How the order is set
How we rank
This is a scene list. Each scene gives you one first pick, then alternates. First pick means the tool to open first for that job, in the order below. It is not a score and not a vendor endorsement.
Four steps, in this order
1. Can you open it directly in mainland China
A product you cannot open is not placed ahead of one you can. This list does not describe any network setup.
2. Can it finish the job named in that column
Each scene has one job. An editor plugin and a no-code site builder are not the same rank. Finishing the job matters more than a long feature list.
3. Is the price clear, with a usable free tier or trial
Amounts we did not check on the official site are not written here. If we saw plan names but not numbers, we write only the plan names.
4. Does Chinese work
Chinese is the last bonus. An English product you cannot open is not placed ahead of a domestic product because its Chinese is better.
When two tools are close
We write “close” and say which job differs. Short copy is close between Kimi and Doubao, and longer writing puts Kimi first. DeepSeek and Qwen are close for general use, and reasoning more often opens DeepSeek first. Close is not a 0.2-point gap.
Pairs the catalog already calls close, and jobs it keeps apart, are written out on the comparison pages. Those pages do not add a score.
Three mainland marks
- Opens directly. A product from a team in China, whose official site or domestic client is the real entrance. This list checked whether pages opened from servers outside mainland China. It did not dial each product from inside the mainland.
- May need a special network. The main service is on an overseas domain and is usually unstable or unreachable in the mainland. The page states that fact and does not offer a method.
- Has a mainland alternative. Beyond the previous case, a directly usable domestic product can already finish the same job. The tool page names which one. An alternative is not a clone, and the page says how they differ.
What counts as new this week
Only updates from the check week that match a public page. This issue’s week starts 2026-11-09. Earlier updates stay on the tool page and are not called new. A model update and “a new website opened” are written separately.
What we do not write
- Stars, scores, review counts, downloads, or traffic.
- Endorsements such as “strongly recommended”, “official pick”, or “just use this”.
- Sponsorship payments, checkout, or email collection. The sponsor slot at the bottom of the homepage is empty.
- Official sites we did not open. A tool we cannot open is left out.
Where the notes live
Tools and scenes are in content/catalog.json. Change the order, then run a build. Page copy comes from that data; the components stay as they are. The last check was 2026-11-11 (Beijing time).
Questions
- What is this list?
- A scene-by-scene list of AI tools for mainland China. One first pick and a few alternates per scene. Direct access comes before finishing the job. No scores.
- How is the order set?
- Order is only the order to try a tool: mainland access first, then whether it can finish that scene, then whether the price is clear and a free or trial tier is usable, and Chinese last. Rank is not a score.
- What does a first pick mean?
- This is a scene list. Each scene gives you one first pick, then alternates. First pick means the tool to open first for that job, in the order below. It is not a score and not a vendor endorsement.