Flashcards have had a long history, dating back to as early as 1805, when the Quakers used them to teach students how to write English. From 1805 to 2024, the popularity of flashcards have seen nothing but growth. We truly believe that flashcards are one of the most efficient ways to study, and put information into our long term memory. The only problem is how time consuming it can be, this is where digital applications come into the picture, with the common goal of making the flashcard study experience a fast and efficient one for the user. Anki is one of the most famous platforms with this purpose, but it unfortunately can be quite time consuming to use and comes with an outdated looking interface.

Anki pros and cons — what should you look for in an Anki alternative?

Pros: It is known for its sophisticated spaced repetition algorithm and how it allows the user to tweak that algorithm with specific settings. Anki has many add ons as well, such as the image occlusion flashcards and the AnKing package.

Cons: The main problem with Anki, and generally most flashcard apps is in their essence, the flashcard creation process. Of course there are pre-made decks, but based on our research only 14% students like to use pre-made decks to study with and over 78% of students are looking for fast and easy flashcard creation. Nowadays there are many AI tools that convert entire PDFs and lectures slides into flashcards but many students suggest that these are actually not that useful since you do not engage at all with the topic you are creating flashcards of, let me know in the comments your thoughts.

We will explore alternatives to Anki that can bring a more fresh and efficient flashcard study experience for you! Some features that we looked for to compile this list are:

- How easy it is to create flashcards

- Spaced repetition algorithm

- Extra features

- Pricing

We suggest you to try all of these flashcard apps and find the one that best suits your learning style and helps you retain information in the most effective way possible.

Top Anki alternatives

1. Voovo

Voovo is an innovative spaced repetition study app that was created with the aim of making the process of creating flashcards the fastest it can be for students, giving the user the power to create flashcards within a blink of an eye.

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Advantages of Voovo

A huge advantage of Voovo that really stood out to me is the fact that it is highly iPad and tablet compatible. This is important because nowadays, more and more students are doing a majority of their studying on their iPad/tablets! A simple demonstration of its compatibility is the fact that it can be used in split screen with other applications, Voovo allows you to create flashcards straight from your favourite iPad notetaking app (like goodnotes and notability) with the feature “Drag and Drop”. This is definitely a game changer!

A lot of flashcard applications come with special features, but Voovo is the first application that combines all the following flashcard formats and features into a single space. The ease of flashcard creation is truly a pro of Voovo that makes it stand out from other applications.

- Diagram cards — this is the feature that allows you to make hundreds of flashcards in under 1 minute. To do this, you simply take a picture of a diagram or table. Then, Voovo will find all the relevant texts on the picture and put them into boxes. After this, you choose whichever texts you would like to memorize and the app will automatically generate flashcards based on these selected texts! Youtube video demonstration!

- Voice cards — instead of making flashcards by typing, you can simply make it with your voice. So when you’re studying from a textbook, you can read information out loud and make flashcards at the same time… at 3.5x speed!

- AI flashcards — with this feature, you can scan or type in text, and use AI to automatically generate flashcards based on the text .

- Fill in the blank flashcards — this is great for memorizing definitions! You can write a text as a question and select words that you would like to hide in this text.

- Drag and drop — you can use Voovo in split view with your own notes or the Internet itself, and create flashcards by simply dragging and dropping pictures into the app!

Here is a quick video of all the features we talked about:

How can you study with flashcards?

‍With Voovo, you can study your flashcards in two ways — spaced repetition, or rapid learning. Spaced repetition has the aim of maximizing your memory long term and it uses the Anki-Dolphin algorithm, while rapid learning serves for a pre-exam speed study session! This definitely makes it an excellent app for students at all stages in their studying process.

One of the best features is the fact that you can import study material and already existing flashcards from other study apps like Anki and Quizlet, and from excel sheets or files. This feature definitely makes using this minimalistic and easy to use application a wonderful experience!

Pricing‍

Voovo premium allows you to have access to all the features of the application and to make an unlimited amount of flashcards, catapulting you to success with all your exams!

Voovo reviews

Google play — 4.4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

AppStore — 4.6 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

2. Quizlet

Quizlet was developed in 2005 by a 15 year old student who made a study tool to help himself ace a French vocabulary test, and ever since, it has amassed 60 million users every month.

Why it's good

In addition to being a platform where you can make flashcards, Quizlet also comes with a huge library of over 700 million study decks made by other learners, teachers, and professionals. A special feature is the fact that Quizlet can turn your flashcards into quizzes and games, which lets you study in a variety of forms! Making flashcards in Quizlet is a bit more time consuming, but it is worth the time because pe-made flashcard decks are not personalized.

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There are several ways in which a deck of flashcards can be studied, which allows for better memorization due to the different inputs. While Quizlet does not use a spaced repetition algorithm in their study sessions, they make it up with the variety of ways to revise a subject, which are as follows:

- Simple flashcards

- Quizlet Learn Mode — this makes your flashcards into multiple choice style quizzes

- Test Mode — Quizlet automatically generates questions from your flashcards to create a test for you!

- Write Mode — here, you type out the answers to the flashcards.

- Games — such as matching up pairs or the game “gravity” where you have to type out an answer while running against time.

Pricing

Quizlet reviews

AppStore: 4.8 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Google Play: 4.6 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

3. Brainscape

Brainscape is a flashcard platform that leverages not only spaced repetition, but also other pillars of cognitive science like meta cognition, and hyperbolic discounting to help improve both your knowledge retention and exam scores. It is a scientifically backed studying application that allows you to both use preexisting flashcard decks and make your own.

Why it's good

‍Brainscape comes with a large library of flashcard decks for all kinds of subjects which you can have access to, but of course you can make your own flashcards if you would like a more personalized deck. An unlimited number even with a free account. It is an excellent alternative to Quizlet due to the fact that it has spaced repetition at the core of its software. It also uses meta-cognition in which you will rate your confidence (from a scale of 1 to 5) in the answer to each flashcard, which further personalizes the study session to your needs… allowing for flaschards to be repeated optimally.

Special features

You can collaborate with multiple people for real time creation of flashcard decks! This makes it perfect for studying as a group.

Pricing

Brainscape reviews

GooglePlay: 4.8 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

AppStore: 4.7  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4. Study Stack

Study Stack is website with which you can make new flashcards or use previously made decks. The application  automatically generates a wide variety of games with which you can study your flashcards, which are displayed below.

Why it's good

The great amount of ways that a deck can be studied makes it a platform that’s a lot more fun to use, because looking solely at flashcards for hours can be tiring. The website is a bit outdated in design, but it is a good “throwback” experience to use it.

Studystack reviews

AppStore: 3.2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

5. StudySmarter

StudySmarter is an all on one learning platform where you can make flashcards, summaries, mind maps, learning plans, and much more with the aim of helping students reach their educational goals.

Why it’s good

‍This application, also known as Vaia, is a platform that does not only have spaced repetition flashcards but also other tools to help lead you to success with your studies. It is more time consuming to make flashcards here, but the application comes with a wide range of extra features:

- Smart to do list — to help you track study goals and exam dates

- Study notes — you can use pre-existing templates to create study notes

- You can generate explanation on any topic with the help of AI!

- Mock exams — you can take mock exams generated based on your topic of interest.

- Textbook access — with this, you can find answers for any question that you can have.

- AI to help with all the above features!

StudySmarter reviews

AppStore: 4.6 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

GooglePlay: 4.3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

While Anki has been a popular choice for many students, these alternatives offer a more efficient and customizable experience when it comes to creating and studying flashcards. Each platform has its own unique features and benefits, we truly hope one of these alternatives will be a suitable fit for you! From Voovo, which comes with the biggest ease and variety of flashcards to the well known Quizlet, there are definitely a lot of applications that you can try out!

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Have a wonderful week and happy studying! Ps: Remember to take plenty of breaks, drink enough water water, and try out these flashcard apps 🤍

-Kasey Chen from Voovo

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