Anki Alternative: 7 Apps Compared (2026)

Anki is one of the best spaced repetition tools ever made. It is free on desktop and Android, it runs on any subject, and with enough setup it can do almost anything. That flexibility is also why people look for an Anki alternative: every card is made by hand, the settings take time to learn, and on iPhone the official app costs money.

We compared seven apps people most often move to from Anki, plus Anki itself, on what actually decides the switch: how a card gets made, how much setup there is, what it costs and whether spaced repetition is built in. Prices were checked on 10 October 2026 on each app's own pricing page or US App Store listing.

Quick answer: which Anki alternative fits you

• You want to keep your Anki decks and review history: RemNote or Mochi. Both import Anki .apkg files.
• You study school or university subjects from ready-made sets: Quizlet or Knowt, which have huge libraries of shared sets.
• You learn foreign words from real life and are tired of making cards: VibeLing. You type a word, and the card with translation, examples, audio and a picture appears on its own.
• You want a structured language course with videos: Memrise.
• Anki already works for you: stay. Nothing on this list beats it for control.

How we compared them

Every app below was judged on the same five questions:

1. Making a card. Do you type every field yourself, pick from shared sets, or does the app build the card for you?
2. Setup. How much do you need to learn before your first review?
3. Spaced repetition. Does the app schedule reviews around the moment you are about to forget?
4. Price. What is free, and what the paid plan costs, from the vendor's own page.
5. Moving from Anki. Can you bring your existing decks?

Anki alternatives compared

Prices are US list prices and differ by country and store: AnkiMobile, for example, costs more in several European App Stores.

The 7 Anki alternatives, one by one

Quizlet

Quizlet is the biggest name in flashcards, mostly because of its library: for almost any school subject, someone has already made a set. You type a term and a definition, or copy a set and start studying. Reviews run through an adaptive Learn mode rather than Anki-style intervals you can tune. It suits students who study from shared material. It suits language learners less, because a card is still just two text fields, and you fill them in yourself. More in our Quizlet alternative guide.

RemNote

RemNote combines notes and flashcards: you write notes, mark a line as a question and answer, and it becomes a card. It is the most comfortable landing place for heavy Anki users, because it imports .apkg decks along with review history. The free plan covers unlimited notes and flashcards; Pro costs $8 a month billed yearly. It is built for studying subjects from your own notes, not for collecting foreign words on the go.

Mochi

Mochi is the closest thing to "Anki, but tidier". Cards are written in Markdown, templates are simple, and it imports Anki decks. The free plan works offline with unlimited cards and needs no account. Sync across devices, publishing and higher AI limits come with Pro at $5 a month billed yearly. If you like making cards yourself and want a cleaner interface, Mochi is the natural switch.

Brainscape

Brainscape replaces Anki's again/hard/good/easy buttons with a 1–5 confidence rating and schedules cards from it. You can make your own decks or study from shared ones. The free plan includes your own cards and spaced repetition; Pro, at $7.99 a month billed yearly, adds AI-made flashcards, images and sound on cards. There is no straightforward way to bring your Anki decks across.

Knowt

Knowt positions itself as a free Quizlet: it imports Quizlet sets, turns notes into flashcards and includes spaced repetition review. The basic plan is free; Ultra costs $149.99 a year or $24.99 a month and adds unlimited AI features and exam prep. It is aimed at school and college students, not at language learners specifically.

Memrise

Memrise is a language app rather than a flashcard tool. Its core is ready-made courses with videos of native speakers, and it has recently brought back your own word lists. If you want someone else to decide what you learn, it fits. If you want to learn the specific words you meet, it fits less. Pro costs $24.99 a month or $61.99 a year in the US App Store. See also our Memrise alternative.

VibeLing

VibeLing does one thing: it helps you remember foreign words and phrases you run into in real life. You type a word you saw in a show, a book or a message, and the app builds the whole card: translation, pronunciation, examples, audio and a picture. A word with several meanings becomes several cards. Reviews follow spaced repetition, and the exercises go beyond question and answer: choosing the translation, spelling, saying the word aloud, filling a gap and recognising it by ear.

VibeLing is free to use. An optional Pro subscription removes ads and adds more: several languages at once, the full lesson course and extended statistics. It is not a general flashcard tool: you cannot use it for anatomy or history, and you cannot import Anki decks.

Anki vs VibeLing: the same word, two ways

Here is the word bridge added to Anki. Front, back, a tag. Everything else (an example, audio, a picture) is more fields to fill and more add-ons to install.

And the same word in VibeLing. You type bridge; the card arrives with the meaning, transcription, audio, a picture and examples, and goes straight into training.

Why people leave Anki

• Every card is manual work. Say you hear a phrase you like:

I don’t feel like going out today.

• In Anki that means writing the card, looking up a translation, maybe adding an example and audio, then choosing a deck. Doing it once is easy; doing it every day is why many people give up, not because spaced repetition stops working.
• The setup has a learning curve. Note types, card templates, deck options and add-ons are powerful, but you meet them before your first useful review.
• iPhone costs extra. Anki is free on desktop, Android and the web, but AnkiMobile for iPhone and iPad is a $24.99 one-time purchase in the US.
• Ready-made decks miss your words. A downloaded 5,000-word deck rarely matches what you actually read, watch and hear.

If you want to understand why the reviews work at all, see the science of spaced repetition.

When Anki is still the better choice

Anki does not need replacing for everyone. If you want custom card templates, complex decks, shared databases, add-ons and full control over the algorithm, nothing here matches it. It is also hard to beat for non-language subjects like medicine. And if Anki already fits your routine, there is no reason to switch. If you are staying, our guide on setting up Anki for vocabulary covers the settings that matter.

How to switch from Anki

It depends on where you go. RemNote and Mochi import your .apkg decks, so you can move everything at once. Quizlet, Brainscape, Knowt, Memrise and VibeLing do not import Anki decks.

For VibeLing, the honest way to switch is gradual: keep reviewing your old decks in Anki, and add every new word you meet to VibeLing. The old deck shrinks as you master it; the new words never need a card made by hand.

Deciding between the two best-known options specifically? See Anki vs Quizlet.

FAQ

Is there a free alternative to Anki?

Yes. Mochi is free with offline use, Knowt and Brainscape have free plans with spaced repetition, and VibeLing is free for learning foreign words. Anki itself is also free everywhere except iPhone and iPad.

Is Anki free on iPhone?

No. AnkiMobile, the official iPhone and iPad app, is a one-time purchase of $24.99 in the US App Store. You can review in the browser through AnkiWeb for free, with fewer features.

What is the best Anki alternative for vocabulary?

For foreign words you meet in real life, VibeLing, because it builds each card for you. For a ready-made language course, Memrise. To keep making cards yourself in a cleaner app, Mochi.

Can I import my Anki decks?

Into RemNote and Mochi, yes. Into Quizlet, Brainscape, Knowt, Memrise and VibeLing, no.

Learn words without making cards

If the part of Anki you are tired of is making cards, try saving your next new word in VibeLing and see what the card looks like. It is free on the App Store and Google Play.

Read next: Best AI Vocabulary Apps in 2026 and Spanish Vocabulary Apps: 7 Compared. Learning Spanish? Start with VibeLing here.

Sources for prices: Anki, AnkiMobile on the App Store, Quizlet on the App Store, RemNote, Mochi, Brainscape, Knowt, Memrise on the App Store. Checked 10 October 2026.