Hashcards
Ranked 3 of 4 flashcard apps by recommenders
Plain-text, offline, open-source spaced repetition app keeping cards in markdown under git, with few settings. Caveat: reviews follow a fixed scheduler.
Plain-text, offline, open-source spaced repetition app keeping cards in markdown under git, with few settings. Caveat: reviews follow a fixed scheduler.
18 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 13
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 72%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 13 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Plain text cards in git
“enjoyed its simplicity and the fact that it all stays forever in raw markdown files and versioned git”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Ownership of open source flashcard app Anki transferred to for-profit AnkiHub” “Plain text, offline, open source. It checks a lot of boxes that I personally look for in software”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system” “finally a SRS implementation I can use for my plain text files”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system” - Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system”
Simple with no fiddly settings
“enjoyed its simplicity and the fact that it all stays forever in raw markdown files and versioned git”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Ownership of open source flashcard app Anki transferred to for-profit AnkiHub” “Once set up, it's pretty simple (e.g., no fiddly settings) which helps a lot.”
Comment from 24 Dec 2025 in “Spaced Repetition for Efficient Learning” Idea seen as good or perfect
“I think the overall idea is good.”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system” “This would seem perfect to me.”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
SQLite database despite no-database claim
“Your performance and review history is stored in an SQLite database in the same directory as the cards.”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system” “It seems weird to have 'no database' as the selling option for the main system”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “Hashcards: A plain-text spaced repetition system”
Other flashcard apps people recommend
The three most recommended other flashcard apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anki | 136 | 50 | 73% | 12 | 6 yrs11 owners | Approved |
| AnkiDroid | 23 | 4 | 85% | 8 | — | Approved |
| HashcardsThis page | 13 | 5 | 72% | 2 | — | — |
| Mochi flashcard app | 9 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
16 of the 18 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“enjoyed its simplicity and the fact that it all stays forever in raw markdown files and versioned git”
“Once set up, it's pretty simple (e.g., no fiddly settings) which helps a lot.”
“It doesn't seem like you can force hashcards to let you re-review your deck at anytime though as its on a scheduler.”
“Plain text, offline, open source. It checks a lot of boxes that I personally look for in software”
“It seems weird to have 'no database' as the selling option for the main system”
“finally a SRS implementation I can use for my plain text files”
“This would seem perfect to me.”
“this appears to work very nicely on Termux”
“in reality it may be great (like most of his other work)”
“mostly it makes it difficult to edit/update cards while studying”
“Your performance and review history is stored in an SQLite database in the same directory as the cards.”
“obviously, they and their claude didn't think about that”
“I think the overall idea is good.”
“the interface of Hashcards looks much uglier to me”
“they're using markdown, so it's much easier to collaborate on”
“Know a big proponent of hashcards, has a setup that's followed up by a prompt that converts websites, pdfs, etc. into hashcards for SRS.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.