Alternatives to Anki
Flashcards that schedule themselves, showing you a card just before you would have forgotten it. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Anki
Flashcards that schedule themselves, showing you a card just before you would have forgotten it.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Anki.
Mnemosyne
A free spaced-repetition flashcard program that schedules each card's review based on how well you remember it.
Mnemosyne is a free open-source desktop flashcard program with a simpler interface, but it has no mobile apps and a smaller community with fewer shared decks.
SuperMemo
Long-running spaced-repetition software for Windows that schedules reviews and supports incremental learning.
SuperMemo adds incremental learning of articles and texts, but it is paid, closed source, Windows only and has a steeper learning curve.
Brainscape
A flashcard app that uses confidence-based spaced repetition, on the web and mobile.
Brainscape uses confidence-based spaced repetition with ready-made decks and AI card generation, but it is proprietary, cloud-based and runs only on web, Android and iOS.
Quizlet
An online flashcard and study-set platform with practice games and tests built from your cards.
Quizlet is a hosted web flashcard service with games, tests and shared study sets, but it is closed source and stores your sets on its servers.
Knowt
A study app for flashcards, notes, quizzes and exam prep, with AI tools that summarize lectures.
Knowt is a free proprietary study app on web and mobile that adds notes, quizzes and AI-generated material from lectures, though your material is sent to Knowt's servers.
AnkiDroid
An open-source Android app for studying Anki spaced-repetition flashcards.
AnkiDroid is a free GPL-3.0 Android app compatible with Anki decks, so moving to it limits you to Android and relies on a separate sync service.
KWordQuiz
A KDE flashcard program for learning vocabulary and other subjects through several quiz modes.
KWordQuiz is a free KDE flashcard program for Windows and Linux with five quiz modes, but it uses KVTML files and has no macOS or mobile versions.
Parley
A KDE vocabulary trainer that uses spaced-repetition flashcards to help you memorise foreign words.
Parley is a free KDE vocabulary trainer for Windows and Linux with spaced repetition and grammar drills, focused on foreign words and lacking any mobile apps.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Anki as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
Bunpro
A spaced-repetition study platform for Japanese grammar and vocabulary, on the web and mobile.
Anki is an open-source spaced-repetition app where you build or download your own Japanese decks, with free sync on most platforms but no built-in grammar course.
Clozemaster
A language-learning game that builds vocabulary through fill-in-the-blank sentences in over 50 languages.
Anki is open source under AGPL-3.0 and lets you build your own cloze or sentence cards with recall-based scheduling, but you must create or find decks yourself.
Renshuu
A Japanese study app for vocabulary, kanji and grammar, with dictionaries and games.
Anki is open source and covers any subject with self-scheduling flashcards and shared decks, but you build or download Japanese decks yourself instead of a guided app.
WaniKani
A spaced-repetition web app that teaches Japanese radicals, kanji and vocabulary with mnemonics.
Anki is open source and lets you study kanji with shared or self-made decks in any order, with free sync across desktop, Android and web.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
MarginNote
A study app for Mac and iPad that links PDF highlights, mind maps and flashcards.
Pleco
A Chinese dictionary and learning app for iOS and Android with handwriting and camera lookup.
