises, no passage-level audio, no speed control.

Self-graded speaking The oral mode lets you practice speaking, but you grade yourself. There is no system-level tone assessment, which means you can fool yourself about tone accuracy.

What Aelu adds beyond vocabulary

44 drill types Recognition, production, cloze deletion, tone pair discrimination, sentence construction, listening comprehension, speaking with tone grading, and more.

Graded reader with cleanup loop Read Chinese passages at your level. Every word you look up becomes a drill. Your reading directly informs your study schedule.

Listening drills with speed control Passage-level listening at adjustable speed. Start at 0.5x, work up to natural speed. Reveal the transcript when ready.

System-graded tone accuracy Record yourself. The system evaluates your tones against the target, not your own self-assessment.

Multi-skill diagnostics Vocabulary, listening, reading, and tone accuracy tracked separately. HSK readiness projected per skill, not averaged into one number.

Interleaved practice Drill types are mixed within sessions. Your brain switches between recognition, production, listening, and tone tasks, improving long-term retention.

Who should use which

Use Hack Chinese if you...

Want the largest possible pre-built Chinese vocabulary database
Define your goal as raw vocabulary acquisition above all else
Prefer a single-focus tool that does one thing well
Are using other tools for reading, listening, and speaking
Need textbook-specific word lists for university courses

Use Aelu if you...

Want vocabulary, reading, listening, and speaking in one system
Want your reading gaps to feed your drill schedule automatically
Need tone grading that is not self-assessed
Want to track individual skills, not just vocabulary retention
Are preparing for HSK and need multi-skill readiness data
Believe knowing a word means more than recognizing it on a card

Honest take

Hack Chinese's vocabulary coverage is broader -- 100,000+ words with audio compared to our 10,000+ across HSK 1-9. For pure vocabulary grinding, they have more content.

The real question is what you mean by "learning Chinese." If it means recognizing and recalling words, Hack Chinese is efficient. If it means reading Chinese text, understanding spoken Chinese, producing accurate tones, and tracking readiness across multiple skills -- that is what Aelu is built for.

Hack Chinese is $12/month. Aelu is $14.99/month. The difference is scope.

"I know 2,000 words but can't have a conversation." -- the moment a vocabulary tool reaches its limit.

Learning Chinese means more than flashcards

Free for HSK 1-2. 44 drill types. Reading, listening, speaking, and tone grading included.

No credit card. Full features for HSK 1-2.