Anki Alternatives: The Honest Comparison
Anki is remarkably effective… for the minority who survive its first two weeks. Here is what it does best, and what to replace it with depending on your profile.
Keep Anki if you like tuning everything and your program provides decks. Pick an alternative if you want spaced repetition without the setup: Revizly generates cards, sheets and quizzes from your own course, free for 2 courses a month.
Why so many students leave Anki
Four frictions come up in every user story.
A brutal learning curve
Austere interface, interval settings, add-ons, note types… Most students who try Anki give up within the first two weeks, often after spending more time on YouTube tutorials than on actual studying.
Manual card creation
Building a good deck from a course chapter takes 2-3 hours: splitting the material, writing questions, typing every card. That's lost study time — and why many end up reviewing strangers' decks.
$24.99 on iPhone
Anki is free on desktop and Android, but the official iOS app (AnkiMobile) costs $24.99. For an iPhone-equipped student, that's often the deal breaker.
Flashcards only
Anki does one thing: cards. No summary sheets, no graded quizzes, no chapter overview. For reasoning-heavy subjects, flashcards alone are not enough.
What Anki still does better than anyone
A comparison that doesn't admit this isn't an honest comparison.
- A proven, endlessly tunable algorithm
FSRS in recent versions, 20 years of track record, and full parameter control for power users.
- Free and open source on desktop and Android
No subscription, no card limits, your data stays yours.
- The med-school ecosystem
Thousands of decks shared by tutoring programs and students, 1,000+ add-ons. No alternative matches this community catalog.
The 5 alternatives compared
Prices and limits checked in August 2026.
| Tool | Price | AI auto-creation | Spaced repetition | French UI | Ease of use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revizly | Free (2 courses/mo), from $5.99/mo | ||||
| Quizlet | Limited free, Plus ~$35.99/yr | ||||
| Knowt | Free, Plus ~$9.99/mo | ||||
| RemNote | Free, Pro ~$8/mo | ||||
| Brainscape | Limited free, Pro ~$9.99/mo |
Revizly
Cards, sheets and quizzes auto-generated from YOUR course (PDF, photo, text). FSRS spaced repetition with zero setup. Exports .apkg to Anki.
Quizlet
Simple and well known, but Learn and Test modes moved behind a paywall in 2022, with ads on free. No real spaced repetition on the free tier.
Knowt
The free 'Quizlet replacement': imports Quizlet sets, basic AI generation. Built for the US school system.
RemNote
Note-taking + linked flashcards, powerful for higher ed, but a learning curve close to Anki's.
Brainscape
Confidence-based spaced repetition, but manual card creation and a mostly English catalog.
The verdict, by profile
High school student
Skip Anki's setup: you need to study fast, not learn a tool. Revizly (sheets + quizzes + cards from your courses) or Quizlet if your teachers already share sets.
Med school
If your tutoring program provides proven Anki decks and you accept the learning curve, stay on Anki. If you want cards generated from YOUR lectures, Revizly does it in 30 seconds — and exports to Anki if needed.
Languages & vocabulary
Where Anki shines most (simple cards, high volume, shared decks). Free AnkiDroid on Android is unbeatable. On iPhone without paying $24.99: Quizlet or Revizly.
Good to know: flashcards generated by Revizly export to Anki format (.apkg). You can auto-generate cards from your courses, then review them in Anki if that's your tool of choice.
Your flashcards, generated from your course in 30 seconds
Drop a PDF or a photo of your notes: Revizly creates the cards, the sheet and the quiz, with built-in FSRS spaced repetition. Free for 2 full courses a month.
Create my first cardsFrequently asked questions
Why is Anki paid on iPhone?
Anki is free and open source on desktop and Android (AnkiDroid), but the official iOS app, AnkiMobile, costs $24.99. It is the project's main source of funding. Many iPhone users look for an alternative for this reason.
What is the best free and simple Anki alternative?
To create flashcards without setup: Knowt (free) or Revizly (free for 2 full courses per month, with automatic card generation from your PDF or photo and built-in FSRS spaced repetition). Quizlet is simple but its key features moved behind a paywall in 2022.
Anki or Quizlet for med school?
For med school, Anki remains the reference thanks to shared decks and its FSRS algorithm — if you have time to learn the tool. Quizlet lacks real spaced repetition on the free tier. If you want spaced repetition without hours of setup and manual card creation, an AI like Revizly generates cards from your own courses.
Can you import Anki decks into Revizly?
No, importing .apkg files is not available today. Export works the other way though: flashcards generated by Revizly can be exported to Anki format (.apkg), so you can combine both tools — automatic generation in Revizly, review in Anki if you prefer.
Is Revizly's spaced repetition as good as Anki's?
Revizly uses FSRS, the same modern spaced-repetition algorithm Anki ships in recent versions (more effective than the old SM-2). The difference is not the algorithm but customization: Anki lets you tune everything manually, Revizly applies FSRS automatically with zero setup.