Choosing Your First Japanese Resources: Free vs. Paid
Choosing your first Japanese resources, free or paid, is the first real decision a beginner makes. The app store will not help much: it is full of thirty-five-app listicles, opinionated single-product reviews, and roadmaps that bury tools inside a hundred other topics. This page reduces the choice to a four-slot day-one toolkit (one kana app, one grammar source, one SRS, one dictionary). It names a free-only path and a budget-paid path for each slot, and lists what to skip.
Overview
A beginner's stack is small. Four functional slots cover everything a day-one learner actually does: learn the two kana scripts, study grammar in a teachable order, drill vocabulary and kanji with spaced repetition, and look words up. Anything beyond those four is either a supplement or a tool for later.
The two paths through the toolkit differ only in slots 2 and 3. The free-only path costs nothing on Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android. The budget-paid path adds a textbook in the $40 to $70 range and an optional SRS subscription.
Money in the budget-paid path buys time (zero deck setup, classroom-tested sequencing, included audio), not a better outcome. A motivated learner on the free-only path reaches the same competence with more self-direction in the SRS slot.
The four-slot model: kana, grammar, SRS, dictionary
A kana app gets a learner reading hiragana and katakana within two to four weeks. That is the precondition for every other slot. A grammar source provides N5 inventory (the は・が・を・に・で・と particles, polite and plain forms, the te-form, basic verb conjugation, い-adjectives and な-adjectives, basic question forms, and the existence verbs ある and いる) in a teachable order with examples.123
An SRS holds the vocabulary and kanji a learner is meeting in grammar lessons and immersion so they survive the forgetting curve. A dictionary handles lookups by kana, kanji, English, romaji, radical, and handwritten input.4
The slots are deliberately narrow. Speaking apps, listening immersion, browser reading assistants beyond the dictionary slot's lookup companion, kanji-handwriting tools beyond what the SRS provides, and graded readers all come later. They are not day-one tools.
Free-only path vs budget-paid path
The free-only path costs $0 on non-iOS platforms. It uses a free kana app, Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese for grammar, Anki desktop with AnkiDroid for the SRS slot, and Jisho.org for the dictionary slot.524 On iOS, the single optional cost is AnkiMobile Flashcards at a one-time $24.99. The alternative is to use Anki's desktop apps and AnkiWeb in a phone browser.67
The budget-paid path costs roughly $40 to $70 for a Genki Vol. 1 textbook plus an optional SRS subscription. Amenokori Premium is the J-Compass SRS pick (pricing in Slot 3 below); Renshuu Pro is the comparable subscription alternative at a similar price point, though its more gamified approach may not suit busy learners.18910
On the budget-paid path, spending beyond the textbook and one SRS subscription stops being worth it. A second textbook, a paid dictionary, and a paid kana-only app are all redundant on the evidence below.
What this page is not
This is not an exhaustive app ranking, an immersion-stack guide, or a textbook review. Speaking-practice apps, listening-immersion sources, and browser reading tools beyond the dictionary slot's lookup companion are handled elsewhere in the J-Compass tools coverage. They stay out of the day-one toolkit deliberately.
Slot 1: A kana app
Kana acquisition is the one slot every beginner finishes and retires. The right tool covers all the characters, drills recall in both directions, and gets out of the way once the learner can read hiragana and katakana at conversational pace.
What a kana app needs to do
A kana app must cover 46 base hiragana and 46 base katakana, plus the dakuten and handakuten variants (が, ぱ, and so on) and the yōon combination kana (きょ, しゅ, ちゃ, and the rest).1112 It needs audio per character so the learner maps the right sound to each glyph. It also needs to quiz in both directions (sound to kana, and kana to sound) so recall is not lopsided.1211
Offline support matters more than beginners expect. Kana drilling fits into the small gaps in a day (a train ride, a coffee queue), where connectivity may be patchy. The Japan Foundation's mobile apps run offline once installed; the Tofugu web quiz needs a browser session.1112 Mnemonics are useful, but not required; some apps include them and some do not.
Default free pick and one paid alternative
Three free options cover this slot cleanly:
- Tofugu Learn Kana Quiz is a free, web-based, no-registration kana-to-romaji typing quiz with selectable character subsets. Tofugu's separate written mnemonic guides for hiragana and katakana are also free.11
- HIRAGANA Memory Hint and KATAKANA Memory Hint from the Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai, are free apps on iOS and Android with picture mnemonics and audio per character.12
- Ringotan is free during its open-access period and offers handwriting-focused SRS that covers hiragana, katakana, and 3,500 kanji. It is the right pick when the learner also wants stroke-order practice for kana, not only recognition.13
There is no widely recommended paid kana-only app worth buying. Paid kana practice comes bundled inside all-in-one subscriptions (the SRS slot below), which is a different product category. For symmetry, the paid alternative for this slot is: "do not buy a paid kana app."
When you can retire this slot
Two to four weeks of daily practice is the typical retirement window. The practical exit criterion is reading hiragana-only sentences at conversational pace without lookups. This is field-standard pedagogy rather than a Japan Foundation milestone; the JLPT N5 level summary does not break out a kana fluency checkpoint.3
The kana app exists so romaji becomes unnecessary. Once a learner is reading even slowly, every additional hour spent with romaji-first material delays the point at which hiragana and katakana become automatic.
Slot 2: A grammar source
The grammar slot is the one most beginners over-buy. One source finished through N5 beats three sources started.
What a grammar source needs to do
A grammar source must cover at minimum the N5 inventory: the は・が・を・に・で・と・も・の particles, polite (です/ます) and plain forms, the te-form, basic verb conjugation, い-adjectives and な-adjectives, basic question forms, and the existence verbs ある and いる. The Japan Foundation's N5 summary describes the level as basic Japanese understanding, with reading of typical hiragana, katakana, and basic-kanji sentences.3
It needs to present grammar in a teachable order, not alphabetically, with example sentences. Both Tae Kim and Genki sequence their lessons rather than indexing reference material.21 This requirement separates a grammar source (which the beginner reads cover to cover) from a grammar reference (which is searched, not read).
The N5 inventory above is the consensus content of N5-aligned textbooks (Genki Vol. 1, Marugoto Starter A1, Minna no Nihongo Shokyū I), not an official JLPT roster; the Japan Foundation publishes competency descriptions at the level, not a per-grammar-point can-do list.114153
Free path: a comprehensive online grammar guide
Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese is free, web-accessible, and available as iOS and Android apps. It is one of the most-cited free comprehensive grammar guides for English-speaking learners; the author's stated approach is to teach grammar from a Japanese point of view rather than translate English-language frames onto Japanese structures.2
The tradeoffs are real. With no built-in exercise sets, the learner has to source practice elsewhere (the SRS slot can carry some of this load via vocabulary cards with example sentences). With no built-in audio, listening practice has to come from a different source. The sequencing is the author's own rather than classroom-tested at scale.2
The guide's stated approach is to teach the language as spoken by real people, so casual contractions and slang appear earlier than in classroom textbooks.2 A learner who will be working with Japanese coworkers or in service contexts should deliberately drill the polite (です/ます) register, rather than expect the guide to make it the default.
Paid path: a structured beginner textbook
Genki: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese, Vol. 1, 3rd Edition (The Japan Times Publishing) is the most-cited paid beginner option. Lessons 1 through 12 cover what the publisher describes as a level comparable to JLPT N5 and CEFR A1. The digital textbook and workbook bundle is listed at $50.00 USD on the publisher store. Physical retail typically runs $40 to $70 USD, depending on retailer and whether the workbook is included.18
Two alternative beginner textbooks are worth naming for completeness:
- Minna no Nihongo Shokyū I (3A Corporation, 2nd Edition). Marketed primarily for classroom use; widely used in Japan-based language schools. The separate translation and grammatical-notes booklet is the English-speaker companion.14
- Marugoto: Japanese language and culture (Starter A1) (Japan Foundation, published by Sanshusha). Aligned to the Japan Foundation's JF Standard and CEFR rather than JLPT directly.15
What the spend buys, per the publishers' own positioning, is classroom-tested sequencing, an accompanying workbook, included audio, and a coherent vocabulary, grammar, and dialogue progression.11415 Those advantages are not unique to one textbook; all three publishers position on similar pedagogical ground.
Buying Genki and subscribing to a structured online course that also delivers grammar lessons fills the grammar slot twice. Either choice works on its own. The compounded cost (and the divided attention) is the trap.
Do not collect three grammar sources
Keeping three grammar sources open is the most common beginner anti-pattern. Two sources sequence the same content differently; three sources sequence it three different ways. The learner spends review time deciding which source's order is right rather than completing N5 in any of them. Pick one, finish through the N5 inventory, and only then evaluate whether a second source adds value.
Slot 3: An SRS for vocabulary and kanji
The SRS slot is where the learner's review queue lives for the next several years. Two factors decide the right pick on day one: whether the learner wants to build or vet a deck, and which platform they study on.
What an SRS needs to do
A real spaced-repetition algorithm is the floor. Two algorithms dominate the field:
- SM-2 (Piotr Wozniak, SuperMemo, 1990s) was Anki's default scheduler for most of its history.16
- FSRS (Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler) is the open-source successor algorithm released by the open-spaced-repetition project. It models three memory variables: difficulty, stability, and retrievability. It then trains scheduling parameters on memory data with machine learning. FSRS is the underlying algorithm of Amenokori and is an officially supported scheduler inside Anki from version 23.10 onward.17181619
Pre-built JLPT-level decks or accessible community decks matter for a day-one learner. Building a deck from scratch is itself a study skill, and most beginners do not have it. Amenokori ships pre-optimized N5 through N1 collections; Anki ships empty and requires community decks (such as Kaishi 1.5k or Tango N5) or self-mined cards.195
Audio for vocabulary matters because reading and hearing a word activate different recall paths. Amenokori includes audio with example sentences.9 Anki community decks vary by packager in audio coverage.
Explanation depth matters because a one-line gloss rarely settles how a word is actually used. Each Amenokori entry carries its meaning, register, and English usage notes. It also shows the meaning and reading of every constituent kanji inside the entry, rather than only the compound's translation.9 Anki community decks vary: the depth of glosses, usage notes, and per-kanji data is entirely the packager's choice, and many beginner decks ship front-and-back glosses only.5
Quiz formats beyond "show front, grade back" matter because single-side flip grading depends on the learner's own honesty. Amenokori advertises seven quiz types (reading, usage, cloze, particles, synonyms, antonyms, meaning), which structurally limit the self-grading problem.9 Anki's built-in mode is single-side flip with Again, Hard, Good, and Easy buttons. Cloze and typed-answer card templates exist but need deck-template setup.56
Primary recommendation: Amenokori
For an absolute beginner who wants to open the app on day one and start reviewing, Amenokori is the J-Compass pick. What sets it apart from a community Anki deck is not the scheduler, which both now share, but three things a deck cannot easily copy.
First, each entry is deep: every word carries its meaning, register, and English usage notes alongside contextual example sentences with audio, rather than a bare gloss. Second, quiz formats ask you to produce an answer rather than silently grade yourself on a card's back side. Third, a per-kanji meaning and mnemonic is surfaced inside every vocabulary entry, so a two-kanji word resolves into the meaning of each character instead of staying a single opaque shape.
Around those sit the conveniences that make it the all-in-one choice for serious learners who do not want to build their own deck: FSRS scheduling out of the box and a curated 10,000-plus-entry library covering N5 through N1, including the 2,136 jōyō kanji.199
The per-level library, visible on the landing-page collection cards, breaks down as: N5 (801 entries), N4 (750), N3 (3,355), N2 (1,477 plus 855 extended), and N1 (3,239 plus 803 extended).19 The seven quiz types are reading, usage, cloze, particles, synonyms, antonyms, and meaning.9 Platforms are iOS and Android with cloud sync between them.92021
The free tier is unusually generous and is genuinely sufficient for day one and the first months of N5: full access to the 10K-entry library, one active deck, FSRS scheduling, 20 new cards plus 150 reviews per day, and basic quiz access.9 A learner can leave this article, install Amenokori, and never pay anything to complete the N5 portion of the library.
Premium pricing, as listed on the official mobile-app page, is $5.99/month, $59.99/year, or $150 one-time lifetime. The monthly and annual plans include a 1-month free trial, and the lifetime plan does not.9 Premium adds multiple active decks, unlimited saved terms and bookmarks, full example-sentence audio, advanced deck and quiz customization, the "Easy Days" feature, and the optimizer function.9
20 new cards and 150 reviews per day is more daily volume than most absolute beginners can sustain. The Premium upgrade is worth considering once the learner is running multiple active decks (a separate vocabulary deck and a grammar deck, for example) or wants full example-sentence audio for listening practice. On day one, the free tier is the right tier.9
Established alternative: Anki
Anki is the long-standing open-source SRS and the right pick for a specific kind of learner: one who already enjoys tool tinkering, who plans to mine sentences from their own immersion, or who wants the largest community deck ecosystem available.5
The cost picture differs by platform. Anki desktop (Windows, macOS, Linux), AnkiDroid (Android), and the AnkiWeb sync service are all free.5 AnkiMobile Flashcards on iOS is a one-time $24.99 purchase by Anki Software, LLC. It supports up to 5 devices on the same Apple ID and Family Sharing; the developer's stated reason for the price is to fund Anki's broader development.67
What Anki gains over Amenokori is maximum flexibility. Card-template flexibility includes arbitrary front and back HTML, cloze deletion, type-in-the-answer templates, multiple-choice via add-ons, MathJax and LaTeX support, and unlimited media attachments.56 The community deck ecosystem on AnkiWeb is large. The most-cited beginner Japanese decks include the legacy Core 2k/6k, the more recent Kaishi 1.5k (which has effectively replaced Core 2k as the community starter recommendation), and the Tango N5 and Tango N4 decks, which embed vocabulary in graded sentences.5
What Anki costs is setup time, deck-vetting time, manual FSRS configuration (the user opts in via deck options on Anki 23.10 or newer), and the single-side flip self-grading discipline problem.18165 AnkiWeb hosts community-contributed decks rather than curated ones. Audio quality, English glosses, and ordering choices vary per packager.5
Pick one, not both
Running two SRS apps in parallel is the most common beginner self-sabotage in this slot. Review queues do not split cleanly: both decks accumulate, both decks decay, and the learner ends up reviewing each at half pace while feeling twice as behind. Choose one and switch only if the workflow itself, not the tool, is the problem.
Slot 4: A dictionary
The dictionary slot is the easiest to resolve. One free option covers every realistic day-one need, and also most intermediate and advanced needs.
What a dictionary needs to do
A dictionary needs to look up entries by kana, kanji, English, romaji, radical, and handwritten input. It needs JLPT-level tagging on results so a learner can gauge difficulty. It needs example sentences with sources, so the learner sees how a word lives in context rather than only in a gloss. It also needs to be free and mobile-accessible.422
Offline mode is a nice-to-have for travel, not a day-one requirement. Most beginner lookup happens at the desk during grammar study or in the browser during reading practice.
The free default, and why paid is rarely needed here
Jisho.org is the most-cited free Japanese-English dictionary. It is backed primarily by JMdict (the Jim Breen / EDRDG project, roughly 170,000 word entries, Creative Commons licensed), KANJIDIC2 for kanji data, JMnedict for proper names, RADKFILE for radical lookup, and KanjiVG for stroke-order diagrams.423 JLPT level tags come from Jonathan Waller's JLPT Resources data. Example sentences come from the Tatoeba Project, the Tanaka Corpus, and the Jreibun project (sentences created by professional teachers of Japanese and translated by experienced translators).4
Yomitan is the in-browser companion: free, open-source under GPL-3.0, and available on Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.24 It is the successor to Yomichan, which was sunset by its original author Alex Yatskov on February 26, 2023. Yatskov has publicly endorsed Yomitan as the definitive successor.25
Two more JMdict-backed free options exist for completeness: Takoboto (free dictionary app) and Tagaini Jisho (free desktop). There is no widely recommended paid bilingual dictionary that adds value on day one. Monolingual Japanese-Japanese dictionaries (大辞林, 広辞苑, 日本国語大辞典) are valuable intermediate-plus tools, not day-one tools. Reaching for one before the learner can parse a Japanese definition is solving a problem the learner does not yet have.
The free-only path, assembled
The free-only stack, ready to start today:
- Kana: Tofugu Learn Kana Quiz for desktop drilling, Japan Foundation Memory Hint apps for mobile (both free, both with mnemonic support).1112
- Grammar: Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese (free web and mobile apps).2
- SRS: Anki desktop (free on Windows, macOS, Linux) plus AnkiDroid (free on Android), with a community deck such as Kaishi 1.5k or Tango N5; FSRS scheduler available from Anki 23.10 onward as an opt-in.51816
- Dictionary: Jisho.org for web and mobile lookups, Yomitan for in-browser reading lookups.424
Total cash cost on Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android: $0. On iOS, the choice is either $24.99 one-time for AnkiMobile or $0 by using Anki's desktop apps with AnkiWeb in a phone browser (functional but not the full mobile experience).67
The non-cash cost is real and worth naming: community-deck vetting time, the manual FSRS opt-in, and the single-side flip self-grading discipline problem inherent to Anki's default card type.5
The budget-paid path, assembled
The budget-paid stack:
- Kana: same as the free path; no widely-recommended paid kana-only app exists.1112
- Grammar: Genki Vol. 1 textbook with workbook (Japan Times Publishing, 3rd Edition); digital bundle listed at $50.00 USD on the publisher store, physical retail typically $40 to $70 USD.18
- SRS: Amenokori Premium (pricing in Slot 3 above), or Renshuu Pro as the comparable subscription alternative.910
- Dictionary: same free defaults (Jisho plus Yomitan).424
Total approximate cost: one textbook ($40 to $70) plus an optional Amenokori Premium SRS subscription.
What the spend buys is classroom-tested grammar sequencing with audio in Genki, and zero-setup SRS with pre-built decks, FSRS by default, full example-sentence audio, and structurally bounded quiz formats in Amenokori Premium.1991 Additional spending beyond this stops being worth it for a day-one learner. A second textbook, a paid dictionary, and a paid kana-only app are all redundant on the evidence in the slot sections above.
Anti-recommendations
This is the explicit "do not start here" list. Each item gets one reason.
Do not start with romaji-first apps
Romaji-first apps delay the kana investment that every other slot depends on. The kana slot above is short and bounded. Time spent in a romaji curriculum is time spent learning a representation the learner will then have to unlearn.
Do not start with a streak-driven gamified app as your only resource
Streak-mechanic apps optimize for app-open frequency, not for the four-slot toolkit functions. They make excellent supplements: a way to get five extra minutes of contact with the language on a day that would otherwise have zero. They make dangerous main resources: a way to feel like studying happened when only the streak got fed.
Do not start with a single-skill app before you have the four slots filled
Speaking-practice and listening-immersion apps are intermediate-plus tools by their own product positioning. Most require a working grammar base and a working vocabulary base before they become useful. A day-one learner who buys an output app gets a frustrating month and an unused subscription.
Do not buy three textbooks
This is the same anti-pattern as collecting three grammar sources, with money attached. Two textbooks sequence the same N5 inventory differently; three sequence it three different ways. Pick one and finish through N5.
Do not pay for a dictionary on day one
Jisho.org's JMdict-backed coverage (around 170,000 entries) and JLPT tagging are sufficient through N1.423 Paid bilingual dictionaries do not add value at the beginner level on this evidence.
Good to know
The tool-hopping tax
Switching SRS apps at month three means abandoning a partially trained review schedule and rebuilding cards in a new system. In Amenokori's case, the FSRS parameters have learned from the learner's own grading history. In Anki's case, the SM-2 ease factors or FSRS parameters per card carry similar learner-specific signal.18 Pedagogically, the cost of switching at three months is higher than the cost of picking the second-best tool on day one and finishing N5 with it. Pick deliberately, then commit.
The iOS Anki tax is a real comparison factor
AnkiMobile Flashcards costs $24.99 one-time on iOS, while Anki itself is free on every other platform.67 When comparing Anki against Amenokori on an iPhone, the relevant year-one cash comparison is $24.99 versus $0 (Amenokori free tier), or $24.99 versus the Amenokori annual Premium subscription (pricing in Slot 3). For learners studying primarily on iOS, this changes the budget calculus enough to bias the choice toward Amenokori on cost grounds alone, before the deck-setup discussion begins.9
Free community decks are not actually free of cost
Community decks such as Core 2k/6k, Kaishi 1.5k, and Tango N5 each have known quality variation across packagers: audio that is missing or mismatched, English glosses that paraphrase rather than translate, and ordering choices that suit some learners and not others.5 Vetting time, error correction, and missing-audio backfill are the hidden costs that do not appear in the deck's "free" price tag. A learner who values their study time at any positive rate should factor those hours into the comparison against a curated alternative.
"FSRS" stands for Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler
The "Free" in FSRS is the algorithm's name, not a price claim. FSRS is the open-source successor algorithm to SuperMemo's SM-2, trained on memory data with machine-learning techniques.17 Both Amenokori and Anki (from version 23.10 onward) use FSRS. The difference is that Amenokori uses it as the only scheduler, while Anki users must opt in via deck options.1816
The upgrade trigger is "the toolkit no longer matches the work"
Day-one tools handle "I have no vocabulary, no grammar, and no kana." Once a learner can read graded readers, mine sentences from their own immersion, or hold a 30-second exchange, the day-one stack stops being the bottleneck. At that point, a dedicated tools comparison becomes the right next read. Two concrete signals: an SRS that no longer covers what the learner is meeting in the wild, or a grammar guide that has run out of N4-and-above content.
Sustainable beats exhaustive
A four-slot stack the learner runs daily for a year outperforms an eight-tool stack the learner abandons in six weeks. The selection criteria above favor tools the learner will actually open tomorrow, not feature-completeness on paper. The free path and the budget-paid path are both built to be finished, not browsed.
See also
- How to Learn Japanese: The Complete Roadmap from Zero to Fluency
- Beyond Anki: SRS Tools and Approaches Compared
- Spaced Repetition and the Forgetting Curve: Why Reviewing on a Schedule Works
- Textbook + Immersion: The Hybrid Approach to Learning Japanese
- Hiragana vs. Katakana: How to Tell Them Apart and Use Both
- How to Learn Kanji: A Strategic Overview of Heisig, WaniKani, and Kanji-in-Context