Practise the thinking. Keep the judgement.
Looking for an Anki alternative? Check these six things first
Compare flashcard apps on deck import and export, scheduling, card types, offline study, sync and price before you move years of reviews.
Why people look for an alternative
Anki is free and open source on desktop and Android, and many learners keep using it for years. People usually start looking elsewhere for a specific reason: they want a different iPhone app, a simpler interface, a way to draft cards from notes, or practice that sits beside their exam questions.
Name your reason before you compare apps. “I want my existing deck on iPhone” and “I want help writing cards” lead to different choices. A clear reason stops you from moving everything when you only needed one missing feature.
Check import and export before anything else
Your review history is the most valuable part of a mature deck. Anki can export a single deck as an .apkg file or the whole collection as a .colpkg file, with an option to include scheduling information. A good alternative should read those packages and let you export again later.
Test with a small copy first. Import one deck, open a few cards that use images, audio or cloze deletions, and confirm the due dates look sensible. If an app cannot export back to a standard package, moving in is easy and moving out may not be.
Compare the scheduling and the card types
Anki supports the FSRS scheduler and the older SM-2 style algorithm. Ask whether an alternative lets you set a desired retention, daily new-card and review limits, and how it handles cards you keep forgetting. Then check the note types you rely on: reversed cards, typed answers, cloze deletions and image occlusion.
Ronri, for example, offers FSRS or SM-2, basic, reversed, typed, cloze and image occlusion cards, bury and suspend, filtered study and a review forecast. Anki add-ons and custom template scripts do not run there, so a deck that depends on an add-on needs a check before you switch.
Finish with offline study, sync and cost
Decide where you study. If you review on a train, offline study matters more than a web editor. If you use two devices, check which account syncs them: Ronri syncs through your RubricMark account rather than AnkiWeb, so keep Anki and Ronri as separate collections unless you export and import deliberately.
Price differs by platform. Anki desktop, AnkiDroid and AnkiWeb are free; the official iPhone app, AnkiMobile, is a paid app whose sales support development. Compare what you actually need with what each plan includes, then move your decks once rather than in several partial steps.
Try it yourself
You have a five-year Anki deck and mainly want to review it on iPhone. Which two things should you test before switching?
Show the answer and explanation
Import a copy of the deck with scheduling included, then confirm you can export it again as an Anki package.
Review history and portability are the costly things to lose. Interface preferences matter, but they can be judged after the data moves safely.