Mobile Japanese Dictionary: Takoboto vs Jisho vs immit
You look a Japanese word up on your phone, get the reading and the meaning, close the tab, and a week later you are looking up the same word again. The lookup works. The remembering does not. That gap is the real problem with most mobile Japanese dictionary apps, and it is the thing none of them were originally built to close.
This is a comparison of three tools that sit in different parts of that problem: Takoboto, Jisho, and immit. Takoboto is a free offline dictionary app built for your phone. Jisho is the Japanese-English dictionary most learners already know. immit is a popup dictionary with a built-in spaced repetition system, built for reading on a computer. They are not the same shape, and the honest answer to "which one" depends on where you read and what you want to happen after you look a word up. I have used all three while studying Japanese. Here is how they actually differ.
The best Japanese dictionary app has one core job and a few jobs people forget to ask about. The core job is fast, accurate lookup: type or paste a word in kanji, kana, romaji, or the latin alphabet, and get the reading, the part of speech, the English translation, and ideally example sentences. Good apps also let you filter search results by word type or tag so you are not scrolling past all the words to find the one you meant. The jobs people forget: does it work offline, does it have audio, and does it help you learn Japanese vocabulary, or just show you a word once.
Most Japanese dictionary apps nail the first job. The split happens on the last one. A digital dictionary already beats a paper one on efficiency and portability, and it can be updated dynamically as new terminology and phrases enter the language. But looking a word up and remembering it are two different things. Some of these tools stop at lookup, and one of them is built to carry the word forward into review. That distinction is the spine of this comparison.
Takoboto is a free Japanese-English and English-Japanese dictionary app for Android, iOS, and iPad, with a Windows app as well. As of June 2026, the core dictionary is fully offline, so it works on a plane or in a cafe with no connection. It holds roughly 200,000 Japanese words with English translations and a large bank of example sentences (drawn from the open JMDict and Tatoeba projects), and you can search in Japanese, English, kana, romaji, or latin alphabets using your normal keyboard. Each entry gives you the word's meaning, part of speech, audio pronunciation, and kanji information with stroke order.
Where Takoboto is genuinely strong is dictionary depth. It searches conjugated forms, so you can look up 食べました and reach 食べる, it recognizes common misspellings, it lets you find kanji by selecting radicals, and tapping a word shows its pitch accent. For study, it has flashcards, custom word lists, favorites, history, and kana tables, and it exports new words cleanly to AnkiDroid with the example sentence attached. The built-in flashcards are a simple quiz that cycles through your saved words rather than a full spaced repetition system, so for serious review most learners pair it with Anki via that export. There is an optional paid tier (Takoboto Cloud) that syncs your lists and study data across devices. Verify the current free and premium split on before you rely on it, since subscription features change.
For a learner who wants a deep, offline Japanese-English dictionary on their phone, Takoboto is the standout pick here. It is free, and as a dictionary it does more than most.
Jisho (jisho.org) is the Japanese-English dictionary most English-speaking learners already know. It is free, browser-based, and deep. You can search using English, romaji, or Japanese, and it returns rich results: readings, meanings, part of speech, kanji information with stroke counts, and example sentences. Of the roughly 2,136 Jōyō kanji used in everyday Japanese, you can pull up any one and see its readings, meanings, and stroke order data. For looking up a word, a kanji, a number, or a grammar pattern you half-remember, it is the reference standard, and it has earned that reputation among native speakers and learners alike.
Jisho is web-first. As of June 2026 there is no official Jisho mobile app; the site is mobile-friendly on a phone or iPad, and the "Jisho" apps you will find in the app stores are community-made wrappers around the website, not official releases. That is not a knock on Jisho. It is built as a reference destination you go to, and it does that job well. What it is not designed to do is travel with you while you read or hand you the word back later for review. You look it up, you read the entry, you leave.
immit is a popup Japanese dictionary with built-in FSRS spaced repetition. Instead of opening a dictionary app or a tab, you hover a word on the page you are reading and the definition appears right there, then you save it in one click, with the sentence it came from, and immit schedules it for review. Lookup and "remember this" are the same action, not two apps. It covers Japanese-English, English-Japanese, Japanese-Japanese monolingual, and English-English lookup, and the popup shows the headword with its furigana reading, part of speech, definition, an example sentence, and audio pronunciation. Lookup, saving, and review are free with no account and full offline support; syncing across your computers is free too with an optional account, and there is no paid plan.
Here is the honest part, and it matters most in a comparison about mobile. immit has no native iPhone, iPad, or Android app. It ships as a Chrome extension, with an optional desktop app for Mac, Windows, and Linux. You can review your saved words on a phone through immit's web app with a free account, but lookup while reading still happens in a desktop browser. So on a phone, immit is a review surface, not the dictionary Takoboto is. Where immit wins is the computer: if most of your real reading happens in a browser, immit closes the lookup-to-memory loop in a way a destination dictionary does not.
A few things immit does not do, so the picture is complete: it does not show pitch accent or kanji stroke order the way Takoboto does, and it has no streak counter. If those are central to how you study, that is useful to know going in.
The three Japanese dictionary apps line up cleanly once you separate "where you read" from "what happens after lookup."
Takoboto
Jisho
immit
Platform
Android, iOS, iPad, Windows
Web (mobile-friendly site)
Chrome extension (desktop app optional); web app for review
Native mobile app
Yes
No (official)
No (review on a phone via the web app)
Offline
Yes
No
Yes
Lookup style
Open app, search
Open site, search
Hover on the page, no tab switch
Directions
JP-EN, EN-JP
JP-EN, EN-JP
JP-EN, EN-JP, JP-JP, EN-EN
Conjugation search
Yes
Partial
No
Audio
Yes
Limited
Yes
Review built in
Flashcards (quiz) + AnkiDroid export
No
FSRS
Price
Free (paid cloud sync)
Free
Free
As of June 2026. Verify competitor pricing and platform details at the source before relying on them.
Read down the "Review built in" and "Lookup style" rows together and the real distinction shows up. immit is the one that turns each lookup into a scheduled review without leaving the page you are reading. Takoboto is the deepest offline dictionary and exports to Anki when you want true spaced repetition. Jisho is the trusted reference you reach for when you just need the answer.
Use Takoboto if you want a deep, free, offline Japanese-English dictionary on your phone, with conjugation search, pitch accent, and a clean Anki export. As of June 2026 it is the standout phone-native dictionary in this comparison.
Use Jisho when you want the trusted reference: a quick, deep lookup of a word, a kanji, stroke counts, or example sentences from any device with a browser. It is the dictionary to reach for when you just need the answer, not a study system.
Use immit if most of your reading happens in a browser on a computer and your real problem is that you look words up and then forget them. The hover-to-save loop and the built-in FSRS mean the words you meet while reading come back for review without you assembling a second tool. If you read on the web and want lookup and memory in one place, add the immit extension (free, no account). Just know that the lookup half of that loop lives on the computer; reviews can follow you to your phone through the web app.
There is no single winner, and a comparison that claimed one would be lying to you. The right tool is the one that matches where you read.
If none of these three fits, the wider field of Japanese dictionary apps is worth a look: some focus on handwriting input or image lookup, others on JLPT-tagged vocabulary lists, others on pure reference depth. The reading that follows this one covers the popup-dictionary side in more detail, including how a hover dictionary fits a browser reading habit. The short version: match the tool to where you actually read, download one of them today, and start turning the words you look up into words you keep.
What is the best mobile Japanese dictionary app? As of June 2026, Takoboto is the standout mobile Japanese dictionary app for offline use: it is free, works on Android, iOS, and iPad, and goes deeper than most with conjugation search, pitch accent, and an Anki export. If your problem is less about lookup and more about remembering what you look up while reading, immit pairs popup lookup with built-in FSRS review, though lookup runs as a Chrome extension on a computer rather than a phone app (reviews work on a phone through its web app). The best choice depends on where you read and what you want to happen after lookup.
Is Takoboto free and does it work offline? Yes. Takoboto is a free Japanese-English and English-Japanese dictionary app, and its core dictionary works fully offline on Android, iOS, and iPad. It includes flashcards and study lists, and exports words to AnkiDroid. There is an optional paid tier (Takoboto Cloud) that syncs your data across devices. Check takoboto.jp for the current free and premium breakdown.
Does Takoboto use spaced repetition? Not in the full sense. As of June 2026, Takoboto's built-in flashcards are a simple quiz that cycles through your saved words rather than a spaced repetition system that adjusts timing to your performance. For true spaced repetition, learners typically use Takoboto's clean AnkiDroid export and review in Anki, or use a tool with SRS built in.
Does Jisho have an official mobile app, or is it a website? Jisho (jisho.org) is a website. As of June 2026 there is no official Jisho mobile app; the site works well on mobile browsers, and the "Jisho" apps in the app stores are community-made wrappers around the site, not official releases.
What is the difference between a destination dictionary and a popup dictionary with SRS? A destination dictionary like Jisho or Takoboto is a place you go to: you open the app or site, search a word, read the entry, and leave. A popup dictionary with spaced repetition like immit works while you read: you hover a word on the page, the definition appears without switching tabs, you save it in one click, and it is scheduled for review. The first kind shows you a word once; the second turns each lookup into something you will see again so it sticks.
Does immit work on iPhone, iPad, or Android? Not as a native app. immit's lookup runs as a Chrome extension on a computer (the desktop app is optional), and you can review your saved words on a phone through immit's web app with a free account. If you need a phone-native dictionary today, Takoboto is the better fit.
Which Japanese dictionary should I use if I mostly read on my phone vs on a computer? If you read mostly on your phone, use Takoboto for offline lookup, with Jisho as your browser reference. If you read mostly on a computer in a browser, use immit so your lookups become saved, scheduled reviews without a second tool. Many learners use a phone dictionary for on-the-go lookup and immit for the reading they do at their desk.
