Why people leave Anki, and why many shouldn't
Anki is free on the desktop, on Android and in the browser, works offline, and has an optional scheduler, FSRS, that tunes itself to how you actually remember.12 Very little on this page beats it at the one job it does. So before the list: if you have years of reviews in Anki and decks you trust, leaving has a real cost. Of the five apps below, only one documents carrying your review history across when you import.3
The reasons people do leave tend to be specific. Setup: note types, deck options and add-ons are powerful, and learning them takes time.4 Card-writing: Anki's core apps have no AI, so every card is typed or downloaded.1 The iPhone: AnkiMobile is a one-time $24.99 purchase, the only paid part of Anki.5 Context: Anki holds cards, not the notes, slides or practice questions they came from.6
Each alternative fixes one or two of those and gives something up in return. Skolight is listed first because this is our site; skip it if you've already ruled it out. The others follow in no order of merit, and the questions at the end will point you at one.
Five alternatives
Skolight
For students who want the cards written for them
Skolight starts where Anki users run out of hours. It reads lecture slides, PDFs, Word files, captioned YouTube videos or a lecture you record in the browser, and drafts the deck. You grade cards with the keys 1 to 4 on an SM-2-style scheduler, which will feel familiar if you used Anki before FSRS.
The bigger change is what sits around the deck. The same material becomes quizzes, timed mock exams with a written analysis, notes and a study plan, and Skolar, the built-in tutor, answers questions with citations back to your pages. It's a course workspace that has flashcards in it, more than a flashcard app.
Why pick it
- No card-writing: decks come from your own lectures and readings.
- Quizzes and mock exams from the same material, which Anki doesn't offer.
- A tutor that shows which page each answer came from.
Before you do
- It can't open .apkg files and its decks can't be exported, so your Anki history stays behind.
- A simpler scheduler than FSRS, with no optimizer or retention target.
- Browser only: it needs a connection, and there's no app-store app.
- The free plan makes 3 flashcard sets a day.
RemNote
For keeping notes and cards in one document
RemNote is the nearest thing to Anki with your notes attached. You write flashcards inline while taking notes, as Q&A, cloze, list or image occlusion cards, and review them in the same app.9 It schedules with SM-2 by default and offers FSRS as an opt-in beta that you can set per folder.10
It's also the one app here that documents importing Anki decks with their review history intact.3 The AI tools, including a lecture recorder and Guided Learn quizzes, are paid for from a monthly allowance of credits that's small on the free plan.1112
Why pick it
Quizlet
For swapping AnkiWeb decks for a bigger library
If you mostly used Anki for downloaded decks, Quizlet's public library of user-made sets is the obvious replacement: you can study, copy and edit someone else's set in seconds.16 Its iPhone and Android apps are polished, and studying flashcards is free.17
As a long-term memory tool it's newer. Spaced repetition arrived in August 2026, on the web only, with Repeat, Hard, Okay and Easy ratings.18 Learn rounds and practice tests are metered on the free plan and on Plus, at $35.99 a year; Plus Unlimited, at $44.99 a year, lifts the caps.19
Why pick it
Gizmo
For people who need a reason to open the app
Gizmo is spaced repetition dressed as a phone game: hearts, XP, leagues and streaks around a Memorise mode that decides when each card returns.2324 If your trouble with Anki was never the scheduler but opening it every day, this is the most direct fix on the list.
It brings Anki decks and Quizlet sets in through Magic Import, and its AI turns PDFs, slides and recordings into cards.25 What you give up is control: the algorithm isn't named and has no settings at all.24
Why pick it
Brainscape
For exam decks someone else has already checked
Brainscape's pitch is the certified deck: flashcards for professional and school exams from its publishers, reviewed by rating your confidence in each card from 1 to 5.2930 It suits Anki users whose habit was other people's decks rather than their own.
Its AI turns pasted text, Word files and slides into cards, but PDFs and YouTube videos go in as pasted text and transcripts rather than uploads.31 There's a lifetime plan, $199.99 bought once in the app, for anyone who misses Anki's pay-once model.32
Why pick it
Measured against Anki
| Feature | Anki | Skolight | RemNote | Quizlet | Gizmo | Brainscape |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Makes study aids from your files | Anki No. No AI: you write cards yourself or download shared decks.1 | Skolight Yes. PDFs (scanned too), Word, PowerPoint, text and LaTeX files, captioned YouTube videos, web pages, audio and live lectures.8 | RemNote Yes. PDFs, Word, PowerPoint, YouTube, audio, web pages and live lectures, paid in AI credits.34 | Quizlet Yes. Notes, PDFs, Word and PowerPoint files, photos or audio become study guides and flashcards.20 | Gizmo Yes. Magic Import: PDFs, recordings, notes, photos, PowerPoint, spreadsheets and websites.25 | Brainscape Yes. Cards from pasted text, Word, PowerPoint, photos and spreadsheets; PDFs and YouTube via pasted text.31 |
| Spaced repetition | Anki Yes. SM-2, or FSRS, which you switch on in deck options and fit to your own reviews.2 | Skolight Yes. SM-2-style scheduling. Review what's due, the whole deck, or only your misses.35 | RemNote Yes. SM-2 by default; FSRS v6 is an opt-in beta, and schedulers can be set per folder.10 | Quizlet Yes. Web only, added August 2026: rate cards Repeat, Hard, Okay or Easy; set new cards per day.18 | Gizmo Yes. Memorise mode times each card's return; the algorithm isn't named and has no settings.24 | Brainscape Yes. Rate each card 1 to 5 for confidence; Brainscape's own algorithm sets the repeats.30 |
| Imports existing decks | Anki Yes. Anki .apkg packages, CSV or TSV text and Mnemosyne 2.0; no Quizlet importer in its docs.36 | Skolight No. Can't import Anki or Quizlet decks. Add the source material and it writes new cards.35 | RemNote Yes. Anki (with review history), Quizlet, Notion, Obsidian, Markdown and CSV.37 | Quizlet Partly. Paste term and definition text with your own separators, on the web only.22 | Gizmo Yes. Quizlet sets by URL and Anki decks through Magic Import; the Anki file format isn't stated.25 | Brainscape Yes. CSV, TSV, text and spreadsheet files, or pasted question-and-answer lists.38 |
| Quizzes | Anki No. No quiz or practice-test mode in its manual.6 | Skolight Yes. Up to 30 questions in four types, easy to hard, every answer explained.39 | RemNote Yes. Guided Learn builds section quizzes and a practice quiz from a PDF, video or doc.34 | Quizlet Yes. Test mode builds a quiz from a set in the question types you pick; free gets 1 test per set.40 | Gizmo Yes. AI practice tests with multiple choice and written answers marked to a mark scheme.41 | Brainscape No. No quiz mode on its official pages; study is card by card.29 |
| Notes | Anki No. No note-taking or document editor in its manual.6 | Skolight Yes. Concise or detailed notes in a rich editor, exportable to PDF, Word, Markdown or HTML.42 | RemNote Yes. Outliner notes, PDF and slide annotation, and handwriting converted to text.9 | Quizlet Yes. AI study guides: an outline of your material with a linked set; limited on free.20 | Gizmo Partly. The AI Tutor can write notes during a lesson; no separate notes editor in its docs.43 | Brainscape No. No note-taking on its official pages.29 |
| Phone and desktop apps | Anki Yes. Free desktop and Android apps; AnkiMobile for iPhone and iPad is paid.1 | Skolight Partly. Works in any browser, with a layout built for phones. No native app.8 | RemNote Yes. Desktop apps for Windows, Mac and Linux, plus iPhone, iPad and Android.15 | Quizlet Yes. Native iPhone, iPad and Android apps; no desktop app, so computers use the website.17 | Gizmo Yes. iPhone, iPad and Android apps plus the web; no Mac or desktop app is listed.44 | Brainscape Yes. Native iPhone, iPad and Android apps; on a computer you use the web app.29 |
| Library of shared sets | Anki Yes. Thousands of free shared decks on AnkiWeb, downloadable on desktop and phone.45 | Skolight No. No public library of other people's decks. Share links for notes, chats and groups.8 | RemNote Yes. A RemNote Community where users publish documents and course materials.46 | Quizlet Yes. Its main strength: a large public library of user-made sets you can study, copy and edit.16 | Gizmo Yes. Public decks other users can find; its App Store listing claims over 1,000,000.44 | Brainscape Yes. Certified exam decks plus community decks; Free can study 2,500 pre-loaded cards.33 |
Should you switch, and to what?
Answer the questions above to see which tool fits.