The best Anki alternatives

1. PrismoBest overall: keeps spaced repetition, no cards to make
2. RemNoteBest for students with notes, PDFs and slides
3. MochiBest if you still want to write your own cards
4. BrainscapeBest for exam prep with ready-made decks
5. QuizletBest for classes and shared study sets
6. RecallBest for articles and videos you save
7. KernBest for books you finished, with zero setup
8. SuperMemoBest for power users who want more control than Anki

Why people leave Anki, and what fixes each problem

The reasons people leave Anki are rarely about the algorithm. Its spaced repetition works, and that's why most people looking for an alternative still want it. They leave because of everything around it. Each alternative below fixes a different part:

• Making cards. Unless a shared deck covers your subject, in Anki you write every card yourself, and turning one chapter into good cards can take longer than reading it. Fixed by: Prismo (no cards at all), Kern (for finished books), Recall (for saved articles and videos), or AI help in RemNote, Brainscape and Quizlet.
• Setup and learning curve. Note types, card templates, deck options and scheduler settings are a lot to learn before Anki feels comfortable. Fixed by: Prismo (nothing to configure), Kern, and Brainscape (one 1 to 5 rating per card).
• The interface. Powerful, but many people find it dated and dense. Fixed by: Mochi (a clean Markdown editor), Prismo and Brainscape.
• The iPhone price. AnkiMobile is $24.99 one-time, while Anki is free everywhere else. Fixed by: the free iPhone plans of RemNote, Mochi, Brainscape and Quizlet.
• Sync. Anki syncs free and automatically through AnkiWeb, but some changes, like adding a field to a note type, force a one-way sync where you pick which copy to keep. Fixed by: account-based apps that sync in the background: RemNote (free on unlimited devices), Brainscape, Quizlet and Recall. Mochi's sync needs Pro.

How we judged them

This list is for people who already believe in spaced repetition, so I didn't count an app as an Anki alternative unless it keeps the two things that make Anki work: testing yourself, and spacing those tests by how well you answered. Then I asked five questions:

1. Who makes the cards? You, an AI when you ask, or the app every time, automatically.
2. Do reviews still follow your answers? Misses should come back sooner, easy cards later. Some popular study apps quietly drop this.
3. How much setup before your first review? The minutes between installing and learning are where many people give up.
4. Can you bring your Anki decks? And do you keep your progress if you do?
5. Where does it run, and what does it cost? Especially on iPhone, and for syncing between devices.

Facts about each app come from its own website, help pages and app store listings, checked on October 14, 2026, with links below. I use Prismo every day, since I build it; for the others I relied on their documentation and store listings, and I say so where it matters. I left out apps that only quiz you once without scheduling the next review, and apps that only show you notes again without asking you anything. For a one-to-one comparison, see Prismo vs Anki.

The comparison table

Swipe the table sideways to see every column.

Prices change; follow each app's link below for the current numbers. If something here is out of date, tell us and we'll fix it.

1. Prismo: the best Anki alternative overall

Best for people who like spaced repetition but never get around to making cards, and want to keep what they learn from books, courses, podcasts and work.

Prismo is the app I make, and it's first because it keeps the part of Anki that works, reviews spaced by your answers, and removes the part most people quit on: writing the cards. After a chapter, a lecture or an episode, you write or dictate a few lines in your own words, or add a photo of a page or a PDF. That's the only work you do. Prismo does the rest:

1. It keeps the ideas worth keeping. AI pulls them out of your note and files them under topics, adding to what you already know. You can untick anything you don't want kept.
2. It writes the questions. Five kinds: multiple choice, true or false, fill in the blank, short answer, and questions that connect two ideas. You never write or edit a card.
3. It brings each idea back at the right time. Right answers wait longer, misses come back sooner, from about a day up to several months. A daily review takes a few minutes.

In Anki, that note would have been a set of cards to write, format and file in a deck. Here it's three lines. There are no note types, templates or deck options to set up, and since every note starts with you putting an idea in your own words, it's already a round of recall before the first review. The trade-off is control: you don't choose the exact wording of each question or tune the scheduler, and an AI-written question is occasionally less sharp than a card you crafted yourself. For people who weren't making cards at all, a review that happens beats a perfect card that never gets written.

How Prismo works · Prismo vs Anki · Best apps to remember what you read

2. RemNote: best for students with notes, PDFs and slides

Best for students who want notes, PDFs and flashcards in one place, on every device, and want to bring their Anki decks along.

RemNote is a note-taking app with spaced repetition inside it. Any line of your notes can become a card, you can read and annotate PDFs, and AI can generate cards from a passage, a whole PDF or slides, which spends AI credits. Reviews are scheduled with SM-2 or FSRS, the same two options Anki offers. It imports Anki .apkg files, and "card schedules are preserved", so you don't start your decks over. The free plan syncs on unlimited devices.

Choose it if you study from PDFs and lectures and want your notes and cards together, on desktop and phone. Watch out for: it's a full note-taking system with its own syntax and way of working, so it trades Anki's learning curve for a different one. The free plan includes 3 PDFs and 250 AI credits a month; Pro is $8 a month billed yearly ($96), Pro with AI $18 a month billed yearly ($216). RemNote pricing · Switching from Anki

Compared with Prismo: RemNote makes cards faster when you ask it to, inside a study system you build and organize. Prismo makes the questions every time, from a few lines, and does the organizing for you.

3. Mochi: best if you still want to write your own cards

Best for people who like writing cards but find Anki's interface and settings heavy.

Mochi is a flashcard and notes app built on Markdown. You write notes and cards in the same clean editor, link them together, and review with spaced repetition: by default, intervals grow or shrink by fixed steps each time you remember or forget, and you can switch to FSRS. It imports Anki .apkg files "including review history", though cards may not look exactly the same, since it converts them to Markdown. It runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, the web, iPhone and Android, and the free plan works offline with unlimited cards.

Choose it if you're happy making cards and mainly want something simpler and nicer to use than Anki. Watch out for: you still write every card (AI help is limited on the free plan), and syncing between devices needs Pro, at $5 a month billed yearly. Mochi pricing · Importing from Anki

Compared with Prismo: Mochi makes card-writing more pleasant; Prismo removes it. If the cards themselves are what you dread, Mochi won't fix that.

4. Brainscape: best for exam prep with ready-made decks

Best for students preparing for a standard exam who want expert-made decks and a simple way to rate cards.

Brainscape replaces Anki's answer buttons with a single question: how well did you know this, from 1 to 5? Cards you rate low come back more often, cards you rate high less often. You can write cards, generate them with AI from notes or files, or study "Certified" decks made by experts for exams: the free plan includes 2,500 pre-loaded cards, and unlimited Certified cards need Pro. There's no direct Anki import: Brainscape's help center says to export your deck as text and run it through its bulk AI import, so your review history doesn't come with it.

Choose it if you're studying for an exam that has a ready-made deck, and want a mobile-first app with almost no settings. Watch out for: images and sounds on cards, reverse cards and private content are Pro features. Pro is $19.99 a month, $59.94 every 6 months, $95.88 a year, or $199.99 once for lifetime access. Brainscape pricing

Compared with Prismo: Brainscape is strongest when someone else has already made the deck for your exam; Prismo makes the questions from what you learned yourself, from any source.

5. Quizlet: best for classes and shared study sets

Best for students whose class already shares Quizlet sets.

Quizlet is one of the best-known study apps, with study sets, games, practice tests and AI that drafts cards from your notes or files, which you review and edit before saving. It does have real spaced repetition: you rate each card, from Repeat to Easy, and Okay usually brings it back in about a day, Easy in four or more. There's no Anki deck import, but you can paste text into a new set.

Choose it if your classmates or teachers already use it and you want to study the same sets. Watch out for: per Quizlet's help center, spaced repetition is "currently only available on the Quizlet website", not in the phone apps, and several study modes need a Quizlet Plus subscription. Quizlet spaced repetition

Compared with Prismo: Quizlet is built around class sets, and its spaced repetition lives on the website. Prismo schedules every review on your phone, from what you learned yourself.

6. Recall: best for articles and videos you save

Best for people who learn mostly from the web and want quizzes on what they save.

Recall (recall.it) saves articles, YouTube videos, podcasts and PDFs, summarizes them and links related items into a knowledge base you can chat with. On the paid plan, you can ask it to generate questions about any saved item, in seven formats, and it schedules them with spaced repetition by your answers. There's no Anki import.

Choose it if most of what you want to remember comes from articles and videos you save in a browser. Watch out for: quizzes aren't in the free plan, and questions are generated item by item when you ask. Plus is $10 a month billed yearly or $12 monthly. Recall pricing

Compared with Prismo: Recall shines with web content you save; Prismo works for anything you can put into words, including paper books, lectures and conversations, and quizzes you without being asked.

7. Kern: best for books you finished, with zero setup

Best for iPhone users who read a lot of books and want no setup at all.

Kern asks for one thing: the title of a book you've read. It builds a deck about the book's ideas, examples and claims, in its own words, and mixes cards from all your books into one short daily feed with spaced repetition. No account and no cards to write. It's a new app, for iPhone only.

Choose it if you read on paper or from the library and just want to keep the main ideas of each book. Watch out for: it's books only, the cards come from the title rather than from your reading, and the site doesn't explain how Kern generates them or exactly how your answers set the schedule. The first book is free, then Kern Plus is $3.99 a month or $39.99 a year, or $1.99 to unlock one book. Kern

Compared with Prismo: Kern quizzes you on the book in general; Prismo quizzes you on what you took from it, and on everything else you learn.

8. SuperMemo: best for power users who want more control than Anki

Best for Windows users who find Anki too simple, not too complicated.

SuperMemo is where spaced repetition software started, and Anki's original SM-2 algorithm comes from it. SuperMemo 20 for Windows runs five scheduling algorithms side by side (SM-20, SM-19, FSRS, SM-15 and SM-2) and gives more weight to whichever predicts your memory best. Its signature feature is incremental reading: you import articles, PDFs, books and videos, read them in pieces over time, and extract the parts worth keeping into cards.

Choose it if you want the deepest control over your reviews and a way to work through long texts, and you study on Windows. Watch out for: it runs only on Windows 10 and 11, and it's built for power users, so if Anki already feels like too much setup, this is more. SuperMemo 20 is $68 one-time, with free updates within version 20. The SuperMemo app on phones (supermemo.com) is a different product, mostly ready-made language courses. SuperMemo 20

Compared with Prismo: SuperMemo gives you more control than Anki; Prismo gives you less to do. They're for opposite reasons to leave.

When to stay with Anki

Anki is one of the best memory tools ever made, and for some people none of these apps is a better choice. Stay with it if:

• You rely on shared decks, for example for medical school or a language, and the community that maintains them.
• You need exact control over card wording, formats like image occlusion, or scheduler settings like FSRS's desired retention.
• You study mostly on a computer, or depend on add-ons.
• Price is the main issue. Anki is free on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and the web, and the iPhone app's $24.99 is a one-time purchase that funds Anki's development. You can also review on AnkiWeb in a browser for free.

You can also use both: Anki for high-volume drilling, and an app like Prismo for the ideas you'd never take the time to turn into cards. Anki · Anki sync docs

Also worth knowing

• AnkiDroid: Anki's Android app is free and open source, so Android users don't face the iPhone price.
• Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM): makes flashcards and quizzes from your documents, with a free tier, but doesn't schedule reviews.
• SuperMemo 19: the previous version of SuperMemo for Windows is still sold, for $34.

Which one should you choose?

• You like spaced repetition but never get around to making cards: Prismo. This is the right choice for most people reading this page.
• You're a student with PDFs, slides and existing Anki decks: RemNote.
• You like writing cards, just not in Anki: Mochi.
• You're studying for an exam with ready-made decks: Brainscape.
• Your class already shares Quizlet sets: Quizlet.
• You learn mostly from articles and YouTube: Recall.
• You want to keep the books you've finished, with zero effort, on iPhone: Kern.
• You want more control than Anki, on Windows: SuperMemo.
• You depend on shared decks, add-ons or desktop study: stay with Anki.

Whichever app you pick, the method matters more than the tool: try to recall before you check, and review just before you'd forget. Our guides to spaced repetition and active recall explain why, our review schedule calculator gives you the dates if you'd rather do it by hand, and our list of the best apps to remember what you read covers readers specifically.

Changes to this page

• October 14, 2026: first version. All prices and features checked on the apps' own sites, help pages and store listings that day.