The Best Anki Alternative for Language Learning Depends on Which Part of Anki You Want Gone
Which Anki alternative fits depends on the part of Anki you want to drop: making cards by hand, the settings and add-ons, or the desktop-first interface — and if all you wanted was a better scheduler, Anki has had FSRS built in since version 23.10. Here's a table of replacements by type, with each example checked against its own site in October 2026, when staying with Anki is the better call, and how to keep Anki while getting rid of the card-making.
The right Anki alternative depends on which part of Anki you want to get rid of: making cards by hand (switch to a tool that makes cards from what you watch or read), the settings and add-ons (switch to an app with fewer knobs), or the desktop-first interface (switch to a phone-first app, or Anki's own phone apps). And if what you actually wanted was a better algorithm, you don't need to leave: Anki has shipped FSRS built in since version 23.10, released in October 2023.
This guide is the "what instead, and when not to" half. If you're still deciding how to use Anki for a language — card types, shared decks, settings — that's Anki for language learning. Here: the replacements by type, with every example checked against its own site in October 2026, when staying with Anki is the better call, and how to keep Anki while dropping the part that wears people down.
Alternatives by the part you want gone
| The part of Anki you want gone | What to switch to | Examples (checked October 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Making cards by hand | A tool that makes the card from what you're watching or reading, in one action | LingoKeep (ours: YouTube; review on FSRS is free, the free deck holds 100 cards) · Language Reactor (YouTube and Netflix; saving words is a Pro feature; exports to Anki) · Migaku (browser extension with its own review app on iOS and Android; no free plan after a 10-day free trial, $10/month or $96/year) |
| The settings, note types and add-ons | An app with fewer knobs: a simple default scheduler you don't tune | Mochi (free, no account needed; reviews are two buttons, Remembered or Forgot, with FSRS as an option; syncing between devices is in Pro, $60 a year billed annually) |
| The desktop-first interface | A phone-first app — or Anki's own phone apps, if the rest of Anki is fine | AnkiDroid (free, Android) and AnkiMobile ($24.99 once, iPhone and iPad) · Mochi's iOS and Android apps · Migaku's iOS and Android apps |
Most people who leave Anki aren't leaving for a better scheduler. In Anki for language learning we argue the usual cause is the supply line — typing cards by hand — and the first row of that table is the one that addresses it.
What switching actually looks like
The honest notes nobody puts in a comparison table:
- Your review history is the expensive part to move. Anki can export a deck as an
.apkgfile with its scheduling information included, and Mochi says it imports.apkgfiles including review history, with the caveat that cards may not look exactly as they did. Check before you count on it anywhere else: a tool that imports only the cards starts your schedule over. - "Simpler" usually means fewer things you can change. Mochi's default review is two buttons; that's restful until you want something Anki's note types would have done.
- A tool that makes cards for you makes its card. LingoKeep, Language Reactor and Migaku each decide what goes on the front and back. If your Anki setup is a carefully designed note type, check the card you'd get before you move a single deck.
- Free tiers end somewhere. Mochi's free version doesn't sync between devices; Language Reactor's free mode doesn't save words; LingoKeep's free deck tops out at 100 cards. None of these are hidden, but each one decides who the free plan is for.
When to keep Anki
Often, honestly. Stay if:
- You rely on shared decks. Leaving means converting or rebuilding every deck you downloaded from AnkiWeb, and a shared frequency deck is still a reasonable way to start a language from zero.
- You use what only Anki does: custom note types and templates, add-ons (AnkiConnect among them), filtered decks, or full control of the scheduler's parameters.
- Cost matters. Anki is free on desktop, on Android through AnkiDroid, and for sync through AnkiWeb; the iPhone app, AnkiMobile, is a one-time $24.99. There's no subscription anywhere in it.
- You wanted FSRS. Anki has it built in since 23.10: enable it in deck options and leave desired retention at the default 90% (the current desktop release, as we write, is 26.09.3).
- Your history lives there. Years of reviews are what make a schedule good for you, and they move cleanly to very few places.
If the only thing that broke is your habit, a different app won't fix it; a smaller new-card limit usually will.
Keep Anki, drop the card-making
The middle path is to keep Anki as your review app and replace only the step that wears people down. With LingoKeep, you watch a YouTube video with dual subtitles, click a word or drag across a phrase to look it up, and one key saves it with its dictionary form, the full sentence, a translation, and a timestamp back to the exact moment. Those cards go to Anki two ways: a CSV from your Cards page, or a one-click push into a deck you pick through the AnkiConnect add-on (setup guide). Both exports are part of Pro ($4.99 a month); on the free plan, the same cards come back on FSRS inside LingoKeep, free, including on your phone. It works on YouTube in a desktop Chromium browser, for Spanish, Japanese, French and German.
Where to go next
- How to get the most out of Anki itself for a language: Anki for language learning
- Which sentences are worth turning into cards: what is sentence mining?
- What FSRS is, and why the scheduler matters less than people think: FSRS explained
- The two export routes, step by step: LingoKeep → Anki
- What's free and what's Pro: pricing
FAQ
Q: What's the best free alternative to Anki? A: It depends on what you want to drop. If it's making cards by hand, a tool that builds them from what you watch, like LingoKeep, keeps review free (its free deck holds 100 cards). If it's the settings, Mochi is free with no account, though syncing between devices is a paid feature. And if the problem is only the desktop, Anki on Android (AnkiDroid) and AnkiWeb are themselves free.
Q: Is there an Anki alternative that uses FSRS? A: Several, but first: Anki itself has had FSRS built in since version 23.10 (October 2023). Among alternatives, Mochi offers FSRS as an option in its review settings, RemNote has added FSRS as an opt-in scheduler, and LingoKeep schedules every review on FSRS by default, free.
Q: Is Anki still worth it in 2026? A: Yes, if you'll use what it's best at: free review on desktop, Android and the web, FSRS built in, shared decks, and full control over card design. It's a poor fit if making cards by hand is the reason you keep stopping — the scheduler can't fix an empty deck.
Q: Can I keep my Anki deck if I switch? A: Usually the cards, sometimes the schedule. Anki exports a deck as an .apkg file with its scheduling information; Mochi imports .apkg files including review history; a tool that imports only the cards restarts the schedule. LingoKeep doesn't import Anki decks — it works the other way, exporting its cards to Anki.
Q: What's easier than Anki for language learning? A: The part most people find hard isn't reviewing, it's producing cards. A tool that creates a card from a sentence you just heard — word, sentence, translation and a link back to the video in one keystroke, as LingoKeep does on YouTube — removes that step, while an app with a simpler review screen, like Mochi, removes the settings.
Keep reading
Anki for Language Learning: What It's Great At, and the One Place It Breaks
Anki is still the best spaced-repetition tool for language learners, and almost nobody quits because of the algorithm. They quit because of where the cards come from. Here's what Anki does well, the card types that actually work for languages, and how to fix the part that breaks.
How to Make Flashcards from YouTube Videos for Language Learning: By Hand, With a Toolchain, or in One Click
Making flashcards from a YouTube video comes down to four steps: get the video's subtitles in the language you're learning, pick the words or sentences worth keeping, save each one with its original sentence and a timestamp back to that moment, and review them on a spaced-repetition schedule. Here are the three ways to do it — by hand into Anki, with the free asbplayer + Yomitan toolchain, or in one click with LingoKeep — what makes a card worth keeping, and the limits of each.
Introducing LingoKeep: Learn Languages Watching YouTube — and Actually Remember
A Chrome extension that turns YouTube into a language classroom — dual subtitles, a click-any-word dictionary, one-click flashcards, and free spaced-repetition review. The plan we published before launch, kept on the record.
What Is Sentence Mining? The Rules, a Worked Example From a Real Video, and When to Stop
Sentence mining means collecting whole sentences from things you watched or read and understood — each with exactly one piece you didn't know yet (i+1) — and turning them into flashcards you review on a spaced-repetition schedule. Here are the three rules that make it work, a complete example card from a real Spanish video, a sane daily number, the tools that do it, and the point where it stops paying off.