Anki vs other flashcard apps: scheduling, platforms and price

Anki is still the default recommendation for serious spaced repetition. It's free on desktop and Android, it can use either SM-2 or FSRS, and it opens the shared decks other learners publish. The other apps are worth a look if Anki's setup and settings are what's stopping you, or if you want something it doesn't do. We make Decks, one of the apps below, so we've stuck to facts you can check, and said where Anki is the better choice.

At a glance

Checked October 2026. Prices change; check before you buy.

What Anki does better than any of them

• Shared decks. Anki's .apkg format is how most large community decks are distributed, including the big medical-school decks. If your study depends on one, use Anki.
• Control. Custom note types and card templates, per-deck options presets, and hundreds of add-ons.
• FSRS. A modern scheduler built in and free. It predicts forgetting more accurately than SM-2, so it can keep the same retention with fewer reviews; see SM-2 vs FSRS.
• Price and longevity. Free everywhere except iPhone and iPad, where the one-time AnkiMobile purchase funds development. No subscription.

Where Anki is harder

• Setup. You have to find a deck, import it and usually adjust options before you start. The defaults are reasonable, but the options screen has dozens of settings, and guides like ours on ease, learning steps and new cards per day exist because people get them wrong.
• Rating discipline. Four buttons give you control and also more ways to get ratings wrong; overusing Hard is the classic route to ease hell under SM-2.
• iPhone cost. AnkiWeb works free in a browser, but the iPhone app is a paid one-time purchase.

The others, briefly

Quizlet is built around sets and study modes (Learn, Test, Match) rather than a daily queue of due cards. It's quick for a class's term list and has a huge library of user sets, but it doesn't publish how Learn decides what to show, and you can't rate a card Hard or Easy. If you're leaving Quizlet, Quizlet alternatives compares the options, including Knowt.

RemNote combines notes and flashcards: you write notes and mark parts of them as cards. It offers FSRS and imports Anki decks with their review history, so you keep your schedule. It suits students who want notes and cards in one place.

Mochi is a Markdown-based card app with a two-button review (Remembered or Forgot), an optional FSRS scheduler, and apps on every major platform. Sync between devices is part of the paid plan.

Decks (ours) is an iPhone app with Anki's four ratings and SM-2 scheduling, and a built-in library of language decks for Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, French and German, most with native audio. You can make your own cards, including cloze, or photograph a page and have AI propose cards. It doesn't open .apkg files and has no add-ons, no FSRS, and no Android, iPad or desktop app. The free plan has a daily review limit; Premium lets you set your own. There's a fuller Decks vs Anki comparison.

Which to choose

• You use a shared Anki deck, study on several devices, or want FSRS: Anki.
• You want notes and flashcards together: RemNote.
• You want a simple, clean card app on every platform: Mochi.
• You're cramming a class term list this week: Quizlet is fine; for anything you want to remember next year, use a spaced repetition app. Spaced repetition vs cramming explains why.
• You're learning one of six languages on iPhone and want ready-made decks with audio, without setup: Decks.

Whichever you pick, how you write and rate cards matters more than the app. Start with how to write good flashcards and what each rating does.