Seven apps people move to from Anki, or use beside it: what each does better, where it falls short, and which of them still bring your material back for spaced review.
We make Breef, and it’s on this list. It comes first because it’s ours, not because it ranks first: the others are in no particular order. Every app is described from its own website and help pages as of November 2026, with what it does better than Breef said plainly.
The short answer
If you like flashcards but not Anki’s interface, try RemNote for cards written inside your notes, Mochi for plain Markdown cards on every platform, or Brainscape for expert-made decks you rate by confidence. If making the cards is what you want to stop doing, Gizmo and Knowt make them from your PDFs, slides and lecture recordings with AI and schedule them for review, and Quizlet builds sets from your notes beside the largest library of other people’s.
If you want your notes and your reviews in one place without cards at all, pick Breef: every note is reviewed as it is, on an FSRS schedule fitted to how fast you forget, Breef writes the quiz questions, and each course’s exam date is planned for, free. Stay with Anki if you rely on big shared decks, image occlusion or a scheduler you tune yourself; none of these matches it there, and Breef exports your cards to Anki, so you can keep both.
People look for an Anki alternative for a handful of reasons: writing cards takes longer than studying them, the interface takes getting used to, the iPhone app costs $24.99, or their notes live in one app and their cards in another. Anki is still excellent at what it does: free on computers and Android, with the adaptive FSRS scheduler, image occlusion and shared decks for almost anything.
So the right alternative depends on your reason for leaving. Some of these apps keep the cards and change the app around them, some make the cards for you, and one reviews your notes instead of cards. For each, the table shows whether it still schedules spaced review, since that’s the part of Anki worth keeping.
AI quizzes from anything, with your Anki decks brought along
YesAutomatic in Memorise mode, with nothing to set up
1Breef
Spaced review of your notes, with no cards to build
Price
Free; Pro €6 a month or €48 a year
Platforms
In the browser on any computer or phone; installable
Breef keeps what Anki does best, spaced repetition, and drops the deck-building. Every note you write is reviewed as it is, on an FSRS schedule fitted to how fast you forget, and when it’s due Breef writes three questions from it. Cards are optional: a “question :: answer” line in a note is reviewed with it and exports to Anki, a deck per project. Lectures recorded in a note are written up, PDFs become linked notes, and an exam date gives any note that would fade by then a last review before it.
Strengths
No cards to write: notes are reviewed as they are, with quiz questions written from them
An exam date for every course, free, with a last review for notes that would fade by then
Cards export to Anki, so you can keep both
Limits
No shared decks, no image occlusion and no scheduler settings to tune
Browser only, installable as an app, and it needs a connection
2RemNote
Notes and flashcards in one app
Price
Free; Pro $96 a year, Pro with AI $216 a year
Platforms
Web, Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android
RemNote is the closest thing to Anki inside a notes app: you mark lines of your notes as cards of many kinds, and it schedules them with FSRS, which you can tune, or with Anki’s SM-2. It can bring Anki decks in, annotates PDFs beside your notes and has image occlusion. The free plan has unlimited notes and cards, with limits on PDFs, exams and AI-made cards; the Lecture Recorder and AI chat are on Pro with AI.
Strengths
Many kinds of flashcards, written inside your notes
FSRS with weights and target retention you can tune
Native apps with an offline mode
Limits
Its card syntax and settings take time to learn
AI cards, PDFs and exams are limited on the free plan
Mochi is a quieter Anki: you write notes and flashcards in Markdown and study them with spaced repetition, by default with its own scheduler, which moves each card’s gap up or down by fixed steps, or with FSRS if you switch it on. The free plan has unlimited cards and decks, needs no sign-up and works offline, but keeps everything on one device; Pro adds sync, storage and more of its AI and language tools.
Strengths
Clean Markdown cards, with references between them
Apps for every computer and phone, and offline study
Expert-made decks and quick sessions on your phone
Price
Free; Pro $7.99 a month, billed yearly
Platforms
Web, iOS, Android
Brainscape is a flashcard app built around Confidence-Based Repetition: after each card you rate how well you knew it from 1 to 5, and the cards you rate low come back much sooner. You can write your own cards, have AI make them from a PDF, slides or notes, or study certified decks made by its experts. The free plan covers your own cards and 2,500 premade ones; Pro unlocks every certified deck and unlimited AI cards.
Strengths
Certified decks made by experts, for exams such as the MCAT
Quizlet is built around study sets: terms and definitions you drill with Learn, Test, Match and games, from a vast library of sets made by other students and teachers, or your own. Type, paste or upload your notes, or record a lecture, and its AI builds a study set from them. The free plan has ads and limits; Quizlet Plus removes the ads, lifts the limits and adds offline study.
Strengths
A huge library of sets made by other students
Games and study modes that make drilling quick
AI study sets from your notes or a recorded lecture
Limits
Ads and limits on the free plan
Built for terms and definitions more than long explanations
A free Quizlet-style app that makes cards from your files
Price
Free, with ads; Ultra $95.99 a year or $24.99 a month
Platforms
Web, iOS, Android, Chrome extension
Knowt is an AI study app: give it a PDF, slides, a video or a lecture recording and it makes notes, flashcards and practice tests from it, and Quizlet sets import in a couple of clicks. Its study modes, Learn, Practice Test, Match and a Spaced Repetition mode where you rate each card Again, Hard, Good or Easy, are free on your own sets. The free plan has ads and one AI summary of a file a month; Ultra lifts the limits.
Strengths
Spaced repetition and study modes free on your own sets
Quizlet sets imported in a couple of clicks
Notes, flashcards and practice tests from files and lectures
Limits
One AI summary of a file a month on the free plan, with ads
AI quizzes from anything, with your Anki decks brought along
Price
Free; Gizmo Unlimited paid, priced by region
Platforms
Web, iOS, Android
Gizmo turns your material into flashcards and quizzes with its Magic Import: PDFs, slides, lecture audio, photos of handwritten notes, web pages, Quizlet sets and Anki decks. You study in Memorise mode, where spaced repetition runs on its own: a right answer pushes a card further out, up to every few weeks, and a wrong one brings it back sooner. An AI tutor, XP, leagues and live quizzes with friends make it a game. The free plan has 15 hearts and a 20-minute wait between imports; Unlimited removes both.
Strengths
Imports Anki decks and Quizlet sets
Cards and quizzes from slides, audio and photos of notes
Spaced repetition with nothing to configure
Limits
Hearts and a wait between imports on the free plan
No published price: it’s shown in the app, by device and region
We started from the reasons people give for leaving Anki, and picked apps that answer one of them while keeping its point: bringing material back before you forget it. For each, we checked on its own website, pricing and help pages in November 2026 what you study in it (cards, sets or notes), whether and how it schedules spaced review, whether it can make cards for you, which devices it runs on, and what it costs.
Prices are as each vendor states them, in its own currency, and they change often; where a vendor doesn’t publish one, we say so. We left out SuperMemo, the app behind the SM-2 algorithm, because its current app is built mainly around language courses. We didn’t score or rank the apps. If something here is out of date, write to support@breef.app and we’ll put it right.
Questions
What is the best alternative to Anki?
It depends on what you want to change. For flashcards inside your notes, RemNote; for simple Markdown cards, Mochi; for expert-made decks, Brainscape; for cards made from your files with AI, Gizmo or Knowt; for sets other people have made, Quizlet. If you’d rather not make cards at all and review your notes themselves, that’s what Breef is for.
Is there a free alternative to Anki?
Several have useful free plans. Mochi’s has unlimited cards on one device, Knowt’s Spaced Repetition mode is free on your own sets, and RemNote’s has unlimited notes and cards. Breef’s free plan reviews every note and plans every exam for good, with monthly allowances for AI quizzes. Anki itself is free everywhere except iOS, where AnkiMobile costs $24.99 once.
What can I use instead of Anki on an iPhone?
Brainscape, Knowt, Gizmo, Quizlet, RemNote and Mochi all have iOS apps with free plans. Breef runs in Safari on an iPhone and can be added to the home screen as an app, free. If you want Anki itself without buying AnkiMobile, AnkiWeb lets you review your Anki cards in the browser.
Can I import my Anki decks?
Into some apps, yes: Gizmo imports Anki decks, and RemNote can bring them in too. Breef doesn’t import Anki decks; it goes the other way, exporting the “question :: answer” cards in your notes as a file Anki imports, a deck per project. Breef’s free flashcard maker does the same for cards you type or paste, with no sign-up.
Do I have to write flashcards to use spaced repetition?
No. Spaced repetition only means coming back to material at growing gaps. Gizmo, Knowt and Quizlet can make cards from your files with AI, and Breef schedules your notes themselves, asking three questions written from a note when it’s due. Writing your own cards still helps for bare facts, which is why Breef keeps them as an option.
Is Breef’s scheduler as good as Anki’s?
Both use FSRS. Anki lets you tune it, choose SM-2 instead and set the share of cards you aim to remember; Breef starts from FSRS’s standard settings and fits the gaps to how fast you forget as your reviews build up, with nothing to tune. If you enjoy adjusting the scheduler, Anki gives you more control.