About Zigo

Zigo is a Chinese learning app that teaches characters through their components. Search any character or word and Zigo shows you the pieces it is made of, what each piece contributes, and a memory hook for why the whole thing means what it means, so characters stop being random strokes to memorize.

Why I built it

Hi, Zigo's founder here. Chinese characters aren't random: they're made of pieces that mean things. I grew up around Chinese but let it slip away. Zigo is how I'm finding my way back, and I built it because I wanted characters to finally make sense. I hope that's what it does for you.

I'm a solo founder and this is early. Messages sent through the app come straight to me. Tell me what's broken, what's missing, or just what the first word you searched was. I reply to everything.

What's inside

Zigo covers 121,845 dictionary entries with component breakdowns for 9,574 characters, 1,823 mapped components with their own meanings, stroke-order animations, and browsable lists for all six HSK levels. Dictionary data builds on the open CC-CEDICT project, with stroke-order data from Make Me a Hanzi (stroke outlines derive from Arphic fonts under the Arphic Public License); explanations and memory hooks are Zigo's own, generated from this data and reviewed over time.

Counts measured July 2026.