# Anki 136 Hacker News commenters recommended Anki and 50 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 6 years (11 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** An open-source flashcard app whose spaced repetition scheduling reliably drills vocabulary and facts into memory; critics find setup and settings complicated and the paid iOS app pricey. ## Why people recommend it - Effective for memorization and languages (11 comments): "I'm personally very fond of flashcards (Anki). Yes, memorizing words is just a part of language learning, but it's important and FSRS is extremely good at it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46273389)) "For a long time, Anki was really useful for me, it pushed my Spanish and German forward, but now I plan to decrease the number of reviews significantly." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46500726)) "When I was doing rote memorization and flashcards frequently (some years ago now) I observed that remembering things became a lot easier for me." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48862566)) - Smart scheduling targets weak points (5 comments): "I'm personally very fond of flashcards (Anki). Yes, memorizing words is just a part of language learning, but it's important and FSRS is extremely good at it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46273389)) "Flashcard programs like Anki are really great because it identifies where you need more work and drills you on your weak points" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48862678)) "Anki solves this problem: all words you learn via flashcards have a (roughly) equal chance of being remembered" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45797022)) - Highly customizable card templates (5 comments): "once I learned to edit and update the cards and add my own, I really began to understand how to boil concepts down" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46868365)) "You can customise note types with CSS and Javascript, which means that you can make cards look however you want." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46266051)) "I can really appreciate the way Anki uses notes, models, and templates to essentially create "virtual cards"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46266554)) - Free, open source, forkable (4 comments): "This is an open source flashcards app, with minimalistic (one could say primitive) UI and no gamification whatsoever" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46278006)) "Considering that anki can always be forked if development goes being hostile towards users" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46869613)) "Free open source software like Anki & xiehanzi can save you from using all those tokens." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47805199)) ## What people warn about - Paid iOS app hard to recommend (3 comments): "I bought iOS Anki app for myself many years ago. What I found hard is to recommend it to others" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46878499)) "I think it is too expensive especially since I can easily afford that having a job and all" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46868122)) "very hard to recommend mobile app to people if you need to add these kind of "workarounds"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46878420)) - Complicated setup, sync and settings (5 comments): "I've tried several times before to install syncserver using those pip instructions, on multiple platforms, without success." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46864075)) "The pip instructions are bad. Typical Python things: Non-reproducible, not involving a proper lock file." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46869415)) "all claiming the default settings are terrible and you have to set up an elaborate bunch of settings" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48883632)) - Reviews feel tedious and unrewarding (3 comments): "For a long time, Anki was really useful for me, it pushed my Spanish and German forward, but now I plan to decrease the number of reviews significantly." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46500726)) "Anki, conversely, is designed for efficiency, which means it's designed to be as painful and unrewarding as possible" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49315729)) "the software I used to remember things tells me "this thing is hard for you to remember so you should just give up."" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49317831)) - Custom-built alternatives suit better (3 comments): "It ended up being easier to Vibe code a bespoke one that took the input in a format that was easier to provide." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46279247)) "I've been vibe coding my own SRS software that is vastly superior to my learning style than Anki" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49905386)) "vibe coding my own SRS software that is vastly superior to my learning style than Anki" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49906007)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [AnkiDroid](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ankidroid.md): 23 recommend - [Hashcards](https://hackerapproved.com/p/hashcards.md): 13 recommend - [Mochi flashcard app](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mochi.md): 9 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Anki", https://hackerapproved.com/p/anki/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).