Skritter vs a notebook: how should you practise writing Chinese characters?
Both, if handwriting is really your goal: Skritter tells you which stroke went wrong, and a squared notebook is where characters stick — though it never corrects you. If writing by hand is not the goal, the notebook alone is enough; Skritter is the most expensive way on our comparison to learn one skill.
Which job each one does
Every study plan that works covers five jobs — sequencing, lookup, retention, input and correction — and no app covers all five. Two tools doing the same job are a choice; two doing different jobs are a pair. Each side below is the same assessment as its row in the full comparison table, including what it is missing.
Skritter
In this pairing: Correction at stroke level: it checks each stroke as you write from memory, and brings back the characters you got wrong.
Good at: Handwriting drilled with real stroke-order checking — it tells you which stroke you got wrong, rather than just that the character was.
What it is missing: It is narrow on purpose. It assumes you already have a word list and a course to hang it on, and it is the most expensive way on this page to learn one skill.
Use it if: You have decided you want to write by hand and you keep fossilising the wrong stroke order.
Monthly or yearly, with a trial. There is no useful free tier.
A squared notebook and a pen
In this pairing: Retention: writing a character out by hand, in the grid, is what turns recognising it into recalling it — and you can see your own proportions go wrong.
Good at: Making characters stick. Writing by hand recruits far more than recognition does, and nothing on a screen reproduces getting the proportions wrong and being able to see it.
What it is missing: No feedback whatsoever. Nothing tells you a stroke order is wrong, and by the time you notice it is a habit.
Use it if: You want to read characters reliably. Writing them is still the fastest way there.
Cheap, and it lasts months. A 田字格 notebook is ruled into the grid Chinese children learn to write in.
Where Skritter and A squared notebook and a pen differ
| Skritter | A squared notebook and a pen | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Subscription | One-off purchase |
| Feedback | Stroke by stroke — it tells you which stroke went wrong, not just that the character did. | None whatsoever. By the time you notice a wrong stroke order, it is a habit. |
| What it trains | Recall of shape and stroke order, on a screen. | Recall with the hand, including the proportions inside the square. |
| What it assumes | That you already have a word list and a course to hang it on. | Nothing — except that you check stroke order somewhere else. |
| Where you can do it | A phone or tablet, in short sessions. | Anywhere, away from a screen and its notifications. |
What both of them are missing
Neither tells you what the characters mean or which ones to learn. Both are practice for a list you bring, so choose the list first, and learn characters by their components rather than as strings of strokes — a new character is then two or three parts you already know.
If you can only have one
The notebook — and check your stroke order for free as you go, because paper cannot. Pay for Skritter when handwriting is your actual goal and you keep fossilising the wrong order anyway.
Want the whole plan rather than one decision? The full comparison sets 17 ways to learn Chinese side by side, and its four-question picker turns your goal, time, budget and device into an ordered study plan.
Frequently asked questions
Skritter or A squared notebook and a pen: which is better?
Both, if handwriting is really your goal: Skritter tells you which stroke went wrong, and a squared notebook is where characters stick — though it never corrects you. If writing by hand is not the goal, the notebook alone is enough; Skritter is the most expensive way on our comparison to learn one skill.
Should I use Skritter and A squared notebook and a pen together?
Yes — they do different jobs. Skritter does correction and retention: Correction at stroke level: it checks each stroke as you write from memory, and brings back the characters you got wrong. A squared notebook and a pen does retention: Retention: writing a character out by hand, in the grid, is what turns recognising it into recalling it — and you can see your own proportions go wrong.
What do Skritter and A squared notebook and a pen both leave out?
Neither tells you what the characters mean or which ones to learn. Both are practice for a list you bring, so choose the list first, and learn characters by their components rather than as strings of strokes — a new character is then two or three parts you already know.
Which should I choose if I can only have one?
The notebook — and check your stroke order for free as you go, because paper cannot. Pay for Skritter when handwriting is your actual goal and you keep fossilising the wrong order anyway.
Do I need to write Chinese characters by hand at all?
Not to use Chinese day to day — you will type it by pinyin. But writing is what separates recognising a character from recalling it, and recognition alone collapses as soon as two characters look alike. If you want to read reliably, some handwriting is the fastest way there.
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