TonePerfect vs Cantone
Cantone does some things TonePerfect doesn’t. It’s completely free, with no in-app purchases listed. It teaches Cantonese as well as Mandarin (and Thai on Android). It adapts to your own voice, and it lets you follow a tone contour slowly while it plots your pitch. If you want to see your tones and pay nothing, it covers a lot for a tones-only app: perception, production, vocabulary and tone sandhi. TonePerfect does something else: it scores every syllable you say, with the tone, the initial and the final scored separately, so you can tell whether a word went wrong because of its tone or its sounds. Every Cantone fact below comes from its own App Store and Google Play listings, checked on 2026-10-20.
At a glance
| Feature | Cantone | TonePerfect |
|---|---|---|
| Main focus | Tones only: hearing them and saying them | Pronunciation: tone, initial and final on every Mandarin syllable |
| Languages | Mandarin and Cantonese; Thai too on Android | Mandarin (no Cantonese), plus English, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Japanese, Korean |
| Price | Free; no in-app purchases listed | Free tier; Premium $9.99/month or $69.99/year by card on the web; App Store and Google Play prices vary by region |
| Free tier | Everything listed is free | At least one guided practice session a day; browser tests free with no account |
| Speech feedback | Pitch feedback while you follow a slowed contour; your attempts plotted against canonical tone contours | A score for every syllable: tone, initial and final |
| Error diagnosis | Consonant and vowel feedback: not stated | Separates tone vs initial vs final |
| Tone-contour visualization | Yes — your attempts plotted against the target tone contours | Target tone shapes only; your own pitch is not plotted |
| Targeted drills | Perception games, tone-sandhi rules and “predict the tones” activities | Quick drills for tones, tone pairs, initials, finals and tone changes; short ear games |
| Your own text | Not stated | Yes — paste your own text and record it |
Prices are US figures, last verified 2026-10-20, and move with promotions — check the stores or the app’s own site for current numbers.
What Cantone does better
- ✓Free, with no in-app purchases listed on either the App Store or Google Play
- ✓Cantonese as well as Mandarin, and Thai on Android. TonePerfect has no Cantonese or Thai course
- ✓It adapts to your voice: the listing says it lets you “personalize the system to you and your voice” and plays “exemplars adjusted for your vocal range”
- ✓Slow-motion pitch practice: you “follow tone contours at a slower speed with pitch feedback” and “plot attempts against canonical tone contours”
- ✓Tone theory as activities: tone-change rules, predicting the tones when characters are put together, words that differ only in tone (買 vs 賣), tone melody and single-syllable poems
- ✓Script and romanisation choice: simplified and traditional characters; pinyin and bopomofo for Mandarin; Jyutping and Yale for Cantonese
Where TonePerfect goes deeper
- ✓A score for every syllable in three parts — tone, initial and final — so “right tone, wrong vowel” and “right sound, wrong tone” show up differently. Cantone’s listing describes pitch feedback, not consonant or vowel feedback
- ✓Whole words and sentences, not just tones: record HSK words, sentences or any text you type, and each syllable comes back with its own scores
- ✓It ranks your syllables weakest-first and picks what to drill next, with quick drills for tones, tone pairs, initials, finals and tone changes
- ✓Works in a browser: the Mandarin test, the tones test and the pronunciation checker run free with no account, and the app runs on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web. A web version of Cantone is not stated on its listings
Bottom line
Learning Cantonese, or want a free, visual pitch trainer for tones alone? Use Cantone. Want each syllable of a Mandarin word or sentence scored, with tone separated from consonant and vowel, and your weakest syllables ranked so you know what to drill next? Use TonePerfect. They also work as a pair: Cantone shows you the shape of your tone, and TonePerfect tells you which syllable in a real sentence still misses it. Both are free to try.
Sources checked 2026-10-20
Frequently asked questions
Is Cantone free?
Yes. Both store listings show it as free, and neither lists in-app purchases (checked 2026-10-20).
Does Cantone work for Mandarin?
Yes. Mandarin has been supported since version 2.0.0, with pinyin or bopomofo and simplified or traditional characters. It also covers Cantonese and, on Android, Thai.
Is there an app that checks my Mandarin tones?
Both of these do, in different ways. Cantone plots your pitch against the target tone contour. TonePerfect gives each syllable a tone score, separate from the scores for its initial and final. You can try TonePerfect’s free Mandarin tones test in a browser without an account.
Does TonePerfect support Cantonese?
No. TonePerfect’s Chinese course is Mandarin only. For Cantonese tones, Cantone is the app here that supports it.
Which is better for tone sandhi, like 你好 being said ní hǎo?
Cantone teaches the rules and asks you to predict the changed tones. TonePerfect drills tone changes and scores the pairs you say, including 3+3 combinations like 你好 in its tones test. One teaches the rule; the other checks whether you apply it when you speak.
Can I use Cantone and TonePerfect together?
Yes. Use Cantone to see and slow down a tone shape. Then say real words and sentences in TonePerfect to check which syllables still miss.
Hear the difference yourself
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Train, don't just read
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A guide can explain the tones, but you can't fix your pronunciation by reading. The TonePerfect app lets you actually say the words and scores every syllable — initial, final, and tone — in real time, so you hear your mistakes and correct them on the spot.
- Instant AI feedback on every syllable
- Practice any word, sentence, or HSK list
- Hands-on tone training you can't get from reading
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