The best Anki alternatives
Updated 17 September 2026 · Written by the Reji team, who make one of the apps below.
Nobody leaves Anki because it does not work. People leave because making a good card takes too long, because the iPhone app costs $24.99, or because the interface never stopped looking like a Linux utility. The apps below all keep the part that matters, a per-card spaced-repetition schedule, and fix one of those three things.
We make Reji, which is on the list. It is the right replacement for exactly one kind of Anki user, and we say which.
| Reji | Mochi | RemNote | Brainscape | Knowt | Quizlet | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, no subscription | Free on one device; Pro $5 per month, cheaper yearly | Free; Pro $8 per month or $96 per year; Pro with AI $18 per month | Free basic; Pro $7.99 per month billed annually | Free with ads; Ultra $12.99 per month billed annually ($149.99) or $24.99 monthly | Free with ads; Quizlet Plus $9.99 per month or $44.99 per year |
| What is free | Everything | Unlimited cards on one device, no account needed | Unlimited flashcards, 5 image occlusions, 3 PDFs | Unlimited cards, importing and studying of user-made content | Unlimited sets and flashcards, with ads | Create sets, flashcards, basic Learn and Test; ads |
| Platforms | iOS, iPadOS | Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android | Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android | Web, iOS, Android | Web, iOS, Android | Web, iOS, Android |
| Spaced repetition | Yes, per-card scheduling | Yes | Yes | Yes, based on your 1–5 confidence rating | Yes, in its Learn mode | Partly: Learn mode adapts within a session, no long-term per-card schedule |
| Audio | Native pronunciation on every card | Text-to-speech | No | Text-to-speech on Pro | Text-to-speech | Text-to-speech |
| Fills in cards for you | Translation, example sentence, transcription and image added when you type a word | AI card generation on Pro | AI card generation from notes (credits) | No | AI cards from notes and PDFs | Suggested definitions for some terms |
| Import | CSV, shared decks, public decks | Anki, CSV, Markdown | Markdown, Anki, CSV | CSV and spreadsheets | Quizlet sets, CSV, PDFs | Paste text or CSV, copy any public set |
| Ads | None | None | None | None | Yes on the free plan | Yes on the free plan |
| Sync | iCloud | Pro only | Account | Account | Account | Account |
| Offline | Yes | Yes | Desktop and mobile apps | Yes | No | Plus only |
| Best for | Vocabulary you meet while reading, watching or talking | People who liked Anki's idea but not its interface | Students who take notes first and want cards from them | Certified decks for exams like the MCAT or bar | Students migrating off Quizlet with their sets | School and exam sets that someone has already made |
Mochi: Anki's idea with a modern interface
Mochi is the most direct replacement. Cards are Markdown, the review loop is spaced repetition, it imports Anki decks, and it runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android and the web. The free plan is unlimited on one device without an account; syncing across devices is $5 a month. If your only complaint about Anki is how it looks and feels, stop reading here.
RemNote: cards that live inside your notes
RemNote is a note-taking app where any line can become a flashcard. The free plan includes unlimited cards and spaced repetition, Pro is $8 a month. Anki users who keep their source material elsewhere and copy it into cards will find RemNote removes that step. Anki users who just want a deck of words will find it heavy.
Reji: no card-making at all, for language vocabulary
Anki's biggest cost for language learners is the minutes per card: look up the translation, find an example, find audio, paste it all in. Reji does that when you type the word, then schedules the card with spaced repetition. It is free, without ads or subscription. The limits are hard ones: iPhone and iPad only, and vocabulary only. If you use Anki for anatomy or law, it is not for you.
Brainscape: confidence ratings instead of ease factors
Brainscape asks you to rate each card from 1 to 5 and schedules from that, which many people find easier to trust than Anki's four buttons. Free for your own cards on web, iOS and Android; Pro at $7.99 a month billed annually adds its certified exam decks and text-to-speech.
Knowt and Quizlet: shared sets, weaker scheduling
Both have huge libraries of ready-made sets and both are free with ads. Knowt has a spaced-repetition Learn mode; Quizlet's Learn adapts within a session only. If you are leaving Anki because you never wanted to make cards in the first place, a shared set may serve you better than any algorithm.
Verdict
Mochi for almost everyone: same algorithm family, nicer app, imports your decks. Reji if you learn languages on an iPhone and want to stop building cards by hand. RemNote if your cards come from notes. Keep Anki if you rely on add-ons, image occlusion or years of review history; nothing here matches that.
Questions people ask
- Is there a free Anki alternative for iPhone?
- Reji is free on iPhone and iPad for language vocabulary. Mochi is free on one device, including iPhone. AnkiMobile itself is $24.99 one-time, while Anki on desktop and Android is free.
- Which alternatives can import Anki decks?
- Mochi and RemNote import .apkg files directly. Brainscape, Knowt and Reji take CSV, which Anki can export.
- Do any of these use FSRS like Anki?
- No. Each uses its own spaced-repetition schedule. In practice the difference between a well-tuned SM-2 style scheduler and FSRS is small compared with the difference between reviewing daily and not.
Reji is free, has no ads and fills in translation, audio and an example for every word you save. Or try the public decks first.