Who this is for
Anki is a free, very capable spaced repetition program. Its manual describes notes, note types, cloze deletions, Image Occlusion, shared decks, add-ons and two schedulers (SM-2 and FSRS). For a medical student with 20,000 cards, that depth is the whole point, and you should keep using Anki.
Plenty of people searching for an Anki alternative are in a different place. They have a test in three weeks, a vocabulary list for a language class, or revision cards they would rather hold in their hand. They found Anki’s settings hard to learn, or they use an iPhone and did not want to buy AnkiMobile before knowing whether flash cards work for them. This page is for them.
Bring an Anki deck over
You do not need to start again. Anki can export your notes as plain text with tab-separated fields, and EasyPalmCards reads that format.
- Export from Anki In Anki on a computer, choose File, then Export, and pick Notes in Plain Text. Choose the deck you want and save the file.
- Open the import boxOpen the flash card import. The editor switches to flash card mode and opens Import.
- Choose the file or paste The format is detected from Anki’s header lines. A preview shows each front and back before anything changes.
- Import and study The first field becomes the front and the second the back. HTML line breaks are kept; other formatting is dropped.
Deck packages (.apkg) are not supported, so images, audio and your Anki review history do not come over. If you use cloze notes, the export gives you the sentence with Anki’s cloze markers; edit those cards into a question and answer after the import.
Anki and EasyPalmCards side by side
Anki facts are from Anki’s official site, manual and App Store listing, checked on 28 October 2026.
| What you need | Anki | EasyPalmCards |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free on computers and Android (AnkiDroid); AnkiMobile for iPhone and iPad is paid | Free in any browser. Optional Gold plan or one-off pass |
| Ads | None mentioned on the official download page | Free plan: ads on pages and beside the editor, never on your cards, in print or while you study. Gold: no ads |
| Scheduling | SM-2 or FSRS, tuned in deck options | SM-2 with Study due cards; no tuning |
| Study modes | Review with Again, Hard, Good and Easy | Flip, Learn, Test and Match, free |
| Printing | Exports are text and deck packages, not pages | Cut-line sheets, double-sided or fold-in-half, and card stock sizes |
| Sync | Free AnkiWeb sync | On the device on Free; account sync with Gold |
| Images and audio | Supported, including Image Occlusion | Text only |
| Cards for a talk | Not designed for speech cards | Smart Reflow, rehearsal and Present mode |
Where Anki is the better choice
- Very large decks over years. Anki’s scheduler options, including FSRS, give you control we do not offer.
- Rich cards. Images, audio, Image Occlusion and custom note types are things EasyPalmCards does not do.
- Free sync everywhere. AnkiWeb sync is free. Our account sync for study progress is part of Gold; on Free your progress stays on the device you study on.
- Add-ons and shared decks. Anki can be extended with add-ons, and there are shared decks for many subjects.
Where EasyPalmCards is the better choice
- Five minutes to your first study session. There is nothing to install and no settings to learn. Paste a list, and the cards are ready.
- Paper. Print questions and answers lined up on both sides of the sheet, or fold each card in half on a printer that only prints one side. Card stock sizes (3×5, 4×6, A7 and A6) print one card per sheet.
- Any phone, free. It runs in the browser, so an iPhone costs nothing extra. Learn, Test, Match and spaced repetition are free. The free plan has ads on pages and beside the editor, never while you study; Gold removes them.
- Talks and oral exams. If your cards are prompts for a presentation, paste the speech and Smart Reflow splits it into cue cards, then time it, rehearse it and present from your phone.
A simple plan for a test in a few weeks
If you left Anki because the settings got in the way, here is a routine that needs none. It works for vocabulary, definitions, dates and formulas.
- Make the set in one sitting Paste your list or import it, one fact per card. If a card asks for three things, split it into three cards.
- Learn it once Run Learn on the whole set. It asks in short rounds and repeats the cards you miss until you have seen each one correctly.
- Review what is due, every day Open Study due cards for ten minutes a day. Cards you know move further out; the ones you miss come straight back.
- Test yourself at the end of each week Use Test for a scored quiz, so you can see which topics still need work.
- Print the hard ones Keep a small printed stack of the cards you keep missing and go through it away from a screen, on the bus or before bed.
How the review schedule works here
Every card in a flash card set has its own review date. Study due cards shows only the cards due today. When you get a card right, its next review moves out: the next day, then about six days later, then longer gaps. When you miss it, it starts again and comes back within minutes. This is the SM-2 schedule that Anki itself started from, without the extra settings.
On Free, progress is saved in the browser you study in. With Gold, progress for saved sets syncs to your account, so a review on your phone counts on your laptop too. You can also export the set to Anki at any time if you outgrow us, which we think is how it should be. See the flashcard maker for the full list of study and print options.
Sources
Checked on 28 October 2026: apps.ankiweb.net (platforms, the free computer version, AnkiDroid, AnkiMobile and AnkiWeb sync), docs.ankiweb.net (“Getting Started”, “Studying”, “Deck Options”, “Exporting” and “Importing text files”) and the AnkiMobile Flashcards listing on the US App Store. Anki is a trademark of its owner, and this page is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Anki project.